Stand Up

After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.” Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.'” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.” John 5:1-15

O Creator you are the source of life

planets orbit by your own design

all the two legged and four legged

the winged and the crawling

all know you as strength and healing.

Our whole world is in deep crisis

caught in a web of virus and pain

justice and compassion are sidelined

petulant children have taken the reigns

pain and grief are our daily companions.

You saw the need by the crowded pool

you heard the blind, the palsied and lame

to foreigners, outcasts, women and children

you spoke healing and hope in a dark places

we come to you again for healing and hope.

Say the word so that we might rise together

help up to do our part and carry the weight

strengthen the weakened muscles of compassion

empower our capacity for justice and love

make us your people to serve our world today. Amen.