Poolside Blessing: Monologue of a Paralytic
Drama
Hoof 'N Mouth Disease
Biblical Monologues and How to Do Them
Object:
THEME:
We sometimes follow routines that are a substitute for a living. Instead of having a life of our own, we give up and become passive. In fact, that passivity can be a deceptive and manipulative style of control. Jesus' question to the paralytic by the pool was, "Do you want to be healed?" Do you want to get a life, or is life as you now live it a means of avoidance and control that you find too comfortable to give up?
SETTING FOR THE SERMON MONOLOGUE:
The scripture is a lectionary reading. How does it feel to be a paralytic with little hope of being healed, and to find yourself singled out by an unknown healer with a challenge?
* * *
Thirty-eight years I lay beside that pool.
Each morning friends or family members brought me there.
I think they wanted me to be healed more than I myself did --
if for no other reason than having to transport me there.
They were the ones who had to care for me --
feed me,
bathe me.
I could not care for myself.
So, why did they trouble themselves to take me daily to the pool of Bethesda,
since it was just one more chore?
The pool of Bethesda is like your Shrine of Lourdes in France.
All sorts of people went there,
the blind,
the lame,
the deaf.
We went there because there was a tradition that when an angel troubled the water,
the first person in the water would be healed.
What do I mean by an angel troubling the water?
Well, we didn't actually see an angel --
though some claimed they did.
What we saw was a bubbling up of the water --
almost as though the water had come to a boil.
When that happened,
all the sick dashed to the pool like a thundering herd.
In your time, people who know about these things have a simple explanation for that bubbling.
They speak of underground springs erupting.
Who is to say?
That certainly removes all the mystery.
The fact was that, still, people were healed.
Ah yes, you in your modern wisdom say,
"But those were psychosomatic illnesses" --
some of you might even explain the healings by your Savior that way.
There may be some truth in what you say,
but it seems to me that your scientific explanations are often as simplistic as our own primitive Hebrew explanations.
Who cares?
The author of all healing is the Creator --
Let's not lose sight of that.
Even when you go to a modern physician,
and she or he gives you a pill,
or performs surgery,
it isn't the physician that healed you.
That physician was only acting in concert with the laws of God,
who is the source of all healing.
Thank God for them,
but physicians are only the Almighty's assistants.
Anyway, I was waiting there one day --
like any other day.
As John's gospel reports,
a whole multitude of sick people were there as always --
waiting,
just waiting.
The question was --
who would be first in the pool?
Alas, it was never me.
In all those years of waiting,
it was never me --
never,
never,
never.
It was distressing.
Then, on this particular sabbath day,
this fellow I took to be a rabbi and His entourage happened by.
There were lots of people there,
but He ignored all the others.
Walking up to me, He says,
"Do you want to be healed?"
"What kind of nut is this?" says I to myself.
"Do I want to be healed?
Why in thunder do you think I lie here?"
But, I hold my tongue, and simply say,
"Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up.
While I am inching up to the pool on my elbows,
someone else beats me to the waters.
It's futile!"
You see where my faith was placed --
not in the God of gods,
but in the water.
Actually, I guess I really didn't answer His question!
I offered an excuse.
But, Jesus faced me very abruptly with a reality I don't think I ever dealt with.
Did I really want to be healed?
I hadn't thought of it in that way before.
Most of us have a lot of ambivalence about things.
As time went by, I had become almost comfortable with my impairment.
Perhaps I didn't have some of the freedoms others have --
perhaps I couldn't even care for myself.
But there were advantages --
neither did anyone demand anything of me.
I had no responsibility for myself --
and certainly not for others.
Indeed, others waited on me --
I was in their debt,
but I also had their attention.
John Bradshaw, a former candidate for the priesthood
and a psychologist,
who in your time does extensive counseling,
writing, and lecturing,
especially before twelve-step groups,
in his book Creating Love, tells of the power of
being ill physically or mentally.
Sometimes he will have three people out of a large group act mentally ill.
No one knows who those role players are.
Eventually he calls the three up on the platform and interviews them.
When he asks how they felt,
they usually say, "Powerful!"
There is a sense in which our helplessness can put us in control
That can be difficult indeed to relinquish.
Within me I knew,
and the Savior knew,
that I needed to make a decision.
But, before I could say anything,
He gave me an order that I willingly obeyed.
"Rise up," he said,
"take up your bed and walk."
I did it.
I walked.
I carried my pallet.
I couldn't believe it.
I felt life in my legs.
I could stand on them --
I could, and did, move them.
After 38 years as a paraplegic,
I could walk.
I felt absolute hilarity.
Since it was the sabbath day,
my first stop was at the temple.
There,
of all places,
I assumed I would find those who would rejoice with me,
and praise our God.
But, before I even got there, some religious people,
many of whom knew me,
got all upset because I was carrying my pallet --
no bigger than one of your sleeping bags --
on the sabbath day.
I was bewildered --
confused.
Why were they not happy?
Why did they observe that tiny violation of their law and get angry?
Why did they focus on that, instead of the miracle in their midst?
Maybe they were like me, before Jesus came along.
We get so used to operating in certain ways --
routines --
and even assume that God Almighty has to act according to our routines.
When we see that the Lord has wondrous ways of working --
far beyond our imagination,
and He calls us to expressions of faith,
it can be very threatening.
It's a risk!
But, the rewards outweigh the risks.
"Do you want to be healed?" He is asking.
Or are you interested in following your routine?
Are you ready to come out of your comfortable places and follow a
God who is infinite? --
Whose dreams for you are not limited to man's petty concepts?
It's scary, I know.
I'm thrilled that He challenged me.
I'm thrilled to be made whole.
Rejoice with me!
His ways are wonderful.
Rejoice with me in the words of the Psalmist: (Psalm 8 RSV)
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth! Thou whose glory above the heavens is chanted
by the mouth of babes and infants, thou hast
founded a bulwark because of thy foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at thy heavens, the work of thy
fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast established;
what is man that thou art mindful of him,
and the son of man that thou dost care for him?
Yet thou hast made him little less than God, and
dost crown him with glory and honor.
Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the sea.
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth!
We sometimes follow routines that are a substitute for a living. Instead of having a life of our own, we give up and become passive. In fact, that passivity can be a deceptive and manipulative style of control. Jesus' question to the paralytic by the pool was, "Do you want to be healed?" Do you want to get a life, or is life as you now live it a means of avoidance and control that you find too comfortable to give up?
SETTING FOR THE SERMON MONOLOGUE:
The scripture is a lectionary reading. How does it feel to be a paralytic with little hope of being healed, and to find yourself singled out by an unknown healer with a challenge?
* * *
Thirty-eight years I lay beside that pool.
Each morning friends or family members brought me there.
I think they wanted me to be healed more than I myself did --
if for no other reason than having to transport me there.
They were the ones who had to care for me --
feed me,
bathe me.
I could not care for myself.
So, why did they trouble themselves to take me daily to the pool of Bethesda,
since it was just one more chore?
The pool of Bethesda is like your Shrine of Lourdes in France.
All sorts of people went there,
the blind,
the lame,
the deaf.
We went there because there was a tradition that when an angel troubled the water,
the first person in the water would be healed.
What do I mean by an angel troubling the water?
Well, we didn't actually see an angel --
though some claimed they did.
What we saw was a bubbling up of the water --
almost as though the water had come to a boil.
When that happened,
all the sick dashed to the pool like a thundering herd.
In your time, people who know about these things have a simple explanation for that bubbling.
They speak of underground springs erupting.
Who is to say?
That certainly removes all the mystery.
The fact was that, still, people were healed.
Ah yes, you in your modern wisdom say,
"But those were psychosomatic illnesses" --
some of you might even explain the healings by your Savior that way.
There may be some truth in what you say,
but it seems to me that your scientific explanations are often as simplistic as our own primitive Hebrew explanations.
Who cares?
The author of all healing is the Creator --
Let's not lose sight of that.
Even when you go to a modern physician,
and she or he gives you a pill,
or performs surgery,
it isn't the physician that healed you.
That physician was only acting in concert with the laws of God,
who is the source of all healing.
Thank God for them,
but physicians are only the Almighty's assistants.
Anyway, I was waiting there one day --
like any other day.
As John's gospel reports,
a whole multitude of sick people were there as always --
waiting,
just waiting.
The question was --
who would be first in the pool?
Alas, it was never me.
In all those years of waiting,
it was never me --
never,
never,
never.
It was distressing.
Then, on this particular sabbath day,
this fellow I took to be a rabbi and His entourage happened by.
There were lots of people there,
but He ignored all the others.
Walking up to me, He says,
"Do you want to be healed?"
"What kind of nut is this?" says I to myself.
"Do I want to be healed?
Why in thunder do you think I lie here?"
But, I hold my tongue, and simply say,
"Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up.
While I am inching up to the pool on my elbows,
someone else beats me to the waters.
It's futile!"
You see where my faith was placed --
not in the God of gods,
but in the water.
Actually, I guess I really didn't answer His question!
I offered an excuse.
But, Jesus faced me very abruptly with a reality I don't think I ever dealt with.
Did I really want to be healed?
I hadn't thought of it in that way before.
Most of us have a lot of ambivalence about things.
As time went by, I had become almost comfortable with my impairment.
Perhaps I didn't have some of the freedoms others have --
perhaps I couldn't even care for myself.
But there were advantages --
neither did anyone demand anything of me.
I had no responsibility for myself --
and certainly not for others.
Indeed, others waited on me --
I was in their debt,
but I also had their attention.
John Bradshaw, a former candidate for the priesthood
and a psychologist,
who in your time does extensive counseling,
writing, and lecturing,
especially before twelve-step groups,
in his book Creating Love, tells of the power of
being ill physically or mentally.
Sometimes he will have three people out of a large group act mentally ill.
No one knows who those role players are.
Eventually he calls the three up on the platform and interviews them.
When he asks how they felt,
they usually say, "Powerful!"
There is a sense in which our helplessness can put us in control
That can be difficult indeed to relinquish.
Within me I knew,
and the Savior knew,
that I needed to make a decision.
But, before I could say anything,
He gave me an order that I willingly obeyed.
"Rise up," he said,
"take up your bed and walk."
I did it.
I walked.
I carried my pallet.
I couldn't believe it.
I felt life in my legs.
I could stand on them --
I could, and did, move them.
After 38 years as a paraplegic,
I could walk.
I felt absolute hilarity.
Since it was the sabbath day,
my first stop was at the temple.
There,
of all places,
I assumed I would find those who would rejoice with me,
and praise our God.
But, before I even got there, some religious people,
many of whom knew me,
got all upset because I was carrying my pallet --
no bigger than one of your sleeping bags --
on the sabbath day.
I was bewildered --
confused.
Why were they not happy?
Why did they observe that tiny violation of their law and get angry?
Why did they focus on that, instead of the miracle in their midst?
Maybe they were like me, before Jesus came along.
We get so used to operating in certain ways --
routines --
and even assume that God Almighty has to act according to our routines.
When we see that the Lord has wondrous ways of working --
far beyond our imagination,
and He calls us to expressions of faith,
it can be very threatening.
It's a risk!
But, the rewards outweigh the risks.
"Do you want to be healed?" He is asking.
Or are you interested in following your routine?
Are you ready to come out of your comfortable places and follow a
God who is infinite? --
Whose dreams for you are not limited to man's petty concepts?
It's scary, I know.
I'm thrilled that He challenged me.
I'm thrilled to be made whole.
Rejoice with me!
His ways are wonderful.
Rejoice with me in the words of the Psalmist: (Psalm 8 RSV)
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth! Thou whose glory above the heavens is chanted
by the mouth of babes and infants, thou hast
founded a bulwark because of thy foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at thy heavens, the work of thy
fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast established;
what is man that thou art mindful of him,
and the son of man that thou dost care for him?
Yet thou hast made him little less than God, and
dost crown him with glory and honor.
Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the sea.
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth!
