At the House of Shame

6 Easter C 2013
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Easter/CEaster6_RCL.html

In the Old Testament, God cares for those on the margins.

The old Law commanded us to care for the widow, the orphan, the stranger and the foreigner, for those on the margins. Workers in the fields were commanded to not completely strip their fields at the harvest, to leave the margins of their fields untouched so those who were “on the margins”—the poor, the strangers—could come and gather grain.

In the Gospel, Jesus does more than care for those on the margins. He goes to the margins, and makes the margins the new center.

The pool at Beth-Zatha was a place for people on the margins. The name Beth-zatha can mean either “house of mercy” or “house of shame.” Both applied—think of a soup kitchen or a shelter: it is a merciful idea and it is needed by desperate people, but you may not want one on your street and you probably don’t want to be seen eating there. The pool was even a sketchy place religiously—some scholars think it was dedicated not to the God of Israel, but to Asclepius, the Greek god of healing.

On the holy Sabbath, Jesus goes to the sketchy House of Shame.

He picks some guy, some chronically ill guy, a regular. He asks him a powerful question: “Do you want to be made well?” Two miracles happen. One is Jesus’ command: “Stand up, take your mat, and walk.” The other is that the man obeyed, choosing to believe that there really could be a different life besides lying on a mat at the House of Shame.

He stands, he walks. And it was a Sabbath.

A lot of sacred rules were broken that day. If Jesus wanted to be thought well of, he should not even have been seen at the ol’ House of Shame. It was sketchy and half-pagan. Why be there if you are trying to make a positive impression on the influential and the pious? And the Sabbath? The abandoned are still the abandoned on the other six days of the week. Why not plan these things at a decent place and on an acceptable day so you are not breaking some of the most fundamental laws of the tradition? Why?

Because Jesus goes to the margins. Jesus makes the margins the new center. The margins are where the Gospel happens.

If we wish to follow Jesus, then we too will go in heart and mind and body to the margins. We here at SPP have been on a journey these several years learning how to reach out to those on the margins, to welcome them here, to remember that it is on the margins that the Gospel happens. Today, most people who come to us, even those who appear prosperous and independent, feel that they are in some way “on the margins.”

When we follow Jesus to the margins, we recognize that we too are marginal people, that we are as much “on the edge”, broken and in need as are they. Christian faith arises when we acknowledge a deep need. Ancient tradition spoke of the poor as blessed because they cannot escape the evidence of their utter dependence on God. We on the other hand are tempted to act and feel as if we are self-sufficient and not in need. On the margins we realize what Jesus meant when he said “Blessed are you poor…”

It is a gift to walk with Jesus on the margins. The risen Jesus, the source of all life, reveals that the margins are actually the center. Those broken and lying at the House of Shame are revealed as blessed. What happened that day at the House of Shame was holier than all the Psalms and all the incense and all the prayers offered across town at the Temple. Today, we stand with Jesus at that strange pool named the House of Mercy and the House of Shame. We blink in the sunlight, surprised and humbled and shaken to our souls as he turns his gaze to us in turn and asks, “Do you want to be made well?”