Our Correctness Will Not Save Us
Sermon preached on Sunday, May 3, 2026 by Subdeacon JD Swartz
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Christ is Risen!
In today’s Gospel reading, we hear Christ ask of the man waiting by the pool, “Do you want to be healed?” And the man’s response, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going, another steps down before me.”
St. John Chrysostom says, “What can be more pitiable than these words? What more sad than these circumstances? Do you see a heart crushed through an extended illness?...That man had been waiting for thirty-eight years without obtaining what he desired, and he still did not withdraw. And he failed, not through any carelessness of his own but through being oppressed and suffering violence from others.”
St. Amphilochius of Iconium says that in this account we “see the cruelty of those of the city who were well, because not only did not one give their hand to help [the man]…but they even treated [him] like an enemy when [he] asked.”
And I will ask, who among us does not need healing for either their body or soul? Who among us would ask for a hand to help? Who among us would reject another’s request for assistance, support, or accommodation? Who here would both ask for help and ignore another’s plea?
I would help you. And why not? You’re here. We’re in agreement, we’re in communion with one another. I get you, right? And whether or not we’ve spoken, I know you because I presume you’re one of ‘my people.’ You’re one of us.
But what about them? Them on Inman Street, them on Bishop Allen Drive, them on Mass Ave. What about that guy who stands on the corner outside of our parish selling the Spare Change News, just trying to make a few bucks? And why is it that I ever say to him, “Sorry, not today”?
Why do my two dollars stay in my wallet? Is it because I earned that money and it’s mine?
Is it because I don’t know him? He’s there pretty often – why don’t I know him?
What’s he going to do with that money? If I’m being honest, probably something more useful than I would.
Is it because he’s not us? I mean, why does he need to sell those papers in the first place? Maybe if he had done x or y or z differently he could be in here and I’d feel more comfortable about helping.
And he is but one man in a neighborhood, within a city, adjacent to many cities and towns, in which those of us gathered here live and work. Those outside the doors of this parish are not ‘they,’ brothers and sisters, ‘they’ are us. We are all in need of a hand, we are all in need of healing.
I’ve spoken about healing before and want to state once again, that healing is the process of being made whole and your healing, your wholeness, my wholeness, is not for us alone – you are not an individual, you are a person. We are not meant for isolation. We are relational, made to live in interaction with one another and with God. Our healing, our wholeness, is affected by and has an effect upon, others.
When Christ cured the illness of the man at the pool He said, “Rise, take up your pallet, and walk." And where did Christ later find him? At the temple! Presenting himself to be inspected, to show that he was no longer ritually impure, to be made whole before God and with community; and he was told that he was doing it wrong. For thirty-eight years he lay by the pool seeking healing – thirty-eight years’ worth of Sabbaths not thinking about not working on the Sabbath because he could not work on the Sabbath. And when he returns to the temple to continue his healing, he’s told that he’s doing it wrong.
“‘It is the sabbath, it is not lawful for you to carry your pallet.’ But he answered them, ‘The man who healed me said to me, “Take up your pallet, and walk.”’” Knowing it was unlawful, Christ, as Messiah and Rabbi, said, “Take up your pallet, and walk.”
Yes, we have Holy Tradition, we have rubrics, we have thousands of years of spiritual guidance, and these are good and right – but as Blessed Augustine says, “…the law of Christ is love, and love is not fulfilled unless we bear our burdens, each for the other…When you were sick, your neighbor was carrying you. You have been healed; carry your neighbor. So you will fulfill, O man, what was lacking to you.”
But we like our lines, our boundaries, and all those things which reassure us that we are doing it right. Theology without praxis is only a mental exercise, and without love, theology becomes hell – a delusion which allows us to replace our brothers and sisters, replace our neighbors around us, and replace those who would call us their enemy with a focus upon the self, exchanging love for correctness, and in this, we transform orthodoxy from a verb into an adjective; it ceases to be the path of union with God and becomes a descriptor of laws. Our correctness will not save us and it most certainly will reveal God to no one.
We are here to take everything and present it back to God. There is no line of demarcation marking secular from sacred, for God is everywhere present and filling all things. Everything is meant to be sacred and – to paraphrase Wendell Barry – if we cannot see it that way, it is because we have desecrated it.
I’d like to share a story. As most of you know, my daughter is autistic, and until just a few years ago she was completely non-speaking. Recently, she gave her first confession. It wasn’t anything we had discussed with her, and we had no expectations regarding it – but after learning about confession in Sunday School, she watched videos on YouTube about it and asked if she could have confession.
We spoke with Father Antony, we got the text of the prayers he would say, and to guide Clementine, we wrote a script of the prayers, we made a form for her to write what she wanted to confess, and we included notes with descriptions of what actions would take place during the sacrament.
She was so excited. She is the first person I've ever seen actually excited for confession, and she took it so seriously.
This expression of mercy, of love, of accommodation would not have been possible without a caring and kind priest, but it would also have been impossible without the efforts and love of Clementine's support network of speech therapists, occupational therapists, teachers, and aides – their work became the work of the Lord.
Faith is not developed alone, belief is not a mental exercise, and religion does not exist separated from the secular. We are interwoven, not just with one another here, not only with the people on the streets outside our doors, but with all of creation, all that has been, all that ever will be.
St. Augustine said, “Where are you taking a trip to, except to the Lord God, to him whom we ought to love with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind? For we have not yet reached the Lord, but we have our neighbor with us. Therefore carry him with whom you are walking that you may reach Him with whom you long to stay…‘take up your bed, and walk.’”
Amen