Sailing Up My Dirty Stream
John 5:1-6 (The Message)
Soon another Feast came around and Jesus was back in Jerusalem. Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there was a pool, in Hebrew called Bethesda, with five alcoves. Hundreds of sick people—blind, crippled, paralyzed—were in these alcoves. One man had been an invalid there for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him stretched out by the pool and knew how long he had been there, he said, “Do you want to get well?”
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We never really pay much attention to water… We bathe in it, we wash our clothes with it, we drink and cook with it… It’s not until something goes wrong with our water that we realize how much we take for granted, something so common. We’re quick to view dirty water as something that is lost, toxic, and something that isn’t worth our time, but if we turn back and remember what it says in Scripture, we might jumpstart our memory as to just how important water really is and how our Creator doesn’t give up on turning dirty water into life giving water… You know there’s a song written by Pete Seeger about the Hudson River that encapsulates this hope about dirty water becoming life giving water:
Sailing up my dirty stream
Still I love it and I'll keep the dream
That someday, though maybe not this year
My Hudson River will once again run clear
(My Dirty Stream ~Pete Seeger © The Bicycle Music Company)
The Hudson certainly is known for being a dirty river, yet Seeger still holds onto the beauty that lies within and around the Hudson River. “Sailing down my dirty stream, still I love and I’ll keep the dream.” Perhaps that is the mantra we find ourselves clinging to as we navigate the waters of life. Perhaps we feel that our river is overflowing with mounds of trash, but we find that we are holding out for something better that exists farther down the stream. That might have been what the man waiting by poolside for thirty-eight years was thinking, before Jesus appeared. Of course we’ll never know for sure… Do you think we can we imagine or think of a time where we have found ourselves seeking out water that grants life instead of death.
Can you imagine what was going through the mind of the man who waited by the pool for thirty-eight years? Like many of us he must have thought that the water of life was found in an actual pool of water, but when Jesus came around his eyes were opened to the truth. Isn’t that the story of humanity? And I’m not just talking about our own stories of life and faith, but I’m also talking about the stories that we share together as well… “There’s a river of my people,” it says in another one of Seeger’s songs… And I believe it’s in that river where it’s together we find the living water that God has to offer… Not the water that lies stagnant in a pool or basin, or pools of water that are fed by the same foul sources, but the living water that flows from the throne of God.
There's a river of my people
And its flow is swift and strong,
Flowing to some mighty ocean,
Though its course is deep and long.
Flowing to some mighty ocean,
Though its course is deep and long.
(River of My People ~Pete Seeger © The Bicycle Music Company)
Of course that doesn't mean that there won’t be obstacles that get in our way… I imagine that the man who was waiting by the side of the pool had to overcome a number of different challenges before Jesus came to him. Perhaps the challenges that the man who had been waiting for thirty-eight years are still the same challenges we are still trying overcoming today… What might those obstacles be? What are the things that have tried to keep us away from seeking God’s life giving water? Perhaps it’s our wealth or other earthly treasures. Perhaps it's the illusion that things are fine when in reality they aren’t. Perhaps it’s our clinging onto things that we believe make the river clean, or make it great, but really end up polluting it. What are the ways that we have tried to keep others from obtaining God’s life giving water?
Many rocks and reefs and mountains
Seek to bar it from its way.
But relentlessly this river
Seeks its brothers in the sea.
But relentlessly this river
Seeks its brothers in the sea.
(River of My People ~Pete Seeger © The Bicycle Music Company)
Whether we are sailing up a dirty stream with the hope that one day it might become clear, or whether we are part of a river that overcomes various obstacles it all leads to one big ocean at some point or another. I find it interesting what Jesus says to the man, “Do you want to get well?” We know that Jesus often gives roundabout answers, and this morning is no exception. “Do you want to get well?” That seems like a silly question, because of course the man by the pool of water would want to get well. Perhaps it’s in our collective struggles we will find the thing that gives us strength and courage, gives us the balm that soothes our souls.
For we have mapped this river
And we know its mighty force
And the courage that this gives us
Will hold us to our course
And the courage that this gives us
Will hold us to our course
(River of My People ~Pete Seeger © The Bicycle Music Company)
We will might all find ourselves at some point at the pool of Bethesda. We might all find ourselves at the pool of Bethesda wondering what it is we are supposed to do. Around the pool the people who had gathered may have shared stories… They may have shared laments, joys, hopes, or even dreams. But that’s all talk… It wasn’t until Jesus came into the picture that they were asked to do something, “Do you want to be HEALED?” Of course we want to be healed, but healing, healing of the body, healing of the soul isn’t done by talking about healing, or by forming another committee for people to serve on, but by doing. We’ve had a lot of time to sit around and talk and share stories, perhaps it's time we go out and actually do…
As I look out across the sea
A bright horizon beckons me
And I am called to do my best
And be the most that I can be
(Old Scottish Folk Tune)
Maybe then at the end of the day we will be able to sit down and see that the river we started sailing on may be still be dirty, but a little less than when we started. And when we can take joy in that heaven building work of God we might be able to happily sing a song about sailing up a dirty river…
Sailing up my dirty stream
Still I love it and I'll keep the dream
That someday, though maybe not this year
My Hudson River will once again run clear
(My Dirty Stream ~Pete Seeger © The Bicycle Music Company)