The readings for Sunday, 21 August, are as follows (to read them, click HERE):
Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71:1-6
Hebrews 12:18-29
Luke 13:10-17
Sermon
One might wonder just what it is that Jesus has done wrong. A woman who is bent over and unable to stand up straight has appeared in the synagogue on the Sabbath. And Jesus heals her. So what is the leader of the synagogue objecting to?
The synagogue leader sees the healing as work, and any kind of work was strictly forbidden on the Sabbath day. Even today, Orthodox Jews will live near their synagogue, for example, so that they can walk to the services, because driving is seen as work. Keeping the Sabbath is a sacred and very powerful practice. But that’s another topic.
But in the case of Jesus healing this woman, instead of saying he is working, there are a couple different ways to look at what is happening. The way the reading comes across, it sounds like Jesus is being compassionate towards her. ‘Shouldn’t this woman be set free?’ he essentially says. ‘She has been bound for eighteen long years.’ He says that it is Satan who has bound her. Eighteen years is a long time to be crippled by Satan. Jesus has compassion on her and sets her free.
But there is another way to look at this story. Jesus is God Incarnate, God made flesh, and the power of God is in him. When Jesus heals the woman, it is the power of God coming forth from him to heal her, to set her free. He can do no other, for in the face of Satan, God’s power must be revealed. Yes, we have here a manifestation (a showing) of God’s compassion and goodness, as embodied in Jesus Christ, but we also have a manifestation of God’s power.
Power. This is a word that we are not always comfortable with in the present day. People think it means bad things — lording it over people, abusing people, corruption and deceit. The word carries all sorts of negative connotations.
Our readings today repeatedly show us the power of God. In some way, that is what the readings are about. In the Gospel, we have the power of God in Jesus healing a woman who has been afflicted for 18 years. In the Old Testament, we have the calling of the prophet Jeremiah. It seems Jeremiah is just a lad, maybe a young man — we don’t know how old he is. And God appoints him to carry God’s words to the nations; this was a prophet’s job. But Jeremiah protests: ‘Ah Lord, I’m just a boy. I don’t know how to speak.’ And God appoints him anyway.
It is the power of God choosing who will carry the divine word to the people and the nation (a difficult job). And then, just like Jesus lays his hands on the woman to heal her, God touches Jeremiah. (Let’s not get into the details of how this happened — in a vision of the divine, one can feel oneself to be touched). God touches Jeremiah’s mouth, and now God’s words are in Jeremiah. In a later chapter, Jeremiah will say that he tries to keep silent (because being a prophet is a thankless task), but he cannot. His words burn within him, and he has to speak. [Jer. 20:9 — ‘If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.’]
“You have not come to something that can be touched,” our reading from Hebrews begins. We are used to manifestations of power, in the form of fire and storm, like the mighty thunderstorm we had last week. That is power, but God’s power is greater. In fact, our passage from Hebrews ends with the words, “For indeed our God is a consuming fire.”
Not very comforting words, those. A consuming fire. That is power, for sure. And yet — I said a few weeks ago that there is always good news in the Bible. That’s the point of it, to bring us good news. The power of God is the power that is inherent in our faith. Faith in God, trust in Jesus Christ, belief that the Holy Spirit can lead us and inspire us — if we truly believe it, there is power in it: power to heal, power to surmount obstacles, power to overcome adversity, power to love and to forgive.
“You have not come to something that can be touched,” the author of Hebrews says. Later in the passage, he says that all the things that can be touched can disappear. He says it by saying that “created things” can be “shaken.” The power of God can shake all these created things, the things that we can see and hear and touch. They are impermanent; they do not last. And God will shake these things, “so that what cannot be shaken may remain.” And this is the kingdom we are receiving from God: one that cannot be shaken. It will not tumble into dust. It is eternal, and it is trustworthy.
It seems to me, as I watch and listen to people, that one of the biggest impediments to faith in today’s world is the inability to recognize that there is something other than what we can touch and hear and see. People kind of feel the presence of a spiritual realm, a nonmaterial world, but they will acknowledge only the dark side. So we get all the dark and creepy films that are out there. People do not seem to recognize the presence of a good side, a power for life and health and compassion and unity.
But God goes beyond just goodness, in the somewhat anemic way we tend to think of goodness, as sweetness and light, as something that makes us feel good. Just as Jesus healing a woman bound for 18 years by Satan is an expression of compassion but more than that, God’s power in our lives goes beyond goodness. The power of our God is a consuming fire that will remake us, transform us, get rid of all that can be shaken — all the impermanent stuff that is not of God and does not lead to life — so that what remains in us is that which cannot be shaken: pure faith that rises out of trust in God and obedience (yes, obedience) to God. Such faith carries tremendous power to heal, to surmount obstacles, to overcome adversity, to love and to forgive. Such faith comes not from we ourselves; it is God’s power within us, upholding us and strengthening us.
Recently I have been praying the words of St. Patrick’s Breastplate, as given to us in the hymn that is in our hymnal, by Fanny Alexander. I quote a verse of this hymn as to the power that is inherent in faith:
“I bind unto myself today
the power of God to hold and lead,
his eye to watch,
his might to stay,
his ear to hearken to my need;
the wisdom of my God to teach,
his hand to guide,
his shield to ward;
the word of God to give me speech,
his heavenly host to be my guard.”
But note one thing: We do not harness God’s power and direct it. We do not control it. We pray the prayer and back off and let God’s ways work. We put ourselves in God’s hands and back off and let God work. We say, “Your will be done, O God.” And we worship and give thanks. As the author of Hebrews also says,
“Let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe.”