Pentecost 13.htm

Isaiah 58:9b-14

Psalm 103:1-8

Hebrews 12:18-29

Luke 13:10-17

Sit back, relax. Take a load off. It’s Sunday! The Sabbath. A day to relax and recover and recharge. A day to spend with family and friends. Watch a game on TV. Chill.

Of course, you are starting it here with me. At church. Worshiping God together.

But are you relaxed? At ease?

All right, how long has it been since you’ve been relaxed. Really relaxed? How long has it been seen you’ve had fun? Really had fun?

Or are you the type that tries to be relaxed so you can check that off your to-do list? Or maybe you are the type that schedules fun so that even every moment of your vacation follows a “to-do-to-have-fun” list. Or maybe you just have a lot on your plate right now. Worries about family and friends, work, school…

And we might have a few people in our midst who simply don’t think they deserve to have fun, they are carrying some guilt, some shame, some messages from the past that burden them down and hold them back.

Face it, we all have burdens. We have back-aches from carrying the weight of the world. We have heartaches from broken relationships, we have sleepless nights from worrying to much.

And then we are supposed to come here on Sunday and relax? That is hard work too. Cause I really need to balance the checkbook this afternoon and companies coming this week and the house is a mess and school started and there is already homework to be done.

And I’m supposed to set that aside for an hour or so?

But here we are, week after week. We must believe that something happens in this place, to keep coming back. We must be getting something out of it.

There was a woman who came to the synagogue every week. It wasn’t easy. The children would stare and the adults would whisper. But she came. Bent over, crippled for 18 years. 18 years! A lifetime. So long a time she couldn’t remember what it was like to stand up straight, or to look up at the birds flying by. 18 years of pain. Of looking down.

But still she got up on the Sabbath and went to the synagogue to hear the teachers. It brought her some peace, some comfort.

But on this day, this Sabbath day, when she was at worship like she always was….

The teacher called to her. And she went to his side. And he spoke in that calm voice “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” And then he touched her, oh that magnetic touch.

And just like that she was free! She stood up straight and began praising God…looking up to the heavens!

Of course, there is always someone who doesn’t like healing. People who find fault with Jesus paying attention to common ordinary, burdened folks who don’t even come with a name.

Who does he think he is? You have 6 days to work and heal, but today is the Sabbath!

Jesus suggests that the leaders of the synagogue take time and effort to water their ox or donkey on the Sabbath. Isn’t this woman, a daughter of Abraham, deserving of freedom on this day?

Wow. Jesus knows how to make enemies. Does it rather well. He just points out the hypocrisy of folks. Then again, that is what all the prophets do. Isaiah does it in our first reading today when he reminds folks that they are serving their own interests on the Sabbath and trampling on the afflicted and depriving the poor of food.

Today Jesus says, Get over it. I’m going to heal this woman and she will be able to have a real Sabbath, a real rest. A real break from her burdens. A new life!

So Jesus speaks and touches and heals, all on the Sabbath. Who, then is to say that he has finished healing?

After all, it is the Sabbath and Jesus is in the house…in the bread and in the wine, in the water and the word, in the sharing of the peace and the singing of the songs. Jesus is present when we gather in this place, taking our burdens at the door. Erasing our shame, tossing off our guilt, cleansing our souls.

Jesus is in the house, offering peace and rest and hope. Even after the most challenging week or the most stressful day. Jesus is working in this place, through the person sitting next to you that you know so well or through the stranger across the room.

So today we give our burdens to Jesus. We let go, trusting that the world will keep spinning even if we stop. We give Jesus our stress, trusting that all will be well. We give Jesus our guilt and our shame, trusting that God will make us whole.

It is the Sabbath. Relax, rejoice, be re-created in the imaged of God.

May we rejoice at all the wonderful things God is still doing.

Amen.