Lectionary Year C
August 26, 2001

Luke 13:10-17
Contemporary Address

Step VI - Contemporary Address

A. Goals

(JFC) Interpreting this story might reveal ways God enables sick (aren't we all?) people to live, yet, faithfully.

B. Congregation Described

(JFC) A congregation I served as Stated Supply between an extended Interim and a full time, resident pastor, recently lost their pastor of six years. They called me to see if I could serve as a part time Interim. I had to decline, but assured them I would love to come and preach for them anytime. Since they are grieving the loss of a very competent pastor, this sermon might speak to their needs and uplift their spirits.

C. Contemporary Addresses

(JFC) Sermon, entitled for this working draft, "How God Heals Even Us"

INTRODUCTION
So, who hurts? Who is out of sorts? Who feels poorly? Who has a headache, an upset stomach, a bruise, hangnail, strained muscle, sprained ankle? Anyone? We might be the softest generation in this very comfortable and convenient place in the modern world. Imagine how the pioneers made it across this wild country two and three centuries ago. Did they ever get sick? What did they do about ailments? What would we have done if we were there then and fell ill? What do we do here and now?

I. GOD

A. Observes our infirmities, our attempts to take care of ourselves and our failures to do so very effectively and knows there is room for improvements for us to do better.

B. God favors wholeness and wellness. As far back as creation, God made it possible for clean water and air to support life, nutriments in the soil and sunshine to enable crops and herds to grow, combinations thereof for fruits and vegetables to flourish and feed.

II. JESUS

A. Acts 10:38, one of Jesus' Job Descriptions. Does God give us such resources with which to do our primary tasks? Very likely. Delineate them both, resources and tasks. Luke 6:6fff explains Jesus' attitude and his priority as a Healer.

B. What he does in this text = Speaks up; He watched, he looked, he observed, he listened and heard and, also, spoke when necessary. He called them like he saw them, even "Hypocrites" and "Fools", for a couple of paradigms. Wonder what words come to his mind when he ponders what we do, when we do it, what we postpone doing, and/or never get around to doing? Do we ever disappoint our Savior? What to do about it?

III. RESPONSE

A. Rejoiced = e;cairen = Perhaps they delighted as if generic Prozak, recently having become available to help depressed people today find happiness, had been made available for them then and there.

B. Praising God = evdo,xazen = Possibly they praised God with their favorite Psalms. What is your favorite Psalm with which to praise God? (Preacher, you might quote, or sing? your favorite one here!)

CONCLUSION

God knows our plights, sees our predictions and cares passionately and does things to help us cope. We could try some of the things Jesus' friends and associates did in his day and time. It worked for them, it might well work for us.





Another contemporary address: (JA) "Stand Up Straight"

Introduction: You might think from the title that this sermon is about posture, health, and maybe exercise. Well, not exactly, but in a sense that is not too far from the truth. It is a sermon about two dimensions to the condition of being "stooped over." [I had thought about the subtitle: "The devil in my bones." You'll see why later].

I. The First Level of Healing: The text is Luke 13:10-17, a wonderful story about Jesus and a woman who has been stooped for 18 years (maybe an injury or osteoporosis...don't know, it doesn't say). He sees her, he speaks to her (I wish I knew what he said to those around him; the story discloses nothing other than that he addresses her as "woman" since I guess he didn't know her name) and though it does not say that she was making any attempt to touch the hem of his garment (like the woman in 8:44), shall we say, he touches her instead, after saying "You're healed by God of this thing that makes you stoop." Then he or she or maybe both - I can't tell since it is a 3rd.person singular form without any indication as to whether it is "she" or "he" - are engaged in glorifying God. It is like they join hands and circle around and around saying "Thank you, God...thank you, God!" And it is so sweet and so beautiful (it just makes you melt inside...this however-old-she-is-woman, but eighteen-year-stoop/afflicted-woman and Jesus find a straight place, stand tall place, erect place, full, whole (Greek "eis to panteles" [forgive the Greek reference but it is soooo rare a phrase!]) place and it is just glorious.

Yes, the stooped condition is surely literal here. The results perhaps of osteoporosis or an accident or some other source of affliction. In contrast to the parallel story in Luke 8 - as we said - we don't know if this woman is old or young, or if she had been to many physicians to no avail. Crooked and bent over she shuffled for eighteen years. It is a beautiful thing that in contrast to the woman in Luke 8 Jesus responds to her without her having done a thing. There is no "Please, help me" in the action of touching the hem of his garment. The first she knows about his interest in her is when he calls to her and announces that God has delivered her from her affliction and then helps her straighten up all the way. The relief is as internal as it is external. Stooped on the outside often means stooped on the inside, too- bent and broken in spirit. Worry can also make one stooped. And loss or fear or self-doubt can make the stoop all the heavier to bear. And sometimes - after eighteen years - you can even get used to being stooped, to looking down at your feet, to being unable to look up.

In this regard a timely thing happens in the story. Now, right here, this other guy who is in charge of the clinic gets totally out of sorts over the fact that Jesus, this woman, and the others who are lining up for healing don't understand that it is after hours! "Weekdays, not weekends" he announces as he invites everyone to pick a number and come back on Monday (one could imagine), but Jesus, who isn't one of those I-just-work-here physicians, exclaims that this is a total sham to post the "closed" sign in the window of the clinic just now...or ever.

What comes after that is slightly more cryptic; it links an ox and a donkey tied at the feed trough and then led to the water trough, and a woman tied in knots for 18 years by the devil, now untied, and aren't you ashamed? And the crowd is rejoicing at all the glorious things (Greek again- such a rare choice = "endoxos") a happening by Jesus' doing - but there is good news in there somewhere.

II. The Second Level of Healing: What Jesus did that day the clinic chief and associates were unable to do. For them it was simple: come back another day during business hours! In the opposing attitude Jesus faces another form of "stoopedness." This part of the story reads like a Lukan Reader's Digest version of John 9 and the story of the man born blind. Who is blind really - or in this case stooped? Who is unable to look up? The woman only or also the objectors? Clearly there is more than one kind of stoopedness. So, Jesus has another healing to accomplish here and maybe the second kind is the tougher of the two to heal!

Jesus' reply to their objections runs like this: you all err in your way of looking at this; it is not work for God to straighten people up; it isn't covered by the sabbath "blue laws." Think of it this way: you go out to feed the horses or your pets every day; it doesn't occur to you that animals in your barn or under your care should fast on the sabbath. You feed them and then you untie and lead them to water; you move them around as usual. If you don't untie them so they can get to water you know that they will perish! So, this woman - a child of the covenant no less - got "untied" today from a shackle that held her fast to the likes of none other than the devil; she couldn't praise nor rejoice because she could not "look up for your redemption draws near," nor "look unto the hills from whence comes your help!"

Cryptic, puzzling words perhaps, but they got the point. And to their credit the dissenters saw the shame in their sham. I wonder if they ever changed their minds and joined the group of those singing in amazement to God?! That is perhaps the real challenge here: how is God going to move the dissenters - all of us - from shame to rejoicing?!

Conclusion: Every day of every week or every year Jesus takes the bonds away and dances with the stooped, the stooped of all ages, all sorts both outward and inward, all durations of oppression. We all wish this unstooping-gift for one another and for everyone and for ourselves. Heads down we hear a voice calling: "Hey there, you there, God has delivered you"....and then he reaches out to you: "Now, stand up straight, all the way! There is no need to stoop anymore; the rejoicing can begin!" Even you, all of us, who feel shame too over our opposition - mostly unwitting - to God's work....we too are on the road to rejoicing. Amen.


| Return to gospel text listings | Return to epistle text listings |
| Return to Old Testament listings | Return to Psalm listings |
| User response form |