Worship Words

Sermon for August 25, 2019

Luke 13: 10-17

Who are we in this story? Who are you in this story?Cast of characters-

• Jesus
• Woman who is healed
• Person in the religious establishment of the day
• Person in the crowd following Jesus

Most adults will not pick to describe themselves as Jesus in a story as that might be assuming I’m thinking too highly of myself. Now, kids and youth will be glad to play the part of Jesus in a story. They know that Jesus gets the fun lines and gets to do the cool actions. If you are Jesus in this story, you get to speak the words of healing and lay your hands on the woman as a sign of blessing and healing. Pretty cool, huh? And later in our story you as Jesus are going to answer the religious leader and tell that person they are wrong and here’s what they should be doing. All in all not a bad part to play in today’s story.

Who doesn’t want to be the woman who is healed? You have been ailing for 18 years unable to stand up straight. By now you have adjusted to this. You don’t ask to be healed because you probably just try to blend in with the crowd so no one teases you. Jesus sees you. That is one of my favorite things about Jesus-he sees people. He sees this woman who most people probably ignored both because she was a woman and because she was a person with a physical disability. So you are simply going about your day and you are seen. With some simple words and a touch of his hands, Jesus heals you. You stand up for the first time in years and begin praising God. Although you don’t appear anymore in today’s story, your life is forever changed because Jesus saw you.

Person in the religious establishment of the day. It is easy to see this person as the bad guy of the story. You are described as being indignant. And you share what you know to be true that anyone can be healed any other day of the week except the Sabbath because we cannot work on the Sabbath. You are a faithful person who lives by the Torah. You have studied and worked hard to live in the correct way. And then Jesus answers you in a way you wouldn’t expect and tells you that you are wrong. And you feel shame or humiliation at being corrected.

A person in the crowd following Jesus. Your only line is that you are “rejoicing at all the wonderful things that Jesus was doing”. A pretty good part in our story. You are following Jesus and cheering him on.

So who are you in this story? Who do you identify with?

Probably not Jesus as most of us want to be like him and yet don’t feel like we can say we identify as him.

Maybe you can identify with the woman who needs to be healed. Most of us would love to be healed from something. Maybe a relationship that has left you feeling broken. Maybe your life isn’t what you hoped it would be. Maybe you are grieving the death of someone and that emptiness inside you is too much. Maybe you are angry at things beyond your control and you can’t let go of your anger. Maybe your body is no longer allowing you do things you used to enjoy. If we think about it for a bit, everyone would like healing. Everyone would like to have their need acknowledged and their brokenness restored. And my hope is that if we are healed, we will react as the woman did in our story. She praised God. She knew that God is the only one who can heal our wounded souls and so she offered up her praise.

Who doesn’t want to identify as part of the crowd following Jesus? What a gift it would be to follow Jesus learning from him, watching him heal, hearing him teach and preach, and seeing him see people and things that the rest of us overlook.  

You might have noticed that I skipped over the third person in the story-the synagogue leader. I prefer to say person in the religious establishment of the day. If we call this person, the synagogue leader it is easier to think that we have a little less in common. We could easily call this person pastor, church council president, Sunday School teacher, youth minister, choir member, person who sits in the third pew at church every Sunday. That’s right. This person is us. Please notice that I said us. This person is me and you. I am a rule follower. I love rules. I love knowing what I am expected to do so I can do it. I pride myself on doing what I am supposed to do when it is expected to be done. And I am very hard on myself when I cannot meet those expectations.

And maybe that is why I love the church. We are a place and a people full of rules. Some of them are written down in our constitutions and bylaws and covenants. These are the ways we govern ourselves and what makes everything work in our church. Many of our rules are unwritten and just the way we do things. Let me tell you about one of those unwritten rules in a church where I served as their youth minister. The youth loved to play sardines. Do you know this game? First of all, shut off all the lights in the church and then one person hides. Everyone else is seeking that hidden person and when you find the hidden person, you hide with that person. So as more and more people are crowded into one space, you are like sardines in a can. The game ends when only one person is still seeking. So I sent the youth off to play and then was walking through the darkened church to ensure everyone was okay and having fun. I went into the sanctuary and was quickly told by one of the youth-we aren’t allowed in the sanctuary for playing games it is only for worship time. This was an unwritten rule of the church that was so established that no one even thought to tell me until that moment as everyone just knew it. Every church has unwritten rules like this.  

Don’t worry fellow rule followers. Jesus isn’t instructing us to throw out all the rules. Jesus is encouraging us to think about the rules that govern our lives. A day of Sabbath makes good sense as our bodies need rest and time to worship and renew. And we are called to love each other. Would Jesus have been loving this woman as he loves himself if he had not healed her? Jesus could have asked her to come back tomorrow when it isn’t the Sabbath and then I will heal you. He didn’t. He reacted out of love.

How might we act out of love when we are living out our faith?

Jesus gives us several ideas of how to do this in today’s Scripture.

1-See each other. Look at the people you know and those you don’t yet know when you meet them this week. I recommend starting slowly as this can be overwhelming. Start by doing something you wouldn’t normally do. For example, ask your cashier at the grocery store how her day is and maintain eye contact as she answers. This shows that you are seeing her and care about her answer. Notice the people who are easy to overlook as you go about your busy life.

2-Observe the Spirit of the law. I’m using Spirit here with a big/capital S. Look and listen for how the Spirit is encouraging you to live as a person of faith. God has given each of us gifts and we are expected to utilize them. And sometimes God encourages us to use our gifts on Sunday because it will make life better for someone else. How can you use the gifts God has given you to lighten the load of someone else? How might you accept a gift someone else is trying to share with you? How is the Spirit pushing you to live with mercy, kindness, and love?

3-Consider how we can best be the church. Where might the Spirit be calling us to change the way we have always done something because it will make it easier for someone else to fully participate in the life of faith? Where might the Spirit be breathing new life into a ministry or idea and helping it flourish and blossom if only someone or many someones step up to help? And is the Spirit telling us that we need to thank everyone who supported a ministry and end it because it is no longer meeting the needs of this congregation?

This Scripture calls us to consider our actions and our inactions from a variety of perspectives. From the establishment, where life is good and we are familiar with how things should work. What do we need to change to make things more accessible for all of God’s children? From the crowds following Jesus and soaking up his witness-soon they will be called to go out into the world and proclaim the good news. How do we take what we hear and experience in worship on Sunday mornings and live it out the rest of the week? From Jesus who kept his eyes open to see the people in need and the problems in society that needed to be called out. May we be so compassionate and brave. And from the perspective of the woman who was healed who was called a daughter of Abraham and seen as a beloved child of God for the first time in too many years. May we see ourselves and each person we meet as a beloved child of the Living God.

One theologian (Karoline Lewis) shared that she imagined this woman praising God with the first eight verses of Psalm 103. I will end with those words and the prayer that we may feel so amazed by the wonders of our God that we too are called to praise God using these words.

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
   and all that is within me,
   bless his holy name. 
² Bless the Lord, O my soul,
   and do not forget all his benefits— 
³ who forgives all your iniquity,
   who heals all your diseases, 
⁴ who redeems your life from the Pit,
   who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, 
⁵ who satisfies you with good as long as you live
   so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. 
⁶ The Lord works vindication
   and justice for all who are oppressed. 
⁷ He made known his ways to Moses,
   his acts to the people of Israel. 
⁸ The Lord is merciful and gracious,
   slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 

Sermon preached on August 25, 2019 at Immanuel UCC in Cambridge, Maryland.

Shortly before Christmas, my husband’s Grandma died. Her death was the third family member we said good-bye to in 2018. While we found much joy throughout the year, it was a year filled with many hard, grief-filled days.

My Mother-in-law asked if I would read Scripture, pray and do a faith eulogy at Grandma’s service. I consider it a privilege to be asked to participate in a special moment like this.

Here are the words I shared at her funeral and I am sharing them with you on what would have been her 90th birthday.

I was asked to speak about Grandma Clark and her faith. Many of you have known her much longer than I have. I first met her 13 years ago when her grandson now my husband, Richard, asked me to come home with him for Christmas to meet his family. 
Grandma was a women of faith who relied on her faith and hard work throughout her life. Her faith and her family are what sustained her when she needed to make difficult decisions. Her faith strengthened her when she said goodbye to loved ones resting in the assurance that she would see them again.
For some time, Grandma has been ready to be with Jesus. As it became more difficult for her to be as independent as she wanted to be and we all know that she wanted to do everything by herself and didn’t want to ask for any assistance. As she had to relinquish more and more independence, she would ask why am I still here? And her daughter Mary would tell her that God needed her to stay here with us a little longer and when God was ready she would be called home. That finally happened. And even though she was ready, I am not sure we were. 
We will remember her determination and strength. We never forget her fierce independence and how she fought to keep control of all that she could by living alone as long as possible and not wanting to give up her car. 
My hope is that we all will continue to tell her story and remember her through our laughter and tears. 
And we take comfort in knowing that she is not in pain anymore, that she now can move and walk without any challenges, and that is reunited with her loved ones who have gone before her. 
So today and in the coming days, rely on your faith and your family as Grandma did as the strength and support to help you through the hard days and the joy that is with you on the good days.