Proper 16/Pentecost 14/Ordinary Time 21
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VII, Cycle C
Object:
Theme For The Day
The story of Jesus' healing of the bent-over woman invites us to look up to him, and live.
Old Testament Lesson
Jeremiah 1:4-10
The Call Of Jeremiah
This week begins a nine-week series of readings from Jeremiah and Lamentations -- although the passages do not all occur in sequential order. (See Fourth Sunday After The Epiphany for comments on this passage.)
New Testament Lesson
Hebrews 12:18-29
The Kingdom That Will Not Be Shaken
Reflecting on the theophanies of the Old Testament, the author reminds his readers that "you have not come to something that can be touched" -- to Mount Sinai, with the terrifying signs and sounds of God's presence (v. 18). No, the people have come "to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant ..." (vv. 22-24). Do not refuse "the one who is speaking" -- God, in other words. God has promised to shake even the heavens, but there is one thing that will not be shaken: God's kingdom, and everyone who is protected within it will be safe (vv. 25-28). "... indeed our God is a consuming fire" (v. 29).
The Gospel
Luke 13:10-17
Jesus Heals A Woman Who Cannot Stand Up Straight
Luke has already related, in 6:6-11, an account of a controversy related to Jesus' healing on the sabbath. Now he tells a similar story, this time of a woman who has been trapped in a bent-over posture for eighteen years. While teaching in the synagogue, Jesus notices the woman's plight, calls her over, tells her she is free of her ailment and lays hands on her. Immediately, she is healed. She stands up straight and begins praising God (vv. 12-13). When the leader of the synagogue starts criticizing Jesus for performing a healing on the sabbath, Jesus becomes enraged and calls him a hypocrite. Citing the well-established rabbinic dispensation that allows the feeding and watering of livestock on the sabbath, Jesus asks whether this woman is not of more value than an ox or a donkey (vv. 14-15). She is a "daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years ... [should she not] be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?" (v. 16). Jesus' opponents are "put to shame" by this reasoning, and the people rejoice (v. 17).
Preaching Possibilities
The story of Jesus' healing of the woman who is bent over double is a poignant tale of restoration and health, in the face of a system that seems bound and determined to maintain downtrodden people like her in their bleak status quo. Luke indicates that the woman has been disabled for eighteen years. This means she has spent a major portion of her adult life looking down at her feet: a grim and limited perspective (not to mention, a burden for the human spirit).
Synagogues in Jesus' day were strictly segregated by gender. Only men were allowed in the main worship space. Women could attend, but they had to sit in a balcony or a special section off to one side. The synagogue belonged to the men. They were the ones who entered into debate, who were permitted to dialogue with the rabbi about the scriptures. The women sat silently and listened rather like those children in the Victorian proverb, "seen, but not heard."
In all likelihood, this woman is doing nothing whatsoever to attract attention to herself. Jesus is sitting in the teacher's chair, addressing the people, when he looks off to one side, or up to the balcony and sees that woman come in, with her peculiar, crippled, bent-over walk. He interrupts his lesson, then and there, and invites her to come over to him.
This is probably the last thing on earth the woman wants or expects. For eighteen years she has been afflicted: not only by pain, but by embarrassment. Every person in the village knows that peculiar walk of hers. The children snicker and point behind her back. The other women cluck sympathetically as she passes by: "There goes poor so-and-so; isn't it a pity?" The more mean-spirited wonder what terrible sin she has committed, to be so cursed by God.
This day she enters the synagogue as she always does: quietly, unobtrusively, by the side door. And now the rabbi is speaking to her. "Could it be?" she asks herself. "Is he really speaking to me?" She scurries forward, in response to his command -- for what else is she to do?
Then Jesus' voice rings out, with a note of authority none can miss: "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." He lays his hands upon her, and that's that. She's free! Eighteen years of misery are ended, in the twinkling of an eye. "Immediately," Luke tells us, "she [stands] up straight and [begins] praising God."
The leader of the synagogue has a few choice words for Jesus. It is the sabbath, he declares (playing to the crowd). No one is supposed to work on the sabbath. The bureaucratic disdain in his voice is perceptible: "We have procedures for this sort of thing, traditions to follow. There are certain designated days for healing. Sick people can come back on any one of those days and be cured, but not on the sabbath!"
"You hypocrites!" Jesus replies. Jesus reserves his choicest anger for that synagogue leader with the terminal case of self-righteousness. "Why, you would not hesitate to carry water to an ox or a donkey on the sabbath -- but for this woman, a daughter of Abraham, you would do nothing!" The blatant hypocrisy of the religious establishment is on display for all to see.
Not only does Jesus see through the synagogue leaders' hypocrisy. He also sees deeply into the afflicted woman's heart. She is just as pressed down and bent over in spirit as she is in body.
We've all known people like that. Maybe we've lived through such times ourselves. Sometimes the most crippling disabilities are those of the spirit: the doubts and insecurities that keep us paralyzed, unable to act, that make us subservient to others who abuse or dominate, that prevent us from realizing our fullest potential as God-created beings.
Time and again in the gospels, Jesus declares himself to be on the side of those who are bent over. In the case of the woman in the synagogue, she doesn't even have to come to him, asking for help. He comes to her. In fact, every single incident of Jesus healing on the sabbath is like that: Jesus sees the person, and he heals the person. Never is the sick person so bold, on the sabbath day, to make a request for healing. It's always the Lord who takes the initiative.
In other healings, on other days, the sick person often does ask for help, saying, "Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me," or reaching out to touch him, like the woman with the flow of blood who grasps for the hem of his garment. Yet on the sabbath day, it's different. On the sabbath, Jesus looks for us.
This is a wonderful image for worship. So often, we think of ourselves as coming to church to find God. Yet, in reality, it is more about positioning ourselves so God may find us -- and heal us. Our Lord is waiting for us to look up to him and live!
Prayer For The Day
O God, mighty giver of life,
you are able to restore and sustain all that you have created.
We ask you to heal the ills
of those whose bodies and spirits are bent over
by pain and suffering.
Restore the physical body.
Cleanse the mind.
Uplift the human spirit,
for the sake of Jesus your Son,
our Lord. Amen.
To Illustrate
There's an old story about a typical church. A nice church. A respectable church. One Sunday, the people of that respectable congregation have gathered for worship, all decked out in their Sunday-go-to-meeting best, when a man walks into the sanctuary who just doesn't seem to belong.
He's scruffy in appearance and ragged of dress. He smells of beer (which, judging from his lurching walk, he has been consuming in great quantity). The usher hands the man a bulletin, and motions him towards an out-of-the-way pew. Ignoring his suggestion, the visitor staggers down the center aisle to the front pew, and plants himself there.
So far, so good, think the ushers -- hoping the man will doze off. Yet once the minister begins the sermon, there is no illusion on that account.
"Hallelujah!" shouts the newcomer.
The minister gives him a stern look, and continues on. Not a moment later, the visitor interrupts again.
"Praise the Lord!" he proclaims.
One of the ushers comes over and whispers to him, as nicely as he can, "Sir, we don't do that here!"
"But I've got religion!" the man objects.
"Yes, sir," says the usher. "I'm sure you do. But you didn't get it here!"
***
There once was a minister who used this very story of the bent-over woman as a devotional, at a retreat for women who had been victims of sexual abuse. When the reading was ended, as she described it later, there was silence -- utter silence that went on for many minutes. Every woman in that room knew what it meant to be bent over in spirit, and every one there also hoped and prayed that God could call forth the power to make her stand straight and tall once again.
***
There's a story from South Africa, from the last days of apartheid, about what it means to stand tall in spirit. Lindiwe Macozoma is a Christian. Like many black women of that country, she worked as a domestic in the homes of white South Africans. On her first day of work at a new job, her employer took her into the kitchen and gave her a little tour. She showed her the dishes and fine china for the family, and then she opened a cupboard way down below the sink and showed Lindiwe a set of old dishes, chipped and scratched from years of use. She said to her, "These are the dishes you are to use when you eat your meals."
The next day, as she got ready to leave for work, Lindiwe took a place setting of the most beautiful china from her own house, wrapped it up and carried it to work with her. When she got to work, she set a place for herself at the kitchen table. Her new boss came down the stairs -- and, Lindiwe said, "I could feel her eyes right in my back. She was so surprised, she asked where these beautiful dishes came from. And I told her they were from my house. I told her that in my community, we don't eat off old, broken dishes. We buy the nicest things because we don't have much money and things must last for a long time. Then, she told me that I did not have to bring my own dishes from home. I could use the dishes her family used."
A small victory, but a victory nonetheless. It is often in those tiny, incremental victories that the process of healing -- the journey from a bent-over to a straight-and-tall existence -- takes place.
***
Healing can sometimes be a disturbing thing. In the sixteenth chapter of Acts there's the story of a slave-girl who had what the Bible calls a "spirit of divination." Probably she had some form of mental illness, which her owners used to make a great deal of money. They passed her off as a fortune-teller, and charged admission to see her. When Paul and Silas come to Philippi and heal her, the owners actually complain to the authorities, and have them thrown in jail! It seems Paul and Silas are infringing on their trade, never mind that their slave-girl, once bent over in spirit, can now stand tall.
That's an example of how comfortable we can get with the status quo, how easily we accept all that is wrong about the world, and about our lives. All of us have certain faults and foibles -- even addictions -- that have become so familiar, we've almost grown to like them. If God were to reach out to us today and heal us of those things, we might not be so sure we want the healing.
The story of Jesus' healing of the bent-over woman invites us to look up to him, and live.
Old Testament Lesson
Jeremiah 1:4-10
The Call Of Jeremiah
This week begins a nine-week series of readings from Jeremiah and Lamentations -- although the passages do not all occur in sequential order. (See Fourth Sunday After The Epiphany for comments on this passage.)
New Testament Lesson
Hebrews 12:18-29
The Kingdom That Will Not Be Shaken
Reflecting on the theophanies of the Old Testament, the author reminds his readers that "you have not come to something that can be touched" -- to Mount Sinai, with the terrifying signs and sounds of God's presence (v. 18). No, the people have come "to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant ..." (vv. 22-24). Do not refuse "the one who is speaking" -- God, in other words. God has promised to shake even the heavens, but there is one thing that will not be shaken: God's kingdom, and everyone who is protected within it will be safe (vv. 25-28). "... indeed our God is a consuming fire" (v. 29).
The Gospel
Luke 13:10-17
Jesus Heals A Woman Who Cannot Stand Up Straight
Luke has already related, in 6:6-11, an account of a controversy related to Jesus' healing on the sabbath. Now he tells a similar story, this time of a woman who has been trapped in a bent-over posture for eighteen years. While teaching in the synagogue, Jesus notices the woman's plight, calls her over, tells her she is free of her ailment and lays hands on her. Immediately, she is healed. She stands up straight and begins praising God (vv. 12-13). When the leader of the synagogue starts criticizing Jesus for performing a healing on the sabbath, Jesus becomes enraged and calls him a hypocrite. Citing the well-established rabbinic dispensation that allows the feeding and watering of livestock on the sabbath, Jesus asks whether this woman is not of more value than an ox or a donkey (vv. 14-15). She is a "daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years ... [should she not] be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?" (v. 16). Jesus' opponents are "put to shame" by this reasoning, and the people rejoice (v. 17).
Preaching Possibilities
The story of Jesus' healing of the woman who is bent over double is a poignant tale of restoration and health, in the face of a system that seems bound and determined to maintain downtrodden people like her in their bleak status quo. Luke indicates that the woman has been disabled for eighteen years. This means she has spent a major portion of her adult life looking down at her feet: a grim and limited perspective (not to mention, a burden for the human spirit).
Synagogues in Jesus' day were strictly segregated by gender. Only men were allowed in the main worship space. Women could attend, but they had to sit in a balcony or a special section off to one side. The synagogue belonged to the men. They were the ones who entered into debate, who were permitted to dialogue with the rabbi about the scriptures. The women sat silently and listened rather like those children in the Victorian proverb, "seen, but not heard."
In all likelihood, this woman is doing nothing whatsoever to attract attention to herself. Jesus is sitting in the teacher's chair, addressing the people, when he looks off to one side, or up to the balcony and sees that woman come in, with her peculiar, crippled, bent-over walk. He interrupts his lesson, then and there, and invites her to come over to him.
This is probably the last thing on earth the woman wants or expects. For eighteen years she has been afflicted: not only by pain, but by embarrassment. Every person in the village knows that peculiar walk of hers. The children snicker and point behind her back. The other women cluck sympathetically as she passes by: "There goes poor so-and-so; isn't it a pity?" The more mean-spirited wonder what terrible sin she has committed, to be so cursed by God.
This day she enters the synagogue as she always does: quietly, unobtrusively, by the side door. And now the rabbi is speaking to her. "Could it be?" she asks herself. "Is he really speaking to me?" She scurries forward, in response to his command -- for what else is she to do?
Then Jesus' voice rings out, with a note of authority none can miss: "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." He lays his hands upon her, and that's that. She's free! Eighteen years of misery are ended, in the twinkling of an eye. "Immediately," Luke tells us, "she [stands] up straight and [begins] praising God."
The leader of the synagogue has a few choice words for Jesus. It is the sabbath, he declares (playing to the crowd). No one is supposed to work on the sabbath. The bureaucratic disdain in his voice is perceptible: "We have procedures for this sort of thing, traditions to follow. There are certain designated days for healing. Sick people can come back on any one of those days and be cured, but not on the sabbath!"
"You hypocrites!" Jesus replies. Jesus reserves his choicest anger for that synagogue leader with the terminal case of self-righteousness. "Why, you would not hesitate to carry water to an ox or a donkey on the sabbath -- but for this woman, a daughter of Abraham, you would do nothing!" The blatant hypocrisy of the religious establishment is on display for all to see.
Not only does Jesus see through the synagogue leaders' hypocrisy. He also sees deeply into the afflicted woman's heart. She is just as pressed down and bent over in spirit as she is in body.
We've all known people like that. Maybe we've lived through such times ourselves. Sometimes the most crippling disabilities are those of the spirit: the doubts and insecurities that keep us paralyzed, unable to act, that make us subservient to others who abuse or dominate, that prevent us from realizing our fullest potential as God-created beings.
Time and again in the gospels, Jesus declares himself to be on the side of those who are bent over. In the case of the woman in the synagogue, she doesn't even have to come to him, asking for help. He comes to her. In fact, every single incident of Jesus healing on the sabbath is like that: Jesus sees the person, and he heals the person. Never is the sick person so bold, on the sabbath day, to make a request for healing. It's always the Lord who takes the initiative.
In other healings, on other days, the sick person often does ask for help, saying, "Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me," or reaching out to touch him, like the woman with the flow of blood who grasps for the hem of his garment. Yet on the sabbath day, it's different. On the sabbath, Jesus looks for us.
This is a wonderful image for worship. So often, we think of ourselves as coming to church to find God. Yet, in reality, it is more about positioning ourselves so God may find us -- and heal us. Our Lord is waiting for us to look up to him and live!
Prayer For The Day
O God, mighty giver of life,
you are able to restore and sustain all that you have created.
We ask you to heal the ills
of those whose bodies and spirits are bent over
by pain and suffering.
Restore the physical body.
Cleanse the mind.
Uplift the human spirit,
for the sake of Jesus your Son,
our Lord. Amen.
To Illustrate
There's an old story about a typical church. A nice church. A respectable church. One Sunday, the people of that respectable congregation have gathered for worship, all decked out in their Sunday-go-to-meeting best, when a man walks into the sanctuary who just doesn't seem to belong.
He's scruffy in appearance and ragged of dress. He smells of beer (which, judging from his lurching walk, he has been consuming in great quantity). The usher hands the man a bulletin, and motions him towards an out-of-the-way pew. Ignoring his suggestion, the visitor staggers down the center aisle to the front pew, and plants himself there.
So far, so good, think the ushers -- hoping the man will doze off. Yet once the minister begins the sermon, there is no illusion on that account.
"Hallelujah!" shouts the newcomer.
The minister gives him a stern look, and continues on. Not a moment later, the visitor interrupts again.
"Praise the Lord!" he proclaims.
One of the ushers comes over and whispers to him, as nicely as he can, "Sir, we don't do that here!"
"But I've got religion!" the man objects.
"Yes, sir," says the usher. "I'm sure you do. But you didn't get it here!"
***
There once was a minister who used this very story of the bent-over woman as a devotional, at a retreat for women who had been victims of sexual abuse. When the reading was ended, as she described it later, there was silence -- utter silence that went on for many minutes. Every woman in that room knew what it meant to be bent over in spirit, and every one there also hoped and prayed that God could call forth the power to make her stand straight and tall once again.
***
There's a story from South Africa, from the last days of apartheid, about what it means to stand tall in spirit. Lindiwe Macozoma is a Christian. Like many black women of that country, she worked as a domestic in the homes of white South Africans. On her first day of work at a new job, her employer took her into the kitchen and gave her a little tour. She showed her the dishes and fine china for the family, and then she opened a cupboard way down below the sink and showed Lindiwe a set of old dishes, chipped and scratched from years of use. She said to her, "These are the dishes you are to use when you eat your meals."
The next day, as she got ready to leave for work, Lindiwe took a place setting of the most beautiful china from her own house, wrapped it up and carried it to work with her. When she got to work, she set a place for herself at the kitchen table. Her new boss came down the stairs -- and, Lindiwe said, "I could feel her eyes right in my back. She was so surprised, she asked where these beautiful dishes came from. And I told her they were from my house. I told her that in my community, we don't eat off old, broken dishes. We buy the nicest things because we don't have much money and things must last for a long time. Then, she told me that I did not have to bring my own dishes from home. I could use the dishes her family used."
A small victory, but a victory nonetheless. It is often in those tiny, incremental victories that the process of healing -- the journey from a bent-over to a straight-and-tall existence -- takes place.
***
Healing can sometimes be a disturbing thing. In the sixteenth chapter of Acts there's the story of a slave-girl who had what the Bible calls a "spirit of divination." Probably she had some form of mental illness, which her owners used to make a great deal of money. They passed her off as a fortune-teller, and charged admission to see her. When Paul and Silas come to Philippi and heal her, the owners actually complain to the authorities, and have them thrown in jail! It seems Paul and Silas are infringing on their trade, never mind that their slave-girl, once bent over in spirit, can now stand tall.
That's an example of how comfortable we can get with the status quo, how easily we accept all that is wrong about the world, and about our lives. All of us have certain faults and foibles -- even addictions -- that have become so familiar, we've almost grown to like them. If God were to reach out to us today and heal us of those things, we might not be so sure we want the healing.
