An Invitation to See and Live the Gospel
This Sunday I am preaching at the church I attend. So this is my way of putting together some thoughts that will turn into that sermon. They might be helpful for someone so here they are.
“And behold a woman having a spirit of infirmity 18 years”[1]. Or as the NRSV puts it “And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years”[2]. We slide past that line. And yet here is the crux. Behold – and invisible woman, invisible for 18 years, is seen by Jesus.
The bible for me is not the word of God, as it is sometimes called, but the vehicle through which the Eternal Word of God who was incarnate in the person of Jesus, speaks to us. I could put some more Trinitarian language in that, but you get the gist. And for me that means these books are not rules to obey, or a collection of verses to quote for particular purposes, but books of theologies, each with their own understand of God, each with their own invitation to their faith communities and to us to respond.
And for me in the Gospels in particular we are invited to meet God in the person of Jesus. These are books of theology offered in story. They are not history books or biographies as we understand these genres. They are carefully constructed theologies that reveal God and God’s purposes as lived out and taught by Jesus. The Word lived out to remind us of who God is and who we are. Each gospel presents its own unique perspective and should be considered individually, not smooshed with the others.
So, when we read this story from Luke we need to put this reading back into Luke’s gospel, and reminding ourselves about the big themes in Luke, and how this story fits the overall telling of the whole story of Jesus. And we need to put it back into its social context. And central to Luke's gospel is Luke 4:18, 19
“The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me to preach good news to the poor,
to proclaim release to the prisoners
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to liberate the oppressed,
19 and to proclaim the year of the
Lord’s favor.”[3]
So, back to Luke 13. Here Jesus sees a daughter of Abraham who is in bondage; not a disabled person or someone with a problem that needs to be solved. Everything stems from that. In being seen God frees her from her spirit of infirmity, she is released from her bonds. In the Greek, she is straightened. she does not straighten herself. God acts so that she might stand into fullness of life, restored and visible.
In contrast the synagogue leader sees only a sick person wanting healing. Come another day. Today is God’s Sabbath. The rules, the theology, the preconceptions get in the way. He can’t see. How often do we join him in calling her a sick person and Jesus’ act as a healing.
Jesus responds by entering into this rabbinical debate. He states that surely on this day which celebrates God’s action towards their ancestors who were once slaves in Egypt and were freed into God’s life, (Deuteronomy 5) there is no better day to free this daughter of Abraham from her bonds. For surely rather than a day for obedience Sabbath reminds us not only of our own liberation, it also requires us to not enslave others. And maybe here Jesus goes further, and remembering that first synagogue teaching in Luke 4, he invites us to join God’s ongoing liberating acts loosing of bonds, then and now.
or
Who is invisible to us? Who are we invited to really see? When we look at others do, we really see them?
Comments