Healed on the Sabbath - Luke 13

Be Healed on the Sabbath

Tony Dillon Hansen 

Reflection on Luke 13, Psalm 103, 

Opening prayer

A woman crippled for 18 years is healed this day.  What caused her ailment? We don’t know and it really doesn’t matter.  For how often do we see this in our lives and around us? And our reaction is disdain, neglect, maybe a bit of scorn, but our reaction is a familiar judgment.  They must’ve done something to deserve this, and therefore, we must somehow continue that abandonment, judgment or abject punishment. 

I mean for God’s sake ??

What kept her hidden from all the people around her all those years? After a while she probably just was fixture among them. No one is doing anything for her or with her.  She is isolated, exiled among the people.  

Along comes Jesus, who does what no one else would.  He does not ignore, does not scorn, does not judge.  Jesus comes to heal, and heal, he does. 

Now people are watching this with amazement.

There is always someone in the crowd that wants to complain. It really could have been anything that Jesus said or did. Were those the correct words? Did Jesus commit blasphemy? This happened on the sabbath, a traditional day of rest. 

Jesus disrupts and transcends tradition to bring life. Jesus listens to the spirit and works with the spirit.

Besides, How many people have that luxury of even having a sabbath? 

What a great seat it must be for this person complaining to be able to observe a sabbath and other traditions.  This woman for a good portion of her life has been relegated to the fringes of society, likely not having money, not having opportunities (like the complaining), and not having the support of the people who should be supporting.  They instead bemoan and complain.

People do that today about the panhandlers and homeless on the street. Why won’t they lift themselves by their bootstraps (if they even have any)? Why do I have to pay attention?

Jesus retorts, “don’t you have animals that need water and food on the sabbath?” Do you let them go thirsty and hungry? Would parents make sure their children have food and water or just say, y’all need to fend for yourself, even you the infant?” Ludicrous! 

We all have things to do and on the sabbath. I guarantee farmers still have chores on Sunday. The point of the sabbath is to stop and rest, but not at the expense of others around us. The point of the sabbath is to make time for the spirit to be with us and in us. 

When is a good time to do God’s work, to be God’s face, to be the one that saves? When is a good time to celebrate the spirit and to invite the spirit? When do you need the spirit?

Jesus calls these people who were supposed to be the leaders, the ones to care, the one's to support, the ones to do God’s work, especially on Sunday; these people are hypocrites. (Many in church leadership, including myself, could be called this.)

As stated before, this woman has been like this for years. People probably got used to seeing her like this, and Jesus upends this. Jesus flips tradition of 18 years of apathy, ignorance and disdain, to bring life, to bring healing and to lift someone who needs lifted.

Jesus invites the spirit to be with her, with us - you and me - and to lift us.

That is why we do church.  It is the mystery and miracles of our faith that bring us together . Together, we witness that spirit working.

Think what it must have been like for that woman to, finally, after 18 years have someone pay attention, someone show some love, and someone to be the face of God: To be free from the bondage of whatever ails.  

Don’t we need that today? Let Jesus free us from our bondage, our misery and find praise.

How thrilling that must have been and is why I love this work. Because I see this in people all the time. That exuberant joy and excitement of feeling, the witnessing of the spirit among us (all of us)  and especially when we need it the most, like my life currently, sabbath or not. 

We can reach into our faith and find blessing - a measure of grace. We are reminded then to share that grace, that blessing.

God is here, God is with us and God is healing.

Let Jesus do that for you today. Be healed, especially on the Lord’s day! Be healed and have life no matter what the leaders say.

Beloved, be healed and lift your head this day to the love of God.

Thanks be to God.

Where is your treasure - Luke 12

Where is your treasure?

Tony E Dillon Hansen

Sermon based upon Luke 12: 32-40, Isaiah 1:16-17, and Hebrew 11:1-16

Opening prayer

There is a lot to unpack. We continue this week in Luke 12 after Jesus has just told people parables about a rich man that stored all his wealth, all his “treasures”, but forgot to have wealth in faith and in spirit. For all the so-called broken wealth we can muster in this life will not travel well into the next. 

This causes unnecessary stresses too. Thus when we do this, we worry about the wrong things. We worry about accumulating world prizes, measuring ourselves against those arbitrary ideas of success which are simply broken promises of our world. Instead Jesus reminds us that we have all that we need in God.

25 “And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life?”

I am reminded of the first summer I spent with St John, I visited the Lakota people in the reservation in South Dakota. That experience changed me in ways I could not imagine. It also illustrated what Jesus is saying in this lesson.

For all of the needs and poverty on the reservation, the people held onto culture and each other. They held onto visions of the spirit in themselves, in everyone and in all things around them. 

A poster hanging in the community center read, “Only after the last tree has been cut, only after the last river has been poisoned, only after the last fish has been caught, only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.” This shows us how indigenous cultures value all of creation in the way God asked us, Christians, to steward this garden, our creation. 

To truly value the soil under our feet, the air we breath, the waters that quench our thirsts and realizing that money cannot be eaten or taken with us into the afterlife. 

I think that is what Jesus is saying with, “Where is your treasure is your heart is also.” That begs the question, where is your treasure?

What exactly is it?

Our broken world tells us to amass “treasures” for ourselves.  This stuff can and often does collect dust – and will not follow you into the afterlife. 

 

Maybe, we fear scarcity - not having enough or running out. Inversely, What do we leave behind in the store or on Amazon if we do not buy it? How much faith does that take?

Is this really how we measure personal worth?  Is that where our heart is?

It is amazing how giggly kid on my shoulders can bring a smile and open heart even when hiking up a large hill. 

As well, youth are amazing in resilience with ability to turn any situation into opportunities for fun. They have not etched their lives in the concrete of adulthood. 

Of this I can speak of my own experience. We did not have much, but I believed there was something more than where I was. I had faith, and with faith, I had hope. Love held our family together. That is real treasure beyond any worldly material. 

Hebrews tells us faith is the assurance of things hoped for and things not seen: a gift given to us by God.

What we do with the gifts/treasure we have?  St Paul says we are given 3 spiritual gifts of faith, hope and love. Do we value these as treasure?

When I think about the youth on reservation, I saw hope and possibilities. This gave me more hope for our wider global youth (not just those on the reservation) – that we can trust them – we can have faith in them. They just need some love to grow.

 

In fact, when I think about it; even when people seem resigned to calamity, people can and do find treasure through faith. Maybe, if we reach into our childhood for a glimpse of hope and love in our lives, faith is right alongside. 

 

My physical youth may be gone, but there is still a child inside. Maybe, that is the child in us older folks (perhaps healing) but has hope, with dreams of God’s promise and feeling loved. Maybe, that child in us who Jesus calls treasure.

Maybe, it was the child inside the elders and activists that show a determined faith in what they did as well as showed the people they are.  They want something more for the younger generations than what they had.  They were not concentrated on what they could see, but upon faith that things will get better .

 

They had faith in the Creator to give them that hope, to love that child. God gave them (and you) the promise.

 

Maybe, that is what we need today: A little faith in what we don’t see. Your faith breeds hope. That child inside you lives in hope and God’s promise of love. 

Where is your treasure?

Thanks be to God!