These past Wednesdays, we have been studying the Holy Scriptures, looking at the geography, the timeline, the authors, and their intentions. Two weeks ago I began with the statement: Have you noticed that the books of the Bible are all written by men?
Even the books that have female names are written by men. I wonder what stories women would tell us if they have had their chance. However, we also believe that biblical stories were shared through oral tradition and perhaps, there we had the chance to include women’s narratives.
It is interesting that in today’s stories, men are mentioned, but not all have names. However, a woman is mentioned by her name and profession, and that tells me that she had an important story to nurture our faith. Who remembers her name? (Her name is Lydia).
We know very little about Lydia but what we know is fascinating. She was making her way independently in a world run by men. The bible refers to her as Gentile, who found God through the Messianic prophecy from Judaism. We know her profession: Seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God”. With that one sentence, we learn so much about her. Both, work and worship had their place in the life of this remarkable woman. She is an icon that combines the two sisters from Bethany: Martha and Mary. Work and prayer. Lydia, is a business woman who didn’t lose her focus on the person of Jesus Christ.
Lydia is considered the first in that community to believe in Jesus Christ, the first Christian convert on the European continent. As a newly baptized Christian, Lydia shows her faith in inviting the strangers, Paul and Silas, to stay at her household. Her story contains elements to re-examine our own faith experience. A woman of prayer who acts in the local community, who welcomes the alien, and walks the path with a community of women.
There are few things that make me feel as connected with people of the bible and with all the saints that have gone before than listening to today’s readings.
Because like our ancestors in faith, I love what Jesus reveals about God. I am amazed by his power. I’m astonished by his gracious words because, in times like the ones we live in today, I need much of that same grace, power, and hope to overcome the historical moment we live in.
The Gospel today is very descriptive. Jesus enters a place where almost everybody is carrying a type of illness. The Gospel doesn’t say why he entered the place but says that he could see those in there. They were blind, lame, and paralyzed. All those diseases at that point in time were considered curses inherited from their forebearers. Reading the text, it caught my attention that Jesus, filled with power, didn’t heal every single person in that place but chose one in particular. The Gospel doesn’t say why he didn’t heal everyone, but tells us details about that one person.
We know through the writer that he was a man who had been sick for 38 years. The text suggests that he was there for so long that he probably didn’t have any more desire to try to get to the water to be healed.
This is one of these rare biblical texts when Jesus offers healing instead of being caught by surprise. It was not someone who came to him and secretly touched his garments seeking healing, nor a father coming to beg Jesus to heal his daughter. No. But Jesus enters the place, sees what is happening there, and then offers freely the chance to change someone’s life forever.
While working in Oakland, California, aside from the role of a vicar, I was also the coordinator for the church’s Feeding Program in the area. Week after week we welcomed people from all around the neighborhood. There were about 200 people. They were from the groups that our society doesn’t want to engage in conversation about. They were old Asian ladies with their carts, Latino mothers with small children, and many African Americans and Ethiopians who had lost their jobs. Mostly people of color and they were very young or very old. The excluded of our society.
The pool of Bethesda reminded me of that community of excluded people. They all needed attention and healing. And healing here, does not mean, from a type of illness, but from the prejudice imposed by society. In Jesus infinite love one person served as an example for hope, in Oakland we figured that we needed to be open to making the miracle happen.
Healing in our program was more than giving food to those who needed food. For us the healing was not for one person but for the community who came to us. After a couple months with open doors, we almost immediately understood that those three communities needed reconciliation. They were living in fear of one another. The Asians were afraid of the Latinos. The Latinos were afraid of the Blacks. The Blacks didn’t trust the other two. That neighborhood was in need of signs of reconciliation and compassion.
We didn’t only serve food there, but we engaged in the conversation to listen to their stories and make their narratives known to the others. We discovered that the root of their fears was ignorance about the other. We invited neighbors to be volunteers and every six months we brought all the volunteers together for training and for story telling. The result was this softening of hearts. So now they knew each other by name, and they knew how to say Hello or Good afternoon in the language of the other.
Together, volunteers along with food pantry guests made changes in that particular place. We built a garden in the parking lot of the church even though they didn’t speak Cantonese, Spanish or Amharic. Probably our major accomplishment wasn’t feeding a large number of people but getting rid of the drug dealer across the street.
Because we had a long line of families throughout the day outside of our door the drug dealer of the neighborhood had to move away. The food pantry called too much attention to that block.
Healing is faith in action. It is not always clear how to transform a situation, but one thing I learned from that experience and from the bible, is that through prayer, love and hope, the New Heaven and New Earth will be established.
Today, the second reading is a continuation of the promise of a New Heaven and New Earth given to us by the hand of the beloved disciple. We don’t know for sure how much of the books of St. John and the book of Revelation were written by the Beloved Disciple, John. What we know is that he is writing to Christians who are having their faith tested. Pretty much like the man who is healed by Jesus, John offers a new hope so Christians can survive the fears of those days.
The first Christians cherished the presence of the apostolic eyewitnesses to the life, ministry, and the message of Jesus. John is the living link to Jesus. But John is dying. He is the last of the disciples who knew Jesus in person and helped the communities to interpret and apply the teaching of Jesus to new situations in which the community found itself. John dies in the year 90 of the Christian era. Twenty years earlier, the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. And Judeans and new converts lost God’s special dwelling place on earth. All the important religious pillars were slowly disappearing. On the top of that, Christians are being persecuted and martyrized for their religion, for following Jesus teachings.
John writes the book of Revelation to those people living under that reality. His words are to remind the church that we may experience suffering now but that will end. Nothing is more powerful than the will of God for a healed and reconciled world.
His promise is still echoing to us in our days; to give us hope that evil will not overcome the power of life. It is still the season of Easter and we will continue proclaiming that God’s kingdom is coming.
“And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day-- and there will be no night there. There will be a river of the water of life, bright as crystal. On either side of the river is the tree of life. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” Revelation 21:23ss
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