Sermons for the Month
Jesus, You Have a Lot of Nerve!
DATE: August 26th, 2007
SERVICE: 13th Sunday After Pentecost
TEXT: Luke 13:10-17“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
You tell him Jesus! That leader of the synagogue has a lot of nerve to chastise Jesus for curing on the Sabbath. Of all the outrageous things … he thinks people should keep the 10 Commandments, specifically the 3rd which cites the example of God, who rested on the seventh day when the world was created, and requires that the day be kept holy. This leader has the audacity to suggest that since the woman has been suffering for 18 years, and is in no danger of dying, that Jesus should have waited to heal her. After all, since Sabbath laws prohibit travel, both she and Jesus will be in town when the Sabbath ends. So, why can't Jesus honor God by keeping the Sabbath free from work and heal the woman later? In that way, the woman would have been healed and the Sabbath would have been honored. He has a lot of nerve to try and uphold what he considers to be right and holy! I hope you caught my sarcastic tone, because if we look at this account objectively it is not the leader of the synagogue who has a lot of nerve, it's Jesus. The fact of the matter is that he could have kept the 3rd Commandment while at the same time healing the woman. In fact, since the Sabbath ended a sun down, the healing could have been delayed just a few hours, and what would have been wrong with that? The answer is nothing, except that Jesus wanted to establish a new way to live and to love God, which actually is more difficult that following the rules. It's true, isn't it, that while people complain about rules, there is at the same time something attractive about them. Especially in the realm of relationship with God, it's helpful to know that if you do "this", then "that" is the consequence. For one thing it makes it possible for us to "control" God with our behavior and it's a great way to manage people's actions, including our own. This is one of the reasons a literal interpretation of the Bible is attractive to many people. Jesus made being faithful more challenging. So, for example, if the question is, "How do we remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy?" Jesus says that the answer does not lie in keeping rules, but in evaluating our motives and in determining the results of our actions. So, if one is going to keep the Sabbath holy by attending worship, then the question is whether or not one is doing so out of a desire to praise God, to grow in faith and to connect with other believers, or because one hopes to get points with God so that God will do what that person wants. Then we evaluate the result of our actions. Does what we are doing honor God, and does it stir up in others the desire to know God, or to praise God? So, let's go back to today's Gospel lesson. The woman has been suffering for 18 years; she has been bent over, unable to look people in the eyes. No doubt her posture kept her from breathing properly; it limited her activities. Who knows how much pain she might have endured? Jesus sees her and feels compassion; there is no mention of her asking for help or expressing faith. In a moment of pure grace Jesus spoke a word of freedom, touched her, and she was a new person, able to stand up and face the world. By showing such mercy for one of God's children, Jesus honored God. And, this woman praised God, amazed and grateful for her transformation. It's true, Jesus could have waited until the Sabbath ended to heal her, but why would he do so? He kept the Sabbath holy because his motivation was compassion and his actions resulted in God being honored and in praise of God. But is it only the Sabbath that we should keep holy? While it's true that God has done us a favor by setting aside a day for us to be rejuvenated and to strengthen our relationships with God and with fellow believers, the fact is that every day is holy. The principle that we talked about applying to the Sabbath could be applied to any decision made at any time by any person. Sometimes, though, the answer is not as clear as was the case with the suffering woman in the synagogue. I came across a brief story in the Christian Century that illustrates this point, even though it's about a Jewish rather than Christian congregation. The title was "Auction Block". It seems that a synagogue board in the Bronx once wrote a well-known Rabbi asking his advice about whether to sell their old synagogue to a Baptist church or to a bank. The Rabbi read the letter to one of his classes, asking the rabbinical students how they would reply. One student said, "Never sell to a (Christian) church!" But the Rabbi responded: "If it is sold to a bank then it will become a temple of capitalism; if it is sold to a church, then it will continue to be a temple of God." (1) To sell to the church, although controversial for some, was a way to honor God and to promote praise. The Rabbi considered that to be the good choice. What do you think, was that an easy decision to make? (It would be for us, but we cannot see it from the perspective of our Jewish sisters and brothers.) But, what if the bank was going to offer low interest loans and check cashing services to those who were regularly be taken advantage of by unscrupulous lenders? Would that have made the decision more difficult? There are times when it's not easy to decide what to do, when it would be much simpler to have a rule to follow. That's when prayer and discernment with other believers is needed. So we thoughtfully consider these questions: Does this action honor God, and does it stir up in others the desire to know and to praise God? If the answer to both questions is "yes", then it's probably a good choice to make. But, we still need to look at our motives, because sometimes that which looks positive is motivated by the negative. For example, the "background" for the lesson we read from Isaiah is that people were observing spiritual disciplines - like fasting or keeping the Sabbath - for selfish reasons, like the desire to gain God's blessing. Their motivation for keeping the rules was wrong. In order to keep that from happening as we make decisions, we really have to be honest and ask ourselves. Will God really be honored, or is a back door way for me to be honored? Will others be praising God, or will their focus be elsewhere? Since we are human, we won't be able to completely avoid negative motivations. The way to keep them in check, though, is to develop a relationship with God that is real and growing. And whether or not that happens is up to each one of us. In today's Gospel lesson Jesus not only freed the woman who was bent over, he freed the people of God from being tied to rules and using them in a futile attempt to get what they want from God. In both cases there was transformation. Her freedom changed her life; she probably faced new challenges that were previously unknown to her. After all, do we suppose it was easy for her to look people in the eyes when she spoke to them, after so many years of looking down? Well, we too are being asked to look life full in the face and make decisions that further the love of Jesus in the world. This is not always easy; it requires an on-going relationship with God and introspection. Sometimes we feel it would be simpler to follow rules and keep score, but Jesus set us free from that. As was true of the woman, he sees us, calls us and transforms us. Then, he trusts us to live transformed lives and to be transformers - of all the nerve!
AMEN
(1) "Auction Block", "The Christian Century", August 21, 2007, pg. 6