Isn’t it great to hear our younger voices reading scripture?! Great job Sabine and Pascale!
From what Pascale/Sabine read, we heard a bit of shaking up going on. The bent over woman’s life was shaken up because Jesus acted! One commentator suggested she might have had osteoporosis! With Jesus’ touch after eighteen years, she could stand tall. She could praise God. Jesus’ actions shake up the leader of the synagogue as well. He speaks out against what has happened and he points his finger at Jesus who has fallen short of the mark. Not only is he disappointed in Jesus’ actions, the leader of the synagogue tries to get the crowd worked up as well and again points out Jesus’ inappropriate actions. He says, and it is true, six days are for work and the seventh is Sabbath – for rest. That is true. No work on the Sabbath. Since folks come to be healed at synagogue, they can come any day but there shall be no healing on the Sabbath.
The safest course is usually to insist on the rule; we do that. Leaders especially are to care about rules. I can’t fault the leader for doing his duty. To be in a leadership position in any time or place requires bearing the responsibility of understanding the rules in depth and interpreting them persuasively. Abiding by rules and expected ways of behavior avoid chaos. As a leader, it takes a bit of fine-tuning to distinguish between upholding rules and allowing for exceptional cases.
A couple of years ago an article reported that an orthodox Jewish physician argued that Torah teaches that one might break the Sabbath to save the life of a Jew; the same may not necessarily be true for a Gentile. I offer this just to illustrate how seriously observant many Jewish folks take the Sabbath. This is not just a whimsical example we have before us from our scripture.
This woman in our scripture reading, however, was not in mortal danger; she could wait another day. But Jesus acts otherwise. Jesus’ response to criticism is otherwise.
As a superintendent, I was advised not to take a Book of Discipline (that’s the church’s book of rules) with me when there was dissension. It’s too easy to fall back on rules and not get to the root of the issue; it’s harder but more beneficial to work through differences together. Sometimes actions, like those of Jesus, are not about following rules; sometimes disagreements, too, are not really about the rules.
The leader rather than reaching out to give a hand had his finger pointing at another announcing the other one was at fault. How often do we fall into that kind of behavior: pointing fault in another’s direction or just not seeing the need or hearing the need and we so fail to respond at all or perhaps respond but only with good intentions? Jesus responded to the need and Jesus’ response to the leader was to talk with the crowd. Jesus spoke of going beyond the rule. Jesus spoke of the human need that was before them. He acted. He didn’t wait for the correct day or permission. It’s interesting to read further in that scriptural story that the crowd was persuaded and saw the wonderful things he was doing – even on the Sabbath.
He was bringing the kingdom of God into their everyday living.
It’s interesting how we become more flexible when it comes to rules when the rule weighs heavily against someone close to us? We can see injustice and unintentional cruelty in a rule that we might ordinarily support.
I was in NYC last Saturday and for the first found myself on a NYC bus. I had read a little so I knew the bus line I needed to take in order to get to the Cloisters. It was long trip from mid Manhattan. And I knew also I had to have the correct change. So I hopped on the bus fussing with my two dollars and twenty five cents. There was no place to put the bills. Fortunately, there was no line of people behind me. The bus had pulled away from the stop by now. The driver said the bus doesn’t take bills: only coins or a pass card. I readied myself to get dumped at the next stop. But the driver continued to talk with me. He said, “Oh, just sit down. It’ll be fine.” And then he said, “You’re going to the Cloisters aren’t you?” “Yes.” “If you don’t have change, there’s no way for you to get back.” “I’ll get change at the museum. (He shook his head.) Not at the Cloisters?” “Oh no, and it’s in a park away from any concessions or places that can give you change.” He continued, “Wait a second.” He fiddled with some papers, stamped one, and then handed me a paper one trip pass that would take care of my return trip. Now, this is no Jesus, or healing. Well, perhaps, I’ll take that back. Perhaps this is just the way Jesus would have acted. It is a tremendous reaching out to a stranger, going against the rules he was supposed to follow (I wondered if he could have lost his job), and he doubled the favor of the outreach, totally out of the kindness of his heart, by offering me return passage.
But that wasn’t all. What astounded me further was to sit on that hour trip to the Cloisters Museum and experience this bus driver time after time reaching out in kindness and going against the rules. He let on more than one passenger who was waiting for a bus that didn’t run on Saturday in the summertime: a man in an electric wheelchair and a woman using a cane. The driver took them on the bus – actually getting out of his seat to rearrange a seat and alter the bus so they could get on. This bus driver drove them with no charge to the stop where they could make their correct connection. It was after all on the way.
But what further astounded me was how that engendered others on that bus to reach out to each other: I saw one woman who did not have change be given another’s pass to use.
Now if that isn’t building the kingdom of God, here and now, I don’t know what is. I wondered if I was in the real world. The focus was on how we could help where there was a need; it was not on rules; it was not on finger pointing about someone doing the job or he shouldn’t be doing that. The focus was on grace received and acting out of that grace.
Mind you, the return ride from the Cloisters Museum and Gardens was just as long – an hour and all the rules were followed. I took note: Two young men were refused passage. A bit further along seven monks were refused passage because they did not have the right change. I kid you not. The kingdom-bringing smile on my face that I had in the morning somehow could not be found in the afternoon even though all the rules were being followed and I arrived at my destination thanks to the morning driver’s kindness.
Our reading from Jeremiah that Pascale/Sabine read speaks of shaking up things as well. Jeremiah describes how God spoke to him saying, “I appointed you prophet to the nations.” We know this scripture. Jeremiah shaken by this command says, “No, I’m too young. I don’t know how to speak.” Jeremiah speaks saying similar excuses we find to say thanks, but no thanks, to the God of our living. We know of other prophets who have at first given excuses before they take in the grace God offers. God shakes Jeremiah some more, “The Lord touched my hand and touched my mouth.” You are ready with all you need. “I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.” God needed Jeremiah in a big way so that many would know God once again. Jeremiah did respond. God needs us as well.
I bring up this reading from Jeremiah because it says something more than seeing ourselves in the hesitations to act in the love and justice building God requires of us. It says something more than the shaking up God sometimes challenges us with. This piece speaks of the foundation out of which we act and live. It speaks to the foundation out of which Jesus thought, and prayed, acted and loved, believed and taught.
God says to Jeremiah and each one of us as well, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you and before you were born I consecrated you….” That, my friends, is the firm foundation on which we can abide. We are known by God. Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you… & consecrated you…. Each and every single one of us is known and loved by God. That sense of inclusive embrace is there upon our arrival on conception. God graces us abundantly with love. We are held in the palm of his hand.
Yesterday I shared a psalm at a memorial service for Sue Ellen Robinson Creeden. It is the 139th psalm – one of my favorites and it speaks to that very same of inclusion and place God takes in our lives – every one of us is in God’s embrace. Hear just a portion from 139:1-5, 7-10, 13, 23.
How firm a foundation is that? You see our firm foundation is not in rules, Jesus was always trying to tell folks that – we know that rules are there to help guide us, to care for the well being of one another but they have shortfalls. They don’t fully address human need. Our need is to know that truly God loves me.
You see we need to know how deeply God loves us – no matter what we are about, no matter how good or not up to par we are, no matter how successful we are.
But what is even more amazing is that when we recognize that we are loved we cannot help but also recognize that not we alone are loved by God. God loves each one of us the world around. God loves the one sitting in front of us as well as the one who lives next door or at 350 First Avenue in Albany. I believe that bus driver even though he never said it outright knew he was loved by God, and he, in turn, deeply cared for others naturally. He lived out the grace of God he receives.
So if we are able to take in the love that God has for us, how can we act in any other way than to reach out when there is a need? How do we do other than what Jesus offered the bent over woman? How do we do less than what that bus driver offered? How do we do no less than to become involved in a community that is reaching out to others? How can we do anything but to assist to let others know of how this faith community makes a difference in peoples’ lives? How do we do less than offer our gifts of talent? How can we do no less than offer ways we might help to reach out beyond ourselves?
The crowd in that synagogue was convinced by what Jesus had done and said. Are you?
