To Be Seen / Based on Luke 13:10-17 and Isaiah 58:9b-14 /
Delivered to CCH on August 25, 2019
Hymns: What a Friend We Have in Jesus, He Touched me, Come
and Find the Quiet Center
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.
Isaiah 58:9b-14
58:9b If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of
the finger, the speaking of evil,
58:10 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.
58:11 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.
58:12 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.
58:13 If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from
pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight
and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own
ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs;
58:14 then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will
make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage
of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Good morning and Happy Sunday to you! I am Darci Strutt McQuiston, a Lay Leader
from the United Methodist Church up on the hill from here. I’ve missed seeing you, and I’m happy to be
back worshiping with you again this morning.
I’ve chosen two of the lectionary scriptures for this morning
because they both touch on caring for each other and keeping the sabbath. I’ve also picked a hymn that isn’t in your
normal songbook because it kept running though my head as I worked on this
message. I hope it is familiar to most
of you.
The topics I am speaking through today are:
The joy of being seen
Touch and healing
Practicing sabbath
The joy of being seen
There is great love in being seen. That experience was the first gift Jesus gave
the woman in Luke. The gospel of Luke
does not mention the woman calling out to Jesus for help. She doesn’t ask for help directly at
all. Yet Jesus sees her and recognizes
her need.
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."
In some readings I studied this week the author called out
the language that Jesus used as being in the past tense. The interpretation is that God had already freed
her, and Jesus was just letting her know.
Jesus was revealing God’s power was already in action for the woman.
Touch and healing
In some recorded healings the only action by Jesus was His
proclamation of it being so, but in many others, He reached out to provide a
healing touch. Sometimes it’s the person
who sneaks a touch, like the woman who had been bleeding for years touching His
robe. In this case Jesus laid hands on
the woman personally.
13:13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up
straight and began praising God.
Her response was not praising Jesus, but because she saw the
true healing came from God her response was praising God. Jesus was the channel for God’s healing
power. Her recognition was immediate.
Practicing Sabbath
The first half of our Gospel reading focuses on healing. The second half focuses on dealing with
interpretation of law pertaining to sabbath.
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."
Notice he did not address Jesus directly. He addressed his chastisement to the crowd,
and no doubt focused on the woman.
We were told in the beginning of the passage that the woman
had suffered 18 years with her condition.
That meant 18 years times 52 weeks times 6 non-sabbath days per week, or
5,616 days she had her condition ignored at the temple. This history didn’t give her very good odds
of being healed on a different day.
Reading from Isaiah we get a different definition of what
“work” meant.
58:13 If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from
pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight
and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own
ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs;
58:14 then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will
make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage
of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Sabbath was a time to stop making money for yourself and
instead remember that God provides. On
this sabbath day what God provided was healing.
The beginning of the reading for today out of Isaiah made
clear what the leader had neglected to do.
58:9b If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of
the finger, the speaking of evil,
58:10 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.
Jesus called the leader out directly.
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.
The law of sabbath was being misinterpreted by the authorities. Jesus was attempting to set them straight.
I can imagine the woman’s experience in my own way. There is great joy in being seen. This past weekend was the Village of North
Hudson’s Pepper Fest. I throw a large
yard party on Thursday, the Eve of Pepper Fest.
This year was my 15th annual party. The guests are a mix of people I know well,
and people I invite in because they are active in community service either for
Pepper Fest or in their own community.
I enjoy all the guests during the night and love the
gathering because it brings friends together.
However, there were a few special moments when I felt seen. My husband has Alzheimer’s and I recently
moved him into a memory care facility.
During the party and celebration, there were people that reached out to
me because they knew the struggles within my heart. They truly saw into my life and ministered to
my emotional need even during the busy party.
They asked how I was feeling and how my husband was doing. They didn’t sidestep or ignore the issues in
my life.
I felt the healing touch of loving hugs throughout the
weekend. Science has shown there are
endorphins released during such loving touch that provide a calming effect. It didn’t remove life’s troubles, but it was
healing and encouraging to experience their love.
Thinking of sabbath brings a true confession time. Keeping a day of rest set apart has been very
hard for me. The authorities in our
passage today got it wrong, but that doesn’t mean the idea of sabbath rest is
wrong. The passage from Isaiah spoke to
me. Perhaps I could take one day a week and
remember that God provides. I’m not 100%
sure of what that will look like. I’m
thinking it means to stop struggling to survive for a moment and trust His
care. Focus on gratitude and enjoying what
my life already has instead of focusing on how to make it better.
I have experienced the feeling of being seen. That motivates me to try to see others more
fully. Sitting with a friend who is
experiencing pain isn’t always comfortable, but it is comforting. It is sharing a burden, and even if it
doesn’t expel it, it makes it easier to handle because it is shared. It is shared by being seen and acknowledged. People that ministered to me this weekend
didn’t fully know what I was going through.
They weren’t living it with me.
They were loving me as I live it and that gave me strength.
We can do that for each other. We can help each other feel seen and less
alone. Perhaps we can help each other recognize
God’s healing love active in our lives. That
may have been what Jesus did that day for the woman. It starts with being willing to fully see each
other. If the other person is a hugger and
you are too, then hugs help!
Maybe you are already good at keeping sabbath, but I
challenge us both to consider it from this scripture from Isaiah. It isn’t required that we sit and do
nothing. It is pausing in our striving
for self-care and recognizing God’s care.
Sometimes that means helping another recognize God’s care by reaching
out to them in love and service. That
isn’t violating the sabbath. It is
loving like God desires us to love each other.
Take time to share this truth with each other. We are not alone. We are seen by God and we can be seen by each
other. We are loved. We can rest knowing we are in God’s care.
Amen
