set free

How about a Bible lesson for a change?

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.

This good old Sunday school Bible story from Luke is our gospel for the upcoming Sunday, August 21st, when every soul whose morning it is to man the pulpit will see it different and preach it different - -

so okay, a naval officer’s mind digresses abruptly: “General quarters, general quarters, all hands man your battle stations”, with the Navy leading the way into society’s social and political correctness, “all hands person your battle stations”,

every soul whose morning it is to person the pulpit will see and preach it differently, and yes, I know it’s an adverb. But this is my blog as long as Blogger suffers me patiently. Besides, when I was at theological seminary the homiletics professor summarized me at the end of the semester, “you have an eccentric preaching style, but it seems to work for you”.

And, yes, I know the American Way is that the period full stop always goes inside the quotation marks, but that’s a dumb rule that applies differently to question marks and exclamation points; and, while I’m not a rule-breaker, in the face of stupidity or pointlessness I set my own rules, and never in concrete.

In my diocese where I was ordained deacon and priest, as well as passing the nationwide General Ordination Exam to the bishop's satisfaction, a candidate for holy orders appeared before the bishop and a council of learned elders for an oral exam called “the canonicals”. In my "canonicals", one of the questions asked me, in fact by a diocesan parish priest who was also a part-time professor on faculty at Virginia Seminary, was “Why do the rubrics say a deacon or priest is to read the gospel? Why can't a lay person read the gospel?” My answer was, “I don't know, it makes no sense to me,” to which my professor said, “Me neither”.

My point: it’s okay to be different.

So the gospel for day after tomorrow. Jesus, who came to show and tell the values of God the Father, showing and telling that it’s okay to disregard, disobey, stupid religious rules. Indeed, not simply okay, but, for God's sake, it's mandatory when the choice is either a rule or lovingkindness. Jesus chooses lovingkindness, chesed, agape.

We live in a societyi in which people’s government is moving away from any sense of lovingkindness and digging deeper and deeper into a pit of religious-driven laws telling people what they can and cannot do; driven by the smug certitude of half the people's religious certainties. The America of your grandchildren will be far different from the America in which I grew up, and which I inherited from my grandfathers.

Who has ears, hear.

RSF&PTL