SCRIPTURE
Isaiah 58:9b-14
58:9b If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
58:10 if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.
58:11 The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.
58:12 Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.
58:13 If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs;
58:14 then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Luke 13:10-17
13:10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.
13:11 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.
13:12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment."
13:13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.
13:14 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."
13:15 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?
13:16 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?"
13:17 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.
SERMON
Today we encounter Jesus teaching in the synagogue. We are not privy to what he was teaching on that day. We are not given a scripture or text to look at and appreciate in Luke’s narrative. All we know is that Jesus is teaching and people are gathered to listen and to learn.
Now, whilst Jesus was teaching a woman came forward who was “crippled by a spirit that would not allow her to stand up straight.”
This narration by Luke has always intrigued me. I wonder, did she have osteoporosis? Did she have scoliosis? Did she have some other physical ailment that doubled her over?
Or did she have a mental or spiritual ailment? After all, scripture says that she was “crippled by a spirit?” Was it a spirit of depression? Anxiety? Worry? Was it a spirit of low self esteem or self worth? Was that why she was staring at the ground?
Or was it a societal ailment? Perhaps she was unable to straighten her back because the community had rained down so many blows upon it…after all, she was a woman. She was a sick woman. Was she also a single woman? We don’t know…
We know NO-thing about this woman except that she showed up on the Sabbath day, interrupted his homily by stepping forward and showing herself to Jesus.
Now, here’s something I do know because my Mama told me. People will always learn more by what you DO, than by what you SAY.
Perhaps Jesus’ Mama told him the same thing because he elected to stop teaching and to call the woman to him in front of the others. He spoke eight simple words to her that undid eighteen years of unbearable pain and shame.
He simply said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” Then he laid his hands on her, helping her to stand up straight!
What an amazing moment that must have been for that unnamed woman! As she stood she began to praise God, presumably with a loud voice! You would imagine that everyone present would be rejoicing with her! After all, Jesus had wrought a most wonderful miracle in front of the people…
But, isn’t it sad, that human nature is such that we don’t always rejoice with others, especially if their joy upsets our status quo, undermines our power, or lifts up those who are subjugated to us?
It is sad; yet it is true. That is why there were some in the crowd who had the audacity to say that Jesus had no business healing on the Sabbath for we know that Jewish law demands that one rest on the Sabbath day in order to keep it holy.
In response, Jesus turned on the naysayers and said in essence, “You are hypocrites. You work on the Sabbath day when it is in your interest; I will work on the Sabbath day when it is in mine.”
See, it was in the interest of his naysayers to take their beasts to water even on Saturday, so that they would not dehydrate and die. And it was in the interest of Jesus to heal the bent-over-woman, so that he could show forth the power of LOVE and incite the crowd to worship His father in heaven!
It occurs to me that most western human beings prioritize things, rather than people. We invest in property, rather than in relationships.
I recently read on the internet that we should USE THINGS, and LOVE PEOPLE. Rather than loving things, and using people! Ah! What good and holy advice.
Jesus knew that it is always a good time to show forth the power of LOVE. Love is the very reason that Jesus was sent into the earth to make atonement for our sin and gift us with eternal life.
Love is always in order whether or not it is Sunday, Wednesday, or Saturday. Whether it is the Sabbath day or any other day, it is always a wonderful time to show someone that you are willing to love and care for them.
This is an important lesson for Christians everywhere because I believe that some of us—and many of our neighbors—are bent over with the crushing weight of worry, fear, anxiety, or powerlessness.
Within our congregation--and in our cities--we can see people who are being crushed to the ground by the stress of being new refugees in America, recently laid off from their jobs, tossed out of their homes because of foreclosure, hungry without money to eat, stressed out about an impending divorce, discriminated against because of the way they look, dress, or worship, pressed down by the weight of illness, and/or exposed because of a tragic mistake or sin in their past.
We can see these people if we dare to look and are willing to stop what we are doing and notice them in the crowd.
This is what our Jesus did! He was teaching. He was busy. He had an agenda. He had a crowd to please. But, none of that was more important to him than the bent-over-woman, who had been suffering eighteen years, who simply needed someone to notice and touch her with the power of LOVE.
As 21st Century Christians, we are called to be the hands, feet, heart, and mouth of Jesus in our world.
Isaiah 58 states, “If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday…You shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.”
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if this were our reputation as Christians! Wouldn’t it be a glad and holy day if all people were rejoicing about the wonderful things God was doing—in and through Christians—as we cause light to shine in darkness, gloom to be chased away, and breaches between people to be repaired?
We are called to be this people and it is not hard to earn this reputation! We are already well on our way with all of the outstanding mission and ministry that we do in The Church.
But, today I believe that we are challenged by the Holy Spirit to boldly move beyond charity and into relationship with those whom we serve. We feed the hungry and they should be present with us in our coffee hour on Sunday. We help house the homeless and we should see some of them sitting in the chairs in our worship services. We care for the orphan and widows and we should invite them to our mid-week Bible Study. We speak out about injustice and we should invite those who face discrimination to sit next to us as we worship and to enter our homes for coffee during the week.
See, the church has done great good in the earth and praise be to God. But, especially here in America, Christians tend to hold those whom we serve at arms length. It is good to serve them Monday—Saturday, but we often want them to come back later when they appear on Sunday morning.
That is why we do not see them on Sunday, sitting amongst us—dirty, stinky, unbathed, with unkempt hair, insane, penniless, hungry, thirsty, naked, sad, confused, angry, and/or depressed. (Well, ok, some of us are sad, confused, angry, and/or depressed but we work hard to hide from others…)
Isaiah 58 says, “If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth…for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
It is imperative that the “least of these” come with us to the Banquet Feast of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Each and every human being needs to feast on the bread of life which is God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Everybody ought to know that LOVE gave Jesus to die on the cross to save us from our sin and gift us with eternal life. All of us need the freedom that is ours when we acknowledge that we have been set free by Christ from sin, death, and the grave and made able to stand up straight as we live in the Light of God!
In just a few moments we will all pray together, “Send your Spirit upon us and upon this meal: as grains scattered on the hillside become one bread, so let your Church be gathered from the ends of the earth, that ALL might be fed with the Bread of Life your Son, JESUS…”
Jesus chose to notice the least of these. His eyes found them in the crowd. His mouth called them to himself. His hands touched and healed them with the power of LOVE.
This was Jesus’ way, interest, and affair—and it must be ours as well.
May God grant that we follow the example of Jesus, noticing, touching and healing in the Name of LOVE, today and always.
Amen.
INVITATION
