To Be Seen / Based on Luke 13:10-17 and Isaiah 58:9b-14 / Delivered to CCH on August 25, 2019

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 15^th 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