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Pentecost 12, 22 August, 2004 |
Are You Tied or Untied? Surely, I wouldn't think that many of you are tied like that poor woman in the Gospel reading for today. How awful to be able only to stare at the ground! I'm sure it didn't come on suddenly for this woman--probably gradually she leaned over because that was all she could do, until it became a fixed position for her. Tied to the bent position! Awful, awful, awful! Jesus sees her problem as an infirmity, a weakness. He describes this deformity as something from Satan, the prince of all evil spirits. It was the devil who had kept her bound for all those years. Jesus who came to loose all people from all forms of bondage sees this woman's situation for what it is: it is from the devil and not from God. It can not be tolerated in God's world where physical affliction of any kind is never what God desires for any of us. For that matter, God our Father does not want to be tied to anything but to the free relationship he gives us through what his Son, Jesus our Lord, did in coming to live, die and rise for each of us now and always. While some of us may be tied to some form of physical disability, as this woman was, the question we need to ask loudly and clearly and then a clear and loud answer from ourselves: are we tied to that which prevents the full freedom from the Savior? The healing of this woman was a tremendous event in her life and in that of the community. Sad to say, this event took place on a Sabbath, a day when work (that's what the synagogue ruler called this healing) was forbidden. Jesus knew the healing would be considered a work, a no-no for the Sabbath. Jesus could have met her after the Sabbath and healed her. He could have waited until the evening to restore her to her full position, as a daughter of Abraham. But, well, he didn't choose to do that. He chose to heal her, untie her from Satan on the Sabbath. Jesus quite easily shows that she is at least as important as an ox or donkey which they owned. They had to be let out to get water at least twice a day. Wasn't untying her from Satan just a wee bit more important? It's no wonder the opponents of Jesus were humiliated, and the people delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing. Jesus, by this one action, did away with working on the Sabbath. This was no isolated incident on the part of Jesus. This is the third of four times Jesus heals on the Sabbath. While this story is unique to Luke's story of the Good News of Jesus Christ, it is not the only time Jesus seems to say that working (according to the synagogue leaders' definition) on the Sabbath is fine, ok, right on, go for it, however, you might want to put that. You and I almost laugh at this! What would you call it? Stupidity? Gross exaggeration? Making man's rules God's rules? We might even think that these synagogue rulers were "instruments of Satan!" I say we could almost laugh, if we didn't have the same feelings as this synagogue ruler, or have run into the same kind of rules and regulations. I'm fairly old and I remember when it was forbidden by law to sell anything but the most essentials on Sunday. No stores were open, no malls (of course, there weren't any malls back then!) were open for business. Then that just won't hold up in the courts, so, for some merchants, it became a gentlemen's agreement, not to open on Sundays, then not till noon on Sundays, then not till 10 AM on Sundays, and now that has all disappeared. When I was a student at the seminary, we were forbidden to marry, unless we could prove we had a certain amount of money in the bank. Now 2/3 of all students are married (and no financial proofs required!)! In my grandfather's day (he was a pastor) you couldn't date or become engaged at the seminary, but you were required to be married or be accompanied by a maiden sister when you went to your first parish! But the seminaries are not finished with this marriage issue. Now in order to enter the seminary, your wife must be a member of the same church organization as the seminarian is! As I say, I am old but I have a pretty good memory. There were churches which forbade the playing of a guitar in the sanctuary. Some would not allow even a piano (it could only be played at the entrance to the sanctuary to accompany the children). Members of the church I was privileged to serve told me that long hair made a person a non-Christian, that women wearing pants suits should be reprimanded (at a time, when ultra-mini skirts at the communion rail were OK?), that praise music was not really "church" music, that praise bands were too loud (although pipe organs could thunder, well, at least occasionally), and that not using the denominational label in naming a church was wrong (even if it was a hindrance to some people coming to worship)! I remember the church would not tolerate divorced persons. One was innocent and the other guilty. Only the innocent need apply for full church membership and the Sacrament. Now the number of people in the church who are divorced and remarried meet the national average of such persons. A family would not join the church I served because we did not say one of the Ecumenical Creeds and the Lord's Prayer every Sunday! One family didn't join because there was no pulpit (I preached free standing and roaming)! Another because Holy Communion was celebrated every Sunday! In some churches of my denomination, only members of that denomination are permitted to attend the Blessed Sacrament! After all, who would want just everyone to receive God's freeing grace and forgiveness??!!! Some are shocked that the pastor wears a clerical collar, and others are shocked that he does not. In a parish of my denomination, there are many more persons who attend worship every Sunday than are members. Some in wrong! The pastor must be doing something wrong! After all, Protestant church should average about 34-37% of members in attendance, right? Are you and I tied, bent over so that you see only earthly things, not the heavenly? Are we tied to believe that any form of ritual or non-ritual is what it must be in order to have correct worship, or is praising the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity in whatever form what is blessed, as long as it unties people from their sin, their Satanic notions that they can please God by the form and do not have to worry to much about substance? I recently looked at a book written after the last book of the Old Testament and the Gospels. About 400 years were involved in that time period. This book was a rewrite of everything in the Old Testament until the time of the kings. This book with its stress on the Law of God was so powerful that no other books, no prophecy, no man of God had any influence during that period of time. That book is the Book of Jubilees. I think about the real desert of music in the Lutheran church after the composers of the chorals. Not more than 10 years ago, the chorale was proclaimed as the only truly proper type of hymn for the church, at one of our denomination seminaries. Was the chorale God's ultimate form of praise? Where was new, non-choral type of music during the past 200 years in the Lutheran church? In the film Ray about Ray Charles, there is a scene in which Ray combines Gospel music with jazz and the people call it demonic! Do you recall something about Jesus being told that he untied demons from people through the power of the devil? I hope you remember his reply. If, and this is the if you have to buy into, if Jesus came to untie people from sin, from rules and regulations that hog tie people to place, position, forms, rituals, formulas, if Jesus came to loose from all that might be demonic, demeaning, and cause us to look at the earthly rather that to look up to the heavens for pardon, peace, hope, joy, salvation, and the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, if that is so, may we continue to tie people up, will we continue to be tied up ourselves? Will we praise God that others are untied from the infirmities, the weaknesses of Satan's power, through whatever form and on whatever day it is? And by the Good News of Jesus and his powerful love, will we untie ourselves and others from Satan's grasp? If all people are children of Abraham (we Christians by adoption into that family), should we not do all in our power to look at what we say and do to untie ourselves and others from Satan's power? Rules, written and unwritten, in churches can bind us to the demonic quicker than you can say, "Lord, have mercy!" The following story is from a sermon by William Willimon entitled, "What's in a Name?" in August of 1989. I believe it tells well what Jesus was doing and saying. Fred Craddock tells of meeting a man one day in a restaurant. "You a preacher?" the man asked. Somewhat embarrassed, Fred said, "Yes." The man pulled a chair up toe Fred's table. "Preacher, I'll tell you a story. There was once a little boy who grew up sad. Life was tough because my mama had me but she had never been married. Do you know how a small Tennessee town treats people like that? Do you know the words they used to name kids that don't have no father? "Well, we never went to church, nobody asked us. But for some reason or other, we went to church one night when they was having a revival. They had a big, tall preacher, visiting to do to the revival and he was all dressed up in black. He had a thunderous voice and shook the little church. "We sat toward the back, Mama and me. Well, that preacher got to preaching, about what I don't know, stalking up and down the aisle of that little church preaching. It was something. "After the service, we were slipping out the back door when I felt that big preacher's hand on my shoulder. I was scared. He looked way down at me, looked me in the eye and says, 'Boy, who's your Daddy?' "I didn't have no Daddy. That's what I told him in trembling voice, 'I aint got no Daddy.' "'O yes you do,' boomed that big preacher, 'you're a child of the Kingdom, you have been bought with a price, you are a child of the King!' "I was never the same after that. Preacher, for God's sake, preach that." The man pulled his chair away from the table. He extended his hand and introduced himself. Craddock said the name rang a bell. He was the legendary former governor of the state of Tennessee. See what can happen when you are untied? Are you tying or untying? Walter W. Harms, retired pastor
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