Preached as sermon at Croydon Minster on Sunday 25 August, Tenth Sunday after Trinity.
‘When Jesus laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up
straight and began praising God’ (Luke
13.12)
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This morning’s gospel reading tells us about an encounter
that is both beautiful and disturbing at the same time.
Beautiful: because in it a woman who has been bowed down
for eighteen years regains her stature and dignity of herself in in the sight
of others.
Disturbing: because the reaction to this act of restoration
and healing sparks indignation from those who should be most joyful that another
human being has her dignity restored.
The woman typifies those who are bent over and weighed
down, physically yes, but psychologically or spiritually too. This isn’t just
physical: how often are the physically afflicted spiritually upright?!
This crippling aliment, described as a ‘spirit’ by St Luke,
but not defined by him, has oppressed her for eighteen years.
The period of eighteen years will have had interesting
connotations for the people gathered in that synagogue on that Sabbath Day.
In the book of Judges it was for eighteen years that the
Israelites had to serve the foreign king Eglon of Moab (Judges 3.14) and for eighteen years the foreign Ammonite kingdom
‘crushed and oppressed’ the Israelites (Judges
10.8). The number eighteen is associated with oppression and being crushed
down.
Intriguingly also, according to the Jewish numerological
tradition, the number eighteen also signifies ‘life’, ‘alive’ or ‘living
creature’.
So a woman oppressed for eighteen years, becomes a newly
‘living creature’ who can stand up straight and praise God.
Beautiful.
The fact this took place on the Sabbath Day is also deeply resonant and filled with meaning.
Observing the Sabbath is a good thing. A day of rest, a day
when the pace of life changes, a day to know the gift of life; a day to honour
God our Creator: it is telling that our society in all its turmoil and dis-ease
neglects Sabbath.
But we miss the point of Sabbath if, like the synagogue
leader, we cannot show mercy and loving kindness on that day. If we cannot show
it on that day can we ever show it on the other six?
The Creation begins on the first day as God says ‘let there
be light’ (Genesis 1.3) and unfolds
over six days. The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week when God rested,
seeing that all was good.
Yet the creation is marred and disfigured. People are
oppressed, bowed down externally and internally, physically and mentally, and
in the words of the hymn ‘Just as I am, without one plea’, we come to Jesus,
the Lamb of God,
…tossed
about
with
many a conflict, many a doubt,
fightings
within, and fears without’
We, like the woman, come to him now. And he beholds her; he
beholds you; he beholds me.
To Jesus Christ we are not problems to be manged we are
living creatures, who are loved, to be restored to life, to be released from
all that bows us down.
So this act of restoration on the Sabbath Day anticipates
the eighth day of creation, the first day of the new week, the Day of
Resurrection, the Day of Life, the day of the New Creation, a day that has
dawned today.
In the act of restoring that woman to dignity the crowds came
to see that God’s priority is the lifting up of people from the dust, the
gutter and into life.
The action of baptism is the Church’s sacramental sign that
raises up men, women and children sharing in the raising up of Christ through
his Resurrection.
‘If
you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ
is, seated at the right hand of God’ (Colossians
3.1)
Being baptised is an act of restoration and with this
gospel reading we learn how we might approach God and our neighbour.
As Christians we should not be able see another person
without beholding them as Christ does. In a brief walk outside this church we
will see many people bowed down in spirit: Christ raises them up when they are
freed from addiction, poverty, pain and we respond to them with kindness,
hospitality and love. That is a sign of the Kingdom of God.
And what of our approach to God? This question comes not
least in relation to the first reading today concerning the awe and majesty of
God which perhaps prompts us to fall to our knees in reverence and humble
devotion. Kneeling is a right and proper posture in God’s presence: just as how
we bow reverently before the cross; bend our knee in genuflection at Christ’s
presence in the sacrament; or kneel to receive Christ in Holy Communion.
But that is not the only posture of a Christian. Christ
says, ‘stand up’ to the woman, ‘reclaim your dignity as a daughter, a child, of
the Most High. Our Eucharistic Prayer says, ‘We thank you for counting us
worthy to stand in your presence and serve you’ (Common Worship: Services and Prayers for the Church of England,
Prayer B). Standing as a posture of prayer bespeaks dignity, presence and
attention.
In church standing when a priest enters is not about doing
the priest honour but rather saying that together with the priest we are the
church, ‘a royal priesthood, a holy people’. Worshippers are not spectators but
participants.
We are citizens of the Kingdom not consumers of it. As Jesus
says, ‘Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your
heads, because your redemption is drawing near’ (Luke 21.28).
Of course kneeling or standing is not easy for everyone, or
not for prolonged periods of time. But even in sitting we can sit in an
anticipating way, a receptive, attentive way, with open hands and relaxed
shoulders; or we can choose to button up, with our arms folded, and sit as if
at a show.
Liturgy is not a performance; we are all ministers of it.
Never allow your posture to turn you into a spectator whatever is going on in
front of you, because in worship we are in the presence of the Living God, just
as the letter to the Hebrews describes:
…since
we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which
we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our
God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12.29)
It is for this that we are made, to praise and glorify God
in the gift of life given to us by birth and renewed in baptism: ‘When Jesus
laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising
God’ (Luke 13.12)
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