Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
Luke 13:10-17; Isaiah 58:9b-14; Hebrews 12:18-29
When I was in South Dakota a few weeks ago with some of our teens for the week long Servant Event we were part of on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Each evening concluded after a day of work and activity with us gathered in the basement cool of the house we were staying in to share what our guides told us was a Talking Circle. This is a practice common among many Plaines Indians like the Lakota Sioux. the circle has no beginning or end. no front or back. so all who gather are equal. The only rule that governs the circle is that a totem is passed among the various members of the circle and who ever has possession of it is allowed to speak uninterrupted. unchallenged or critiqued. In the gathering of the sacred circle all words are spoken as truth and are accepted as true.. We were reminded by our guides that in the retelling of stories or descriptions of events of the day shared with others it was not important to the Sioux that every detail be absolutely correct. What mattered was that all words were offered as pointing to a truth that may at times have gone beyond the remembered details. truths of courage. valor. empathy or compassion did not need details to make them more or less true. Not every society or culture is so oriented toward providing such equality and openness. not all are as accepting of the truth that often goes beyond the structures and details of our ordered lives. Our Gospel lesson for today reminds us that the hypocrisy of the legalistically manipulative conservers of traditions, rituals and rules have plagued and limited the spirit of truth through out history. People of faith are constantly challenged to be opened to seeing a world and future beyond our comfortable and secure lives It happened one Sabbath as Jesus was teaching in a synagogue. Because he was recognized as a rabbi. a teacher of the faith. Jesus was invited to read the scriptures and to teach. As he is doing so, his eyes fall upon a bent-over woman. Now to the ruler of the synagogue, and those religious leaders who cared first and foremost about keeping the Sabbath rules, this woman is a big problem. A woman alone. not owned by a husband. was in this ancient society the lowest of the low. She doesn't even have a name. A woman in a first century synagogue. during worship. is totally out of place. We can only guess how this happened. Maybe, because of her crippled condition she was late in getting to the service. She shows up unintentionally during the service instead of arriving early enough to go behind the screen that separated the women from the men. Or maybe this synagogue was the type where the women were seated in the gallery or balcony above the men but her crippled condition kept her from climbing the stairs and so she shuffled around in the back of the room trying not to be seen. But she is there. in the synagogue. out of place. an embarrassment to everyone who sees her. Even if it weren't for the breaking of the rules that separated women from men there was also her crippled condition that made her flawed. unacceptable to be in the presence of the holy. Jesus sees the woman and calls her over to him. This is unthinkable! Jesus is probably seated on the leader's bench at the front of the gathering. Now the woman is not only present in the Sabbath worship but she is standing in front of all the men. Jesus stoops down to look her in the eye as he might in order to speak to a child. The problem is no longer the woman's presence in the synagogue but that Jesus treats this embarrassing creature like a person. Repulsive as she is. and a woman. Jesus does what may be even more unforgivable to the leader of the synagogue. he touches her. Orthodox Rabbis did not associate with any women other than their wives and children. They never touched them. especially not a deformed unknown woman. and especially not on the holy day of the Sabbath. But Jesus lays his hands on her. blesses her and she is healed. She stands up straight and praises God. In the receiving of the blessing. this once bent woman is not only healed but she is elevated to the status of a male. an equal to all gathered. for it is the males who received such blessings. The leader of the synagogue is irate but clearly doesn't want to get in Jesus' face so he uses his well-honed skills in triangulated communication to stir up the crowd by focusing on details that miss the miracle of grace and the revealed truth of the moment. He would no doubt have been a popular politico today focusing on any distracting detail to avoid looking at the essential issues before him. The woman was healed. but he asked, "Do you know what day of the week it is? Can we really trust someone who acts so boldly to care for another person on the Sabbath?" We all take a certain satisfaction in watching Jesus name the hypocrisy that has been exhibited This crowd does not buy the distracting and mean spirited challenge made to Jesus once the greater truth has been revealed. They respond by following the healed woman's example of rejoicing in the blessing of this vision of truth beyond the structures and limits of tradition and law. It is so easy to fall into the traps of our routines. to uncritically accept what we hear and see as a truth by which we should live and order our lives. That is why we need to be constantly encountering God's word in our daily devotions and our weekly worship. to be reminded that the world around us contains moments when God wants to draw us into that circle of grace. a Spiritual talking circle if you will when the totem of his spirit brings forth a voice that we would so easily miss if it were left in our tightly structured and organized world. It happened again to me this past week. I was in the midst of showing a possible new youth choir director around the building when Nila (our church secretary) came and got me. She said there was a man here who had already stopped by twice before who was looking for some help. I figured it was another homeless unemployed person to be referred to PADS Plus or COOL Pantry. someone looking for a few dollars for gas. another hard luck story. I know I sighed (at least to myself) I left our prospective director with Pastor Chris and invited the man to step into the library where we could talk. He was carrying a bundle of papers. he shook my hand and thanked me for being willing to talk with him. We sat down. the whole time he kept averting his eyes. turning away from me. looking beyond me. never meeting my eyes. He began to talk and gradually confirmed my suspicions that he was being treated for mental disorders. His papers were documentation of this treatment process and application for disability from Social Security. which had been initially denied. as it almost always is these days.. He talked and I gradually remembered him from a couple years ago when he had had some car trouble. He seemed more anxious and troubled then he was then. I listened. He described his struggle to be recognized as worthy of help. he asked me to call the person handling his case. he invited me to call his therapist. He said he just needed another voice to try to help him to be able to continue to live in the little apartment he had and not have to go back to the shelters. He reminded me that it would be getting cold soon. I told him to wait in the library. I went to my office and made two phone calls to the numbers he had given me. The long and short of it was that I received assurances from those I talked to that they were working on the case. I told them I would check back them on their progress. I returned to the library. told him what I had done. As he stood up he shook my hand. looked me straight in the eye and said "Thank you." I asked him if there was anything else I could do. he said, "No, not at this time." I watched him leave and I started talking to Nila about other matters. About five minutes passed and then I noticed him coming back in the front door. I stepped into the narthex and asked him if anything was wrong. "No" he said as he looked beyond me. There was a silent moment as his gaze anxiously fluttered around the narthex. then he handed me a small envelope and said, "This is for you" after which he turned and went out the door. I walked back into the office. the envelope was sealed. I opened it and pulled out a card. on the cover it simply said "Thank you". In side he had printed the words. "Thank you for treating me like a human being. Most people don't do that any more." Grace comes in many forms. reminders of where the truth lies. As I prepared this sermon in the memory of this weeks events. I found myself thinking of all those who our society would call bent and crippled. I found myself thinking about what I have learned from them when the circle of grace allowed them voice and place without regard for stature or position. power or influence. I suppose part of it was visiting Minnesota this week. but I was amazed by the list I could chronicle in my mind. names I had long since forgotten suddenly flowed into my memory. There was my grade school friend Paul Anderson who had a serious polio limb but who won our fourth grade all school 50 yard dash by throwing himself across the finish line just ahead of the boy who would go on to become a high school all conference running back. I'm not sure if Paul ever ran in another race. or won one. but I still remember sensing the courage he exhibited by even entering the race. And there was Gayle in her wheel chair and leg braces who when we got to high school volunteered to help me work the lights for a high school dance recital production. Rarely have the colors of the lights been so lovingly chosen to match not only the music and costume but the personality of each performer as Gayle had come to know them moving around back stage on her crutches. My list runs on including the blind student in seminary in the room next to mine who taught me to hear in ways I had never thought possible. And there is the nearly deaf and blind wheel chair bound social activist I have known for years who organizes relief programs for the physically challenged of Haiti. So many who have found their way int the circle of my life. When the crippled woman entered the synagogue. Jesus saw another child of God entering the circle of grace. It really didn't matter what day it was. Sabbath or Monday. Ordinary day or holy day. every day is a good day to pass the totem of the Spirit to another voice. The danger is when the voice becomes a law unto itself. defining not only the Sabbath but each of us apart from God or grace or the spirit of truth. The oppressive power of the law haunts our world. I was struck this week by the news story about the decision of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton to invalidate the first Communion of an 8-year old girl who suffers from a rare digestive disorder and cannot eat wheat. It seems she was communed with a wheatless rice based wafer which the Roman Church declares cannot be valid since the wafer to make the communion valid must contain some unleavened wheat just as the bread Jesus is believed to have used at the Last Supper. So the Roman Church would require that in order to receive the gift of God's grace the child must consume a life threatening wheat based wafer. The priest who first communed her with a rice wafer was criticized and his actions declared invalid by Roman Church authorities. I believe the priest had a clear understanding of the meaning of Christ's presence as it entered a bent life just like that in our lesson for today. But as happens too often, the spirit of truth and grace can be swallowed up by a church hierarchy obsessed with preserving power. maintaining tradition. upholding the security of the past. I am pained by such stories. they are the very proof of human hypocrisy that removes the church and those who lead it from any right to claim any place of privilege in God's kingdom. While the Lutheran church struggles with many difficult issues that also challenge us to include those who many would call the bent of the world I am at least able to say that on the issue of wheatless wafers our Lutheran church errors on the side of grace and leaves to God the power to be mediated by whatever form the Spirit calls us to believe. Rules. rituals. traditions. Laws all help order our world and lives. They provide a certain feeling of comfort and security. But the truth is not always comfortable to hear. And the Spirit rarely moved a prophet or the people to strive for safety and security. The Spirit calls us to something more. God gave Israel and us the seventh day as Sabbath as a gift of grace. A time intended to help us discover the holiness within our busy week and daily routine. But more important a time to have us pause to reclaim that part of ourselves that was created in the image of God. that we might have time to hear the truth about those who struggle for a place in the kingdom. That is why we are each here today. for we are all crippled by some sin. some pain. some memory that would make us miss the truth of Christ's coming. That is why we gather at this table of grace. A gift of grace offered to all who would receive it in faith. This is the holy circle to which we are called again this day. to be Sabbath keepers in the spirit of truth. to pass God's word to one and other. to join others who have been touched by Jesus to stand up straight and praise God.
Amen