March 25, 2007
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on the Journey: The city gate is just out of sight. We have been in this Lenten season, traveling on the road to Jerusalem with Jesus and along the way, we have met some interesting people. Our companions along the way have been interesting, there have been reluctant journeyers, and surprised ones, there have children and today we meet our traveling companion in a house of worship. The Psalm for today previews her story. Psalm 126 is read both in this season of Lent and in the season of Advent. It is offered in these two times in the church year, because both Advent and Lent call us to reflect on what God is doing through Jesus Christ to impact the world and to touch our lives. The Psalm invites us to look back and remember when God saved a people – delivered them from bondage, freed them from slavery, brought them back from exile, and helped restore a sense of purpose and personhood. When we look back at how God has been good to us, to a people, to a nation we can boldly declare ourselves to be people of hope and joy. Even in times of turmoil, there can be laughter in the memory and the hope that God who delivered our ancestors will deliver us. We can anticipate what God will do because of what God has done. When God did it before it was like a wonderful dream, but we were not asleep; the blessings and love and grace were real. Do it again, God. It reminds us that we can ask God for the kinds of restoration we need in our families, in our lives, in our work, in our churches, and in our spirits because we’ve seen God do it before and we know God will do it again. We may struggle now like a farmer who plants a crop and is fearful about the weather, will there be enough rain or too much or not enough? Will there be ample sun or a scorching heat wave? But we look forward to a time of joyful harvest when we gather in our blessings like that farmer gathering grain. Knowles Shaw understood that kind of anticipation when he wrote of those hymns we don’t hear much anymore: "Sowing in the morning, sowing seeds of
kindness, Memory will give us hope and hope will help us look to God with joyful anticipation. So, "even as we know our own neediness as the people of God, we live by faith and hope, anticipating the renewal of all things." (Texts for Preaching – Year C. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994, p. 233). I wonder as I read the lesson from Luke, if the woman restored to a state of health recite Psalm 126 when Jesus spoke and touched her into restoration. She and Jesus teach us three things. First, sometimes healing comes even before we can ask for it. Had the woman remembered when God healed Namaan of his leprosy, when Job was restored to health and prosperity, or when the widows Ruth and Naomi found safety and security, when David and his brothers were reunited? Had she thought, maybe, if I pray hard enough, I will be healed, but I dare not ask? She does not speak, so we do not really know. All we know is that without saying a word, or making a request, or calling out to him, Jesus, she was healed. She did not call out to him, she was not looking for anything except a place to pray on Friday night that Jesus saw her and pronounced her whole. Jesus interrupted what he was doing, stopped his teaching to notice a woman in need and to respond to her. That’s how he is, the one who is the embodiment of God’s love for us takes notice. He sees a woman bent over we know for eighteen years and he pays attention to her. All those years not being able to look people in the eye, walking around with dust in her face, with pity and contempt in the eyes of neighbors, all those years of pain and of being overlooked, and Jesus sees her as a valuable human being when others saw someone to blame for their own misfortune. For surely she has in some way offended God for such a calamity to afflict her. We hear the questions today: what did he do? How did his lifestyle effect his health? Hard living has wrecked her body. Too much alcohol, too many late nights must have made room for some kind of bad vibe, some kind of evil spirit to get into her soul and literally bend her body forward. James Moore anticipates more of our questions. He writes: "In this story, the woman is bent double because of something gone wrong spiritually. The original Greek text calls it ‘a spirit of weakness.’ "Don’t you wish we could know the rest of the story? Don’t you wish the writer had given us a bit more information, a few more details? Had this woman been involved in some public scandal that had left her stooped in shame? "Had she been caught in some sordid sin that had left her doubled over in humiliation? Had she done something so terrible that people around her steered clear for fear of guilt by association? Had her past been so scarlet that it had burdened her to the point where she was bent down with guilt? "We just don’t know. The scriptures don’t tell us. They only give us the bottom line: namely, that was all she needed to unbend. When Jesus assured her that she was forgiven, it set her free from the awful burden that had been pushing her down for so many years. "Jesus’ saying it miraculously made it feel right for her to stand tall. Jesus’ saying it miraculously made it feel right for her to put it behind her and to accept God’s forgiveness. Jesus’ saying it miraculously made it feel all right to forgive herself and pick up the pieces of her life and start all over again" (James W. Moore. On the Road Again: A Faith Journey. Nashville Abingdon Press, 2006, p. 40). Jesus saying it, sets us free and if we are free in Christ Jesus, we are fee indeed (John 8.36). Isn’t that what we long for, to be set free from every bit of bondage and baggage that weighs us down and keeps us from knowing the joy of life? People are in fact bound up in all kinds of illness and all kinds of envy, in grief and greed, in longing and loneliness and often find themselves bending over from the weight of the burden that is laid on them. But when we can get ourselves to a place of prayer, of telling God all about it, of praising Jesus no matter what, and by praise I mean in whatever way is meaningful for you to acknowledge simply Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, things can change and we can unbend and stand up. It may mean looking to him to help you get through a long teary night, it could be that you look to him to help you find the night words to say when you need to have an honest conversation with someone. Perhaps it is to know that he is near us when we need him, seeing our need, and bringing us to the places we need to be, because for the woman and for us, God in Jesus Christ has something better. "Greater is the power of the Spirit of God within Jesus than the power of the unclean spirit that has dwelt in this woman for eighteen years. And Jesus’ touch banishes and expels the demon. Suddenly she stands up. No hesitation, the spirit is gone! Luke says that she praised God. You can imagine what she says: ‘Praise God! Hallelujah! and she isn’t quiet about it. Throughout the synagogue goes a murmur of amazement and wonder and approval. People are grinning from ear to ear. Women are weeping for their now healed friend. The people are deeply moved – all except the president of the synagogue" (www.jesuswalk.com/lessons/13_10-17.htm), p.4 The second lesson is that not everyone will rejoice. Don’t you know that there is often a kill joy in the crowd? There is always someone who is so sure about how it ought to be that it is impossible to enjoy the moment. Now we understand the synagogue president; the chair of the board; the president of the congregation wanting to maintain a sense of decorum and order. We understand his desire to protect the integrity of the law, which is at the heart of the synagogue’s worship. In that day healing was considered work and so he sees the woman, hears Jesus speak to her, watches him lay healing hands on her, witnesses her healing, sees the woman stand up and look around for the first time in almost twenty years, and he is angry that Jesus has healed on the Sabbath. Could he have missed the point more? The synagogue president spoke loudly to the crowd to embarrass Jesus and the woman. "It’s quite the wrong day for healing. Jesus speaks to him publicly and says if the Sabbath requires us to feed our animals, surely it can make room for this "daughter of Abraham" to be healed. Luke, who is the only one to tell this story, puts this woman in the same family group of Zacchaeus whom Jesus calls a son of Abraham (Luke 19.9). She had been bound, by Satan, now she is free. "Get over yourselves", Jesus says. God has worked a miracle here! We know and Jesus knows that the Sabbath is a day of rest – its in the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20. 8-11). It’s why stores and restaurants and movie theatres used to be closed on Sundays. "Work on the other six days – not on the Sabbath." But he has missed the point, that the grace and healing mercies of God, carried in the hands and words of Jesus cannot be limited by a human calendar. God moves as God will, Jesus heals as he does because he sees to the needs that are in front of him. He has done a good thing here, teaching along the way. He teaches the woman who comes out in public that its OK to present herself in worship as she is and that she can expect that if Jesus is present, and if she is open, she need not speak, he will act. I believe it happens that way for us too. Sometimes we don’t need words to convey our pain, our disappointment, our anguish. We know what it is and God knows and if we bring it here, and we very well may, the love of Jesus can change us. It can ease our pain, bring a sense of accomplishment and peace, and calm. The third lesson is that despite the fussing and murmuring, the woman was still healed. Satan had her bound, but Jesus set her free, reminded her that she belonged to the family God. She is a daughter of Abraham, and she is among the redeemed and in so doing Jesus reminds us that we belong somewhere too. We who are sons and daughters of God, disciples of Jesus Christ have been set free. Satan has no power over us unless we give room for the devil to operate. The song, "Order My Steps" says, "Satan is busy". We know that, we see the daily chronicle of evil acts men and women choose to do, we see the irresponsible and selfish exploitive acts people choose to perform. We see the high cost in loss of life, loss of hope, loss of self respect. "Satan is busy". The song goes on, "but God is real, order my steps in your word." Here is the word for us, we may be bent over, but we can be restored; we may feel beat down, but God through Jesus Christ will lift us up. We may day by day know tears and disappointment, but joy is within our reach. People will complain that you are rejoicing on the wrong day, but keep doing it anyway. It is not a dream that our fortunes will be restored, it is a promise from our God who has done it before, and will do it again. Keep worshiping and working and loving God knowing that we are disciples of his and that at the word and at the touch of Jesus, we will be made whole. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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