Sermon for Pentecost 14 Year C 2016 Set Free

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Sermon for Pentecost 14 Year C 2016 Set Free"

Thomasine Baker
5 years ago
Views:

1 Sermon for Pentecost 14 Year C 2016 Set Free Mark Twain once said Having spent considerable time with good people, I can understand why Jesus liked to spend time with tax collectors and sinners! Twain certainly could have had in mind the indignant leader of the synagogue in today s gospel. But am I being too hard on this guy? After all, isn t he just trying to keep the rules? But then I can hear another of Mark Twain s snappy quips Most Christians (or religious folk) are so heavenly minded, they are no earthly good. And yet... I have to admit that there are far too many times when I know just how this guy in the synagogue feels. I know how ready I am to share in his righteous indignation. I know what it s like to survey the world passing by utterly oblivious to the claims of the creator upon his creatures, who have become largely disinterested in giving God his due. I know what it feels like to want to wave a commandment in the air, and point emphatically to it, and shout out in exasperation and indignation, Remember the Sabbath! Give God his day! Give God his due! Don t some of you also know this indignation too? Now Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath. He looked up and saw a woman who was bent over bent over for the last eighteen years. (Now if you have some Jewish friends, they will tell you that the number eighteen is a significant number in the Jewish tradition. 1

2 The number eighteen signifies a mitzvah that is, an obligation, a requirement, a precept or a rule. I don t know if this was so in Jesus day... but its something to ponder that Jesus frees this woman from her mitzvah.) Does the woman ask for healing? No. Does Jesus seem to care that it s the Sabbath, when healing a non-life-threatening condition is not permitted? No. Without being asked, he calls her over to him, and sets her free from her longtime ailment by placing his hands on her, just as one would in blessing. And the woman is blessed, and freed. And she begins praising God This unknown woman could have sung the very words of this morning s psalm: Bless the Lord, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless God s holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all God s benefits who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases; who redeems your life from the grave and crowns you with steadfast love and mercy... Now, is everyone amazed and grateful to witness such a thing and singing and praising along with the woman? No, indeed. The leader of the synagogue is in fact upset by this breach of the Law and tells the crowd, which undoubtedly includes many others in need of healing (aren t we all?), that they should come back tomorrow, when the timing will be more appropriate for such things as healing. 2

3 Apparently only scheduled miracles are allowed. Come back tomorrow, the synagogue leader says, when it's alright for healings to be performed. Wait a little longer. You can feel the tension here between two faithful Jewish men who are both struggling with what it means to be faithful. To be fair, the religious leader isn't only mean-spirited; he's trying to press his case for obedient faithfulness. And so is Jesus. They both want to observe the Sabbath, but they don't agree about how to keep it. Jesus says the time for salvation isn't tomorrow; it's right now, no matter what day it is. Jesus broke the rules and put human welfare over religious obligation. Jesus knows that there is no wrong time to do the right thing especially when it comes to the reign of God. Jesus says the time for salvation isn't tomorrow; it's right now, no matter what day it is. But, as a matter of fact, it seems the Sabbath is the perfect time for healing! If we are called to love Jesus and to love the way Jesus loved, if we don t want to be so heavenly minded that we re no earthly good, it's clear then that this story gives us a model of what it means to be the church the Body of Christ not just on Sunday but every day. Jesus is the model for all of us as ministers, not just me the preacher in the pulpit, but all of you the ministers of Holy Trinity. 3

4 Every single one of us, in our daily lives, has the occasion to encounter the bent-over woman. Jesus contends that beneath the surface of those ten commandments lay a deeper intent the welfare of those in need. You don't keep laws for the sake of keeping laws, Jesus seems to suggest, but rather for the greater intention they serve. So if keeping the laws impedes caring for someone in need, then the choice is easy you break the law in order to fulfill it. We know this as not the letter of the law but come on, say it with me the spirit of the law. So, of course it is permissible to set someone free on the Sabbath, Jesus seems to say, for the Sabbath is all about freedom in our being and in our doing. As many of us like to say it s not have to, it s a get to. The Sabbath Day whether the Jewish Sabbath on Saturday or the Christian day of rest and worship on Sunday reminds us...all of us, that we too have been captive and are set free. Therefore the Sabbath invites us to look around and see who else might still be bound and waiting for release. From this point of view, our day of worship, while called "a Sabbath to the Lord," isn't finally for the Lord but is for us, for all of us who need rest and release, renewal and re-creation in our being and in our doing. The bent-over woman doesn't necessarily ask for healing she didn't in the story. She just appeared, out of the shadows where pressed-down people so often live, and Jesus saw her, and reached out. 4

5 This is one of the reasons Christians moved their celebration of Sabbath to Sunday, the day on which the Lord was raised, for this, too, is release and deliverance, but in an ultimate sense, as we are released from death itself. So Sabbath/Sunday is about freedom. But how many of us, know that? There are people who are weighed down and bent over by loneliness, grief, worry, anxiety, guilt and doubt. People who are confused by a world that preaches a word of its own, a false word that often leads them leads us astray from God's purpose for us, away from God's goodness and God's will for our lives. There are people whose financial difficulties or mental illness or physical ailments or business troubles feel like burdens that bend them over and weigh them down. Wouldn t it be a blessing and a release if we could reach out to them and give them the Sabbath release they need? Many of us and many others, I imagine, think of Sunday as a day of religious obligation (a have-to), worship is something we have to do for God. But, actually, what Jesus is trying to get us to understand is that the Sabbath/Sunday is about what God can do for us and, recognizing that, what we God can do for others through us. What if Sunday was about remembering how God has freed us so that we might free others? 5

6 What if Sunday is about calling to mind the mighty acts of God that we might be encouraged to dare mighty acts ourselves? What if Sunday was a day to remember that God has freed us from death itself so that we don't have to be afraid of anything and we might dare to share our Christian courage with others? Of course, some of us might say we are here because we like the music or we enjoy each other s company. But I believe that we are here this morning because somewhere in the deepest part of our spirit is a profound hunger for the reign of God. I believe that we long for the healing, and the justice, and the love and acceptance, and the peace that is the reign of God. We are here because we've come to know that we can't fix this world on our own, or even provide for ourselves on our own. We are here because we have come to understand that our only real choice is to turn to God and to one another (the Body of Christ) for what we need and long for. Sometimes it's hard to define what we mean by the reign of God, isn't it? One of the best descriptions I ever heard of the kingdom of God was given by a theologian named Hans Kung, who says that the reign of God is "God's creation healed." God's creation healed. But healed from what? Well how about Healed of the wound of poverty. Healed of the wound of racism. 6

7 Healed of the wound of sexism. Healed of the wound of prejudice that judges and even ridicules people for being different. Healed of the wound of misunderstanding and misinformation that denies that we are all God's children and part of the beautiful diversity of God's creation. Healed of a prejudice that has our children and many of our adults in such desperation that they take their own lives. And healed of the wounds of division or anything that keeps our being and our doing in ungodly bondage. We're invited to see our lives, our world, our nation, our homes and families, our business places and the market place you name it, as God intends for them to be, for God has given us a promise, according to the prophet Isaiah Isaiah says, that [God] will guide [us] continually (if we take the time to listen), [God] will satisfy [our] needs in parched places, and make [our] bones strong; and [we] shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. [And then! Our] ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; [we] shall raise up the foundations of many generations; [we] shall be called the repairers of the breach, [and] the restorers of streets to live in. I don t know about you, but I d love to be included in that! We re standing in an in-between kind of time Jesus has already begun the kingdom of God, but it's not yet here in its fullness. 7

8 Some days, it feels a lot easier to notice the not-yet instead of the already. Some days the not-yet of a broken world full of dehumanizing realities threaten to overwhelm and block our view. But we won t let that stop us. Because we know that we are inheritors of the gift of healing of the bent-over woman. Let us seek to love Jesus (with all our heart, all our mind and all our soul) and to love as Jesus loved. May we seek to discover the many ways that God is healing us and is using us to heal others from the things that rob all of us from fullness of life. And may we truly rejoice and praise God for all the wonderful things that Jesus is doing! 8

WHAT WE OFFER THE LORD

WHAT WE OFFER THE LORD Rev. Mark A. Medina August 21, 2016 Jesus said to Satan in the wilderness in Luke chapter 4 verse 8, It is written, Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him. With these words,