The Divine Crash

Todays sermon was a tough one, I spent a lot of time agonizing and organizing information and trying to find just the right stuff to put in just the right place and in the end everything went wrong from slides to microphones and recorders but I think (and pray) God still spoke through all the junk I tried to put in the way, and you can listen to it here, or on iTunes. We started with John 5:1-18, when Jesus heals the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda.  I talked about why scholars think John mentions the five porches, because they match the books of the law and Jesus doesn’t tell the man that the law or the pool won’t heal him but that it hasn’t worked yet but when Jesus heals it works instantly.

The man thinks the healing is still about the water and the law, he is so used to the old way all he can see is what he has known, we have been there. The things we thought would bring us the most freedom have locked us down and enslaved us.

Then I talked about the Pharisees who were upset because Jesus helped the man on the Sabbath which not only helped the man it helped the whole community because there was one less guy begging and one more person working.

Jesus allows us to be either one, a Pharisee who thinks we are in control but really all they do is make sure nothing changes or we can be like Jesus and actually help people but that will get us killed.

The man did sin on the sabbath by carrying his cot but he realized that Jesus is the one who has real power not the Pharisees so it was okay because real power comes from actually doing good. So we can listen to the ones who only have pretend power or THE ONE who has real power.

On one level John is telling a story about Jesus who is God and controls the laws and even whether or not a person can walk but on another level John is telling about an insurrection.

An insurrection is not a revolution that replaces one power structure with another but instead replaces it with no power structure.  Jesus is taking us all back to a time before the temple, the exile, Moses, the Commandments, all the way back to a time when God was face to face with his people and he gave them one commandment “Do anything you want, just don’t sin” and a time when God walked with his beloved people.

I finished by saying that we can be either, a people who makes sure nothing changes or like Jesus who will change everything back to the way it is supposed to be, face to face with him.

My sermons always sound better than my notes, feel free to listen to it here or on iTunes (just search for Tanoma).

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Sermon by RevBT