UNBOUND HOLINESS

August 21, 2022
11^th Sunday after Pentecost
Jer. 1:4-10; Ps. 71: 1-6; Heb. 12:18-29; Luke 13:10-17 
Rev. Denise Clark-Jones

I’ve just spent a week in New York City visiting my daughter and 16-month-old granddaughter. I love to visit the city. It is so vibrant and offers so much variety. There are good restaurants on every commercial street, more professional theaters than any city in the world, great musical performances, art museums, and educational opportunities. The diversity of people living there is wondrous.

My granddaughter’s parents want her to be bilingual so she will be starting a German immersion preschool in September, only a few blocks from their apartment. Her diet consists of food from all over the world. But New York is a very expensive place to have a roof over your head in; and for most people, significant tradeoffs between living there and living in small towns and suburbs must be made.

The city is a rich person’s playground, but a challenging place for the working class to survive. These are the ones who provide the affluent with the unparalleled amenities. Service workers are bused in from more than 2 hours away where housing can be found that is affordable with their low wages. Our scripture readings from today were written in a similar socio-economic landscape. In Jeremiah’s Judah and Jesus’ Roman Empire, the economic gap between the landowners and the laborers, royalty, and subjects, religious leaders and the laity was massive. This makes for a very unstable society, as we are seeing in our world today. Division, mistrust, resentment, and fear creates a toxic socio-political environment. Prophets who are courageous enough to speak truth to power and demand justice live dangerously. It is not surprising that Jeremiah, known as “The Weeping Prophet,” was thrown down a well. Jesus faced angry mobs, and treacherous enemies, and, ultimately, was crucified.

Biblical prophets never had an easy time of it – nor do people today who stand against the injustice, lies, and violence encouraged by those who seek to obtain or retain power by whatever means possible. Students of history will one day learn about our modern-day prophets if they are not erased from history books by authoritarian regimes.

Like all the prophets in the bible who God called, Jeremiah protested. He was too young, not ready for such a responsibility. Moses couldn’t speak well, and Isaiah thought himself too sinful. We’ve heard the excuses – maybe even made them ourselves:

I’m too busy now, I’ve got a job, a young family, later God.

I’m too old. I deserve to relax and do whatever I feel like doing.

I can’t think of anything I could do, and no one has asked me to do anything.

When God told Jeremiah he had known him since he was in his mother’s womb, God wasn’t making a statement about abortion. The bible is consistent in its assertion that life begins when the first breath is taken – at birth. This is why a rabbi in Florida has sued the state for not allowing Jews to practice their faith by denying Jewish woman the right to an abortion. With the legally enforced claim that life begins at conception, she is not allowed to follow the laws of her faith. God’s words, written poetically, conveyed the message that God knew exactly what limitations and possibilities Jeremiah had and called him anyway. God assured Jeremiah he need not be afraid because God would be with him and would put the right words in his mouth. When God calls, when Jesus informs, and the Holy Spirit nudges, we have the promise that what we cannot do, God can.

The author of Hebrews warns Christians of the ultimate shake-up that will occur when Christ comes again. The author speaks of a cosmic sifting of heavenly and earthly things whereby only the eternal remains, after the worldly is shaken loose from the Kingdom of God. These words were meant as encouragement to persecuted Christians. We don’t know who wrote Hebrews. The Greek vocabulary used was that of the intelligentsia. The ideas expressed were directed to an elite audience educated in the Greek philosophers. For less educated, Hebrews would have been a challenge to interpret. It would be as for me, who studied humanities and social sciences in college and graduate school, like reading an article in The Journal of Molecular Chemistry. But the books of the bible were written with a variety of audiences in mind. In choosing which writings made up the biblical canon, the point of the diversity of writing styles was to allow God’s Word to reach a diverse audience. Jesus, and the gospel writers, employed stories to reach the broadest audience.

In our gospel reading for today, Jesus is made to defend himself for healing on the Sabbath — and in the synagogue no less! Jesus knew his action would cause controversy, but he stood his ground for what he knew to be the righteous. In chapter 4 Jesus was teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath and healed a man possessed by demons. In chapter 6 Jesus was teaching in the synagogue and healed a man with a withered hand. In our reading today Jesus is teaching in the synagogue and heals a woman who is bent over from a spinal condition. In chapter 14, Luke provides a male counterpart to the stooped woman, as the writer does frequently. Jesus, again was teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath, heals a man with suffering from dropsy. Luke clearly believed this scenario to have significance in showing his audience how Jesus operates. It would seem that Luke is emphasizing the connection between worship, teaching and action motivated by faith in God and God’s Word in Scripture. The writer, Alice Walker, penned these words: “Anyone can observe the Sabbath, but making it holy surely takes the rest of the week.” (“In Search for Our Mothers’ Gardens”) Time and again Jesus will confront the Pharisees with differing interpretations of God’s Law. At the heart of Jesus’ arguments is God’s nature, which is holy, loving and just; and the need for us to join in God’s salvific purposes.

In the scene presented today, Jesus spots the woman who is invisible to others. Luke tells us Jesus sees as God sees – through the eyes of love and compassion. Luke insists that when Jesus “sees” people he does not see that they are wrong or inadequate; he sees what they need to do to live as God created them to live – to be fully and abundantly alive. Luke describes the woman as having been afflicted with her condition for 18 years. In Jewish numerology, the number 18 is the numerical sum attributed to the Hebrew word, “chai,” which means life. Jesus’ healings bring people back into community and closer to God.

Jesus zeros in on the woman because he observed her need. Not only did others not notice her, but she may also have been shunned, since disease was viewed as being caused by the Evil One or a punishment from God. Bent over, this woman was stuck in a position of subservience, both literally and figuratively. She could not stand up straight and be counted in her community. She could not look others in the eye as an equal. She had difficulty seeing ahead, blind to all but the small piece of land beneath her feet right where she was. She could not look up to the heavens. She was a woman without hope.

Luke tells us that the woman did not ask Jesus to heal her; rather, it was Jesus who called her to come to him. We read these three words: “He saw her.” Luke repeatedly uses a form of the word “to see” in his gospel. In Luke, when people see Jesus, they see God. And from Jesus’ unique perspective, when he saw a person, he saw a child of God and responded to their needs. The Pharisees failed to see her because of her lack of importance to them. Though an evil spirit may have bound her with an affliction, she was not evil but precious in God’s sight. Jesus called her “a daughter of Abraham,” which was the highest praise amongst Jews.

The question this story poses for us is: Who do we pass by without seeing or avert our eyes intentionally to not see, as did the Priest and Levite passed by the wounded man whom the Samaritan helped in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan? (Lk. 10: 25-37) Who do we shun as the insignificant “other” whose needs are of little concern for us? In what ways might we be encouraging and justifying our society’s neglect of others’ afflictions? Later, Jesus would answer the Pharisees’ question of which of God’s Laws is the greatest. Jesus summarized the heart of all of God’s commandments: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind… and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt. 22:37-39, Lk.10:27-28, Mk. 12:30-31)

What was the woman’s response to being healed by Jesus? She began praising God. How often do we do that? Oh sure, we might send up a quick “Thank you, God. Yet the bible tells us that after six days of toiling for ourselves and our families, God desires that we spend time on the Sabbath to join in community to give thanks and praise. God doesn’t need it, but it gives us a needed attitude adjustment that opens our hearts and minds to a closer relationship with God.  We need a reminder of God’s first commandment: You shall have no other gods before me.” (Ex. 20:3, Deut. 5:7). The world, that shakable kingdom, tempts us with many lesser gods, not the least of which is our own egos. Jesus tells us that our gratitude, expressed in our Sabbath worship, is a sign that we are truly living the fullness of life we have been given.

The healing was not good news for the Pharisees, who were working the crowd, getting them stirred up about this lawbreaker, Jesus. In a short time, they will be in Jerusalem shouting “Lock him up, lock him up!” These Pharisees thought for sure they had trapped Jesus. He had broken one of the biggies – one of the 10 Commandments: “Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy,” But Jesus put this question to the Pharisees to turn the tables: “You free your oxen from their yoke on the Sabbath to get water to live, should I not do as much for this woman who is bound by the yoke of her illness.” In light of the rest of Luke’s gospel the implication is that Jesus was saying: ‘Should I not remove her yoke to let her drink the “living water?”

I can imagine a Pharisee arguing: ‘She’s suffered for 18 years, why can’t she wait a few more hours until the sun sets on the Sabbath day? You need to wait for an acceptable time in an appropriate place.’ That has been the argument of the powerful and privileged throughout history. ‘Now is not the appropriate time to be freed from injustice and oppression. We need time to prepare for change.’ Yet, the truth of the matter is, usually, that the “in group” has been resisting change for a very long time. This was an argument used against freeing the slaves and the argument against the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s. It is easy to say ‘suffer a bit longer’ when you are not the one doing the suffering. As we see today in view of the expressions of racism that were once considered too shameful to admit, one must conclude that if black people in America had waited until a “more appropriate time” nothing would have changed. Our country has been aware of the damage to life due to environmental exploitation and manipulation for decades and the risk of future unsustainability of life. The same is true for restrictions on the ownership of automatic weapons designed for military warfare. Mass killings of school children has not persuaded the powers that be to restrict the sale of assault rifles to curb our epidemic of mass killings. School children now have frequent mass shooter drills, and their parents can buy them bullet-proof backpacks in a feeble attempt to assuage their anxiety. For those who benefit from others’ pain, it is never the appropriate time to challenge the status quo.

We can turn our backs, not wanting to hear anything that has political implications, but Jesus never shunned injustice and affliction, even that perpetrated by the mighty Roman Empire. Jesus was not sent to deliver a message of reconciliation, healing and justice that was merely a pipe dream to be lauded on the Sabbath and denied the rest of the week. Jesus’ ministry confronted the government, the Roman Empire, as he did the religious leaders.

Why were the Pharisees so insistent that the woman should not have been healed on the Sabbath? The Pharisees were ever so careful to make sure the people followed the laws of their religion for their own benefit. And why not? Their importance was based on their position of judging what behaviors were lawful as they interpreted the Law. Of course, we can see through the Pharisees, who were more interested in discrediting Jesus than they were concerned about obeying God’s laws. Other hypocrites are such an easy target, aren’t they? They hide their true intentions behind a transparent façade of self-righteousness: “Oh, the law is the law.” Unless, of course, you are one of the people that considers themselves above the law and have the power and wealth to escape accountability for breaking the law others should obey.

The heart of the issue for the Pharisees and Jesus was the question of what constituted work and what is deemed holy. It was the interpretation of the law’s original intent that was being debated. Jesus had the advantage of insider information, which was another truth revealed in this story. Jesus’ authority to interpret scripture was based on his identity as God’s Son. Jesus’ repeated conflict with the Pharisees over “the Law” demonstrates the need for us to examine the intention of secular laws and how our faith informs our decisions about who we allow to lead us, giving them the power to make laws.

In our own political system, sometimes laws need to be changed because our times and circumstances have changed. The Founding Fathers understood this and set up a legislative procedure by which this could be done. But always, as Christians, we must ask: Are the laws created to help or hinder the cause of justice and people being treated fairly? Or are the laws passed to benefit a few at the expense of others? Are the laws enforced with equity? It comes down to who we worship and obey — God or Caesar or any other worldly god? The Jewish faith Jesus had been taught since childhood understood that life is holy, and it must be protected at all costs.

The Pharisees’ insistence on following the letter of the law concerning work on the Sabbath is an example of following the rules so literally and rigidly that the reason for the law is replaced by an opposing intention. In the case of the Pharisees, their obedience to the law was no longer about God, but about their own control and power. In Exodus and Deuteronomy, where we find the Sabbath law, we read God gave the Law as a gift to humankind. God commanded God’s people to refrain from work on the Sabbath to give them a rest from their toil. In the commandment, God spelled out that this meant freedom to rest for all, including slaves, servants, animals – all God’s creation. The Pharisees had become so fixated on following rules, they failed to fulfill God’s loving and compassionate intention. The Sabbath was meant to be healing from all pressures of producing profits. In doing the right thing according to the Law, they were doing the wrong thing for God and neighbor.

This is what Jesus demonstrated in his healing of the woman bent over: he gave her the freedom to look to the heavens, the unshakeable kingdom, rather than being restricted to seeing only the earth she trudges upon in the tedious movement she must make to sustain her life. She could now look ahead to new destinations and possibilities. Her response, Luke tells, was to give praise to God – the way that all of Abraham’s sons and daughters have always begun their worship. When we fully experience that joy and gratitude, our eyes are opened to see those that are bent over with burdens – diseases of body, mind or spirit, poverty, injustice, neglect, loneliness and despair. God, ‘the healer of the nations,’ gave us Jesus to show us the blessedness of both being healed and being healers.

The life-giving remedy to the wounds the world inflicts is to value and protect life. This is the heart of the message of our courageous prophets. Jesus left his disciples with the instructions to love others as he had loved them. (John 15:12) May we go out into this world from our worship with our eyes open to see who needs to be healed; and, by alleviating their suffering, find healing for ourselves. In the words of Barbara Brown Taylor: “Salvation happens every time someone with a key uses it to open a door he could lock instead.” God has called us, as individuals and as a congregation, to unlock the doors the shakable kingdom constructs and to enter into the eternal kingdom of God.

Amen. May it be so!

© Rev. Denise Clark-Jones, 2022, All Rights Reserved
Westminster Presbyterian Church | 1420 W. Moss Ave. | Peoria, Illinois 61606
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“Why am I a member of Westminster Presbyterian Church?  Two words keep  floating up in a rather persistent way  –  “home” and  “family” – and I realized that it is an inescapable fact that is what this church means to me. During my 40 years here, so many life events have happened and Westminster has been there for me through all those times – good and bad.    It has been my home and family.  They say “home is where the heart is” and I’ve found the heart of Westminster to be as open and warm as a family’s!”