Stand tall-sermon Aug. 26, 2007

Sermon-C Proper 16 –Aug.12-07
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."
“Mike Yakonelli the founder Youth Specialties and a much sought after speaker for many years in churches all over America, tells a story how a woman in his congregation who was not used to "how we do things" in church, raised her hand to ask him a question in the middle of his sermon. The point he had just made was unclear to her.”
I don’t know how many of you struggle with something in your life-physical, spiritual, emotional-I know very few people who don’t-so we should all understand how this woman feels. Deborah and I were sitting over dinner, talking about this gospel and how hard it is to be released from things. We carry around so many things that bend us over. This woman, in this morning’s gospel, had “a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight…” 18 years, can you imagine? 18 years of increasingly being bent over. Something that makes you smaller, more weighed down, less able to stand up. Something that cripples you, shackles you, binds you? Can you imagine going through that kind of pain and discomfort? That much distress and disfigurement? I can imagine it. I know a lot of people that have carried around their pain, their hurt for a lot longer than that.
I was asking Deborah, I wonder what that kind of release, that kind of freedom felt like-to be so crippled by a spirit for that long, whatever it is-and then suddenly to be free. What does that freedom, that relief feel like?
I’ve been repeating over and over this summer that Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem. He’s very focused now, very goal oriented. And he goes into the synagogue to teach on the Sabbath. What do you think he is saying?
In Jewish Law there are 39 categories of activity Or "melachot" (m'-LUH-khuh) that are prohibited on the Sabbath-the Day of Rest:
1. Sowing
Plowing
Reaping
Binding sheaves
Threshing
Winnowing
Selecting
These are categories of activities of work which you are not supposed to d on the sabbath and over the centuries they have been greatly expanded. Number 27 is tieing. No. 28 is untieing. You’re not supposed to untie some thing (it is considered work) on the Sabbath. We don’t get Jesus’ pun here. The leader of the synagogue chastizes Jesus for doing work on the sabbath, and Jesus angrily replies,
Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water?
13:16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?"
The word that Jesus uses for “be set free” comes from the same root word for , untieing the donkey or ox. In other words, you can untie your animals, but not your people.
And it says, everyone rejoiced. One because Jesus healed this long suffering woman, and two, because the religious leader, someone who was the pronouncer of the rules, was put in his place. It’s easy to cheer against religious leaders, I know. But don’t miss the bigger picture. Who was really tied up in this story? The woman was set free, the religious leader was bound up. For her, it was the body that was crippled-for the leader-it was his soul. Let me give you some more Judaism.
This from a preacher online: There are different explanations/interpretations in Exodus and Deuteronomy about the Sabbath commandment. Exodus says:
Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work--…. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.
Here it is tied to God's rest on the seventh day of creation.
Deuteronomy says:
Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work…. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.
Here remembering the Sabbath is tied to liberation from slavery.
Jesus fulfilled the law from Deuteronomy (not from Exodus)-he released the enslaved. He didn’t ask the woman if she wanted to be healed, she didn’t profess any faith in Jesus. I’ve always wondered, “what was Jesus teaching that day in the synagogue-what was he teaching on the sabbath?” Was he teaching about healing? About freedom? About release? Was he teaching about Deuteronomy?
You know what I think? I think he was teaching about the Kingdom of God. I think he was telling the people that in the Kingdom come, people could be free and healed-no matter how long they carried around their affliction, no matter how overwhelming their pain, their guilt. I think he was telling folks that no matter what the rules were, that a day was coming when people could be free from the past, that a day was coming when the hurt and grief and guilt and sorrow and illnesses and traumas of the past would be untied. I think Jesus was saying that in the future Kingdom of God, the only afflictions that would bend us over and cripple us would be the ones WE chose to hold on to. And then he untied this bent over woman from her 18 year affliction, but he couldn’t unbend this leader of the synagogue.
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. He stops in the local synagogue to teach. And while he’s there, he frees one person, but not another. I think this is a story about two people-the bent over woman, and the synagogue leader. I think this story is about us. Who do we want to be? Are we the ones who hold on to our afflictions, our crippledness-or are we the ones set free? Jesus is going to Jerusalem. He’s on a mission. I think Jesus is trying to set people free as he journeys. Sometimes, I think, we don’t want to be fee from our burdens. But sometimes, sometimes, we come to church on the sabbath, and we hear the gospel message of freedom and release, and we stand up straight, unbound, let loose-and all the people rejoice with us.
Luke 13:10-17
13:10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.
13:11 And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.
13:12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment."
13:13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.
13:14 But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day."
13:15 But the Lord answered him and said, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water?
13:16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?"
13:17 When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.
From Wikipedia
Jewish law prohibits doing any form of melachah ("work", plural "melachot") on Shabbat. Melachah does not closely correspond to the English definition of the term "work", nor does it correspond to the definition of the term as used in physics.
Different denominations view the prohibition on work in different ways. Observant Orthodox and Conservative Jews do not perform the 39 categories of activity prohibited by Mishnah Tractate Shabbat 7:2 in the Talmud. These categories are exegetically derived - based on juxtaposition of corresponding Biblical passages - from the kinds of work that were necessary for the construction of the Tabernacle. Many religious scholars have pointed out that these labors have in common activity that is "creative," or that exercises control or dominion over one's environment. The 39 categories are:
Sowing
Plowing
Reaping
Binding sheaves
Threshing
Winnowing
Selecting
Grinding
Sifting
Kneading
Baking
Shearing wool
Washing wool
Beating wool
Dyeing wool
Spinning
Weaving
Making two loops
Weaving two threads
Separating two threads
Tying
Untying
Sewing stitches
Tearing
Trapping
Slaughtering
Flaying
Tanning
Scraping hide
Marking hides
Cutting hide to shape
Writing two or more letters
Erasing two or more letters
Building
Demolishing
Extinguishing a fire
Kindling a fire
Putting the finishing touch on an object
Transporting an object between a private domain and the public domain, or for a distance of 4 cubits within the public domain
Each melachah has derived prohibitions of various kinds. There are, therefore, many more forbidden activities on the Shabbat; all are traced back to one of the 39 above principal melachot. Direct derivatives (toledoth) have the same legal severity as the original melachah (although there are marginal differences); examples are the related activities of cooking, baking, roasting and poaching, all of which fall under "baking." Indirect derivatives instituted by the rabbis are termed shevuth and are much less severe in legal terms (e.g. they were not punished with stoning when this punishment was still in force).
Given the above, the 39 melachot are not so much activities as "categories of activity." For example, while "winnowing" (category 6, above) usually refers exclusively to the separation of chaff from grain, and "selecting" (category 7, above) refers exclusively to the separation of debris from grain, they refer in the Talmudic sense to any separation of intermixed materials which renders edible that which was inedible. Thus, filtering undrinkable water to make it drinkable falls under this category, as does picking small bones from fish. (Gefilte fish is a traditional Ashkenazi solution to this problem.)
Another example is the prohibition (according to Orthodox and some Conservative rabbinic authorities) against turning electric devices on or off, which is derived from one of the "39 categories of work (melachot)". However, the authorities are not in agreement about exactly which category (or categories) this would fall under. One view is that tiny sparks are created in a switch when the circuit is closed, and this would constitute "lighting a fire" (category 37). If the appliance is one whose purpose is for light or heat (such as an incandescent lightbulb or electric oven) then the lighting or heating elements may be considered as a type of fire; if so, then turning them on constitutes both "lighting a fire" (category 37) and "cooking" (a form of baking, category 11), and turning them off would be "extinguishing a fire" (category 36). Another view is that a device which is plugged into an electrical outlet of a wall becomes part of the building, but is nonfunctional while the switch is off; turning it on would then constitute "building" and turning it off would be "demolishing" (categories 35 and 34). Some schools of thought consider the use of electricity to be forbidden only by rabbinic injunction, rather than because it violates of one of the original categories. A common solution to the problem of electricity involves pre-set timers for electric appliances, to turn them on and off automatically, with no human intervention on Shabbat itself.
[edit] Extenuating circumstances
In the event that a human life is in danger (pikuach nefesh), a Jew is not only allowed, but required, to violate any Shabbat law that stands in the way of saving that person. (In fact, any law in all of Judaism - excluding certain prohibited actions: murder, idolatry, and various sexual relations and acts such as incest and rape - is to be broken if doing so is necessary to help someone who is in grave danger.) Lesser, rabbinic restrictions are often violated under much less urgent circumstances, e.g. a patient who is ill but not critically so.
Various other legal principles closely delineate which activities constitute desecration of the Shabbat. Examples of these include the principle of shinui ("change" or "deviation") - a severe violation becomes a non-severe one if the prohibited act was performed in a way that would be considered abnormal on a weekday. Examples include writing with one's non-dominant hand (according to many rabbinic authorities). This legal principle operates bedi'avad (ex post facto) and does not cause a forbidden activity to be permitted barring extenuating circumstances.

sermon

Luke 12:49-56
Restore us, O LORD God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved. Amen.
In theory, I love the fact that we use a lectionary. Each week we read scriptures that are being read by Christians all over the world. Not only is there a wonderful unity in that fact, but it helps to keep preachers honest. We cannot preach week after week on only our favorite passages and themes – at some point we have to confront parts of the Bible that confuse or trouble or anger us. I love that. In theory. Until I get stuck preaching on a Sunday like this one.
All I can say is, I’m glad it’s not “Bring-A-Friend Sunday.” Today’s readings are enough to send even seasoned Christians running screaming from the church. “And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns.” Isaiah calls that a love song.
The psalm speaks of God’s vineyard, the nation of Israel, being burned with fire and cut down. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews remembers our “cloud of witnesses” – people who have done great things for the faith, to be sure, but also people who have “suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented.”
This is really starting to sound like a lifestyle you want to follow, isn’t it? Well, thank goodness for the Gospel. You can always count on “gentle Jesus, meek and mild” to offer words of love and comfort, right?
Wrong. “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three.”
This is not one of your more evangelistic texts. What in these words could possibly make a person want to become a Christian? Where is the good news? What is Jesus thinking?
Remember – how could you forget? Father John’s talked about nothing else for weeks – that Jesus has set his face toward Jerusalem. He is headed to a violent confrontation with death. He’s focused on what’s ahead, and he’s understandably a bit stressed. He says to his disciples, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” That’s an interesting thing to say not very long after he’s rebuked James and John for wanting to rain down fire on a Samaritan village. Fire represents judgment, but the judgment comes from God, through Jesus, not through his disciples, and ultimately it will be a judgment of love rather than destruction. But Jesus knows he’s going to have to literally go through hell first, and he wishes he had that part behind him. When he says, “I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!” we again remember James and John, and Jesus’ question to them, “Are you able to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” Jesus’ intensity is rising as he gets closer to Jerusalem and the horrors he will have to face.
So the intensity of his teaching is rising, too. He is still, as Father John pointed out last week, talking about priorities, figuring out what we value most and following it. And he wants us to know that this is where the rubber meets the road. If we’re going to follow Jesus, seriously follow Jesus, we can expect to get what Jesus got. The road leads to a cross. That’s the simple truth of the matter.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that any of us will be called to die for our faith, but I can’t promise we won’t. It does mean that a faithful life does not always follow the path of harmony and conflict avoidance. And no part of our lives is protected from that. In Jesus’ culture, kindred and family ties were everything. To be outside of your family was to be completely set adrift. It didn’t get any worse than being divided “father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother.”
One could look at this and think, “Wow, this is scary stuff. I am really not excited about that cross ahead of me. Maybe I’ll just turn around right now.” Or, one could look at this and think, “Jesus knew how hard this would be, and he’s encouraging me to keep at it. Jesus has walked this road before me and is walking it now with me, and promising that it’s all worth it.” Because of course, the cross is not the end of the road. Jesus didn't come to live among us in order to bring division, he came in order to bring us abundant life. But he also knew, and wanted his followers to know, that abundant life doesn't always come easily or painlessly.
Let me tell you about three women who have helped me on my journey. The first I’m sure you all know: Harriet Tubman. She helped more than 300 slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad. She was still a slave when she married John Tubman, a free man. He was content to leave things as they were, but, for obvious reasons, she was not. When she escaped slavery and began leading others to freedom, her husband refused to go with her and eventually married someone else. But she had found her path and continued to walk it. One biography said that “She always expressed confidence that God would aid her efforts, and threatened to shoot any of her charges who thought to turn back.” This is not a woman who feared conflict in her fight against great injustice, and it cost her.
Perhaps not quite as well known to us, but hugely famous in her own day, was Aimee Semple McPherson. She was a Pentecostalist evangelist in the early part of the 20th century. She built the 5,000 seat Angelus Temple in Los Angeles and led a religious renewal on Azusa Street that included blacks, whites, Latinos and people across all social classes. And she was a show-woman. Her sermons included huge moving sets and live animals. She founded the International Church of the Four Square Gospel, which thrives today in many parts of the country and around the world.
Her personal life was littered with failed marriages, a month-long disappearance which she claimed was a kidnapping, nervous breakdowns, and rumors of an affair with an employee, and she died at age 54 from an apparently accidental overdose of a prescription medication.
Perhaps not a person to hold up as a role model for us moderate Episcopalians. But this woman and her church also fed 1.5 million people in Los Angeles during the Great Depression. For her the message of the Gospel was not simply words, but action. You have to show people how much you love them.
She spent her life doing that, and it cost her. Anthea Butler, an assistant professor of religion at the University of Rochester, said this about Aimee. “What becomes the issue is how much are you supposed to give up of yourself to live for God? I mean, this is always the big question. There’s all these great songs about, 'I surrender all, put your all on the altar' all these sorts of things. And people saying these things, they really mean them. But nobody ever bothers to think of a life like Aimee's. And Aimee just decided to go headlong into all of this. There is a point in which you have to count the cost of what it's going to do. Do you pull back when your family starts to fall apart or your daughter doesn't like you anymore? Do you pull back when your mother turns against you? Do you pull back from it when you've had this accusation against you that you really ran off with the radio operator? Do you pull back? And I think someone like Aimee says, 'No, I don't pull back from it.'”
Did she make the right choices? I don’t know. Certainly the presence of pain and division in one's life is no automatic guarantee that one is doing God's work. I do know that Aimee helped a lot of people, and her commitment to following Christ has not been matched by many.
But one might be Eleanor Josaitis. Does anyone here know Eleanor? She and Father William Cunningham founded Focus:HOPE in Detroit in 1968, after the violence of 1967. Here’s an excerpt from a Focus:HOPE paper about her:
What drove this former suburban housewife, a mother of five, to give up her comfortable life to help save the city of Detroit? One evening as Josaitis watched television, she came upon a channel showing the violence at the civil rights marches in Mississippi. Haunting images of policeman using fire hoses on the marchers caused her to break down into tears. She had an even more intense reaction when she became an eyewitness to the Detroit riots of 1967. “We saw tanks, we saw fire everywhere, we saw people running, and we said we have got to do something.”
Josaitis’ decision to take action caused serious family problems. Her parents did not understand where she was coming from - her mother appointed a lawyer to try to take her five children away, and her father disowned her.
She did not allow this adversity to prevent her from helping the community. Josaitis partnered with Father Cunningham to form Focus:HOPE.
Since then, Josaitis has received a variety of responses from the people of metro Detroit - but she prefers to call all of them “love letters.” One of these notes contained a cutout of her editorial for the Free Press written after September 11. The article begged the community to strive for celebration of diversity - scrawled across its body were the words, “Stick diversity ” – and then some words I can’t say from the pulpit.
In the last nearly 40 years Focus:HOPE has helped thousands upon thousands of people with food and job training programs. For Eleanor Josaitis, following Christ is about love, and where there is need, love requires action as much as words.
Jesus stood up for marginalized people and proclaimed a Gospel of love that was for everyone, no matter what. It cost him his life, and gave us our lives, so that we can follow his example. Paul Nuechterlein writes, “If our peace and happiness is to be bought at the price of ignoring another's pain, then Jesus comes with a truth which will divide us.” When we challenge that false peace and happiness, we will be opposed by those who want to maintain the status quo, and it will cost us.
We need to hear this message with great humility. The possibility always exists that when we make unpopular choices, we're wrong. We have to always be asking the question, "Why am I doing this? Is this what Jesus is calling me to do, or am I off on an ego trip?" And we have to listen not only to our own hearts, but to the wisdom and discernment of our faith community. Nobody is a Christian alone. And then we have to proceed with what we honestly believe is the faithful choice, whatever the consequences.
So where’s the good news? The good news is that there are people like Harriet Tubman, Aimee Semple McPherson and Eleanor Josaitis, and a host of others, who found such joy and fulfillment in the road they walked with Jesus that it was worth the high price they paid. The good news is that there are people like you and me, not famous, not doing spectacular things, but honestly trying, day in and day out, to live out our commitment to the One who is the Source of all joy. The good news is in the resurrection moments we all experience at one time or another. Our J2A group in Jamaica. The youths who went to help Hurricane Katrina victims last year. The many people at Trinity who give of their time, money, and energy for Adopt-A-Child-Size. Our CROP walkers. Jesus comes into each of our lives with the opportunity to know the joy as well as the hard work of service.
The good news is that God is with us in the midst of every difficult choice, every broken relationship, every painful moment, strengthening us and showing us how to love.
Ultimately the love of God is stronger and more permanent than division, violence, even death, and Jesus knew that even as he was facing down the cross. Jesus warned us that it wouldn’t be easy, that sometimes it would be downright awful. But Jesus, and a great cloud of witnesses, walked this road before us, and walk it with us now. There is no other road that is more joyful or more fulfilling.

We're all on a journey

Sermon-C Proper 14-8-12-07
"That's what defines teachers, perseverance and patience,"
The Cloud of Unknowing, “O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.”
I really don’t expect you to remember me, but once upon a time, I used to preach here a lot. And when I was, I told you that in the gospel of Luke there was a very important verse. Just a few weeks ago, 9:51: 9:51 When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.. Does that ring a bell? I keep referring to it this summer, because if you remember that verse it explains so much of what else happens afterwards in this gospel. he set his face to go to Jerusalem. Jesus is on a journey, a pilgrimage of sorts- to complete his mission, to fulfill his purpose. He has a trip to make that will define his life and change ours. He heads south through Galilee, then on through the hated land of the Samaritans. While on the road he heals, he casts out demons, he encounters spiritual challenges, and like today-he teaches. Always remember, every thing Jesus is doing, every thing he’s saying, is supposed to teach us, to show us, to lead us. It is his time.
But before he can finish his goal, he has to help us to understand why he is doing this, and who he is. 2 weeks ago one of his disciples, says, "Lord, teach us to pray” last week someone wanted him to arbitrate a family dispute over property, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.". This is all part of his journey he has a destination, but the trip is also very important. He is trying to show us how to live our lives as he travels. These several weeks this summer are all about advice that the disciples collected from him as they walk along. Much of the teaching is about our priorities. This week continues his instruction about figuring out what we value-and then going after it. It’s all education. Remember a few weeks ago when I said that Stephen Covey uses the phrase, “keep the main thing__________?”
A pastor writes: Look at what Jesus says- do not be afraid... live generous lives... prepare for the party..be ready to serve when called. All the time Jesus is on his journey, he’s teaching. And all the time he’s teaching, he’s trying to explain why his face is set towards Jerusalem-and what our journey has to be, too.
After the service today, our youth are going to talk about their pilgrimage to Jamaica. For two years our Journey to Adulthood teens raised money, prepared, worked, planned-all for a one week trip to an orphanage. They’re going to explain what they learned, what fun they had, what relationships they made. Remember this as you listen to them,-as I thought about today’s gospel, I realized that it was like their face was set towards Jerusalem, because this is what a pilgrimage is-you go one a journey, because that is the best way to learn who we are, and what is important: do not be afraid... live generous lives... prepare for the party..be ready to serve when called. Sometimes I think this is how we are supposed to spend our lives-to see our lives as a journey. To realize that all of life is a pilgrimage to find out who we are and what is important. We always think we know it, but then a year later something happens and suddenly we’re discovering all over-again.
This is from an article on the internet on space news: in the 1980s, in an effort to better connect the American public with its space program, NASA began to investigate several options for sending an American civilian into space onboard the Space shuttle. NASA considered sending a journalist, an explorer, or an entertainer, but ultimately decided on sending a teacher as the first civilian in space. 11,000 teachers applied. There were 119 semi finalists. The teacher they chose was Christa McAuliffe. Her back up, in case Christa couldn’t fly, was Barbara Morgan. 73 seconds after take off in January 1986, Challenger exploded, killing all 6 astronauts and teacher Christa McAuliffe aboard. Although Christa was in no way responsible for the disaster, her death was seen as especially painful, and the teacher in space program was shelved indefinitely. Barbara Morgan, Christa’s back up, returned to teaching 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders in McCall, Idaho as she had done for several years. In the late 1990s NASA decided to reinstitute the teacher in space program, and they called Barbara back. She was supposed to fly in 2002, but the loss of Columbia put that on hold. 22 years after she was scheduled to go up into space, last week, Barbara Morgan the 2nd teacher, went up this week on Endeavour.
"That's what defines teachers, perseverance and patience," she told reporters in a preflight briefing. "So I am just doing the job of a teacher."
Since her selection, NASA has trained three new teachers to fly in space, …"I do look forward to going back in the future," she said. "I taught for 24 years before taking this lateral move to do this job. And I loved every minute of it."
Barbara plans on returning to teacher after her return. 22 years, and two terrible accidents later, this teacher wanted to complete her mission.
Jesus has his face set towards Jerusalem. He has a mission, and we are it. And on this mission he’s trying to teach us, to show us, to lead us into who we are and what is important. He wants us to journey, to pilgrimage with him. He wants us to be patient and to persevere: His goal is for us to live our lives in such a way that we realize if we learn what he teaches, our trip, our journey, our pilgrimage, our life is worth it: do not be afraid... live generous lives... prepare for the party.. be ready to serve when called.