Good Book Club: John 5:1-18

A reflection by the Very Rev. Kristina Maulden, from the Cathedral of St. John in Albuquerque, New Mexico:

Jesus encounters a man lying by the pool of Siloam, unable to reach the purported healing waters.  He has been unable to walk for 38 years. Jesus asks, “Do you want to get well?” Does he? Do we? Do we truly desire to get well? There is living water just outside of our grasp, it seems. Hope, reconciliation, forgiveness are all at hand.  The streams of living water promise healing for the whole person. Those words echo through the centuries: Do you want to get well? The man beside the water tells Jesus that he has no one to help him. He was hindered by a physical barrier –his own body and by peoples’ indifference.  Or maybe it was pride that kept him from asking for help. What is it that hinders us? We offer our own deeply felt and but crippling excuses. It may be anger or a history of feeling neglected or disbelief that anything can change that builds a wall between us and wholeness. Sometimes our minds are fettered by thoughts of inadequacy, hopelessness, and distrust.  Our souls may be aching in the darkness, afraid of the light, of peace, and of God. When we are called out and told to walk, we risk losing the comfort of the way it has always been. But, if we dare, what comes next by the power of the Spirit, will carry us to places of peace, joy and unquenchable love.