Ought Not This Woman?

Sunday, August 26th, 2007
Thirteenth after Pentecost
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Luke 13:10-17

10Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11And 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. 12When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” 13When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 14But 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.” 15But 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? 16And 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?” 17When 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.

What does Sunday morning mean to you? When the sun comes up and you rise out of bed, get cleaned up, dressed, eat breakfast and go through all the usual morning routines … what does the prospect of the day hold for you? Specifically, what did you wake up this morning expecting to find here this morning?

In case there’s any question, I don’t mean “find” in physical terms. I mean in terms of … for lack of a better word, relationships. Did you look forward to coming through the front doors of the sanctuary, or whichever door you came through? Did you look forward to seeing and greeting and speaking to your family of faith here at Jerusalem? Was your mind alive with the possibility of what God may have for you here today?

Or were your thoughts elsewhere? Were they on other issues, other concerns, perhaps a family member who is ill, or on the approaching school year and what that means for YOUR family… maybe your morning was dominated by the need to prepare for what your work holds for you this week. Please understand, there’s no criticism implied in the questions, it is simply A QUESTION. And it is one that I need to raise if for no other reason than to get us thinking about what we are THINKING.

I have to be honest with you. As I wrote this, I know where I was HOPING my mind would be come Sunday morning, but I have no way of knowing beforehand what in fact will be the case. There are any number of factors that play into that. Some Sunday mornings I consider ‘pure’ days … those are mornings when I wake up and feel confident in what I think the Lord has led me to prepare for the day. Other Sundays that feeling is … less apparent. There can be an exchange with the kids or with Leslie, or with anyone, really, that may throw things out of whack … I’m still getting used to that, even after four years. It may be an unexpected visit from one of our Latino friends, as has happened on occasion, or it can be in a quiet conversation here in the sanctuary or in the foyer, people sharing their pain and their struggles with what life has thrown them in the previous week makes for holy moments where the Holy Spirit joins hearts and communicates through hugs and tears.

I CAN tell you this: though it is more unsettling to be thrown a curve ball before the worship service, it is not as important to me how I feel going INTO the morning, because it is what happens at the END of the morning that makes the difference to the rest of the day, sometimes the rest of the WEEK, and on rare occasion, the rest of MY LIFE.

I wonder what the woman in our text this morning walked into the synagogue expecting that Saturday morning. I wonder what was occupying the lion’s share of her mind. I imagine that after 18 years, she’d gotten used to being in the condition she was in, insofar as that is possible – for someone to come to terms with any sort of chronic condition, having first experienced good health. From the description of her, it could have been what we know today as osteoporosis, or it might have been that she had severe curvature of the spine that worsened with age, the text does not tell us how old she was, but by using the word “woman” rather than “girl”, the inference can be made that she was not young.

We can safely say that this was not the first time that she’d been to church. From the reaction of the leader of the synagogue, it is likely that Saturday morning was not the first day that week that she had BEEN to synagogue. If the place was open for healing and other regularly scheduled activities the other six days of the week, I suspect that she had been there each day for at LEAST some of the day. It makes you wonder what she’d do when she came. Pray, I’m sure, but what? “Dear God, is today the day, or will I bear this burden yet another day?” Or did she pray with more passion, “WHY GOD??!! WHY ME??!! WHAT DID I DO??!! WHAT DID THEY DO??!!” Remember, in the Hebrew tradition, being afflicted with a malady, either an illness, or a deformity, or some other form of limitation, was understood to be a judgment from God for some wrong committed --- either by you or by your parents, perhaps, if it was bad enough, by your GRANDPARENTS. And you were treated accordingly, meaning, you were generally shunned, cast out, ostracized.

Jesus speaks to that understanding, but first, he raises a ruckus.

You see, he heals her. She didn’t ask for it, at least it is not recorded if she did. He just seems to see her and calls her over, lays hands on her and tells her

“Woman, you are set free from your ailment.”

Hmmm … funny that he would use that terminology – ‘set free’… like from a prison.

One of the most sacred times I spend with people as they approach death is that time when they come to terms with the fact that they are passing from this world into the next. When it is looked forward to – when they start to let go of things here on earth – either through the physiological effects of the body shutting down – loss of appetite, long periods of sleep, things like that, there is truly a sense that their body is keeping them back, and they are ready to move on – to another realm, a more perfect existence, where the body is not a hindrance.

But Jesus doesn’t usher this woman into ANOTHER realm, he makes her whole in THIS realm, he makes her body well. He gives her and the rest of the people at the synagogue that day a chance to approach a thin place in the veil … to catch a glimpse of the Kingdom of God made earthly reality. And what is the reaction?

Well, we’re given two; one on the part of the leader of the synagogue, the other on the part of the crowd.

The leader of the synagogue, the rabbi, generally a respected and honored member of the community, a pillar of it, if you will, seems to be set on what is allowed and what is not on any given Sabbath. He’s big on the ‘Hows’ of worship. He understands the intricacies of how far you can go before you break the law. He knows the number of steps you can take, the amount of weight you can lift, the foods that are allowed, that are not, and the people with whom you can associate – and not – in order to remain within the good graces of Yahweh, and therefore, remain acceptable to the rest of the community.

Jesus, seems to be unable to care LESS for the “Hows”. His focus is on the WHOs. Who is coming through the synagogue door? Who is sincerely seeking the will of God for their life? Who is earnestly eager to hear the scripture read, and open to listen with a new and different ear the words that are coming forth? Who is here that God has been prepared ME to encounter?

Does the Rabbi’s reaction strike you as nonsensical, or can you understand where he’s coming from? I’m not looking for one or the other answer, but I DO want to take a few minutes and talk about both possibilities.

First, the latter:

*I* CAN understand where he’s coming from, sort of. It took some thinking, but it makes sense.

You see, it’s about control and it’s about understanding, and it’s about being in the loop. It’s about clarity, and boundaries, and expectations. The leader of the synagogue has a routine, has a tradition, has a certain way of doing, seeing, and understanding things. It has become second nature to him. He is totally at ease in that world. He knows what comes next, he knows what is expected of him and most of all, he knows he’s “IN”. He’s one of the chosen people, one of the twelve tribes of Israel, or rather at this point, one of the remaining two. He knows what he (and everyone else, by association) is allowed and not allowed to do on the Sabbath. He’s spent his life working on perfecting that knowledge. He is wholly invested in that understanding, and wholly GIVEN to it, by virtue of his position in the town and the synagogue.

Now for the nonsensical view of the response:

WHAT WAS HE THINKING???

Did healings like this happen every day in first century Palestine? Did little old women who were so bent over that they couldn’t even stand up straight ROUTINELY walk in through the doors of the synagogue and a few minutes later walk out with their head held high, their backs straight as a rod??

This is about the improbable, the unpredictable, the indescribable, the unexpected, the counterintuitive; breathtaking surprises, gasps of wonder, followed by joyous laughter, and the fact that God is bound and determined to spring one on us every chance God gets.

It is about losing sight of the forest for all the trees.

Our friend the Synagogue leader got so caught up in the “How” of DOING religion – the trees – that he completely forgot the “Why” of doing religion – the forest. In terminology that may be clearer: he got so into ‘practicing’ his faith that he forgot the reason he’d acquired it to begin with. He was going through the motions with little or no regard for the motivation BEHIND the motions.

Understand me: the “motions” in and of themselves were not bad, ARE not bad. There is a place for order, for predictability, for security and for comfort in the living out of our faith, but if we lose sight of the REASON we are going through those motions to BEGIN with, we will justifiably be called hypocrites right alongside this man.

What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton on August 26th, 2007? Are we in danger of losing sight of the forest for all the trees? Are we becoming so caught up in dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s that we forget to take in what the words – ALL THE WORDS – are saying? Every week we have an opportunity to be amazed. Every week we experience struggles and hardships and get pounded by any number of things – from within as well as without – that bring us to the brink of collapse, that have us so bent out of shape that we can hardly stand up straight. And suddenly, out of the blue, Jesus touches us and says, “You are set free from your ailment.”

How are we going to react to that touch? Will we receive it in wonder, or will we be stuck on the fact that it didn’t happen sooner, or later, or … slower, or in the way we expected it to, with the WORDS we expected it to, to the PEOPLE we expected it to?

My prayer is that we will always be open to the newness of God in our lives.

Let’s pray.