This sermon was delivered to St Oswald’s, Maybole, Ayrshire, Scotland on the 22nd September 2010; St Oswald’s is a Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries.
The readings for today are: Jeremiah 1:4-10 Psalm 71:1-6 Hebrews 12:18-29 Luke 13:10-17
“Please join me in a short prayer from Psalms 19:14, and ” Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer. Amen.
Our Gospel reading today comes from Luke 13:10-17.
Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 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. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 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." 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? 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?" 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.
Introduction
There is an old but popular illustration about an eagle and a chicken. I got this story from the internet and I would like to quote its source, but I cannot as it is repeated so many times. I even found similar stories in reference to ducks geese and turkeys. It is both popular and meaningful, and quite poignant if you apply it to yourself, so I couldn’t resist passing it on to yourselves. It is the story about a man who once found a young eagle which was injured. Feeling sorry for it, he took the young eagle home and put it in with his chickens. The eagle recovered, and fitted in well with the chickens, it enjoyed the chicken coup and got fat on the regular chicken food.
Years later, a naturalist passed the chicken coup and said, “That bird there is an eagle, not a chicken”. “Yes” said the owner, “but I have trained it to be a chicken; it is very happy here”.
“But you cannot keep an eagle in a chicken coup with chickens” said the naturalist; it is still an eagle at heart. You need to let it go and be an eagle”. The owner eventually and reluctantly agreed, and he took the eagle and let it go by throwing it up into the air. However the eagle was put out with this and returned to the chickens eating corn below.
The owner tried again, but from the height of the man’s roof, but the eagle seeing the chickens below, just glided back to the chicken coup.
Finally the next day he took the eagle outside the city and away from the houses, into the country, where he said to it: “you are an eagle; you belong to the sky; stretch out your wings and fly”.
The eagle looked around, and could not see the other chickens, so he began tremble as if new life were coming to it. He stretched out his wings and soared into the air, and never returned. You see, although it been kept and tamed as a chicken, it was really an eagle, it flew like an eagle because it had an eagle nature within.
Society today brainwashes us in so many different ways. The most powerful of which is by commercial advertising least we know it. Have you any idea the damage the today’s advert cause? Forget the content for a second, think of the number of times you are exposed to them. In one hour, 60 minutes, I think we are subjected to over 20 minutes of adverts and that is every hour. The same set of advert over and over again. How then can you say that you are not brainwashed?
And then there is the government brainwashing, telling us what and how we should think, and there is society brainwashing too, who tends to make us little more than objects to whom advertisers make their pitch, and about whom governments create statistics and form policies to keep everything safe and under control.
You see we are not our own, we cannot be our own with all that going on in our lives. So how are we? Well I will tell you, you are not who you think you are. To find out who you are, you need to study and read God’s word and find out who he says you are.
Religion too, if we are not careful can have a similar effect, reducing us to being law keepers like under the days of the Old Testament, and worse, conforming to one particular type of Christian church, being aggressive against the other. Does this happens, of course it does, Catholics, protestants, how many wars have been fought of the this, for centuries, yet we both worship the same God, Jesus Christ who loves us all.
You see, we are missing the point, through Jesus and the cross, (in any Christian religious group), and only through Jesus, we are all sons and daughters of Abraham, just like the bent over woman Jesus healed in the synagogue that Sabbath day.
In fact, according to the book of Revelations, we are part of the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in lamb’s book in life; the book that ensures our immortality.
And according to Galatians chapter 4 the bibles says: “God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Therefore thou art no more a servant, but a son, (or daughter); and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ”.
That is who the bible says we are in the book of Galatians, sons and daughters of God Himself, and brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do we believe this or are we like that eagle, content in our enslaved surroundings?
Now this is hard to believe, particularly if we are living in poverty and pain, but that is what the bible says. We tend to slip, and be judged in the old ways, ways of the law and its regulations; the way of trying to please God by adhering to a code that measures our worth by what we do; and our value by what we refrain from. It is a law that even Jesus struggled to adhere to.
Today's gospel passage is about how Jesus healed a woman who has been crippled by a spirit for the past eighteen years. She has become a bent, painful hunch back, unable to look up, and unable to do all manner of tasks that we who are not crippled can do. It is a wonderful passage that shows us the power of our Saviour; who in this short chapter, tries to awaken us to the kind of life God wants for us.
Let us look therefore at this short reading in detail, and I am sure you will be amazed as I was, at what it uncovers.
For a start, you heard me say a few sentences back that even Jesus struggled to keep the law; did you notice me say that? Jesus, who was sinless, broke at least six strict cultural and religious rules to show us the will of God here.
First, Jesus speaks to the woman. In civilized society then, Jewish men did not speak to women, especially in the Synagogue. In speaking to the woman, Jesus jettisoned the male restraints on women's freedom.
Second, Jesus calls her to the centre of the synagogue, and by doing so he challenges the notion of a male monopoly on access to God and knowledge, there from.
Third, Jesus touches the woman, something forbidden under the holiness code.
Fourth, Jesus calls her "daughter of Abraham," a term not found in any of the prior Jewish literature. This is revolutionary, because it was believed that women were saved through their men; and to call her a daughter of Abraham is to make her a fully fledged member of the nation of Israel, with equal standing before God, with men.
Fifth, Jesus heals her on the Sabbath, and in doing this he demonstrates God's compassion for people over ceremony, and reclaims the Sabbath for the celebration of God's liberal goodness.
And finally number 6, and certainly not the least, Jesus challenges the ancient belief that her illness is a direct punishment from God for sin. He asserts that she is ill, not because God willed it, but because there is evil in the world; in other words, bad things happen to good people.
Now I think there must be a seventh rule he broke, as you will find most things that happen in the New Testament either come in 3’s or 7’s. However, the breaking of these six (or seven) rules did not go unnoticed by the Jewish leaders who couldn’t help but comment as they were totally shocked by Jesus’ behaviour.
By the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus healed the bent over woman, and the synagogue leader's response was, … "Well, you didn't get the power of God here, not on the Sabbath!" But the Lord answered him them back with strong language because the leaders of the synagogue had absolutely no concept of who Jesus was.
Jesus saw God's will as focussed on people, and not on rules. Yes the rules are there to help people, and should not be broken; but they are not there to turn eagles into chickens. When we understand Jesus' view of God, suddenly the focus moves from God's law to God's love for His people.
Commandments, rules, guidelines, and traditions are subordinate to God's love; a love that is forgiving; a love that is healing; a love that is transforming; and a love that sets us free to be all that God made us to be.
Life sometimes has a way of beating us up, crushing our plans and taking away our enthusiasm, and; little by little we can find ourselves bent over from failures, disappointments, and grief; and other people too, can be draining on us, placing burdens upon us and robbing us of strength.
We can all easily end up like the bent over woman lurking at the edges of the sanctuary, wondering where we can go. But Jesus too calls us to be healed of that spirit, … that spirit which drains and tells us that rules and laws about how holiness are greater than love. Do not ever believe this, do not ever reject Jesus because you feel unworthy, … in fact if you do feel unworthy, Jesus is the only person you can approach.
So please come to Christ knowing that it is His will to set us free from those things that make us less than the person he created us to be; and that in coming to his heavenly mountain we will find life instead of death; and mercy instead of judgement.
Amen.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank you for Jesus, and for your love. We thanks you that you have delivered us from the Law, and awakened us into your live of love and grace.
But Father, we need your help, … we come to you as we trust in your great mercy by which we have been made anew to a living hope, … to grant us your peace, and bring us to your holy mountain and to the multitude of angels who sing for joy in your presence.
Father pray that you speak in this place this morning, in the calming of our minds and in the longing of our hearts, and in the thoughts that we form.
Father we ask in Jesus name, Amen.
