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Homily – August 21

Now Jesus was teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath.  And there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years.  She was bent over and was unable to stand up straight.  She couldn’t look at the sky, she couldn’t see the sun because she was so disfigured.  It was hard for her to stand, much less walk.  Every step was painful, and had been for 18 years.  And yet here she was, in the synagogue on the Sabbath, just as she had been every Sabbath day for 18 years, indeed, for all of her life.  Imagine the dedication it took to do this!  She was a poor woman, so it is clear that she didn’t live next door. We know that she was poor as a wealthy person would have had help, and this woman was alone.  Only the wealthy could afford to live in the town adjacent to the synagogue, so we know she didn’t live next door, or even down the street.   In order to walk the long distance to the synagogue, she had to rise before dawn and literally drag herself through the town to get to worship.  And we have a hard time showing up during football season!  You know who you are.

And what did this dedication get her?  I am sure that she prayed every day for 18 years for healing, and it never came.  Until the one day when Jesus happened to enter the synagogue.  She didn’t call to him; in fact she did nothing to call attention to herself.  This was not like the many people who ran to Jesus knowing that he could heal them.  This was not like the man whose friends tore apart the roof in order to lower a crippled man through the hole to Jesus.  No, it was Jesus who noticed her and called her over to him.  Jesus, our compassionate Lord noticed her suffering and without being asked, laid hands on her and healed her.  What if she had not come that day?  What if she decided after say 15 years that God was not going to answer her prayers and given up?  She had no way of knowing when she arose that morning that her life would be changed forever by a chance meeting with Jesus.  Yet that is what happened.  God rewarded her faithfulness and changed her life forever.  I suppose that old phrase, “90% of life is just showing up” may have some truth in it after all.

Last week’s gospel was a tough one.  We want to focus on the kind and loving Jesus.  The Jesus of love, the Jesus who suffered the little children to come unto him, the “my yoke is easy and my burden light” Jesus.  That’s our savior, our brother, our lord.  But the Jesus who comes to divide us, to sow conflict and dissent is much harder to approach.  Jesus is far less warm and fuzzy when he is bringing fire to the earth.  But that is what he did.  In most of his teachings, Jesus is preaching a gospel of conflict and that continues in today’s passage from Luke.

After Jesus has healed the woman, the leader of the synagogue was outraged.  But even he was not willing to take on Jesus directly, so instead he directed his ire at the crowd.  “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and by cured, and not on the Sabbath day.”  He is angry at Jesus, but directs his anger at others.  Does that sound familiar to anyone?

Simply by healing this woman, Jesus generates conflict by daring to do work on the Sabbath.  You know that Jewish law forbade work of any kind on the Sabbath, as part of their desire to keep “the law” and find favor with God.  It is part of the misguided belief that one can earn God’s love, that God is only interested in us if we prove ourselves to be worthy.  It was common in the Jewish tradition to do no work on the Sabbath, and here is Jesus openly working by healing this woman, and in the synagogue no less.  He could not have been more controversial if he wanted to be, which of course is exactly what he was trying to do.

Remember that the woman didn’t seek out Jesus.  He saw her and acted out of pity for her infirmity.  But Jesus also was a teacher and he saw that this woman presented an excellent opportunity for a lesson.  And this lesson would be borne of conflict.  He intentionally broke with tradition by healing this woman and fully expected the reaction he got from the leaders.  Jesus knew that they were so busy trying to keep the laws that they had lost sight of what God really wanted.  Remember the great commandment is to love the Lord your God and to love your neighbor as yourself.  How then could he sit idly by when this woman was suffering, only to stay within the boundaries of some capricious law?

He also was able to point out that the leaders, indeed all of the people, saw nothing wrong with caring for their livestock on the Sabbath.  Yet the Pharisees were outraged that he would aid a good and faithful woman, a daughter of Abraham.  When presented with this contradiction, the people were put to shame and all rejoiced in wonder at what he had done.

What are we to learn from this lesson?  What does this story from 2,000 years ago mean to the Episcopal Church in 2016?  I think this story is a great example of why our church has been compared to a three-legged stool.  The church is supported by these three legs which represent scripture, tradition, and reason.  Scripture of course is the word of God, given to us to teach and inform us of God’s will and help us through our lives.  Tradition is an important part of what we do, in our liturgy, our worship, and in the way we approach our communal relationship with God.  But we also add the third leg of reason.  It is reason which prevents us from relying too heavily on tradition as our only guide.  How many times have you heard the phrase “that’s how we have always done it”?  Or “If its’ not broke, don’t fix it”?  How about my favorite church joke, How many Episcopalians does it take to change a light bulb?  You can’t change that light bulb!  My grandfather donated that light bulb 20 years ago!

Tradition is a fine thing, but it can’t be the sole arbiter of what we do.  As Episcopalians we need to apply reason as we seek to serve God and serve our neighbors.  That is what Jesus did.  He looked at the way things were done and questioned, in fact challenged the status quo.  If it’s not broke, that doesn’t mean that it works.  Just ask the woman who was healed.

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