August 26, 2007

Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. We are in the middle of the Gospel of Luke, and right on our lectionary reading for this 14th Sunday of Pentecost at summer's end.

In the first half of Luke, Jesus conducts his successful ministry of teachings and miracles in his home province of Galilee. In addition he has gathered his disciples. Now it is time to face south and journey to Jerusalem.

Jesus is on his last lap. He teaches and preaches, heals and hugs along the way. It is as if he is traveling toward Great Falls along the Hi Line Highway, delivering sermons to the small crowds along the way, Glasgow, Malta, Havre, hitting all the UCC and Methodist congregations. Bless Brother Van, we have no UCC church in Havre.

One Sabbath day he is preaching in the church in Malta, or some such place, the Book doesn't say, it's not important. What is important is Jesus' reputation, which has preceded him. Therefore, there are quite a few folk present. In fact, the church is packed. You would think it was Easter. Ah, but not yet.

Jesus is teaching the Torah. He is preaching the Law. We don't know for certain his text for this day, but perhaps he is preaching (Matthew 6:19-21): "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven... for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

We don't know, perhaps he is admonishing the parishioners: "Judge not, that you be not judged...Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?" (Matthew.7: 1,3)

We don't know, perhaps he is repreaching a few lines from his fine sermon delivered on the hillside up in Galilee, later to be known as the Sermon on the Mount, sharing now with the congregation in Malta: "Do not be anxious about your life, saying, ?what shall we eat?' or ?What shall we drink?' or ?What shall we wear?' For God in heaven knows your needs. Yes, seek ye first the Kingdom of God and right living, and all these things shall be yours as well." (Matthew 6:31-33)

We do not know for certain what Jesus says in this Sabbath setting? We are simply told he "was teaching in a synagogue." And the town folk are gathered to hear him. Men folk. Most are sitting on mats scattered throughout the sanctuary. It was the Jewish costume following worship to have continued conversation about God. The kind of thing we do up in coffee fellowship.

Furthermore, we can assume the men are feeling strangely warmed by the words of this young clear-eyed wandering rabbi. So they nod, "Amen," a Hebrew term which means, "so be it," and "Hallelujah," Hebrew for "praise God." Later this Sabbath day they will be dancing, "Hava Nagilah, Hava Nagilah..."

But for now these men are happy to be in synagogue and listen to Jesus.

There is another group of men, however, there is always another group of men, sitting down in front on benches. Special seating, these are the keepers of the Law, the righteous of the righteous, the pillars of piety. These men are strangely silent as Jesus preaches. The louder the "Amens" grow from the group on the floor, the more silent they are.

Truth be told, these guys are not glad to see Jesus. They wish he had taken highway 87, through Lewistown, to get to G.F. So instead they seek to trick and trap Jesus. Gathered around the synagogue door in the back are women. For they were allowed to stand at the door on the Sabbath and overhear the teachings, but not come in. It was not necessary. For back then all the husbands went to church, and then went home to instruct their wives. This was a long time ago.

On this day in Malta, among the women assembled at the rear sanctuary door is a woman of stooped posture. As Luke tells it, "She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself."

We do not know why the woman is bent over. Perhaps she suffers osteoporosis, a consequence of not drinking enough goats' milk as an adolescent. Perhaps she is poor and is bent over from her years of gleaning grain left overs in the fields to feed her family. Perhaps she is a victim of abuse, as a child or as a spouse. This has gone on throughout history. Maybe this is why she is suffering and bent over. Or perhaps she has sinned, and is bent over in shame. I think not, but it could be.

We do not know why the woman is bent over. Luke does not tell us. It is not important. What we do know is she has been bent a long time. For Luke says, "There was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years."

Eighteen years! She has born her burden, bent back, broken body. A long time! Without Tylenol.

But she has heard about Jesus. She has heard what most people had heard about Jesus. This man makes miracles, the blind to see, the lame to walk. "Maybe he can heal me as well," she thinks.

So the bent over woman goes to the synagogue, outcast that she is, and stands at the back door, woman that she is, ready and willing to hear God's Word, unlike the guys on the bench in the front row, who are not about to stand and sing the revival hymns.

Jesus sees her standing in the back, perhaps even feels her silent prayers and pleadings. Though she says nothing, Jesus calls out to her, "Woman, you are freed from your infirmity."

Then Jesus leaves his pulpit, makes his way to her, places his hands on her bent back, and, as scripture tells us, "immediately she was made straight, and she praised God" Don't ask me how this works. I do not know. Luke does not tell us. Jesus, himself, warns us not to make a big to do about his miracles. A lot of slick hucksters ever since have been seeking to soak suckers on the pretense of straightening slipped sacroiliacs. I do not know how the miracles work.

But I do know this: God is not in the business of bending backs. God is in the business of straightening backs. God is not in the business of putting people down. God is in the business of lifting people up. God is not in the business of making people ill. God is in the business of making people well. And it happens. Gloriously it does! As God was in Jesus, it happens! It happened to the bent over woman in Malta, or wherever, and it still happens today. Praise God! Hallelujah!

Needless to say, it does not impress the men sitting on the benches in the front row. They do not praise God. They grumble, "Who is he to heal on the Sabbath?"

Jesus has broken the Fourth Commandment, "Observe the Sabbath and keep it holy...On that day no one is to work." (Exodus 20:8,10) The keepers of the Law know the Commandments. And they know healing is work. Ha! Jesus is had.

So what the woman had suffered eighteen years. Surely she could wait one more day. Jesus has six days to heal. But not the seventh day, the Sabbath.

The keepers of the Law know the letter of the Law. But they do not know Jesus, who responds to their dotted "i"s and crossed "t"s as such: "You hypocrites! Does not each one of you untie his donkey on the Sabbath and lead it to water to drink. Well, then, do you think more of your dumb ass than this daughter of Abraham. Should not God untie her from her bondage and allow her to drink from the living waters on the Day of the Lord."

Oooh, score one for the wandering rabbi.

What better day to stand and praise the Lord than on the Sabbath, Jesus was saying, and what better way than to heal one of God's children. He was reminding the keepers of the Law that: laws are not an end in themselves; organizations are not an end in themselves; governments are not an end in themselves; churches are not an end in themselves.

God is the end. God is the beginning and God is the end. And in between God is about the business of unbending the backs of God's people and making us whole.

Can't you imagine as Jesus speaks the men sitting on the mats arising and singing ?Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus," and the women jamming the doors stepping forward and joining the chorus, and the pious people, the privileged people of position down in front, slouching on the bench, for as Luke tells it, "As Jesus said this, his adversaries were put to shame; and all the people rejoiced at the glorious things that were done by him."

They praised God on the Sabbath. Which is as it should be. After all, the word "Resurrection" means, "to stand up again," to re-erect. After 18 years of Good Fridays, it was Easter for the bent over woman. She was resurrected, and the congregation shouted, "Amen!"

Remember the book, The Ugly American? There is a story in there about an American engineer and his wife working in Africa. They are anything but ugly. The wife of the engineer notices how the natives are prematurely bent over. She further observes how the people spend hours every day sweeping. I've noticed this traveling in 3rd world countries. No matter how simple the shops, the people take pride, and first thing in the morning they are sweeping the porches or sidewalks or dirt paths in front of their humble huts.

What the wife of the engineer notices as well is how the natives sweep their places with very short brooms. Hours every day, bent over sweeping. So she searches the countryside for a longer reed with which to make a broom. Succeeding, she makes herself a broom with a much longer handle. Not wishing to impose herself upon her hosts, she quietly goes about the daily business of sweeping, only now standing much more erect.

The village folk take notice of this, and curiously ask her why she is sweeping with such a silly looking broom. She tells them she does not wish to bend over so much while sweeping for it bothers her back.

Soon others in the village are using longer handled brooms.

Shortly afterward the engineer & his wife move onto another missionary assignment. Years later, the village chief writes a letter addressed to the "Wife of the Engineer." It is a thank you letter to the woman. In it he tells how for all the years he can remember every old person in the village had a bent back. But he says this is no longer true.

He is writing the woman to tell her that outside the village the people have constructed a monument in her honor, which says: "To the woman who unbent the backs of our people."

My friends, this is why God sent Jesus Christ. That despite our bent backs, and all that causes us to be so stooped, our failures, our sins, our shame, our abuses, our false piety and pride, God might unbend our backs, for God intends each one of us to be just as tall as God created us to be, right Kama? No more, no less.

So take it from a short guy. May we stand tall in Christ as we enter the fall, full of grace and full of glory.

Hallelujah!