In our first reading this morning we heard the story of the competition between Elijah and the Prophets of Baal.  The prophets of Baal built a stone altar, lay down wood for a fire, then put a sacrificed bull on the wood, and called upon their god to start the fire … but nothing happened.  Elijah did much the same, but he also dug a trench around the wood, poured water on the wood three times, and then called upon the God of “Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” and fire came down and consumed the stones, the wood, the flesh, and even the water in the trench.  The last words of this lesson were, “When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God.”  Now, does anyone remember from the lesson how many prophets of Baal there were?  Well, the very next verse reads, Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; do not let one of them escape.” Then they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the Wadi Kishon, and killed them there.” 

This week I had to call tech help about a problem with my computer.  In one of those pauses as we were waiting for the computer to reboot the tech help person asked me, “So what do you do?” I answered, “I’m clergy.”  There was a short silence and then she said “Clergy?”  Realizing she was a little confused I said, “Yes, I’m the pastor of a church in St. Augustine, Florida.”  “Oh,” she said, and there was another short pause, then she said, “I’m born again too.”  Then something came up on the screen and we went back to solving the problem.  A few minutes later … these things always take forever … we were waiting for the computer to do something else and she asked, “What kind of church do you pastor?”  I said I was with the Episcopal Church, and again there was this kind of awkward silence, then she said, “I’m Baptist,” and then she asked “Why are there so many different kinds of churches?”  So, how does one answer that question in twenty words or less?  Finally I said, “We are all Christian churches believing in Jesus and the Bible.  Some people read the Bible one way and some another, but they all started in the same place.”  Just then, something pop up on my screen and we got back to solving the computer problem.  We never returned to her last question, but as I said goodbye I added a “God bless you” and you could almost hear her smile as she “God bless you too.”

Now, I think it is safe to say that most of us have committed faux pas in our life that seem to scar us forever.  You know, those things we said or did that were embarrassing and we wish we could have a do-over.  Well, one of my Mothers’ Day sermons was like that, and I’ve been tentative about preaching about Mothers’ Day ever since.  You see, I once preached a Mothers’ Day sermon about how Mothers’ Day was really an invention of Hallmark Cards, the flower industry, and restaurant owners.  It was one of those faux pas that stick is engraved in my mind … and it was in front of a very full congregation.  The point I was trying to make is you don’t just honor your mother one day a year on Mothers’ Day, but you should honor your mother every day of the year. 

This morning I would like to offer some thoughts about the man at the Pool of Beth-zatha.  The story seems rather straight forward … There is a pool in northern Jerusalem where people gathered to be healed and Jesus visited the pool.  He asked one of the men if he wants “to be made well.”  The man doesn’t answer the question directly, but says that he has no one to put him in the water at the right time, to which Jesus says, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”  That is the story … at least as we read it this morning.  But like a lot of stories in John’s gospel there may be more to it than just the healing of a lame man.