Sermon: 11th Sunday after Pentecost, 8/24/2025

Texts: Luke 13:10-17, Isaiah 58:9-14

Grace, Peace, and Mercy from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

I think many of us could relate a little bit to the situation of the woman that Jesus heals in this passage today, when we need to be uncurved from ourselves physically and spiritually and made upright and free by God. What relief we can experience when the Kingdom of God liberates us from our pains. This woman was handicapped for 18 years. In those times, it often happened that the sick and chronically ill were marginalized in the society, unable to be helped, made invisible. Perhaps it was because some people might associate her condition with sin, or perhaps simply because those who are ill are often thought of as inconvenient, not worthy of our attention because they are not useful to our self-interest, or simply because those who are sick need our time and care, something people rather not spend on them. Yet Jesus does not operate under these restrictions that human beings impose. Jesus sees us and calls us out; He sees this woman and calls her, to the surprise and even annoyance of those around him. Jesus not only liberates this woman from her ailment, He also restored her dignity, something that others might rob her of because of her condition. Jesus heals her and calls her a daughter of Abraham, a person that belongs to the promise of God to His

people. She is worthy, not because of what she can do or not do, she is worthy because she is a daughter of the promise. She belongs to God, and that alone is sufficient. Through her liberation, by centering this marginal woman, God is truly worshipped. This turns the table on the onlookers and law-keepers, since they were dismayed that Jesus healed her on the Sabbath. He was “breaking the rules”, as they understood it. But Jesus makes the salient observation. In preparation for the Sabbath they made sure their cattle and animals were well taken care of, yet when it comes to healing this woman, a daughter of Abraham, to care for her, now that can wait. Jesus points out the hypocrisy of this strict observance, that for what needs little care there is much attention, yet for who really needs care, they drag their heels. Isn’t this such a common predicament? When the church cares too much around the trivial, because the demand is little, but when it comes to greater acts of care, the church rather remain silent. God is truly worshipped when ultimate care is observed, for that is the purpose of the Law. It seems that Liberation is an fruit of Sabbath rest according to Jesus, not the fastidious keeping of particular regulations at the expense of compassion. We must never forget that God’s commandments lead us ever into more compassion, rather than apathy. If they lead us to apathy, then we must be careful to not have fallen into the

trappings of spiritual pride, then instead of being curved physically we start being curved spiritually! And so a world where everybody is curved in on itself, can never appreciate or care for the neighbor, their gaze cannot meet the other, so we become individualistic. To be made upright and liberated from our curved in nature is to see the world that we belong in, the fact that we and our neighbors are children of the Promise of God.

This notion of being curved in and then standing up straight has wide significance in Christian thought and spirituality. The image of being made upright again is a classic response of Christian liberation, and this story of Jesus healing this woman has been interpreted spiritually as a sign of the resurrection, Christ’s victory over the powers of sin and death. In the Christian East, it is often practiced during prayer to prostrate oneself, a kind of bending of one’s body, on the ground as a sign of humility and repentance. Many Orthodox Christian do various prostrations to God as a sign of humble recognition not only of God’s sovereignty, but also our sorrow over our failures and thus we bow our heads to the ground to demonstrate a contrite spirit. But then we rise up again knowing God gives us His grace, that we are not created to remain bent. This act of prostration is only allowed for all days of the week,

except Sunday. Sunday is the day of the resurrection, and as we celebrate Christ’s risen presence in our midst, we need not prostrate when Christ has made us upright again. It is not appropriate to prostrate because God has made us rise up alongside Christ, it is the promise we are held together by, that we are given the spirit of the resurrection, and not one that debilitates and excludes us.

In the Gospel text, it says this woman was crippled by a spirit. And it gives me pause because how many times our own spiritual state wounds us to such a level that we are physically bent over, it manifests in our bodies. Our bodies can manifest what goes on in the heart. And in such a way, we can ask, what spirit in our society cripples the lives of our neighbors? I remember an anecdote from our brothers and sisters in the Black Church here in the United States, when a pastor was asked why the services were 3 or 4 hours long. And if you’ve ever been to a black Baptist church for example, those 3 or 4 hours fly by pretty quickly with the Holy Spirit moving around the congregation. But the pastor’s response to this question was very poignant. He said that it was necessary, because out there in the world, what was the message that many of his youth was receiving? We all know the history, of how our black brethren have been treated and often continue to be treated in this country, a crippling spirit

indeed has taken hold of many that tried to distort their God given worth. Thus it is the church’s responsibility, according to this pastor, to provide his youth with another voice, another message, very much in spirit with Jesus’ own. These are also heirs of the promise, children of God, and worthy of love and dignity. In that sense, indeed the Kingdom of God has come into conflict with the world’s messaging, keeping faithful to it’s message of God’s love and justice. The world will insist on crippling our spirit, but we are here to listen to the voice that really matters, the voice of our Creator that loves us and lifts our head up high in the dignity His love confers.

This is how Christ has desired to be represented in the world, by worshipping God in a spirit of Liberation. The prophet Isaiah says it best: “If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. The LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your needs in parched places and make your bones strong, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters never fail. Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the

restorer of streets to live in.” By God’s grace, we might represent this vision to our communities. That here in church, we repair the breach destroyed by human folly. Our life here then can become the inspiration for a renewed life in the community, not by simply saying that everybody is a Christian, but that by us who are called to follow Christ, our way of life leads to the abundance of love, mercy and justice in the world. That those who have the name of Jesus in their mouths do not abide by injustice, but rather seek the uplifting of the neighbor, they seek that everybody might discover their worth and dignity. In that spirit, worship is a delight, and God in turn is delighted by us as His love-seeking people. By seeking to delight God and to worship Him with the goodness He has placed in us, then virtue becomes contentment, it is happiness to do right by our neighbor. It is happiness to care. It is happiness to stand in solidarity with the poor and the oppressed. God delights in us so much, that we know our gloom and despair will not have the final word. The world will try to bend us out of our Christ shape, but in and through Christ, as in that Johnny Cash song, there ain’t no grave that can hold my body down. Let us then pray: