Why Does Jesus Ask, "Do You Want To Be Healed?"
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For May 25, 2025:
Why Does Jesus Ask, "Do You Want To Be Healed?"
by Katy Stenta
John 5:1-9
In the Scriptures
In the Bible there is another story of a paralyzed man being healed, it stands in stark contrast to John 5:1-9. In Mark 2:12, a man is brought by friends to be healed. First, Jesus forgives his sins, then he is healed, all because of the faith of his friends who lower him through the roof to get to Jesus. After all, healing and wholeness does not just mean restoration of the body, but also restoration to the household and the community. Thus, the fact that this paralyzed person is beloved by his community and they have faith that he will be healed gives him the wholeness that he needs.
In the News
It is a sad age of Eugenics, where the National Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, makes many health proclamations that do not seem to promote wholeness of community. One of which is to create an autism registry using Medicaid and Medicare information. This registry echoes Nazi practices where German authorities ordered registries of children with disabilities, which ultimately lead to experimentation and deaths of individuals who were deemed not normal at that time. This is why many individuals with Autism chose to reject the Asperger label, as well as the “high” and “low” functioning ones, as they all perpetuate the ideas of “normalcy” and are based on the Nazi research of Asperger, who was trying to sort who was worth saving among those with different genes.
They are in line with RFK’s false idea that those with autism will “never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem, they’ll never go out on a date.” Not only is this patently false — but more importantly, a human being should not be valued by what they contribute, but instead because they are a unique and beautiful reflection of God’s diverse being in the universe, a part of the imago dei. A beautiful rebuttal by Bradley J. Irish, Associate Professor of English at Arizona State University, (who is autistic) refutes RFK’s claims.
In the Sermon
When Jesus asks, “Do you want to get well?” to this paralytic, it is in sharp contrast to the one who has been lowered through the roof. This person has no community. They have been lying for thirty-eight years — longer than Jesus has even been alive. They have no one to help them, no community. It is clear that no one is there to help them. However, it is important that Jesus asks this person if they want healing, because usually Jesus does not ask most people whether or not they want to be healed.
You might note that the person is not named, nor does he give explicit permission to Jesus. Instead, he explains that he does not have community to help him to be healed. He is lacking not only in body, but also in community. How often do we leave those with disabilities by the wayside? Thinking that because they cannot participate that they do not want to? Or even put them on a list, and think that we have done enough for them? Jesus does not stir up the water for the man but tells him to get up and be healed. The paralytic then does so. The person’s participation in his own healing — the standing and getting of his own mat, and then walking to rejoin the community is the good news of participatory wholeness!
SECOND THOUGHTS
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
by Mary Austin
Acts 16:9-15
I was raised in, trained by, and ordained in a denomination that’s famous for its rule book. I used to love its nuances, and the places where one could find an exception to the rule for a good cause. The rules were great when conflict erupted, offering an orderly path toward resolution.
Now I serve a church in a denomination oriented around congregations, and I’m constantly learning from the emphasis on choices. When I first arrived, I was always knocking on my ministry partner’s door with a question. “Who do we have to ask to do X?” “Who approves Y?” “Who is the guardian of Z?”
“No one,” she would answer most of the time. “You can just decide.”
Not having a big rule book is…freeing. Frightening. Exciting. Empowering.
Between the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 and Lydia’s story in Acts 16, we’re invited to ponder the balance between rules and spontaneity.
This story follows the famous Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, where Paul solidifies the church’s welcome for Gentile believers. Then Paul and Barnabas separate and go in different directions. God prevents Paul from going to Mysia and sends him this vision, urging him to go to Macedonia. Interestingly, Paul’s dream vision shows a man imploring him to visit, and then it’s a woman who welcomes him. Paul is apparently open to detours when following God.
They arrive in Phillipi, which was then a Roman colony. At God’s direction, they meet Lydia, who deals in purple cloth — the color of nobility for the Romans. She’s a woman immersed in the empire, making her living through her trade with wealthy people, and yet she has the courage to move forward in faith. Lydia, like Cornelius before her, is a person of influence and power. She and her whole household are baptized and then she serves Paul and company with the gift of hospitality, sharing her resources.
Paul’s life embodies a tension between expectations and his own awareness of God’s call. The stories of the early church move back and forth between expansion and contraction.
We see this same tension between rules and freedom in the attempts by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency to rein in the federal budget. It seems like the huge federal budget should be filled with places to cut, and plenty of scope for inspiring stories of money saved. DOGE “says it has saved $160 billion through its push to root out wasteful or fraudulent government spending. But that effort may also have come at a cost for taxpayers, with a new estimate from a nonpartisan research and advocacy group estimating that DOGE's actions will cost $135 billion this fiscal year. The analysis seeks to tally the costs associated with putting tens of thousands of federal employees on paid leave, re-hiring mistakenly fired workers, and lost productivity, according to the Partnership for Public Service (PSP), a nonpartisan nonprofit that focuses on the federal workforce.”
The rule book is the winner here. Federal workers operate under a carefully negotiated contract, and “24,000 government employees who were fired as part of the reform effort have since been rehired after a court ruling. Other agencies also have rehired some workers after mistakenly firing them, such as bird flu experts who were dismissed by the US Department of Agriculture.”
Every arena of life calls for this balancing act between plans and spontaneity, balancing the existing rules and the vision for something new.
Sermon Possibilities
This story offers an interesting contrast of the Council in Jerusalem, which featured lots of speeches and grand declarations. Here, someone hears the message and acts immediately, moved by the Spirit. For those of us in churches with rules books and policies, what could we learn from Lydia, who acts right away in response to God? Is there a way we can be more responsive to God, and less bound to our rules?
Dr. Willie James Jennings, in his beautiful commentary on Acts, writes, “It remains a horrible fact that racial and cultural belonging are most often far more powerful and compelling than Christian belonging. The form of belonging that Christians witness should in fact be a profound question to everyone who encounters us: Could you imagine a new way of seeing and being yourself, a way that weaves together the ways of many peoples?” Lydia can immediately imagine this new way of seeing. How might we follow in her footsteps, in our own faith lives? What do we need to re-imagine?
Lydia is one of the original practitioners of code switching, moving back and forth between the Roman world of her customers and the world of her faith. She uses her material resources to invite Paul and his traveling companion to her home and to give the early church an economic boost. How can we see her as an example of spiritual generosity? Even if we don’t have money to give, do we have time, or energy, or hospitality?
The early church benefits from structure and freedom, as do our churches. Lydia, with her impulsive, deeply felt hospitality, invites us to live with attention to freedom and structure, serving God with both.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Dean Feldmeyer
John 5:1-9
Do You Want To Be Healed?
“Do you want to be healed?” Jesus asks the man who has been waiting 38 years for a miracle. It would seem the answer is obvious but maybe not. Some people, it turns out, don’t want to be healed.
We’ve all had the experience of meeting with someone who has come to us for “spiritual counseling” only to discover after a little talk that they don’t want to solve their problems; they just want someone to listen to them complain about them.
There can be deep and complex reasons behind not wanting to be healed of a serious problem, illness, injury, or disability. Some people might feel that their disability is a fundamental part of their identity, shaping who they are and how they see the world. Others might struggle with feelings of guilt or unworthiness, believing they don’t deserve healing.
In certain cases, a person might have lost hope, feeling that healing won’t change the underlying difficulties in their life. Some might even fear recovery because it would mean losing the attention, care, or sense of purpose that their condition brings. Some people suffer from Munchausen syndrome, a mental health disorder in which a person repeatedly and deliberately acts as if they have a physical or mental illness when they are not really sick, often because they have an unnatural need to be taken care of.
For some, cultural or religious beliefs may play a role; they may see their suffering as part of a spiritual journey or test.
* * *
John 5:1-9
Spare A Shekel For An Ex-Leper?
Jesus asks the man by the pool, “Do you want to be healed?” which, on its face sounds like a ridiculous question. The man has been lying there by the pool for 38 years, after all. Of course he wants to be healed, right? Well, maybe not.
In the movie, Monty Python’s Life of Brian, the following exchange takes place:
(Brian and his mother, Mandy, are walking down the street when they pass a group of lepers begging by the side of the road. Brian makes an exaggerated effort to avoid touching them. One man with beautifully clear skin, wearing nothing but a loin cloth, steps from the group and asks Brian if he can spare a shekel for an ex-leper.)
BRIAN: Did you say... 'ex-leper'?
EX-LEPER: That's right, sir. Sixteen years behind the bell, and proud of it, sir.
BRIAN: Well, what happened?
EX-LEPER: I was cured, sir.
BRIAN: Cured?
EX-LEPER: Yes, sir, a bloody miracle, sir. God bless you.
BRIAN: Who cured you?
EX-LEPER: Jesus did, sir. I was hopping along, minding my own business. All of a sudden, up he comes. Cures me. One minute I'm a leper with a trade, next minute my livelihood's gone. Not so much as a by your leave. 'You're cured mate.' Bloody do-gooder.
BRIAN: Well, why don't you go and tell him you want to be a leper again?
EX-LEPER: Ah, yeah. I could do that, sir. Yeah. Yeah, I could do that, I suppose. What I was thinking was, I was going to ask him if he could make me a bit lame in one leg during the middle of the week. You know, something beggable, but not leprosy, which is a pain in the arse, to be blunt. Excuse my French, sir, but, uh —
MANDY: Brian! Come and clean your room out.
BRIAN: There you are.
EX-LEPER: Thank you, sir. Thanks — Half a denary for me bloody life story?
BRIAN: There's no pleasing some people.
EX-LEPER: That's just what Jesus said, sir.
* * *
Acts 16:9-15
A Theological Rummage Sale
In her book, Learning to Walk in the Dark, Barbara Brown Taylor quotes author Phyllis Tickle who asserts that from time to time, the Christian church holds a “great rummage sale.”
“Every age has its own accumulation to deal with, along with its own reasons for deciding what stays and what goes,” The Protestant Reformation and the Age of Enlightenment as well as the Fundamentalist controversies from the turn of the century may be examples of these occasional “rummage sales” where we make decisions about what of our theological beliefs we must let go.
In Acts 16:9-15, Paul has to decide which of his old Jewish taboos he must consign to his own theological rummage sale.
Lydia, a new convert to Christianity, challenges him: If you believe my conversion was authentic, come and stay in my home for a few days.
If he says no thank you, he will be denying that her conversion was real. If he says yes, he will have to jettison his lifelong beliefs that Jewish men did not even speak to unmarried women or gentiles, of which Lydia was both.
Paul chooses to say a loud and affirming “Yes.”
Sometimes life asks us to re-examine our long held beliefs and decide what must be given to the rummage sale.
* * * * * *
From team member Tom Willadsen:
Acts 16:9-15
Lydia, oh Lydia, have you met Lydia?
The “place of prayer” mentioned in v. 13, in Greek is προσευχὴν. It could be a synagogue but was more likely an outdoor place that Jews and “worshipers of God,” like Lydia, gathered informally. “Worshiper of God” indicated that Lydia, though not Jewish by birth, was sympathetic and conversant with Judaism. Perhaps she was some kind of travelling merchant who found her way to Jewish sabbath gatherings. Purple cloth was considered a luxury item. And since her house was large enough to host Paul and his companion, she was probably wealthy.
Lydia is significant because she was the first person to accept Christ in Europe. Presbyterians have used the phrase, “her household was baptized,” to offer scriptural legitimacy for infant baptism.
* * *
Psalm 67
Description or petition?
The verb tenses in the first and last verse of this psalm are ambiguous. They could be pleas for God to be gracious, or descriptions and acceptance of, God’s continuous blessings. Either reading is a fine complement to the reading from Acts. The nations truly are gathering to praise God, as Lydia, the first convert to Christianity in Europe, and a sort of affiliate member of the Jewish community, is the focus of that reading.
* * *
John 5:1-9
The Third Sign
Jesus’ healing recorded in John 5 is the third sign of Jesus’ divinity in John’s gospel. The first is at the wedding at Cana, when Jesus turned large jugs of water into really good wine. The second was the healing of the official’s son, which immediately precedes today’s passage.
It is not clear which festival is the setting for this miracle. It could have been Passover, Weeks or Tabernacles.
The NRSV has a footnote at the end of v. 3, which reads, “Other ancient authorities add, wholly or in part, “waiting for the stirring of the water, for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred up the water; whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well from whatever disease that person had.” Apparently, this really worked, but the person seeking healing had to be ready, and most likely accompanied by someone strong enough to get them to the water when it stirred. Is there a modern analog to this? Perhaps a miracle cure one can find on the internet or late-night television?
* * *
John 14:23-29
Part of the final discourse
From John 14:1 through 17:26, Jesus is giving his disciples last minute instructions, preparing them for his departure. This soliloquy comes around the seder table, perhaps the disciples have just consumed four cups of wine, which may make them a little groggy.
This particular passage is preceded by a question posed by Judas (not Iscariot): “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”
Jesus’ answer is oblique and difficult to follow. I found this helpful explanation of vv. 23-24 in Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary Year C: Lent/Easter (1994 Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, Marion Soards, Thomas Dozeman, Kendall McCabe, editors.)
Compare vv. 23-24 noting contrasts, absences or special emphases (in parentheses):
* * * * * *
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship
One: May God be gracious to us and bless us.
All: May God’s face shine upon us.
One: Make your way known upon earth, your saving power among all nations.
All: Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.
One: Let the nations be glad and sing for joy.
All: For God judges the peoples with equity and guides us.
OR
One: God comes in unity and diversity to dwell with us.
All: We open our hearts and community to our God.
One: God sees us as individuals and as one in Christ.
All: We long to be drawn together in God’s love.
One: God’s unity is only complete when all people are united.
All: We will open our hearts to all God’s children.
Hymns and Songs
Holy God, We Praise Thy Name
UMH 79
H82 366
PH 460
GTG 4
NNBH 13
NCH 276
LBW 535
ELW 414
W&P 138
Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee
UMH 89
H82 376
PH 464
GTG 611
AAHH 120
NNBH 40
NCH 4
CH 2
LBW 551
ELW 836
W&P 59
AMEC 75
STLT 29
O God, Our Help in Ages Past
UMH 117
H82 680
AAHH 170
NNBH 46
NCH 25
CH 67
LBW 320
ELW 632
W&P 84
AMEC 61
STLT 281
Spirit Song
UMH 347
AAHH 321
CH 352
W&P 352
Renew 248
Jesus Calls Us
UMH 398
H82 549/550
GTG 720
NNBH 183
NCH 171/172
CH 337
LBW 494
ELW 696
W&P 345
AMEC 238
All Who Love and Service Your City
UMH 433
H82 570/571
PH 413
GTG 351
CH 670
LBW 436
ELW 724
W&P 625
Precious Lord, Take My Hand
UMH 474
PH 404
GTG 834
AAHH 471
NCH 472
CH 628
ELW 773
W&P 500
AMEC 393
SLT 199
Where Charity and Love Prevail
UMH 549
H82 581
GTG 316
NCH 396
LBW 126
ELW 359
God of Grace and God of Glory
UMH 577
H82 594/595
PH 420
GTG 307
NCH 436
CH 464
LBW 415
ELW 705
W&P 569
AMEC 62
STLT 115
Renew 301
Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service
UMH 581
H82 610
PH 427
CH 461
LBW 423
ELW 712
W&P 575
Renew 286
Unity
CCB 59
Ubi Caritas (Live in Charity)
CCB 71
Renew 226
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
GTG: Glory to God, The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who dwells in perfect community in the Trinity:
Grant us the courage to live together as one people
that we may truly become your children;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are a perfect community. As the Trinity you show us how to be united and diverse. Help us to live into that kind of community as we reveal your nature in ourselves. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our insistence of doing it ‘on our own.’
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have forsaken your image which you placed within us by forsaking the community you created us to be. From the beginning you have told us it is not good for us to be alone. Yet we pride ourselves on doing it our way, on being self-made. In our hearts we know this is false and we are only truly human when we dwell together in unity. Restore us to our right minds and help us to renew our relationships. Amen.
One: God invites us to rejoin the heavenly family and the earthly one. Receive God’s grace and dwell together in harmony.
Prayers of the People
Glory and praise to you, O God, who in the resurrection of Jesus restored not only life but community. In raising us to new life you give us a new community, as well.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have forsaken your image which you placed within us by forsaking the community you created us to be. From the beginning you have told us it is not good for us to be alone. Yet we pride ourselves on doing it our way, on being self-made. In our hearts we know this is false and we are only truly human when we dwell together in unity. Restore us to our right minds and help us to renew our relationships.
We give you thanks for the community of your church, which stretches across time, space, and bridges death. We thank you for the great cloud of witnesses who surround us and for those who walk with us in this pilgrim way. We thank you for the ways you transform us into your own likeness.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who struggle and find themselves alone. We lift up those who are pushed out of community and fellowship. We pray for those who are seen as less than others because they are different from us in some way. We offer into your care those who have been forced from their communities because of oppression, fear, or poverty and must make their way in a strange land.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
Hear us as we pray for others: (Time for silent or spoken prayer.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
* * * * * *
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Differences
by Chris Keating
John 5:1-9
This week’s lesson from John 5:1-9 about the man Jesus encounters by the pool of Beth-zatha offers an opportunity for the church to help children understand disabilities. As summer begins, children may have the opportunity to encounter disabled people while travelling, going to camps, visiting theme parks, and so on.
Some interpreters have taken Jesus’ words to the disabled man, “Stand up, take your mat, and walk” as an indicator of the man’s laziness. But scholars of religion and disability point out that Jesus is not condemning the man but instead inviting him to seek wholeness. Our culture notes Kyle Stevenson often operates under the guise of care while actually marginalizing and isolating people with disability.
One way of looking at the story is to remind children that people with disabilities are often overlooked and forgotten. Because some disabled people have visible differences, children may react to them out of fear. Today’s story reminds me of two great people of faith I have known, both of whom had very serious disabilities.
Rose was a young woman who attended a church I served. She suffered from a particularly disabling form of cerebral palsy. She could neither walk nor talk and needed 24-hour care. Rose’s mother once taught a group from the church on the struggles Rose faced. The lesson was not so much about wheelchair access or using a speech board. Instead, she taught us a lesson quite similar to the man in John’s gospel who had been alone and isolated for many years.
Rose’s mother drew three large circles on a piece of paper. She drew a person in the center and then said we should imagine these circles as “circles of friends.” She said the circle closest to the person would be our circle of close family. The next or middle circle would be friends with whom we do things — go out to lunch, see a baseball game, hang out with after church, and so on. The final circle, the one furthest from the person, she called “professional friends,” or those people who get paid to help us. These could include doctors, hairdressers, physical therapists, and so on.
Rose, her mother said, was very close to her family. But she reminded us that not all disabled people have close relationships with family. Most of us have lots of friends in the middle circle — but Rose had none. Most of her friends were the people who got paid to help her.
It made me think about how lonely that could feel. Perhaps that is one lesson we learn from the disabled man — he was lonely, with no one to help get him to the healing waters.
The other story I have is about a man who attended our church when I was a child. His name was Al, and while he seemed nice, I was still scared of him because he looked different than most people. I had no reason to believe he was a scary man. His face looked like a soda can that had been crushed. His voice was quiet, nearly a whisper. He was not a monster, but he looked like one to me, at least.
I then learned that one Sunday Al would be preaching for our pastor! It turned out that Al, too, was a minister. He was not a monster. He loved Jesus and tried to show God’s love every day. His ministry was spent working with homeless men in Los Angeles. I learned that Al’s face had not always been so disfigured. As a teenager, he had become sick with polio, and the disease paralyzed the muscles near his face. It made them fold like an accordion.
Eventually, my parents got to know Al and his wife. Al and Sally would come to our house for dinner, and I realized there was never any reason to be scared about him because he looked different from most people. I learned that while Al had differences, they were just that — differences. There was no reason to be scared. He could even be funny!
Jesus showed us that by seeing people as being made in God’s image, we do not need to be scared or afraid because they may be different. All it takes is getting to know them — just like he did when he met the man by the pool of Beth-zatha.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, May 25, 2025 issue.
Copyright 2025 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
- Why Does Jesus Ask, "Do You Want To Be Healed?" by Katy Stenta based on John 5:1-9.
- Second Thoughts: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? by Mary Austin based on Acts 16:9-15.
- Sermon illustrations by Dean Feldmeyer, Tom Willadsen.
- Worship resources by George Reed.
- Children’s sermon: Differences by Chris Keating. Jesus’ healing of the disabled man offers us an opportunity to remind us of the ways disabled persons are often overlooked or ignored.
Why Does Jesus Ask, "Do You Want To Be Healed?"
by Katy Stenta
John 5:1-9
In the Scriptures
In the Bible there is another story of a paralyzed man being healed, it stands in stark contrast to John 5:1-9. In Mark 2:12, a man is brought by friends to be healed. First, Jesus forgives his sins, then he is healed, all because of the faith of his friends who lower him through the roof to get to Jesus. After all, healing and wholeness does not just mean restoration of the body, but also restoration to the household and the community. Thus, the fact that this paralyzed person is beloved by his community and they have faith that he will be healed gives him the wholeness that he needs.
In the News
It is a sad age of Eugenics, where the National Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, makes many health proclamations that do not seem to promote wholeness of community. One of which is to create an autism registry using Medicaid and Medicare information. This registry echoes Nazi practices where German authorities ordered registries of children with disabilities, which ultimately lead to experimentation and deaths of individuals who were deemed not normal at that time. This is why many individuals with Autism chose to reject the Asperger label, as well as the “high” and “low” functioning ones, as they all perpetuate the ideas of “normalcy” and are based on the Nazi research of Asperger, who was trying to sort who was worth saving among those with different genes.
They are in line with RFK’s false idea that those with autism will “never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem, they’ll never go out on a date.” Not only is this patently false — but more importantly, a human being should not be valued by what they contribute, but instead because they are a unique and beautiful reflection of God’s diverse being in the universe, a part of the imago dei. A beautiful rebuttal by Bradley J. Irish, Associate Professor of English at Arizona State University, (who is autistic) refutes RFK’s claims.
In the Sermon
When Jesus asks, “Do you want to get well?” to this paralytic, it is in sharp contrast to the one who has been lowered through the roof. This person has no community. They have been lying for thirty-eight years — longer than Jesus has even been alive. They have no one to help them, no community. It is clear that no one is there to help them. However, it is important that Jesus asks this person if they want healing, because usually Jesus does not ask most people whether or not they want to be healed.
You might note that the person is not named, nor does he give explicit permission to Jesus. Instead, he explains that he does not have community to help him to be healed. He is lacking not only in body, but also in community. How often do we leave those with disabilities by the wayside? Thinking that because they cannot participate that they do not want to? Or even put them on a list, and think that we have done enough for them? Jesus does not stir up the water for the man but tells him to get up and be healed. The paralytic then does so. The person’s participation in his own healing — the standing and getting of his own mat, and then walking to rejoin the community is the good news of participatory wholeness!
SECOND THOUGHTSGuess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
by Mary Austin
Acts 16:9-15
I was raised in, trained by, and ordained in a denomination that’s famous for its rule book. I used to love its nuances, and the places where one could find an exception to the rule for a good cause. The rules were great when conflict erupted, offering an orderly path toward resolution.
Now I serve a church in a denomination oriented around congregations, and I’m constantly learning from the emphasis on choices. When I first arrived, I was always knocking on my ministry partner’s door with a question. “Who do we have to ask to do X?” “Who approves Y?” “Who is the guardian of Z?”
“No one,” she would answer most of the time. “You can just decide.”
Not having a big rule book is…freeing. Frightening. Exciting. Empowering.
Between the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 and Lydia’s story in Acts 16, we’re invited to ponder the balance between rules and spontaneity.
This story follows the famous Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, where Paul solidifies the church’s welcome for Gentile believers. Then Paul and Barnabas separate and go in different directions. God prevents Paul from going to Mysia and sends him this vision, urging him to go to Macedonia. Interestingly, Paul’s dream vision shows a man imploring him to visit, and then it’s a woman who welcomes him. Paul is apparently open to detours when following God.
They arrive in Phillipi, which was then a Roman colony. At God’s direction, they meet Lydia, who deals in purple cloth — the color of nobility for the Romans. She’s a woman immersed in the empire, making her living through her trade with wealthy people, and yet she has the courage to move forward in faith. Lydia, like Cornelius before her, is a person of influence and power. She and her whole household are baptized and then she serves Paul and company with the gift of hospitality, sharing her resources.
Paul’s life embodies a tension between expectations and his own awareness of God’s call. The stories of the early church move back and forth between expansion and contraction.
We see this same tension between rules and freedom in the attempts by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency to rein in the federal budget. It seems like the huge federal budget should be filled with places to cut, and plenty of scope for inspiring stories of money saved. DOGE “says it has saved $160 billion through its push to root out wasteful or fraudulent government spending. But that effort may also have come at a cost for taxpayers, with a new estimate from a nonpartisan research and advocacy group estimating that DOGE's actions will cost $135 billion this fiscal year. The analysis seeks to tally the costs associated with putting tens of thousands of federal employees on paid leave, re-hiring mistakenly fired workers, and lost productivity, according to the Partnership for Public Service (PSP), a nonpartisan nonprofit that focuses on the federal workforce.”
The rule book is the winner here. Federal workers operate under a carefully negotiated contract, and “24,000 government employees who were fired as part of the reform effort have since been rehired after a court ruling. Other agencies also have rehired some workers after mistakenly firing them, such as bird flu experts who were dismissed by the US Department of Agriculture.”
Every arena of life calls for this balancing act between plans and spontaneity, balancing the existing rules and the vision for something new.
Sermon Possibilities
This story offers an interesting contrast of the Council in Jerusalem, which featured lots of speeches and grand declarations. Here, someone hears the message and acts immediately, moved by the Spirit. For those of us in churches with rules books and policies, what could we learn from Lydia, who acts right away in response to God? Is there a way we can be more responsive to God, and less bound to our rules?
Dr. Willie James Jennings, in his beautiful commentary on Acts, writes, “It remains a horrible fact that racial and cultural belonging are most often far more powerful and compelling than Christian belonging. The form of belonging that Christians witness should in fact be a profound question to everyone who encounters us: Could you imagine a new way of seeing and being yourself, a way that weaves together the ways of many peoples?” Lydia can immediately imagine this new way of seeing. How might we follow in her footsteps, in our own faith lives? What do we need to re-imagine?
Lydia is one of the original practitioners of code switching, moving back and forth between the Roman world of her customers and the world of her faith. She uses her material resources to invite Paul and his traveling companion to her home and to give the early church an economic boost. How can we see her as an example of spiritual generosity? Even if we don’t have money to give, do we have time, or energy, or hospitality?
The early church benefits from structure and freedom, as do our churches. Lydia, with her impulsive, deeply felt hospitality, invites us to live with attention to freedom and structure, serving God with both.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Dean FeldmeyerJohn 5:1-9
Do You Want To Be Healed?
“Do you want to be healed?” Jesus asks the man who has been waiting 38 years for a miracle. It would seem the answer is obvious but maybe not. Some people, it turns out, don’t want to be healed.
We’ve all had the experience of meeting with someone who has come to us for “spiritual counseling” only to discover after a little talk that they don’t want to solve their problems; they just want someone to listen to them complain about them.
There can be deep and complex reasons behind not wanting to be healed of a serious problem, illness, injury, or disability. Some people might feel that their disability is a fundamental part of their identity, shaping who they are and how they see the world. Others might struggle with feelings of guilt or unworthiness, believing they don’t deserve healing.
In certain cases, a person might have lost hope, feeling that healing won’t change the underlying difficulties in their life. Some might even fear recovery because it would mean losing the attention, care, or sense of purpose that their condition brings. Some people suffer from Munchausen syndrome, a mental health disorder in which a person repeatedly and deliberately acts as if they have a physical or mental illness when they are not really sick, often because they have an unnatural need to be taken care of.
For some, cultural or religious beliefs may play a role; they may see their suffering as part of a spiritual journey or test.
* * *
John 5:1-9
Spare A Shekel For An Ex-Leper?
Jesus asks the man by the pool, “Do you want to be healed?” which, on its face sounds like a ridiculous question. The man has been lying there by the pool for 38 years, after all. Of course he wants to be healed, right? Well, maybe not.
In the movie, Monty Python’s Life of Brian, the following exchange takes place:
(Brian and his mother, Mandy, are walking down the street when they pass a group of lepers begging by the side of the road. Brian makes an exaggerated effort to avoid touching them. One man with beautifully clear skin, wearing nothing but a loin cloth, steps from the group and asks Brian if he can spare a shekel for an ex-leper.)
BRIAN: Did you say... 'ex-leper'?
EX-LEPER: That's right, sir. Sixteen years behind the bell, and proud of it, sir.
BRIAN: Well, what happened?
EX-LEPER: I was cured, sir.
BRIAN: Cured?
EX-LEPER: Yes, sir, a bloody miracle, sir. God bless you.
BRIAN: Who cured you?
EX-LEPER: Jesus did, sir. I was hopping along, minding my own business. All of a sudden, up he comes. Cures me. One minute I'm a leper with a trade, next minute my livelihood's gone. Not so much as a by your leave. 'You're cured mate.' Bloody do-gooder.
BRIAN: Well, why don't you go and tell him you want to be a leper again?
EX-LEPER: Ah, yeah. I could do that, sir. Yeah. Yeah, I could do that, I suppose. What I was thinking was, I was going to ask him if he could make me a bit lame in one leg during the middle of the week. You know, something beggable, but not leprosy, which is a pain in the arse, to be blunt. Excuse my French, sir, but, uh —
MANDY: Brian! Come and clean your room out.
BRIAN: There you are.
EX-LEPER: Thank you, sir. Thanks — Half a denary for me bloody life story?
BRIAN: There's no pleasing some people.
EX-LEPER: That's just what Jesus said, sir.
* * *
Acts 16:9-15
A Theological Rummage Sale
In her book, Learning to Walk in the Dark, Barbara Brown Taylor quotes author Phyllis Tickle who asserts that from time to time, the Christian church holds a “great rummage sale.”
“Every age has its own accumulation to deal with, along with its own reasons for deciding what stays and what goes,” The Protestant Reformation and the Age of Enlightenment as well as the Fundamentalist controversies from the turn of the century may be examples of these occasional “rummage sales” where we make decisions about what of our theological beliefs we must let go.
In Acts 16:9-15, Paul has to decide which of his old Jewish taboos he must consign to his own theological rummage sale.
Lydia, a new convert to Christianity, challenges him: If you believe my conversion was authentic, come and stay in my home for a few days.
If he says no thank you, he will be denying that her conversion was real. If he says yes, he will have to jettison his lifelong beliefs that Jewish men did not even speak to unmarried women or gentiles, of which Lydia was both.
Paul chooses to say a loud and affirming “Yes.”
Sometimes life asks us to re-examine our long held beliefs and decide what must be given to the rummage sale.
* * * * * *
From team member Tom Willadsen:Acts 16:9-15
Lydia, oh Lydia, have you met Lydia?
The “place of prayer” mentioned in v. 13, in Greek is προσευχὴν. It could be a synagogue but was more likely an outdoor place that Jews and “worshipers of God,” like Lydia, gathered informally. “Worshiper of God” indicated that Lydia, though not Jewish by birth, was sympathetic and conversant with Judaism. Perhaps she was some kind of travelling merchant who found her way to Jewish sabbath gatherings. Purple cloth was considered a luxury item. And since her house was large enough to host Paul and his companion, she was probably wealthy.
Lydia is significant because she was the first person to accept Christ in Europe. Presbyterians have used the phrase, “her household was baptized,” to offer scriptural legitimacy for infant baptism.
* * *
Psalm 67
Description or petition?
The verb tenses in the first and last verse of this psalm are ambiguous. They could be pleas for God to be gracious, or descriptions and acceptance of, God’s continuous blessings. Either reading is a fine complement to the reading from Acts. The nations truly are gathering to praise God, as Lydia, the first convert to Christianity in Europe, and a sort of affiliate member of the Jewish community, is the focus of that reading.
* * *
John 5:1-9
The Third Sign
Jesus’ healing recorded in John 5 is the third sign of Jesus’ divinity in John’s gospel. The first is at the wedding at Cana, when Jesus turned large jugs of water into really good wine. The second was the healing of the official’s son, which immediately precedes today’s passage.
It is not clear which festival is the setting for this miracle. It could have been Passover, Weeks or Tabernacles.
The NRSV has a footnote at the end of v. 3, which reads, “Other ancient authorities add, wholly or in part, “waiting for the stirring of the water, for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred up the water; whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well from whatever disease that person had.” Apparently, this really worked, but the person seeking healing had to be ready, and most likely accompanied by someone strong enough to get them to the water when it stirred. Is there a modern analog to this? Perhaps a miracle cure one can find on the internet or late-night television?
* * *
John 14:23-29
Part of the final discourse
From John 14:1 through 17:26, Jesus is giving his disciples last minute instructions, preparing them for his departure. This soliloquy comes around the seder table, perhaps the disciples have just consumed four cups of wine, which may make them a little groggy.
This particular passage is preceded by a question posed by Judas (not Iscariot): “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”
Jesus’ answer is oblique and difficult to follow. I found this helpful explanation of vv. 23-24 in Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary Year C: Lent/Easter (1994 Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, Marion Soards, Thomas Dozeman, Kendall McCabe, editors.)
Compare vv. 23-24 noting contrasts, absences or special emphases (in parentheses):
| Verse 23 | Verse 24 |
| Those who love me will keep my word (and my Father will love them) (and we will come to them) (and make our home with them) |
Whoever does not love me does not keep my words (and the word that you hear is not mine) (but is from the Father who sent me) |
* * * * * *
WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship
One: May God be gracious to us and bless us.
All: May God’s face shine upon us.
One: Make your way known upon earth, your saving power among all nations.
All: Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.
One: Let the nations be glad and sing for joy.
All: For God judges the peoples with equity and guides us.
OR
One: God comes in unity and diversity to dwell with us.
All: We open our hearts and community to our God.
One: God sees us as individuals and as one in Christ.
All: We long to be drawn together in God’s love.
One: God’s unity is only complete when all people are united.
All: We will open our hearts to all God’s children.
Hymns and Songs
Holy God, We Praise Thy Name
UMH 79
H82 366
PH 460
GTG 4
NNBH 13
NCH 276
LBW 535
ELW 414
W&P 138
Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee
UMH 89
H82 376
PH 464
GTG 611
AAHH 120
NNBH 40
NCH 4
CH 2
LBW 551
ELW 836
W&P 59
AMEC 75
STLT 29
O God, Our Help in Ages Past
UMH 117
H82 680
AAHH 170
NNBH 46
NCH 25
CH 67
LBW 320
ELW 632
W&P 84
AMEC 61
STLT 281
Spirit Song
UMH 347
AAHH 321
CH 352
W&P 352
Renew 248
Jesus Calls Us
UMH 398
H82 549/550
GTG 720
NNBH 183
NCH 171/172
CH 337
LBW 494
ELW 696
W&P 345
AMEC 238
All Who Love and Service Your City
UMH 433
H82 570/571
PH 413
GTG 351
CH 670
LBW 436
ELW 724
W&P 625
Precious Lord, Take My Hand
UMH 474
PH 404
GTG 834
AAHH 471
NCH 472
CH 628
ELW 773
W&P 500
AMEC 393
SLT 199
Where Charity and Love Prevail
UMH 549
H82 581
GTG 316
NCH 396
LBW 126
ELW 359
God of Grace and God of Glory
UMH 577
H82 594/595
PH 420
GTG 307
NCH 436
CH 464
LBW 415
ELW 705
W&P 569
AMEC 62
STLT 115
Renew 301
Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service
UMH 581
H82 610
PH 427
CH 461
LBW 423
ELW 712
W&P 575
Renew 286
Unity
CCB 59
Ubi Caritas (Live in Charity)
CCB 71
Renew 226
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
GTG: Glory to God, The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who dwells in perfect community in the Trinity:
Grant us the courage to live together as one people
that we may truly become your children;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are a perfect community. As the Trinity you show us how to be united and diverse. Help us to live into that kind of community as we reveal your nature in ourselves. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our insistence of doing it ‘on our own.’
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have forsaken your image which you placed within us by forsaking the community you created us to be. From the beginning you have told us it is not good for us to be alone. Yet we pride ourselves on doing it our way, on being self-made. In our hearts we know this is false and we are only truly human when we dwell together in unity. Restore us to our right minds and help us to renew our relationships. Amen.
One: God invites us to rejoin the heavenly family and the earthly one. Receive God’s grace and dwell together in harmony.
Prayers of the People
Glory and praise to you, O God, who in the resurrection of Jesus restored not only life but community. In raising us to new life you give us a new community, as well.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have forsaken your image which you placed within us by forsaking the community you created us to be. From the beginning you have told us it is not good for us to be alone. Yet we pride ourselves on doing it our way, on being self-made. In our hearts we know this is false and we are only truly human when we dwell together in unity. Restore us to our right minds and help us to renew our relationships.
We give you thanks for the community of your church, which stretches across time, space, and bridges death. We thank you for the great cloud of witnesses who surround us and for those who walk with us in this pilgrim way. We thank you for the ways you transform us into your own likeness.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who struggle and find themselves alone. We lift up those who are pushed out of community and fellowship. We pray for those who are seen as less than others because they are different from us in some way. We offer into your care those who have been forced from their communities because of oppression, fear, or poverty and must make their way in a strange land.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
Hear us as we pray for others: (Time for silent or spoken prayer.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
* * * * * *
CHILDREN’S SERMONDifferences
by Chris Keating
John 5:1-9
This week’s lesson from John 5:1-9 about the man Jesus encounters by the pool of Beth-zatha offers an opportunity for the church to help children understand disabilities. As summer begins, children may have the opportunity to encounter disabled people while travelling, going to camps, visiting theme parks, and so on.
Some interpreters have taken Jesus’ words to the disabled man, “Stand up, take your mat, and walk” as an indicator of the man’s laziness. But scholars of religion and disability point out that Jesus is not condemning the man but instead inviting him to seek wholeness. Our culture notes Kyle Stevenson often operates under the guise of care while actually marginalizing and isolating people with disability.
One way of looking at the story is to remind children that people with disabilities are often overlooked and forgotten. Because some disabled people have visible differences, children may react to them out of fear. Today’s story reminds me of two great people of faith I have known, both of whom had very serious disabilities.
Rose was a young woman who attended a church I served. She suffered from a particularly disabling form of cerebral palsy. She could neither walk nor talk and needed 24-hour care. Rose’s mother once taught a group from the church on the struggles Rose faced. The lesson was not so much about wheelchair access or using a speech board. Instead, she taught us a lesson quite similar to the man in John’s gospel who had been alone and isolated for many years.
Rose’s mother drew three large circles on a piece of paper. She drew a person in the center and then said we should imagine these circles as “circles of friends.” She said the circle closest to the person would be our circle of close family. The next or middle circle would be friends with whom we do things — go out to lunch, see a baseball game, hang out with after church, and so on. The final circle, the one furthest from the person, she called “professional friends,” or those people who get paid to help us. These could include doctors, hairdressers, physical therapists, and so on.
Rose, her mother said, was very close to her family. But she reminded us that not all disabled people have close relationships with family. Most of us have lots of friends in the middle circle — but Rose had none. Most of her friends were the people who got paid to help her.
It made me think about how lonely that could feel. Perhaps that is one lesson we learn from the disabled man — he was lonely, with no one to help get him to the healing waters.
The other story I have is about a man who attended our church when I was a child. His name was Al, and while he seemed nice, I was still scared of him because he looked different than most people. I had no reason to believe he was a scary man. His face looked like a soda can that had been crushed. His voice was quiet, nearly a whisper. He was not a monster, but he looked like one to me, at least.
I then learned that one Sunday Al would be preaching for our pastor! It turned out that Al, too, was a minister. He was not a monster. He loved Jesus and tried to show God’s love every day. His ministry was spent working with homeless men in Los Angeles. I learned that Al’s face had not always been so disfigured. As a teenager, he had become sick with polio, and the disease paralyzed the muscles near his face. It made them fold like an accordion.
Eventually, my parents got to know Al and his wife. Al and Sally would come to our house for dinner, and I realized there was never any reason to be scared about him because he looked different from most people. I learned that while Al had differences, they were just that — differences. There was no reason to be scared. He could even be funny!
Jesus showed us that by seeing people as being made in God’s image, we do not need to be scared or afraid because they may be different. All it takes is getting to know them — just like he did when he met the man by the pool of Beth-zatha.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, May 25, 2025 issue.
Copyright 2025 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
