Tuesday March 24
Readings: Ez 47:1-9, 12; Jn 5:1-16
In the first reading from Ezekiel, the angel brings him to the entrance of the temple of the Lord and shows him a vision about life-giving water.
In the gospel, there is a man who had been ill for almost 40 years who longs to be lowered into the healing waters of Bethesda but there is no one to put him in there (Jesus ends up healing him anyway!).
Stories about healing, life-giving waters.
Most of us are probably familiar with the church hymn, “Wade in the Water.” One of the lines from that song is, “God’s gonna trouble the waters.” In older translations of the gospel we hear today, the scripture spoke of an angel of God stirring up the waters and whoever was in the water at that time was healed of their infirmity (not sure why it was dropped in later translations).
God’s gonna trouble the water.
Sometimes it is only when things get stirred up that healing happens. The routines are broken. What was taken for granted is no longer. Patterns are interrupted.
Maybe you have your own story of a time when the waters of your life were stirred up and a change emerged which was life-giving. Sometimes we have a say in the process. Sometimes it happens to us. Rarely is it easy – even if we had been hoping for a change – and sometimes it takes a while to witness the final result.
I think we’re in one of those times. The water is stirred around us.
My understanding is that the Chinese symbol for crisis consists of two symbols – danger and opportunity. In any time of crisis, there is danger, and we are seeing this unfold before our eyes. The corona virus is dangerous in what it can do to us, and its presence is disrupting so many things for so many people.
Yet within a time of crisis is also opportunity. There are moments being offered to us right now for healing, reconnection, sabbath and community that were not as available (or maybe not as evident) even just a few weeks ago.
The promise of the reading today is that when the waters are stirred, it is time to act. Healing, life-giving water is being made available to us. Are we ready and able to receive it?
6 Comments
joan chandler
So timely and powerful. I will pass this one along.
Mike Boucher Author
thanks, Joan
Kathryn Franz
Amen, amen!
Mike Boucher Author
thanks for always commenting Kathryn! It means so much to me to hear from folks.
Colleen Fox-Salah
This morning I decided to remove every way that the news was entering my life via my phone and computer and only check the news twice per day for five minutes each time. I felt lighter immediately. I vacuumed, I made chili for dinner, I made an appointment. I think at times the most effective way to manage the troubling of the water is to assume a more passive stance rather than an active one, which can feel counterintuitive in a crisis situation. Now I hope to have more energy to be active when called upon.
Mike Boucher Author
Colleen thanks for this reflection. I actually saw your stance paradoxically as an active one. A retreat in order to more fully engage. One of my mentors, Richard Rohr, always says that we should have at least one “confront” for every “retreat” – suggesting that the goal is not to withdraw, per se, but to engage more deeply and as you so beautifully said, “to have more energy to be active when called upon.” I have been so appreciating your reflections each day.
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