John 5:1-15<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May 20, 2007<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you stroll through any bookstore, you cannot avoid the \u201cSelf-Help\u201d section. It\u2019s usually one of the biggest sections in the store. One message is clear\u2014people want resources to address the conditions of life. From saving for retirement to raising kids, from getting ahead to getting rich, from looking good to looking smart, from dieting to eating, people want help and there appears to be no shortage of folk willing to sell you the answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In times past this information was passed down within the family or through an informal network of community resources\u2014the family physician, a local banker or a wise pastor; or by having a family member whose length and quality of life generally qualified them as possessing enough wisdom to guide others. We called such a person\u2014a sage. In many communities across America, this informal network of community resources have disappeared; leaving seekers of answers to go to the self-help section of the bookstore. Or, for today\u2019s generation, google the internet for answers. Fortunately, we still have for the most part this informal network of community resources at FCBC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Sundays in particular but throughout the week, we can see this network of community resources at work. Over breakfast, we catch up with each other on what happened during the week. We give each other sound advice. Occasionally, we shed tears and offer embraces to console and comfort when we are going through difficult times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At worship, we prayerfully lift up to God and in the presence of one another, what is on our hearts. Nothing is inappropriate; everything that has consumed us can\u2019t shock God so we share our prayer concerns and joys. During the week, we stay in touch over the internet, by phone, in face to face visits, concerns scribbled on a scrap piece of paper eliminating any distance that might separate us. We believe that when we are connected in this informal network of community resources that FCBC provides, we can help each other during difficult times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Waiting to be Heal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In today\u2019s Scriptures, Jesus is at the Sheep Gate near a pool in Jerusalem. In the five porticoes or porches with arched roofs, there were many invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed people. There was a man who had been there for 38 long years. When Jesus saw this man, he asked him, \u201cDo you want to be made well?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sick man answered Jesus, \u201cOf course, but I have no one to carry me to the healing waters and when, I get close to the pool, someone else gets ahead of me. I have giving up trying for 38 years now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then Jesus said to the man, \u201cStand up, take your mat and walk.\u201d At once the man was made well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One popular interpretation of this story is that the man suffered from depression that had sapped his ability to help himself in addition to whatever his physical condition was that paralyzed him. Depression added its own debilitating power to whatever physical disease that robbed the man\u2019s physical mobility. He just gave up and sat there watching others become healed for 38 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus\u2019 words, \u201cStand up, take your mat and walk.\u201d are what we call an intervention that challenged the man\u2019s learned helplessness. We all know that depression is lethal; either in the short runs through suicide or in the long run through despair. The good news is that Jesus took the man\u2019s depression as seriously as he took his paralysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the Jews questioned the man who was healed by Jesus on the Sabbath, Jesus found the man in the temple and said, \u201cSee, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.\u201d Jesus was not blaming the man for his problems. This was not victim blaming. But he was placing responsibility for health squarely where it belongs\u2014on the person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Obviously the man could not become perfectly flawless, so Jesus had something else in mind in his counsel to avoid sin. Jesus was giving the man practical advice to maintain a life that followed healthy practices. Whatever that caused your paralysis before, don\u2019t do that anymore. Whatever that led you ending up at the Sheep Gate, don\u2019t let that happen to you again. Jesus wants the man to practice and maintain a healthy lifestyle so that he would be well for the rest of his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Being Well<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Today we ask this question that Jesus asked of the man, \u201cDo you want to be made well?\u201d And our answer would be the same: \u201cOf course, we want to be well!\u201d Jesus says to us, \u201cDo not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.\u201d We must take some responsibility for our own wellbeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We think that today\u2019s world is more complex and more complicated than in the past. We may have lost some confidence in the wisdom of the past to guide our decisions today. But as I read the \u201canswers\u201d that are in these self-help books, it is clear to me that the answers are the same ones readily available to anyone willing to listen to the wisdom of past generations: Know God. Be honest with yourself. Treat others the way you desire to be treated. Be your child\u2019s parents not your child\u2019s best friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why do we so readily turn to these self-help books when God\u2019s word gives us such sound advice? I suspect this has to do with our human pride: we think we can live the life God has given us without the help of the Author of Life\u2014God himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One example of this is the linkage between obesity and activity as well as the obesity of children and the lifestyle of their parents is equally clear. According to the Surgeon General, \u201cThe good news is that obesity and its co-morbidities are preventable through healthy eating\u2014nutritious foods in appropriate amounts\u2014and physical activity. The bad news is, Americans are not taking steps to prevent obesity and its co-morbidities. Put simply, we need a paradigm shift in American health care. There is no greater imperative in American health care than switching from a treatment-oriented society to a prevention-oriented society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After tobacco being the single most preventable cause of death and disease, obesity-related illness is the leading and fastest growing killer of Americans. More than 300,000 Americans will die this year alone from heart disease, diabetes, and other illnesses related to overweight and obesity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 95% of the $1.4 trillion America spends on health goes to direct medical services, while only 5% is allocated to preventing disease and promoting health. We simply must invest more in prevention, and the time to start is during childhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 15% of our children and teenagers are already overweight. Unless we do something now, they will grow up to be overweight adults. None of us want to see that happen. The science is clear according to the Surgeon General. The fundamental reason that our children are overweight is this: too many children are eating too much and moving too little. The average American child spends more than four hours a day watching television, playing video games, or surfing the web. Kids need to spend more time on the playground and less on the Playstation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the reason why we have a Sports Ministry and today\u2019s Sports Rally at FCBC! The kids play basketball, softball, kids sports. In Day Camp, they go out to play in the playground or go hiking on a trail. We should all be running the Bay to Breakers today!<\/p>\n\n\n\n But for the children to succeed in eating healthier and being more active, we as adults must lead by example by adopting healthy behaviors in our own lives. We\u2019ve got to show kids that it doesn\u2019t matter whether they\u2019re picked first or last, only that they\u2019re in the game. Not all kids are going to be athletes, but they can all be physically active.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Network of Community Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I like to believe that at FCBC, we have the faith and commitment to become that informal network of community resources to offer enough wisdom to guide each other through life. But we are only able to do this when we look to the one source who will heal our soul as well as our body: Jesus Christ, the Great Physician.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we have problems in our lives, our first inclination is usually to try to solve the problems ourselves. The truth, however, is that when we try to take matters into our own hands, we often end up making things worse. We may have a responsibility for our conditions but we also must work with each other and to trust God to do the rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For instance, in the 1950s when there was an outbreak of malaria among the Dayak people in Borneo, the World Health Organization decided that they needed to do something to eliminate the problem. So they proceeded to spray the pesticide DDT on the people\u2019s thatch-roofed huts, which succeeded in killing the mosquitoes that were spreading the malaria. Yet in addition to eradicating the mosquitoes, the DDT also killed a certain species of wasp that had been keeping the thatch-eating caterpillars under control. With these wasps gone, the villagers\u2019 huts started collapsing as the caterpillars ravenously ate threw their roofs. Furthermore, the geckos in the village started stuffing themselves on the toxic mosquitoes, which definitely took the spring out of their step. Being considerably slower than usual, the geckos were soon gobbled up by the cats. The cats then died as the DDT in the geckos passed into their systems. With the cats gone, rats soon appeared everywhere, bringing with them the bubonic plague\u2014a condition far more serious than malaria, as bad as that is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps it is like that old saying, \u201cWe are to work as if everything depended on us and pray as if everything depended on God.\u201d We need to see the connectedness in the world that God created and share in that re-creation by working with one another and trusting God to do the rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the 1999 movie Tuesday with Morrie<\/em> based on the book by the same name, is the true story of a sports writer, Mitch Albom, and his reunion with his former college professor who is dying of ALS. Albom was a multitasking workaholic, whose life is a series of hurried appointments, rushed phone calls, and last minute sprints to catch a flight. When he discovers that his former college professor and friend Morrie Schwartz, was in the last stages of ALS, he honors a long overdue promise to visit him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In these visits, Morrie teaches Mitch some important lessons about what matters most in life. Morrie is sometimes impatient with Mitch\u2019s superficiality, but in one scene in particular Morrie confronts Mitch with some painful truths. Morrie is very frail, and is lying in a recliner in obvious pain. He grimaces and asks Mitch to rub his aching feet with salve. \u201cWhen we\u2019re infants,\u201d says Morrie, \u201cwe need people to survive; when we\u2019re dying, we need people to survive; but here\u2019s the secret: in between we need each other even more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mitch nods and responds with a quote that he has heard Morrie say many times. \u201cWe must love one another or die.\u201d Isn\u2019t this a very simple lesson of life? In our network of community resources that we have as a church, we must love and care for one another or we will all die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Temple of God<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In almost every epistle that the Apostle Paul wrote to the early churches, he addressed the concern of breaking away with the past and adopting a new way of living through the power of the Holy Spirit. If we continue eating and living a lifestyle that ultimately leads to life-threatening illnesses and diseases, we would not have broken away from the past in order to adopt a new life in Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6 that we are to glorify God with both our body and our spirit. We are not fragmentized but unified in both body and spirit. Paul says, \u201cThe body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?\u201d Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit within us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you want to be made well? Of course we do! We want to be healed like the man who was paralyzed and depressed for 38 years was healed. We want to hear Jesus telling us, \u201cStand up, take your mat and walk.\u201d While we believe that God will perform marvelous miracles according to his plan, we realize that we also have a responsibility in doing our part to bring healing and wholeness for ourselves and for one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus not only tells the man who was healed, but he tells us as well: \u201cSee, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We invite you to make the Christian life the major reason for living. And in so doing, we know that you will live longer, your hospital stays will be shorter, your marriage will be more loving, there will be less depression, your wounds will heal faster, and your chances of juvenile delinquency are reduced. These are proven positive benefits of a dedicated Christian lifestyle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus makes us well when we trust our lives in his hands. Staying well becomes our shared responsibility to follow healthy practices and to pray, love and care for one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us pray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear God, you are the Author of Life and Christ is the Great Physician. We gather here to confess to you our sins and we acknowledge that all too often we have no deep desire to turn away from our transgressions. We are willing to name the wrongs and misdeeds that we see in our lives, yet we are slow to bring an end to the sway that they hold over us. O Lord, teach us to despise the evil that infects us. As we turn to you, in your great mercy, cast out our sin and make us whole. Lord, we want to be made well today. We ask in the name of our Savior. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" John 5:1-15 May 20, 2007 Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco. When you stroll through any bookstore, you cannot avoid the