The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch
Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5, John 5:1-9
Sometimes life is just about trying to survive. What do we need to survive?
Jesus comes to a pool that is known to have healing powers. There are many people there seeking to survive. They are hoping to be healed. One man has been in need of healing for thirty-eight years. Jesus asks this man, “Do you want to be made well?” Now, I ask you, just what kind of a question is that? Jesus didn’t ask, “Do you want me to make you well?” So what kind of a question is it? I think it is one of respect and one of invitation. Jesus doesn’t assume that he knows what the man wants or needs. Whether the man wants to be healed or not is a fair question. It is also a gift. One that offers the man, and us, the chance for introspection. What do we want? Perhaps we should ask ourselves this sometime.
The man’s response to Jesus’ question is an explanation of why healing is unavailable to him. “Sir,” (he doesn’t know who Jesus is) “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up and while I am struggling to get there, someone else gets there first.” This explanation is more easily understood with some traditional commentary. If you know this story from the King James translation of the bible, you may recall this as the pool of Bethesda. Some translations insert a verse about an angel of the Lord who used to come from time to time and trouble the waters of the pool. Once the water was rippling, the first person in was cured. Thus all the people hanging about the pool watching and waiting for that moment of miracle. (Many ancient copies of this gospel do not have that verse so modern scholars don’t include it).
So when Jesus asks the man if he wants to be healed the man explains why he is not yet healed—he simply can’t get to the water. Most likely he is lame, so when the water is stirring and the miracle about to be available, he cannot get to the water first. The healing offered there is not accessible to him. So he waits. He waits for healing. He has waited for a long time. Now before arriving at this pool, Jesus had met a woman at a well where he offers her living water. He tells her “the water that I will to anyone give will become a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” This water of life is hers for the asking. The man has been unable to reach the healing waters. But then comes Jesus, who has the water of life, who is salvation. Do you want to me made well?
This question is echoed centuries later in 1864 when Baptist preacher Robert Lowery writes what has become a well know hymn, “Shall We Gather at the River?” Lowry based his him on the text we heard read from Revelation today, this glorious image of the City of God, with the great river of life flowing from the throne of God. The writer of Revelation has been given a vision of the Holy Jerusalem, the heavenly city where all creation is complete. In this City of God, there is no need of a temple in which to worship God because God is completely present. There is no need for the sun, because God’s glory is the light that ushers in everlasting day. This light draws people form all nations to its uplifting and rejuvenating presence. And in this beautiful city, flowing from the throne of God is a great and beautiful river. The river of the water of life, which gives sustenance to the tree of life on either side. These trees bloom so abundantly, that they produce fruit each month, and a different fruit each time.
This glorious City of God is what revelation is about. This is what the end times are about. This vision of the great completion of creation is what we have to look forward to. And it is a place where we will find welcome. We have already been invited. Lowry wrote this hymn on a warm afternoon as this vision played in his head. He chose to start it with a question; what he calls “a question of Christian inquiry.” For Lowry this question is the basic question of faith: “Shall we gather?” Like Jesus’ question to the lame man, it is an invitation. It is not a given—not a command.
Shall we gather at the river,
Where bright angel feet have trod,
With its crystal tide forever
Flowing by the throne of God?
Like Jesus’ question to the lame man, this too is an invitation to healing and to being made whole. But this time being made whole by is accomplished by taking our place in the City of God. It is an invitation to community, to take our place with the saints.
For Lowry the answer to this invitation is yes. Thus the chorus of his hymn:
Yes, we’ll gather at the river,
The beautiful, the beautiful river;
Gather with the saints at the river
That flows by the throne of God.
In the monastic tradition, a person who wishes to become part of a community makes a series of vows or commitments. Each of these vows is for a greater length of time. There is a six-month probationary period in which a person decides if monastic life is for them. Then he or she makes a commitment of one year. Then three years, and then final vows for life. When a person makes his or her first vow for the probation period, the question they are asked is “What do you desire?” When they make their life vow, the question they are asked is, “What do you desire?”
Do you want to be made well? Shall we gather? What do you desire? Each questions is a gift. For the seeking Christian, it begins with the question—not the answer. In the presence of Christ, healing and community are immediate. Healing is available…you have to decide you want it. Community is present…you just have to show up for it. We have a God who invites, not one who compels.
Do you want to be made well? Shall we gather at the river? What do you seek?
copyright © 2007 Anne E. Kitch
