PPLP – Langenburg / Churchbridge SK
11th Sunday after Pentecost
Lectionary 21 – Year C
Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 103:1-8
Hebrews 12:18-29
Luke 13:10-17
God of the sabbath, this is the day and this is the hour when women long oppressed stand with dignity, and when your healing escapes our desire for control: may your joy stretch the fabric of our hearts and inspire us to loosen each other’s bonds; through Jesus Christ, the shamer of the powerful and the raiser of the dead. Amen.
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Looking at today’s gospel we see that it touches on some common themes within the gospels, as a whole.
First, we’re told that Jesus is teaching, on the Sabbath, in the local Synagogue.
Jesus is teaching! Imagine that! The Messiah is teaching us, the people on what it means to fulfill the Law of God with love.
Second, the leader of the synagogue is trying to rally the crowd against Jesus’ actions in healing the woman who is bent over: an action we’ve seen from other corners, sources, or individuals who don’t want to see change coming to their well-ordered patterns.
He does this, not by standing up and proclaiming that he thinks Jesus’ actions are out of place, or inappropriate to the day of the week, but he’s speaking to those who are around him in the crowd; muttering to the men who are gathered around him, instead.
And within this gathering, in a Synagogue, we have to remember that men and women didn’t, and still in orthodox or conservative settings, don’t mix. They stayed apart – men in the main worship area, and women on the outskirts, or segregated in some way from the men who are gathered.
So, looking at this, Jesus is in the main worship area with the men. The women are on the fringes, or in another part of the space, and Jesus stops what he’s doing in order to bring healing to this woman.
Does he leave the worship space? Does he bring her into it? Or has he been in the doorway, on the front steps of the synagogue all day?
But here is point three: Did anyone ask the woman if she wanted to be healed? Did she consent to being healed? Did anyone ask her name? Or is Jesus responding to her eighteen years of prayer as she’s been unsuccessfully poked and prodded by doctors trying to learn why she’s the way she is, and what can be done about her condition?
But here we are. Somewhere on the Synagogue grounds, and Jesus stops what he’s doing to bring life, and relief to this one person.
The gospel tells us: “10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 11And 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. 12When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are set free from your ailment.’ 13When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.” (Lk 13:10-13)
We see Jesus is teaching but, in reality, perhaps his purpose, here, today, is to heal this woman of her infirmity. Perhaps this is the lesson he’s here to instill.
And because it’s the Sabbath, today, Jesus is where he knows the woman will come. To the one place where worship of God happens outside of Jerusalem, on a regular basis: the Synagogue.
Today he demonstrates the love of God for each one of us by healing this woman through words and through his touch, as he helps her to stand straight in the community, and in her life.
“12When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are set free from your ailment.’ 13When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.” (Lk 13:12-13)
The problem, then, is our need to separate our life of faith from our day-to-day occupations.
We strive to keep the Sabbath the Sabbath and the work world separate from our Sabbath practices, and accompanying that, then were all kinds of lists of what we could or couldn’t do on that day, similar to what we hear from the Synagogue leader.
“[He became], 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.’” (LK 13:14)
But if we keep Jesus and any expression of a life of faith just for Sundays, how does our love of the triune God, our faith in Jesus’ ability to transcend Sundays grow?
How, with the secular lifestyle of today’s society, do we accommodate those who want to worship, but for whom Sundays are occupied by necessary tasks for living, instead? For whom Sunday is not their available Sabbath?
If the only time we come to be close to Jesus is on the Sabbath, how is he able to heal each one of us of the parts of life that put us down, keep us bent over, and subject to the abuses of the world, including the criticism of being healed on the Sabbath?
Is it work, do you think, to be healed in our heart and soul? Not for Jesus, as he demonstrates in today’s gospel.
Is it work to be approached by the one who gave his life so that we might live? I can only answer this one for myself, and for me the answer is resoundingly ‘no!’
Today we see that Jesus heals a woman. He stops what he’s talking about in the synagogue, surrounded by men, to demonstrate the love of God by helping a woman to stand upright, to stand tall.
The fact that he equates this healing with the same level of care we exhibit for all the creatures in our lives continues to demonstrate that if we’re wiling to bend the Sabbath rules in one direction to ensure life and safety to those animals in our lives, then the problem is not bending them in another to ensure life and safety for those whom we know, love, and with whom we associate.
The problem is that we are trying to direct the Holy Spirit to the way we want, the in direction we choose, instead of being willing to go where God sees the efforts of the Holy Spirit being the best applied to our lives, our community, our society.
We then attempt to tell God where we’re willing to be of service, instead of following where God leads. It’s at these times we tend to be trying to be God in God’s place instead of going where God has need of us, in the world, in life.
I’d once read an account of a young man who, during a bible study, prayed that God would actively use him and direct him in his life.
As he left the group and began to drive home, he suddenly had the thought to stop and buy a gallon of milk, and in the midst of the urge he asks, “God is this you?”
So, he stops to buy the milk and getting back into his car, he continues his drive home.
As he continues, he suddenly has the urge to turn a way that leads to a different part of town. Again, he asks, “God is this you?”, but he makes the turn, and continues to drive.
After a couple of more turns, he feels the need to stop in front of a house. The house is dark; there is no sign of lights or life this late in the evening, and yet he has the urge to get out and bring the milk to the door.
So, once more he prays. He’s feeling doubt in his heart, he’s not in a comfortable part of town, there’s no visible sign of life from the house, and he’s all alone.
But he gets out of the car, and carries the milk with him to the door, where, after a moment, he rings the bell.
All of a sudden, the door opens, and he sees the frantic face of a young man who is in the process of getting his clothes on, preparing to head out into the night, and behind him he can hear a baby crying and he see’s a woman trying to comfort the hungry child.
Holding out the milk, the young man says, “God sent me to bring you this milk.”
The young man before him momentarily looks confused, but he takes the milk, and invites him into the house. As a bottle is prepared for the hungry child, he’s told that the family was new to the community. The young man hadn’t yet found work, and their money and groceries had just run out in the last day or so.
He was about to head out to see if there was any way he could get some milk for the child, but throughout the evening they were praying for a miracle, and then the doorbell rang.
After hearing this account from the couple, and seeing the child get the bottle, the young man opens his wallet and gives the couple all of the money he had with him. Then getting back into his car, he stops and prays thanking God for making use of him to bring hope to this family in their moment of need.
In the gospel for today, we see a woman who has been bent over for eighteen years receive an answer to prayer. Today she is healed. She is able to stand upright for the first time in almost two decades.
The Synagogue ruler is correct, there are six days upon which to work, but life doesn’t stop just because it’s the Sabbath. After all the Sabbath was made for humankind, not humankind for the Sabbath, and so, today is the day that this woman stands upright in the doorway to the Synagogue, because Jesus is there waiting for her to arrive.
“15But the Lord answered him and said, … 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?’ 17When 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.” (Lk 13:15-17)
We can see this, right? Suddenly, this woman is able to see the sky. She’s able to look at the faces of those whom she knows and whom she loves; all on the steps of the synagogue.
Look at the joy on her face! Look at the celebration happening all around her because she is healed!
When we pray, God listens. When we are open to it, we are able to be the answer to another’s prayer.
And, when we become the answer to another’s prayer, we see the love of God grow and we see the kingdom of heaven come closer to our reality.
Today we see the work of the Holy Spirit as a woman’s life is brought back into balance.
And today we see the answer to prayer, and “great rejoicing was had at all the wonderful things he was doing,” and is still doing today.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
anglolutheranpastor 