Ordinary Time, Summer 07

Cycle C, Proper 16

August 26, 2007

Title:  Bent and unable to stand up straight

Song leader:  Roger

Worship leader:  Kathy R

Speaker:  Linda

Texts:  Jeremiah 1:4-10; Psalm 71:1-6; Hebrews 12:18-29; Luke 13:10-17 (Note:  We’ve moved to the alternate lections for the OT and psalm; Gospel and epistle are the same)

Jeremiah  1:4 Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before  you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet  to the nations." 1:6 Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." 1:7 But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a boy';  for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you, 1:8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD." 1:9 Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the LORD said to me, "Now I have put my words in your mouth. 1:10 See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,  to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow,  to build and to plant."

 

Psalm  71:1-6

In you, O LORD, I take refuge;

            let me never be put to shame.

In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;

            incline your ear to me and save me.

Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me,

            for you are my rock and my fortress.

Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,

            from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.

For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust,

            O LORD, from my youth.

ALL:

Upon you I have leaned from my birth;

            it was you who took me from my mother's womb.

My praise is continually of you.

 

Hebrews  12:18 You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing  fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, 12:19 and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made  the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them. 12:20 (For they could not endure the order that was given, "If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death." 12:21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, "I tremble with fear.") 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 12:23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 12:24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. 12:25 See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking; for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject  the one who warns from heaven! 12:26 At that time his voice shook the earth; but now he has promised, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven." 12:27 This phrase, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of what is shaken--that is, created things--so that what cannot be shaken may remain. 12:28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God  an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; 12:29 for indeed our God is a consuming fire.

 

Luke  13:10-17

Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.

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.

When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said,

            "Woman, you are set free from your ailment."

When he laid his hands on her,

            immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.

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."

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?

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?"

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.

 

Contemporary quote: 

"Character isn't inherited. One builds it daily by the way one thinks and acts, thought by thought, action by action. If one lets fear or hate or anger take possession of the mind, they become self-forged chains."       -- Helen Gahagan Douglas 

(actress turned politician elected to the United States House of Representatives from California's 14th Congressional district as a liberal Democrat in 1944, and served three full terms.; beat in 1950 by Richard Nixon in an ugly smear campaign  that successfully tainted and taunted her with Communist leanings even though her voting record was not significantly different from his own.  –source, Wikipedia and www.ou.edu/special/albertctr/archives/exhibit/hgdbio.htm)

Notes:  See Rienecker and Rogers on Luke 13: 12; they say that apaluo is perf. which implies “you have been freed and are in the state of freedom.” 

 

Dramatic monologue:  (much of this was ad-libbed; these were my beginning notes)

 

I am the bent over woman. 

 

For half of my expected life span

            I was so bent over

            that I couldn’t see into the eyes of any one

except a few brave and friendly toddlers who would come over

            and peer up curiously at my upsidedown face;

little did they know how their innocent smiles

            sustained hope in my spirit. 

 

I recognized people by their feet and their voices;

            sometimes by the hems of their garments. 

Sometimes, even now that I am upright,

            I still find myself taking a quick peek at people’s feet

            to make sure that they really are who I think they are;

                        feet, like faces

            change over the years

            and some people are still easier for me to identify by their feet

                        than their faces

            which have changed so much from our common childhood years.

 

I went to many doctors; one of them probed me with hard sharp fingers and said,

“My gosh, you feel like a chunk of firewood.  Nothing moves.”

 

I knew that. 

 

Another one said, “Your muscles feel like strips of old leather.  Instead of sliding over each other they’re all glued together.” 

 

I knew that, too.

 

Luke doesn’t tell you how and why

            I became bent over;

             I will not either. 

 

I suspect Luke wanted to keep the possibilities open

            so that you would be able to ponder the many reasons

            that every single one of you, too,

                        may have

                        to get bent out of shape.

 

William Stafford, one of your poets, said that “the poet’s work is to dig so deep into his own story that he reaches everyone’s story…”  (quoted in James A Autry’s Looking Around for God, p. 75)

If you knew the ugly details of my story,

            you may be able to dismiss my healing as irrelevant to your life….

            because your ugly details are different from mine.

So I want to dig past the details to reach “everyone’s story.”

 

We all have things that bend us out of shape…

Life gives us plenty of opportunities to get out of alignment,

            to forget that we can grow straight and strong

            our feet planted solidly under us on God,

                        our rock,

                        the foundations of a fortress which will not shift.

 

Many of us have been grasped

            by the unjust and the cruel

            as your psalm says today…

 

grasped and bent and twisted

            by the injustice of poverty

                        that allows critically ill to die in emergency rooms

                                     without treatment

                        or dumps them back into the street…

            twisted by the injustice of prejudice

                         that locks up our kids for driving while black,

            that locks our citizens into unyielding categories of class,

                                   

Many of us have been bent by the injustices of the world’s largest economy,

            an economy that is skewed to favor war,

                        endless war,

             for the unimaginable enrichment of the few

            at the unimaginable impoverishment of the many—

                        literally billions of dollars squandered,

                        literally in destruction and in the service of death

            instead of in the service of life.

 

Those billions of dollars—our dollars--could be working in the service of life--

                        lifting people out of poverty,

                                    feeding the hungry,

                        taking care of the widow and orphan in their distress,

                                    supporting the rights of the poor and needy….

Our lections have talked about this practical, tangible justice all summer…

 

Many others of us have been grasped, bent and twisted

            by the cruelty of abusive power that seeks out the vulnerable for harm,

                                    betrays innocence and trust;

            cruelty in families instead of nurture,

            cruelty towards animals,

            cruelty towards people who are not quite real people

                        because they are “different”….

Others of us are caught in the pincers, in the cruelty of addictions,

                        appetites that burn like an endless fire,

                        laying waste the ground of one’s being.

Some of us are bent and shaped by the cruelty of dis-ease,

            victims of all that can cripple our physical bodies:  environmental toxins, contaminated food supplies, viruses, accidents, extreme weather, malnutrition, stress….it seems like an endless list.

                       

And many of us have allowed the twisting of our own spirits with resentment, hatred, perhaps the most insidious of all, fear--

            which far too often makes us in turn

            into perpetrators of injustice and cruelty to others.

 

Perhaps you will not find your body

            taking on the shape of your spirit as mine did—

but remember me the next time you find yourself

            getting pressed into any configuration

                        by any cause

            that takes you away from standing solidly on your own feet,

            rooted on the rock and foundation that is God…

 

I can stretch now without ripping pain,

            the knotted adhesions

            that had grown between the muscle fibers are broken at last

and the muscles bundles now slide smoothly over each other,

            lengthening, contracting. 

My shoulder blades slide!

I can look up and marvel at the stars;

            I saw a meteor during the Perseids this month—

                        right here in the lights of Boise.

            I can tilt my head back and look directly into Gary’s eyes.

This is a wonderful freedom!

 

Yes, there is still pain involved as my body reconfigures. 

            Change is difficult. 

And yes, I have to guard my freedom of movement,

            celebrate every moment,

            keep my eyes on the Lord,

                         or I slowly begin to curl back over

                        into habit, into despair.

 

I cannot tell you how hard it has been at times to stay upright. 

 

The forces that bent me over are still clustered near by;

            the spirit that bound me seeks to bind me still. 

My body snaps and pops and grinds as it rediscovers itself…

            and like Mad-Eye Moody’s repeated roaring

at his Defense against the Dark Arts class in your Harry Potter books,

            I too need to be reminded to be constantly vigilant.

           

I have been set free to live always in the state of freedom….

            and this is a freedom which must be treasured, guarded, maintained. 

 

Friends,

We have no idea of how much God loves our joyful freedom,

            desires our healing from all that constricts and harms us.

If we understood this,

            we would guard our freedom better, tend it passionately—

            love ourselves and each other more.

 

I want you to be able to feel some of this.  Would you please stand? 

Reed will lead us in singing through the song on the hand out,

            The Lord lift you up, one time through

and then I would like you to pass the peace with me in a new way. 

 

Let’s practice it now:  let your head bend forward, your shoulders curl…feel that posture of discouragement.  If your back can handle it, you may bend still further, into the bent-over woman’s posture of despair.  As Reed begins the song again, we will pass the peace to each other:  I will touch Kathy’s bent shoulders and say “The Lord lift you up”; she will straighten and pass that on to the next person who will pass it on again…as you straighten, join the song.

 

The Lord lift you up/ the Lord take your hand/ the Lord lead you forth/ and cause you to stand/ secure in God’s word, seeking God’s face, abounding in love, abiding in grace.    --Patty Shelly, 1983.