by the Rev. Jim Gilman
This sermon is based on Luke 13:10-17.
Many of you know that this
Wednesday, August 28 is the 50th anniversary of the March on
Washington. In fact, some of you like me are gray-haired enough to remember the
original event; perhaps some were even there. It was a big step in the journey
of racial healing in this country. It contributed to the passage of the Civil
Rights bill and the Voting Rights act in the mid-60s. But that journey of
racial healing is not yet complete and indeed is proving to be rough and
precarious.
Our
gospel lesson from Luke is a story of healing. It is a story about two people
who are crippled by two different kinds of ailments. The crippled woman suffers
involuntarily a physical ailment from which Jesus sets her free. The leader of
the synagogue is crippled voluntarily by a spiritual ailment: legalism. Jesus
offers to heal him and the congregation to “untie” or set them free from the
suffocating prison of legalism
“Untied” and Healed
The context of Luke’s story is a journey Jesus takes through
Samaria up to Jerusalem. Along the way Jesus stops to teach. In our episode, he
stops at a synagogue in Samaria. As he is teaching, a woman appears who is in
bondage to a crippling disease. Jesus sees her in the congregation and immediately
his teaching turns into an invitation. “Come here,” he says to her; and she
comes. What happens next is miraculous and amazing to everyone: As Jesus lays
his hands on her he says “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” You can
just imagine people gasping as the woman feels strength surge through her bones,
feels her broken, bent body straighten. At one moment she is in bondage to a
crippling disease and the next moment her body is liberated and she is “set
free”. Wow!!
Well, you might think that would be the end of the
episode; but not when there are clergy around; we didn’t go to seminary for
nothin’. So, the leader of the synagogue has his say. He’s “indignant”, Luke
says, not because Jesus heals the women, but because he heals her on the
Sabbath instead of one of the other six days of the week. Of course, the leader did not think to ask the
woman what she thought of being healed on the Sabbath. But Jesus speaks up for
her. He is a practicing Jew and not against Sabbath regulations; he is only
against the abuse and misuse of them. In this case, the leader of the synagogue
suffers from a spiritual sickness—legalism; he is misusing Sabbath regulations
by trying to use them to dominate Jesus and manipulate a situation that he feels
is getting out of his control. He doesn’t seem to care at all that the woman is
healed or not. But Jesus has none of it; he is not about to allow the leader to
misuse Sabbath rules to suppress compassion and healing. He is not about to
allow the power of love to be in bondage to anger and legalism. Recall what Jesus
says: “You hypocrites!” You untie your ox and donkey on the Sabbath and lead
them to water so that they can live well. But you say I can’t untie this woman
and heal her of her disease on the Sabbath. Come on! That’s hypocritical.……………Well, that
kind of shut the opposition up.
Jesus offers moral and spiritual healing to the synagogue
leader and the congregation. He rejects the fear and suspicion that misuses Sabbath
regulations to try and dominate and intimidate. He demonstrates that “untying”
and setting free from fear and suspicion heals and is always a good thing in God’s Kingdom.
Application
Luke’s gospel is filled with stories of compassion and healing.
Compassion and healing never go out of fashion. Luke’s lesson is our lesson;
Jesus comes to “untie” us from the bondage of whatever ails us. Not only as
individuals but also as a society, we are in need of healing, in need of being
“untied” from the bondage of certain collective diseases.
One
social ailment that is on my mind these days is disease of racial fear and
mistrust, represented specifically by the Trayvon Martin tragedy. The need for
the March on Washington and the demand for racial healing is as urgent today as
it was then; our society suffers from the disease of racial fear and suspicion
and mistrust. Some say justice was done when George Zimmerman was acquitted. I
don’t thinks so, even though procedural rules were followed as strictly as
Sabbath regulations. Our society is still bound by the injustice of racial fear
and suspicion and mistrust. For example, if it was my white son who was walking
to the store through the same neighborhood as Travyon, George Zimmerman would barely
have noticed him let alone fear him and hold him in suspicion. If it was my
white son he would not have stopped his car, he would not have gotten out and
followed him; he would not have engaged him in a tragic encounter; he would not
have shot and killed him. This tragedy happened because racial fear and
suspicion still plague our society For all the good rules and regulations do,
for all the great progress in civil law and human rights we have made in this
country, we still suffer from a disease of racial fear and suspicion that leads
to discrimination and injustice. Indeed, the “stand your ground” law in Florida
was misused, like Sabbath rules, to try to control and intimidate Trayvon; and
it ended in tragedy.
Christians
need to constantly reform the church as a power that heals and sets free—in
this case from the disease of racial. As Christians we carry in our spiritual
blood a mission of mercy and freedom and justice, a mission that has the power
to heal and transform racial fear and injustice.
There
is today still a lot of racial mistrust and injustice in Staunton, in our
neighborhoods, in our public schools, in our courts and justice system, in our
homes and even in our churches. Trinity’s challenge, from Luke’s gospel, is to follow
Jesus in giving voice to the voiceless, to those that live in the shadow of racial
fear and suspicion; to untie our society from its racial fear and mistrust; to
offer to what Jesus offers, the healing of God’s love and mercy and
reconciliation. Jesus is here amongst us
today to heal our racial fears and suspicions; he unties the church from that
bondage of mistrust so that we can live fully and freely with all races.
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