Vicar Brett Wilson – Pentecost 13, Proper 16 – Luke 13:10-17 (read the scripture text first!)
Last February it was the first day of classes, and I, the one who my friends make fun of for how I am always a minimum of fifteen minutes early, was ready for class to start. So when the clock on the wall struck the hour and about half the class, but also the professor were absent, I started to get irritated. Five minutes go by, a few more students trickle in, and then about twelve past the hour our professor, Dr. Hoffmeyer, strolled in. He apologized briefly for being late. I wasn't mad at him, but I admit I get so tied up about things like being on time. I know it's a part of my own sinfulness and almost a compulsion. But the reason I remember this particular instance is because of what Dr. Hoffmeyer said next, which I took down in my notes because I was so struck by it. “What is time anyway? Think about it, clocks are a relatively new invention. The system of time is kind of made up and defies itself on many levels.” At this point I started to think – where is he going with this philosophical theorizing on time – where is the syllabus? But as he continued I saw the insight – He admitted to not wearing a watch himself – and said, “It might be a good spiritual discipline to set all the clocks in your house at slightly different times. He continued, “because anything you think “it has to be this way” you should try to shake free from that idolatry. If you always get the same ice cream flavor, try something different, if you always drive the same route to work, try something different. Shake yourself free from idolatry, he told us. And I think it starts by thinking of whatever systems you have created, whenever you think “it has to be this way,” whatever rules you have made for yourself and taken them as law, when you begin to worship the system you've created – it's idolatry – shake free of it.
So what is it for you – what is it that ties you in knots and has you thinking “it has to be this way?” For me, one of those things is timeliness, but overall the number of systems like this we have created, each with their own rules, is mind-boggling. We have systems for how we dress – never wear navy and black together, no white after labor day – maybe you think “it has to be this way.” We have systems for how we talk to each other, for social interaction – things that are okay or not okay to say. And from school lunchrooms to workplaces we have created systems of rules, written and unwritten, of how it “has to be.” The result is that we end up valuing the system, the rules, more than the person standing in front of us. We create these systems with mostly good intent – for the sake of good order, and even to help others – but people fall through the cracks and get hurt – because the system comes before the person.
Picture the scene from our gospel reading. It's the sabbath, it's worship time, and everyone is listening to Jesus, this rabbi from Nazareth giving a sermon. But no one recorded or even remembered the sermon because of this unusual thing that happened right in the middle of it. In the middle of his sermon, Jesus notices a woman who has not even said anything, crippled, outside the inner circle of worshipers, interrupts himself, and heals her. The rules say this is not the way “it has to be.”
Perhaps you see yourself as the crippled woman who is healed – you have seen Christ work changes in your life, God has helped you stand up straight, see things differently, just like her. Maybe you can see where Jesus himself is coming from, and you love trying his part on for size because of his exciting accusation - “You hypocrites!” We are most hesitant but most fitted for this last role – the synagogue leaders. It fits, all to well, and we know we are like them, we argue against God and for our own idolatry every time we think “it has to be this way.” I know I get stubborn and it blinds me from seeing where God is working because where God works does not stay within the lines, does not follow my rules. Pastor Wayne Shelor who was my boss when I was a camp counselor used to remind us to discard the schedule when the Holy Spirit interrupts – something hard for me to do. Sometimes I miss God's words to me because I am too busy thinking – “it has to be this way” – and it wasn't. Good order in the synagogue matters, and they are following God's law, but the leaders of the synagogue cared for the order of the system over the individual. But often the rules are broken and God breaks through anyway, and thank goodness! God interrupts our idolatry of thinking “it has to be this way” and shows us God's presence among us.
Whereas we get caught up in the system, in thinking “it has to be this way,” God does not. In this healing story Christ's action transcends the system, to care instead for the individual. God is about the particular, about the individual. Like the woman in the story, you the person matter more to God than any system or any rule.
And here today, is Sunday. The sabbath, which has its own set of behaviors and rules given by God. The sabbath is not another rule, another thing that we think – “it has to be this way” - something that ties us up. It's the opposite - The sabbath, and Jesus' action that day in the synagogue, is about freeing us, liberating us from all the systems, from all the idolatries, from all the cares that we carry through our week. The Sabbath and worshiping on this day are not meant to be another thing to add to our busy schedules, it's meant to be a break from them. Celebrating a sabbath is not meant to be another thing that we feel tied up by, that we start thinking “it has to be this way” because the sabbath isn't something we do but something that God does. God gives us the practice of sabbath as a gift, as freedom, instituted with the ten commandments, to remind all God's people and celebrate how God gives freedom, just as God had just given the Israelites freedom from slavery in Egypt.
God's idea of the sabbath is not about mandatory relaxation – because the phrase itself seems like an oxymoron – mandatory relaxation doesn't seem very relaxing, does it?
The sabbath is about liberation, about freeing us. About God's action in Christ in the words of scripture, at the table, to untie us, lead us to the baptismal waters, and claim us as God's child, where nothing else matters. Our ability to delight in the Lord, to celebrate the sabbath, to have relationship with God does not depend on our own work or how well we follow rules, but on God's work. Jesus has made it possible for us to be liberated, untied – just like the woman healed in the gospel reading. Jesus fulfilled all of the “if” clauses in the Isaiah text – he removed the yoke, removed the speaking of evil, fed the hungry, and Jesus honored God's way all the way to death. There is no conditionality to it, because of what Jesus did for you and me. It's not about if you do it this way, but it's that Jesus did it this way, healing and liberating us. Liberating us so that here at Christ Lutheran we do feed the hungry in Christ's name. Here at Christ Lutheran we offer words of comfort to each other and know it's just a glimpse of God's love. Christ unties us, liberates us, and so I can say to you and you can say to each other God's promises of the sabbath with a sureness. “The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. . . You will take delight in the LORD, and God will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; God will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” Amen.
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