Hemmed In On All Sides

Acts 16:9-15 John 5:1-9

When Alison and I go on holiday there is a division of labour between us. She sorts out the airflights and my responsibility is buses and trains. So a few weeks ago we arrive in Florence and it is my task to get us from the railway station to the hotel. No taxi for us! A bus is much more fun, and far cheaper.
The front of the station is a mass of buses and bus stops and I’m looking for a number 23 and lo and behold , there is a God, for the first bus stop we come to and there is a No 23 waiting right there with lots of people piling onto it. “This way” I cry triumphantly to my beloved. and we squeeze on board the crowded bus.
“But we haven’t paid” she whispers. “Look nobody’s paying” I say pointing to the rugby scrum continuing to squeeze through the door.

The bus lurches off and we try to follow its progress on our little street map, but we are unable to plot its course at all. This is because we have caught the right bus, but its going in the wrong direction. I see that tickets can be bought direct from the driver so at the next bus stop I push my way through the crowd brandishing a five euro note and ask the driver for two tickets. He just gazes into the distance through his dark glasses. “Finish” he says. “Sorry” I say. “Finish” he says again. “What happened” said Alison when I pushed my way back to her. I told her I’m not quite sure. The bus continues to head out of town, but we are grateful to a helpful Italian who tells us the No23 is a circular service and eventually if we stay on board long enough, we will get to our destination. Then I see the sign. “If you travel on this bus without a ticket you are liable to a fine of between 85 and 250 euros.” I’m praying Alison has not seen the sign.

The bus ends up on an industrial estate and we are the only passengers on board, and I know Alison is thinking that after this holiday I will be relieved of my duties regarding city transport. Then the unimaginable happens, an inspector gets on board through the front door and stands talking to the driver, and another one comes in through the back door and sits right behind us. We are hemmed in by inspectors. It will only take one of them to decide to do the job they’re paid for and we’ll be in the mire.

I consider the Christian response. Sit tight and pray and hope. But there’s a long way to go. Tap the inspector on the shoulder brandishing that 5 euro note and tell him we’re English and didn’t understand, and we’re quite willing to pay. The inspector at the front looks a fearsome character.. The third option is the only way out. I whisper to Alison. “When the bus stops..just leg it!”

Ever been in a situation like that? Hemmed in with no obvious way of getting out. Faced with choices that seem to be just the lesser of evils. Knowing that it’s all your own silly fault.

Lets travel from the outskirts of Florence right to the heart of the old city of Jerusalem where you can still visit the site of our Gospel reading this morning.
The pool of Bethsaida. I remember it as a crumbling ruin of a place. Arches round the edge where the sick would have lain waiting for the pool to bubble up, and the pool raised up so that the lame would have had to clamber in to it, and the whole place so small. The crowds in the days of Jesus packed in there, and a virtual stampede to the water when ever it bubbled up.

I see our man, Jesus’ man as stuck in his place at the back. Unable to stand. Unable to move. Unable to climb. No hope of ever getting anywhere. No hope of ever getting cured. Just stuck where he was.

For us the possibility of changing our lives, of making them better seems to hang so tantalisingly close, but we do not move to that place easily. Our personal weakness just keeps on rearing its ugly head, people are in the way, situations are in the way. Our hope diminishes, can the pool do anything for anyone. Life seems a pointless razzmatazz of new beginnings that never get anywhere. No wonder the man is downhearted when Jesus starts to address him. For this has been his experience.

The location of this pool is full of meaning for us. It is described as being by the Sheep Gate. It’s on the site of an old sheep market. Imagine the creatures hemmed in on market day, stuck in their temporary folds in the middle of the city, and then see them purchased by the shepherd and led away by him to fresh pasture.
See that as the activity of Jesus throughout his ministry. See that as what he did for the lame man on this day. See it as his offer to you for those parts of your life that feel like a dead end. In this story and in your life and mine – the Good Shepherd comes – and he puts his money where his mouth is.

So our world tour in search of freedom continues to one more destination. We take a boat now with St Paul, and we’ve even bought a ticket, all the way to Phillipi and we go with him on the Sabbath day to the waters edge. A place of prayer by the riverside. In my minds eye, I see this location as the complete opposite to Bethsaida’s pool. An open space where people quietly talk and pray together with open hearts and open minds. The women he speaks to are described as” worshippers of God”, but perhaps had not yet heard about the freeing activity brought about by the Gospel and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Here Paul builds upon their positive outlook on life, their waiting faithfulness and they become followers of the way.

Not all of our lives are hemmed in and frustrated experiences. There is much about us that is already liberated, freed and healed, but we forget that God is at the heart of those places and wants to meet us there to further deepen in us his love, so that our lives are more secure in his grace and so that we might share that reality with others.

“At the next bus stop, we’ll leg it”! That was fine wasn’t it! We were on a side street in the middle of nowhere, but I immediately got bus tickets from a little corner shop and we caught the next bus legitimately. We got away with it, we wormed our way out. I’m still in charge of bus journeys. But as an approach to life, you can’t go on doing that forever. Backing away from decision moments, confrontation moments, nor should we when they can easily end up as healing moments.

“There is no one to help me when the water is troubled”,
“I didn’t know you needed to buy your bus ticket first”
“Yes we worship God, but we’ve never heard about Jesus”.

Accept where you are and who you are, and know that God loves you from there.
He doesn’t like to see you hemmed in. He’s sorry when you leg it from facing facts.
He wants you to be part of the Easter story wherein everything is raised up and all is set free.

RH 9.5.10