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Thomas E.S. (Ted) Miller
August 26, 2007
To Be Set Free
Jeremiah 1:4-10, Luke 13:10-17
There's an old story about a church very much like ours -- a “nice,” “respectable” church. One Sunday the people of that congregation had gathered for worship all decked out in their Sunday-go-to-meeting best, when a man walked into the sanctuary who just didn't seem to belong. He was scruffy in appearance and was wearing ragged clothes. He smelled of beer and other things (which, judging from his lurching walk, he had consumed in great quantity the night before). The usher handed the man a bulletin, and motioned him toward an out-of-the-way pew. Ignoring his suggestion, the visitor staggered down the center aisle to the front pew, and planted himself there. So far, so good, thought the ushers -- that is, until the minister began his sermon. “Hallelujah!” shouted the newcomer. The minister gave him a serious look, and continued on. Not a moment later, the visitor interrupted him again. “Praise the Lord!” he proclaimed. One of the ushers came over and whispered to him, as nicely as he could, “Sir, we don't do that here!” “But I've got religion!” the man objected.
“Yes, sir,” said the usher. “ I'm sure you do. But you didn't get it here!”
There is something about human beings that when they gather in a place of worship they tend to get all wrapped up in etiquette and proper ways of doing things. It can be embarrassing when someone steps out of line...sometimes it even gets people angry. So it was when the unsightly woman entered the synagogue. Jesus responded to her presence, not with scorn or a stern look, but called her over, presumably from the women's section of the synagogue to the men's section...he set her free from her ailment and immediately she stood up straight and started praising God. “Hallelujah!” she probably said...” praise the Lord.”
“We don't do that here...” said the leader of the synagogue. He wants to make the issue one of violation of the traditional rules of the Sabbath...the traditions of the synagogue. Jesus wanted to return the focus to the needs and the dignity of the woman. Jesus wanted to set her free to worship as well...in her own authentic way.
The other day on NPR I heard a psychiatrist being interviewed. This particular practitioner was describing a case of a woman patient who was nearly crippled up with painful muscle spasms in her back and neck. She could not move...she could not work. In the course of therapy she worried aloud about the fact that she was getting behind in her work, “I am going to be so far behind, my boss really likes to load it on,” she said. Further questioning from the therapist got her to verbalize about the kind of working situation she was in... with a demanding supervisor who was never satisfied. “I never seem to please him...no matter how hard or late I work.” She felt like a failure, but at the same time, she admitted that she was being asked to do far more than was humanly possible...that she needed help to accomplish all that she was being asked to do. Taking to issue straight to her supervisor, she was able to negotiate a variety of changes in her work situation. Returning to the therapist a few weeks later, she noted that it was literally as if a great load had been lifted off her back. Indeed the chronic pain and spasms went away...and her whole outlook on life was in fact healed.
We don't know why the old woman in the Gospel narrative was bent over, but we can imagine in the context of her world that, whatever the cause of her ailment, it was exacerbated by the crippling stigma of illness and the culture's tendency to shun anyone who was not normal. Jesus laid his hands upon her and she “stood up straight and was praising God.” Jesus saw her as a person, not a victim, and in the midst of the sanctuary he proclaimed her whole. “This is a daughter of Abraham, this is one of God's loved children set free from the bondage of Satan.” The discussion of healing on the Sabbath is really a discussion of the ways in which the practice of religion often becomes so tied up in form and style and proper behavior , that the nature of the liberating message of God's love is lost.
Fred Craddock is a preacher and teacher of preaching from the South, the Bible belt , if you will, where issues of moral behavior are taken very seriously and often “keeping-up-the-appearance” faithful religious practice is a critical aspect of acceptance in the community. He tells the story about the time , he met a man one day in a restaurant. “You a preacher?” the man asked. Somewhat embarrassed , Fred said, “Yes.”
The man pulled a chair up to 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 never married. Do you know how a small Tennessee town treats people like that? Do you know the words they use to name kids that don't have no father?
When he was twelve, a new pastor came to the little community church. People talked about that pastor's skill as a preacher, and the boy began to go hear for himself. The preacher fascinated him; but he was always careful to slip in late, sit in the back, and leave early.
One Sunday he was so caught up in the service that he forgot to slip out early. Suddenly he felt a big hand on his shoulder; and, as he whipped around, he saw the face of the pastor. The preacher said, “Who are you, son? Whose boy are you?”
His heart sank at the dreaded question; but then the preacher went on: “Wait a minute. I know who you are. The family resemblance is unmistakable. You are a child of God!” With that he patted the boy on the back and added, “That's quite an inheritance, son. Go and claim it !”
The man in the diner with the story then said to Dr. Craddock and his wife, “That one statement literally changed my life.”
The man pulled his chair away from the table. He extended his hand and introduced himself. Fred Craddock said the name rang a bell. He explained that his name was Ben Hooper (1870-1957) and that he had become a lawyer and had been elected to two consecutive terms (1911-1915) as governor of the state of Tennessee. His had been a responsible and respected life made possible by a person who cared enough to encourage a little boy. [1]
Like the once-crippled woman , the good news of the Gospel is sufficient to “straighten one out.” To set a person free from anyone or anything that would put them down, or weigh them down with self hatred or self recrimination. And you don't have to be sick to get better.
John Stuart Mill, the 19th Century British philosopher, whose life spanned nearly all of that century was one who often criticized religious institutions and practices, unusual in a time when supposed Christian culture was dominant in western thought. He thought that the church had become the voice of the ruling classes. With issues of piety getting confused with proper decorum there seemed to be no place for someone in true need to find solace or help in the church. Taking a hard look at the way we are the church, we need to ask ourselves if we don't fall prey to a similar tendency – in our own way. Do we make it comfortable for people, not just with socio-economic needs, but more importantly with emotional burdens or health concerns to come forward? I am always so sad when I discover in a pastoral situation that someone has been struggling with an issue for a long time but has felt it improper to share in the context of their church family. It can be a matter of not wanting to “lose face” in a setting where one has been thought of as a strong or as a leader. There are, I fear, lots of “bent over people” struggling to appear as if everything is just fine, if not in our midst, then painfully on the margins of our congregational life in a kind of self exile.
John Stuart Mill spoke for all of us when he said: “Wherever I go, there I am again, and I spoil everything.” Our harshest critics and the most disparaging parental voice we hear is none other than one that comes from inside. Sometimes the healing touch we need is not a cure but a growth experience, growth experiences that help us to leave behind the small, the bigoted, and the untransformed parts of our lives. Surely we are all faced with a lot of issues which could bend us over.
At times the weight becomes acute just because the church has not taught us how to share – how to seek support without feeling that we are a burden. Mill again wrote, religion supplies “ideal conceptions grander and more beautiful than we see realized in the prose of human life.” [2] “To do as one would be done by, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, constitute the ideal perfection…” It is that Golden Rule again – potentially giving us the eyes to notice the weight that our friends and neighbors might be carrying on their shoulders.
Thinking back to the usher in the story I began with – do people find that here? Are we able to find within ourselves the power to love unconditionally as we are in turn loved? Do we make the experience of unconditional love a priority – every time we gather?
When God called Jeremiah to ministry – prophecy, this man who would become one of the greatest of the Prophets said, “NO! I don't want to do it!” Then in the verse of Jeremiah's calling vision, God says, “I know you better than you know yourself. Listen to me – get up and speak!”
God knows us better than we know ourselves – we are, as we so often say in Children's sermons, the hands of Jesus – it is our hands hearts that God calls upon us to lay upon others the healing touch of hope. To be free – and to set others free! That is the will of our Savior Jesus Christ. On Sabbath or any day, let us be about it!
1 Ervin Shaw, “Gov. Ben Hooper: The Dreaded Question” webpage, posted about 1999; latest update 5 April 2004 in “Christian Testimonies” section of “The Truth . . . What Is It?” website (http://poptop.hypermart.net/testbh.html; viewed 14 February 2006) Go Back
2 Narrative, Imagination, and the Religion of Humanity in Mill's Ethics . By Colin Heydt . Journal of the History of Philosophy , 2006. Go Back
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