Sermon for August 25, 2019 – St. Paul’s SacramentoProper 16C – RCL Track 1
Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71:1-6
Hebrews 12:18-29
Luke 13:10-17
Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And
just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for
eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When
Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from
your ailment." When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up
straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant
because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, "There
are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured,
and not on the sabbath day." But the Lord answered him and said, "You
hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from
the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a
daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from
this bondage on the sabbath day?" When he said this, all his opponents
were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful
things that he was doing.
After
last week’s Gospel reading of Jesus saying that he did not come to bring peace
but to bring fire. Not to bring unity
but to sow division, I am happy this week to come back to the Jesus that I
expect to encounter in the Gospel of Luke.
We expect healing stories in the Gospel of Luke. After all it is the in the Luke’s gospel that
Jesus starts his ministry of healing in a synagogue by reading from the scroll
of the prophet Isaiah and saying that that he was the one that the prophet
predicted when Isaiah said:
““The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,”
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,”
Today
we encounter the Jesus that we expect to encounter. Today we have an amazing story of
healing. An amazing story of Grace. The woman in this story did not approach
Jesus for healing. She, like Jesus, was
planning on attending the sabbath services at the synagogue. It seems that she was not there seeking a
miraculous healing. She was there, like
the others, to worship God. When Jesus
sees her come in, he sees the spirit that has bent her over, and calls her
over. Jesus sees not just her physical
suffering but sees her spiritual suffering as well. Jesus calls her over and
simply tells her that she is free from her ailment and she immediately stands us
and began praising God. There is no prelude
dialogue. There is no proclamation that
her faith has made her whole. There is
simply the grace filled healing from Jesus.
And
here is where the story gets interesting.
One
of the leaders of the synagogue took issue with the fact that Jesus has just
done some work on the sabbath. And not
only did he do work but he did it in the place set aside for the worship of
God. In the synagogue. Jesus, in the
eyes of this leader has broken God’s law about keeping the sabbath holy. He does not object per se to the healing but
objects to the time and place of the healing.
He would, it seems, be perfectly ok with the healing if it took place on
any other day. He is upset with the
breaking of the law of the sabbath.
Now
before we too start calling this man a hypocrite perhaps we should look into
our own hearts. I bet we all have rules,
or norms, that have risen in our hearts to the level of laws. And I am willing to bet that we get pretty
upset when those laws are broken. I
certainly have norms that, when violated, can make me upset. Some of them are pretty silly too. Like the one about not trying to hold a
meaningful discussion with me before at least the second cup of coffee has been
consumed. Others are more serious. Like taking the commandment to love God and
Love our neighbors seriously – although I admit that even with that one, I can
fall far short of my own ideal.
We
also take secular laws seriously. While
we may disagree with some of the laws and regulations the government has set
four our wellbeing there is a set that we would take as important. We feel strongly that killing another is
wrong. We feel strongly that abuse is
wrong. I feel strongly that we really
should stop at stop signs and for red lights – especially having suffered the
consequences of a car not stopping! To name just a few.
In
our worship space we have spoken and unspoken rules of interaction. And when those are violated, we can get
pretty upset. I belong to a Facebook
group of Episcopalians. And while many of
the posts are requests for prayers there are some that talk about when people’s
“rules” for worship are broken – and how dare they. A recent post – which generated many comments
– was about the passing of the peace.
The author’s norm was that the peace should last about 10 seconds with a
polite handshake only to those in the near vicinity. Anything longer, anything more expansive than
that was not worship and was really degenerating into an intermission that interrupted
the flow of worship. That is certainly
not the norm in this congregation – although I have attended churches where
that is the norm. There is no law about
how to pass the peace – the prayer book simply says that the “ministers and
people may greet one another in the name of the lord.” We all can get pretty upset if our worship
norms are violated.
In
the case of the leader of the synagogue he is not just upset that a norm was
broken. He was upset that a commandment
that was given to honor the sabbath was broken.
He was advocating for a strict reading of the commandment that came
after the people of Israel were set free from the Egypt. He is worried that if you let some work
happen during the Sabbath that pretty soon the sabbath will lose meaning. David Lose, a preacher I follow said “Which
is what the leader of the synagogue is worried about. Once you start making
exceptions for this reason or that, pretty soon no one is really keeping the
Sabbath and it’s lost its point altogether. And it’s not just the Sabbath. The
whole law is like that -- keep making exceptions and it’s not really a law
anymore; it’s more like a suggestion, with little or no power to protect and
preserve us.”[1]
Jesus,
even though he called this man a hypocrite, is not calling for the abolishment
of the law of the sabbath. He is calling
for a different interpretation of the law.
He points out that there are already exemptions allowed. There are actions that can be taken during a
sabbath that look like work even in the strictest readings. Jesus reminds him that livestock are allowed
to be taken for water. Jesus argues that
one is allowed under the sabbath rules to take actions that preserve life. In this story Jesus says that this daughter
of Abraham – this decedent of the house of Israel – a faithful member of the
synagogue – should not have to wait until the day after the sabbath to be
healed. She had already suffered for 18
years – another day was a day too long.
For Jesus this act of healing was no more work that taking livestock to
water. It was a mercy that promoted
life.
Jesus
argues that the law of the sabbath allows for healing. It allows us to give those in need water to
drink and food to eat. It allows us to
expand the reach of God’s kingdom into the places where we live. Jesus is not telling the people to ignore the
rules around the sabbath. He is instead
allowing a more generous reading of what can be allowed. He is advocating that allowing actions that
bring about God’s dream are allowed.
Actions that show God is loved and all of our neighbors are loved – all
of God’s beloved children are loved are allowed.
If
we continued to read this chapter in Luke Jesus goes on to tell the parables
about the Kingdom of God. The kingdom of
God is like a mustard seed, the Kingdom of God is like yeast – parables that we
skip for now. But they make clear that
the healing was not a breaking of the law but was the in-breaking of the
kingdom of heaven.
David
Lose said “Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God, and while the law helps us
make sense of and get more out of life in the kingdom of the world, it must
always bend to the grace that constitutes the abundant life Jesus proclaims.
For above and beyond all the laws ever received or conceived, the absolute law
is love, love God and love your neighbor. Or, perhaps, love God by loving your
neighbor.”[2]
The
good news is that Jesus calls us to mercy and forgiveness. Jesus calls us to bring about the inbreaking
of the kingdom of God. Jesus does that by showing us examples of where we can
interpret the law with grace. Where we
can read the laws with a heart tuned to healing. Jesus calls us out when we, like the leader
of the synagogue, read the laws, and our own norms, in ways that preclude being
agents that bring God’s love into our world.
This
reading from Luke calls us to look into our hearts and souls. To look for those places where we worship at
the altar of idols. To look for those
times when we see others not as children of God but as disturbances to our
sensibilities. To look into our hearts to see where we fail to welcome the
stranger into our midst because their reading of God’s commandment is different
than our own.
Jesus
tells us later in Luke that it does not take much for the inbreaking of God’s
love. A small seed, a measure of yeast,
seemingly insignificant actions, cause the inbreaking of God’s love into our
world. In today’s reading the healing of a women who had been bent over for 18
years showed God’s kingdom of love. I
invite you to look into your heart and see where you might need healing in
order to see the inbreaking of God’s love, to look and see where you might be
overly strict in your interpretations of law and norms that prevent God’s
inbreaking love. And most importantly to
look and see what seeds you have that will cause the inbreaking of God’s love
into our world.
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