Do You Want To Be Healed?

May 5, 2013 Sermon at  Martin Luther King Presbyterian Church

Early in my ministry at my first Church I asked one of our younger members how his mother was; Sonny was in Church pretty much every Sunday but I had only seen his mother once or twice. He told me, “Well Terry, my mother enjoys poor health.” I wasn't sure whether he meant this literately or if the word “enjoy” was just a figure of speech, but as I came to know Miss Hattie better I understood that she did seem to enjoy her poor health. It did have certain advantages for her. She enjoyed sitting by the window in the front room and seeing what was going on out on the street, and there was often quite a bit going on. She knew who was hanging out on the corner and who came to visit her neighbor after her husband went to work. She could see the comings and goings at the tavern down the street. It was an interesting life, and it didn't demand much from her. For example: since she was in poor health no one expected her to cook the meals, Sonny and his father both were pretty good cooks, and after Sonny's girlfriend moved in with them she did a lot of the cooking. I did notice that Miss Hattie's poor health didn't prevent her from eating her share of the meals.

Having knowing Miss Hattie I have some insight into what might be going on with this man who had spent much of his life hanging out by the sheep pool. For 38 years he had been there hanging out at the sheep pool along with scores of other people, the blind, the lame and paralyzed, all hoping to be healed. We don't know how he supported himself, he must have had friends or family who provided for him, saw that he had something to eat, someplace to stay at night. Some one must have carried him, or at least helped him get to the pool day after day. The story was that every once in a while an angel came down and roiled up the waters. People believed that the first person to get in the pool when the water was disturbed would be healed of what ever disease that was crippling their lives. But this man had been coming to the pool for 38 years, that had to be most of his life, considering the average life span in those days. Some how he had never been the first one into the pool. He keeps coming to this place of healing, but he has never been healed. I wonder if he enjoyed poor health. Jesus seemed to have the same assessment. He asked the man “Do you want to be healed.” In other words, do you want to get well, do you want to be made whole, or do you just want to continue to be sick? The man didn't exactly answer that question, but began to make excuses, well I don't have anyone with me to put me in the pool, and someone always gets there before me. Thirty eight years and someone always gets into the pool before me.

Jesus said to him, if you really want to be healed get up off your mat, pick it up and stand up and walk. It's up to you, not someone else, its up to you to take your life in your own hands, and get up and walk. It's up to you to get off your mat, get up off your A double S and do something with your life.

John tells us “ Immediately the man got well; he picked up his mat and started walking.”

This is truly an amazing story, but what really happened? Was the man able to walk all the time, or is this a story about Jesus miraculous power to heal. None of us know for sure what happened here, but the whole situation does make me think about a friend from my past who also was having a problem walking.

Wilt was a big man, maybe six feet four, at least as tall as Pastor Sylver and in pretty good shape. He was not only the tallest member of the young adult choir, but also the oldest. No one complained that he had kids almost as old as the youngest members of that choir because his deep voice provided just the sound the choir needed. He worked at a meat packing company, Oscar Mayer, the bacon and wiener people, a job that required him to stand on his feet for 8 hours a day. He played pick up basketball and was a motorcycle enthusiast. It was this last characteristic that got him into a world of trouble, because one night he and his son were out riding and a drunken driver ran both of them off the road. His son was not badly hurt, but Wilt's left leg was so mangled that it had to be amputated. He spent weeks in the hospital, then more time recovering at home. He was fitted for a prosthetic, but mostly he got around on crutches. It was the pain that kept him from using his artificial leg. If you know something about amputees you know that they typically have two kinds of pain: there is what is called phantom pain where the amputee continues to feel pain in the limb that was been amputated. This is not imaginary pain, the severed nerve ends are still alive and sending signals to the brain, so the foot, the ankle, the calf, the knee that all are gone are in pain. Then there is of course the pain in the stump. In a case like Wilt's with the whole leg mangled it was not a clean amputation, they tried to leave as much of the leg as possible so he would be able to use an artificial limb, but the stump took a long time to heal. Unlike Hattie, Wilt did not enjoy being sick. The pain made him miserable. He wanted to get out and around, but walking on crutches was not at all easy or pleasant, and it was painful to put on his artificial limb, there was always a sore spot on the stump when he wore it for any period of time, and he felt unsteady on his feet, it takes lots of practice to use a prosthesis, especially with an above the knee amputation. He couldn't work, the family was living mostly on his wife's income, I think he got some little disability, but nothing like the money he had been making when he was working. The end result was that he became depressed, severely depressed. He sat around in his house with the shades pulled on the windows. If you have ever been clinically depressed you know how miserable that is. Every one

was sympathetic and supportive, his family prayed for him, his church family prayed for him, but he couldn't get better. Not until he got assigned to a different doctor at the rehabilitation center. The new doctor made him tell his whole story, how his leg hurt, how he couldn't use the prosthesis for an extended period of time, how hard it was to get around on crutches, how he was depressed. Then his doctor rolled up his pants leg and showed Wilt his own artificial limb. We all thought were being supportive giving Wilt all our sympathy, but the doctor with the artificial leg had no sympathy at all, told him that he was on his feet all day seeing patients, performing surgery and what ever else. Like Jesus, he asked him if he wanted to be made well. He told him if he wanted to be well, if he did not want to be a cripple for the rest of his life he had to get up off his mat, put on his leg every morning and walk on it every day until he got used to it, until the stump got toughened up. It wasn't as sudden as the man at the pool getting up and being made well in an instant, but that was the turning point, and it was less than a year later that he was off disability and back at work every day. It wasn't long after that when he got back on a motorcycle, and not that many years later a preacher who was doing a revival for us went out riding with Wilt. Gary claimed to be an experienced and fearless rider but he couldn't out do Wilt who he described as a riding fool.

What am I trying to say to you this morning? What I want you to know is that each of us must take responsibility for our own lives. No matter how messed up your life is, no matter how sick you are in your body, no matter how sick you are spiritually of mentally, God's healing power is available to make things better, but you have to take charge of your life and accept the healing power of God that is available to you. The question is do you want to be healed?

A lot of us are addicted to one thing or another, some of us are addicted to gossip, can't go day without passing on information or misinformation about someone else. Did you hear what they are saying about the preacher? Do you know what he did, do you know where he was seen the other day. Other people are addicted to complaining and being depressed, some are addicted to gambling, some to other kinds of bad behavior. Other people, including some members of this congregation, are addicted to various substances: cigarettes, alcohol, prescription medicine, or various kinds of illegal drugs. Addictions are hard to overcome. We would not call them addictions if they were easy to overcome. Most substance abuse addictions require some kind of help to overcome them, therapy, detox, rehabilitation, 12 step groups or the like. But none of these so called cures will do a person a bit of good if the person does not want to be healed. The first thing an addict needs to do is answer Jesus' question, do you want to be healed.

I know what I am talking about when I talk about addiction, I was a smoker for about 35 years. I have read that nicotine is one of the most addictive drugs that people use. Certainly it is more addictive than marijuana, for many people it is more addictive than alcohol. Now none of us who smoke think it is good for our health. It makes you cough, it makes you short of breath, it raises your blood pressure, and has many other bad effects on us, and yet once you get started it is hard to stop. You miss the mini-high you get, you feel you just need one cigarette to calm your nerves. I don't know how many times I tried to quit. I remember I had quit for several weeks when one of our members had a heart attack. I went to the hospital to be with her husband, I was there when they told him that they had to open up her chest and massage her heart, they didn't know if she was going to make it. Hours and hours went by before at last they told us that she was going to make it and her husband could see her in a couple of hours, but she wouldn't be able to have any other visitors for several more days. Jelly and his sister stayed there in the waiting room, but the rest of the family and I left the hospital. I was totally wrung out, I needed a cigarette, and when another family member lit up I bummed a cigarette and had one, then another, then went home and bummed another from Kathleen, and then I had a pack in my pocket and that didn't last a day. When we got to Florida there were even more reasons to quit: most of the Church members were non smokers and disapproved of anyone, much less their pastor smoking, plus they said it was a bad influence on the teenagers. I tried to quit, I got nicotine gum. It tasted awful, and was certainly not doing anything for my nicotine addiction, I was just getting it from the gum instead of the cigarettes. Well the truth was I was getting my nicotine both from the gum and the cigarettes. I told myself I wanted to quit, but the truth was I didn't want to quit as much as I wanted to have another cigarette. It all ended one Sunday evening. I had the flu, but I kept going, I needed to preach on Sunday, then there was a wake for the mother in law of one of our most powerful and wealthy members. Finally I got home and went to bed. By that time I was wheezing, I couldn't clear my lungs, I couldn't stop coughing, but the more I coughed the worse my breathing got. If you have ever had an asthma attack you know what I was experiencing. I didn't know what was going on, but I knew I couldn't breathe. My pulse was racing and was feeling worse and worse by the hour. After several hours of gasping for breath I told Kathleen she needed to take me to the hospital. In the emergency room they gave me repeated neutralizer treatments, an intravenous infusion of magnesium to slow down my racing heart beat, them I nearly passed out because my pulse dropped so far so fast. Finally I began to feel human again. The doctors wanted me to stay overnight, but I was too stubborn for that, and promised to see my doctor in the morning.

I had said I wanted to quit for years, but when I thought I was going to die things changed and I really did want to quit, I really did want to be well, I really did want to be healed, and I have not had a single cigarette since December 22, 1996.

What is your addiction, what substance or behavior is ruling your life? Do you want to be made well, do you want to be made whole?

God has the power to heal all your illness and all your diseases. There is help for all manner of afflictions and addictions, but a person needs to take advantage of the help that is available, a person must want to be healed. Do you, do you really want to be healed, do you want to be made well, do you want to be saved?

Scripture Reading for the sermon

John 5:1-9

Good News Translation
5 After this, Jesus went to Jerusalem for a religious festival. 2 Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool with five porches; in Hebrew it is called Bethzatha. 3 A large crowd of sick people were lying on the porches—the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed. They were waiting for the water to move, because every now and then an angel of the Lord went down into the pool and stirred up the water. The first sick person to go into the pool after the water was stirred up was healed from whatever disease he had. 5 A man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 Jesus saw him lying there, and he knew that the man had been sick for such a long time; so he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 The sick man answered, “Sir, I don't have anyone here to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am trying to get in, somebody else gets there first.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.” 9 Immediately the man got well; he picked up his mat and started walking.
The day this happened was a Sabbath,