Year C, Pentecost 11, Luke 13.10-17, Becoming Well

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen

We don’t know what to make of the demons in the New Testament.

Our modern minds and worldview leaves little room for ghosts, demons, and other spiritual beings, even good ones such as angels.

Also, our understanding of the world and our growing expertise in healthcare changes the way we view diseases, either mental health issues or physical health issues.

And so today, when we read the scripture, we recognize many of the ailments that Jesus cured and understand them, not as demons, but in light of our 21^st century medical knowledge.

Epilepsy.

Hemoraging.

Blindness.

Mental health.

And in today’s lesson, Osteoporosis.

Even in the lesson itself it is viewed in two different lights.

We read on the one hand that she had “a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years”, but also Jesus refers to it as an “ailment”.

Is she ‘possessed’, or simply suffering from a disease?

According to Dr. Ira Brent Driggers, who wrote the commentary in Working Preacher for today:

“Luke and the other evangelists emphasize Jesus’ power to heal physical brokenness because they are convinced that God created everything and called it good, meaning Jesus’ messianic mission is not some Gnostic deliverance of the spirit out of the body but a healing of the entire person.  In the case of the bent over woman, Luke goes so far as to call her condition a form of Satanic bondage, which is an ancient apocalyptic way of saying her condition violates God’s will for her life (and is not her own fault!).  To be clear, she is not demon-possessed.  But according to the Lukan Jesus, she is tragically broken.

Disease is not God’s will for our lives.

And it is not our fault.

That’s what demon possession in the New Testament signifies. 

In contrast to this we often hear people respond to adversity in their lives by saying “it must be God’s will”.  There is a sense that everything that happens, happens according to God’s plan and will. 

People will say all sorts of things in this light, for example, when a child dies they will say things like “God needed another little angel in heaven.” 

Against all that, the Bible uses demonic possession as a way of saying that no, everything is not according to the will of God.  Evil exists.

And neither is everything bad that happens to you a punishment for having done something wrong.

We know today that some diseases are the consequence of our actions.

You smoke your whole life and the risk of lung cancer and other diseases goes way up.

People who drink excessively experience health issues related to that drinking, including cirrhosis of the liver.

If you’re obese, other risk factors come into play.

 And in addition to this sort of thing, other actions on our part may contribute to suffering, such as taking risks driving, or carelessness at work, and such.

That said, though, most of the diseases we will experience are not our fault.

Nor are they the will of God.

To the contrary, it is God’s will that we be set free from this type of bondage.

Bottom line:  call it a disease, or call it demon possession, it is against God’s will and his plan is that we be set free from it.

One of the things that strikes me about Jesus’ ministry is how much of his time and energy was devoted to the task of making people well.

Jesus was not just about saving souls, and neglecting the rest of our lives, our bodies and minds.

Rather redemption means wholeness in body, mind, and spirit. 

And yet, so often we suffer for years without hope of getting better.  Eighteen years this woman in our Gospel lesson suffered.

It is simply part of life, it seems, that each of us will eventually get some chronic condition from which there will be no relief.

One of the conclusions that I have come to over the years is that no one can pray their way out of their own mortality.

We will die.

And yet we have the promise, that even in death God is at work bringing about a new creation and wiping away every tear from our eyes.

Again, redemption means wholeness in body, mind, and spirit.

If Jesus’ ministry is in any way instructive to us, then we would devote ourselves first and foremost to this task of health and wellness.

Somewhere along the way, though, we got distracted.

We started focusing more on being religious, than on being well.

And believe it or not, Jesus had very little time for our religiosity.  He did not come that we might be more religious, he came that we might be made well.

When Jesus cured the woman in today’s lesson, all the religious leaders could think about was that he had done so on the Sabbath.  Their religious traditions were more important to them than the wellness of this woman.

This was a pattern that was repeated throughout Jesus’ ministry.

The religious leaders were more concerned about people being religious, than they were about them being whole.

As a pastor, I find myself questioning whether I am likewise more concerned about how religious people are, than how well they are.

And if we are totally honest, our well being as pastors and the Church is dependent in no small way on the religious devotion of our parishioners.

Let’s just focus on the Sabbath as an example.

We don’t have the same sorts of Sabbath laws as they did in Jesus’ day.

But we have our own religious practices associated with the Sabbath.

“Be in Church.”

That’s something we highly value.  Be in Church on Sunday morning.

Yet we live in a world that draws people away from church on Sundays.

All sorts of activities compete for our time.

And in the face of that, there is an unwritten rule that says that “good Christians” will be in Church each Sunday morning.  That’s what it means to be religious, right????

And the truth be told, there is a very self centered reason that religious leaders are concerned about people observing the Sabbath by being in Church Sunday mornings.

That’s when we take the offerings.

People who are in Church every week tend to give more than people who aren’t.

And so the Church as an institution, and pastors as leaders, tend to promote religious behaviors that are beneficial to the Church and to the pastor’s own well being.

Go to Church.

Tithe.

Two measures of how religious we are.

OK, so these things are important.

It’s important that we hear God’s word and receive the sacraments. 

And none of our ministries would be possible apart from your gifts that make them possible, gifts not only of your money, but of your time and talents, as well.

And yet, that said, it is far more important that you be made whole, than that you become religious.

There was even a book written about this back in the ‘60s. 

One of the ways that this comes into play, is that when a new visitor, especially one who has never or rarely been to church before, comes to worship they find themselves feeling rather lost and alone because they don’t know all the religious rituals that we observe. 

But what brought them here?

Was it a desire to learn all sorts of religious rituals and observances?

OK, here’s a news flash.

People who come to the Church for the first time are not concerned with how to hold their hands in prayer, or when to stand and when to sit in worship, or any other such things.

There is one reason above all others that brings people to Church for the first time.

It is a sense that there is a void in their life, that something’s missing, or something’s wrong.

And they long to be made whole.

People yearn to become spiritually whole, not religiously devout.

That is what Jesus’ ministry was all about, and it remains the most important thing about our ministry.

If someone is not healed, in body, mind, and spirit, it does not matter how religious they are.

What matters is if they are well.

Amen

Year B, Pentecost 11, Ephesians 4:1-16, “We are One”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

One Body.

One Spirit.

One Hope.

One Lord.

One Faith.

One Baptism.

One God and Father.

And our calling as God’s people is to make every effort, bearing with one another in love, in order that we might maintain this unity in the Spirit and the name of Jesus.

We haven’t done so well at this.  We have become as divided as you possibly could be.  We have denominations of every stripe and color, and even within local congregations, there are differences that threaten the unity of Christ’s body.

From a human perspective the Body of Christ has not just been divided, but it has been shredded. 

Paul writes:

We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming.

Rather, Paul writes, “we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”

Ok, so to put that all in blunt language, what Paul is telling the church is “to quit being immature little brats and grow up and behave as adults.”

From a human perspective, we have divided the Church in almost every way.

What I mean by that is that when Paul says “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all”, we have found ways to challenge the “oneness” of each of those items.

One Body?

                No, we have formed countless denominations and often refuse to acknowledge one another as members of the One Body.

One Spirit?

                No, we are divided in our understanding of the Spirit, that’s why we have Pentecostal churches, and well, non-Pentecostal churches.  We believe different things about the Spirit.

One Hope?

                Is the Kingdom of God a promise of the world to come, or a new order in this world?  We don’t agree on that question.

One Lord?

                Well, yes, we all agree Christianity is about Jesus—it’s just we can’t agree who Jesus is.

One Faith?

                To be faithful—is that something we do?  Or simply a trust in what God has done?  No agreement there.

One Baptism?

                I can count a minimum of three among us.  Infant baptism, believer’s baptism, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit as practiced among Pentecostals. 

One God and Father of us all?

                Our understanding of God is very different.  And more and more we challenge the notion that “Father” is even an appropriate name for God. 

The bottom line is that the Church is divided.

It is divided between the Catholic Church in the West, and the Orthodox Church in the East.

It is divided between Roman Catholics and the Churches of the Reformation.

The Protestant Churches are divided on their understanding of Holy Communion and Baptism.

And also, Protestant Churches are divided according to national origin and governance.

One of the things most indicative of this division within the church is what happens when we disagree with one another.

Rather than bearing with one another in love, we are quick to leave and go our separate ways.  If you don’t like what you hear in one Church, just go down the street and try out the next church on the block.

But all of this disunity, these differences and divisions, are only from a human point of view.

The fact is that regardless what we believe or how we act there is only one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.

From God’s perspective, the Church, that is, the Body of Christ is indivisible.  There is only One.  Period.

You cannot leave one Church and join another.  We are all one in Christ Jesus.

Whatever disagreements we have are all disagreements that are within the one Church.  Those disagreements cannot divide the Church, because our unity is in Christ, not in our agreements.

This is why in the Creeds we confess that “We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.”

There is a radical inclusivity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a Gospel that unites us all, in spite of ourselves.

This has some very practical implications for us.

Who leads this Church today?

Does the Pope?  Or the Patriarch?  Or our Presiding Bishop, Elizabeth Eaton?  Or what about Evangelical leaders such as Rick Warren?

The answer is not one or the other, but yes, these are all leaders of the Church today.

If we as Lutherans refuse to listen to Pope Francis, we miss an opportunity to be enriched.

Likewise, if Roman Catholics fail to hear the voices of Evangelical Christians, they likewise are less for it.

Paul writes:

“The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.”

I think that today we might rephrase this to say:

The gifts he gave were that some would be Orthodox, some Catholic, some Reformed, some Evangelical and some Pentecostal, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.

Can we embrace this diversity that is part of the Body of Christ?

That is the question that has followed the Church in every place and time.

It’s the reason that Jesus prayed fervently for the unity of the Church in his high priestly prayer, because he knew that maintaining the unity of the Church would be the disciple’s biggest challenge.

Part of the reason for this being so challenging is that we like the path of least resistance.

“Birds of a feather flock together” is an old proverb.

It is easier to get along with people who share all my own convictions and values, not to mention my culture and all sorts of other things.

It’s just easier to associate with people with whom I agree.

I have a conservative friend who made the observation that while there are many conservatives in the Lutheran church, almost all the pastors are liberals.

My response was that if that is true, then why aren’t conservatives becoming pastors?

Well, in fact, it is not true.  There are people of varying perspectives throughout the Church.

Human nature thinks it would be easier to gather together and associate with people like us.

But God’s love is such that he has gathered people of every sort into this one Body of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

We are all brothers and sisters.

One family.

Often one contentious family, but one family.

It is childish and immature to think, even for a moment, that you can have a group of people as wide and varied as the Church, people from every place and time, people of every race, every economic class, male and female, young and old, and have them all agree.

As Paul says, we need to grow up.

We need to grow up, and grow into Christ.

Loving not as we loved, but as Christ loved, and accepting one another just as we are.

Disagree?

You bet, we will have our disagreements, but we remain one family, because God has made it so.

I’m reminded of this every time I deal with my own brothers and sisters.  We don’t always agree.  This is particularly evident at this time when we are involved in settling my father’s estate. 

But we are one family, not because of our agreements, but because of the love that our parents had for us.

Likewise, with the Church—we are not one because we agree, but rather because of the love that Christ has for each and every one of us.

Amen