{"id":319,"date":"2019-08-25T13:28:13","date_gmt":"2019-08-25T13:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/?p=319"},"modified":"2019-08-26T01:31:11","modified_gmt":"2019-08-26T01:31:11","slug":"eleventh-sunday-after-pentecost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/2019\/08\/25\/eleventh-sunday-after-pentecost\/","title":{"rendered":"Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Isaiah 58:9b-14, Luke 13:10-17<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace to you and peace\nfrom God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\nmany of our thoughts are centered on the possible consequences of our actions; inside\nwe (most of us) believe that all that we do, in some way, will either benefit\nor hurt us in the future. And why not? Much of our way of life is based on this\nconcept (we do something stupid and we fall and maybe later on in life we feel\nthe aches and pains caused by our youthful indiscretions.), Scripture describes\na cause and effect life code (sin and punishment are described as going hand in\nhand); and our legal system dictates that crime and punishment are supposed to\nbe linked. Yet there are realities of life that challenge all of these; some\npeople do all kinds of dangerous things and tend not to get hurt, there are\npassages in Scripture that challenge the whole idea of sin resulting in\npunishment and our legal system fails more often than not, to impart the\nappropriate consequences upon the guilty. With regard to God\u2019s Law Jesus said a\nlot to suggest that God will right all wrongs in eternity, but he also suggests\nthat God through his sacrifice will simply forgive all the sins committed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything\nis not as black and white as we might like to think. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look\nat the Sabbath Law as it is highlighted by Isaiah; you would think that the\nSabbath was sacrosanct, that the Sabbath was not to be set aside for any\nreason, that it is to be honored and never to be trampled upon. Then we have\nthe leader of the synagogue, of our Gospel story of today; we criticize him\nbecause he seemed to oppose Jesus, but he was doing nothing more than\nexpressing the acceptable interpretation of the Sabbath Law from Scripture, as\nunderstood in his day. To give him credit, he was not telling Jesus not to heal\nthe woman, in fact, he does not address Jesus at all, he yelled at the woman and\nanyone else in the crowd who may be wanting Jesus to heal them, simply to come\nback for healing on another day. Jesus\u2019 response (though) was strong; he came\nright out and called the gathered worshippers\u2019 hypocrites (which included that\nsynagogue leader), and reminded them of how they all without fail cared for and\nrescued (when needed) their livestock, even on the Sabbath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nhad a couple of weeks away from regular TV on the ship while on vacation, so\nwhen I came home my awareness of the content of TV commercials and such was\nheightened. (There were no commercials on the TV aboard the ship.) It struck\nme, just how often the channels that I watched, aired those commercials about\nabused animals and about the agencies that provide care for abandoned and\nunwanted animals or that protected endangered species. Part of what I realized\nwas that, except for the occasional commercial for St. Jude\u2019s Hospital and the\nrare commercial about starving children in Africa, there were almost no\ncommercials concerning the care of human beings. There were no commercial about\ncaring for abused or abandoned children explaining how we can help such\nchildren, and there plenty of such children. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nI thought about it, I began to consider the possibility that we might care more\nabout our four-legged companions than we do our fellow human beings; I know I\nhave friends, one in particular that I joke about, who would quicker come to\nthe aid of an animal than a human. And, it appears that this isn\u2019t new; this is\na part of Jesus\u2019 message to the leaders and worshippers within the synagogue. Now\ndon\u2019t get me wrong, I have a cat; in the past I\u2019ve had dogs, birds, lizards,\nfrogs, turtles, hamsters, you name it; I understand that when you accept a pet\nand even a farm animal, you make a commitment to care for it; I agree; I would\nnever suggest that we abandon or mistreat or fail to take care of an animal in\nmy care. Jesus\u2019 concern was that we should commit to take care of each other\nwith equal or greater zeal. Like, the woman that he healed. She needed God\u2019s\nhealing and it would not be right to allow her to suffer even one more day. If\nthey were to learn nothing else, they were to learn that their commitment to\ncare for their fellow human beings was of greater importance than caring for\nthe animals they care for and the Sabbath. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\nis a part of Jesus\u2019 message. But it is not all of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus\nalso wanted to give that suffering woman the opportunity for Sabbath rest. By\ntaking away her suffering he was giving her the opportunity to experience\nshalom, to be able to stand up straight, to be at peace, to enjoy a feeling of wellbeing\nand to bend over (by choice) to humble herself and give thanks to God. Something\nshe had not been able to do for at least 18 years. By Jesus\u2019 response to the\nleader and the others he was humbling them and lifting the woman up, making her\nimportant, maybe more important than the leader and the others in attendance. The\nwoman, now healed, could truly honor the Sabbath in all the ways described by\nIsaiah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back\nin Philly, there was this homeless guy, Gilbert, who would come to the church on\na Sunday (once in a while); a member would help him out a bit, but before that,\nsomeone would invite him in to sit down and worship with us, which he did; and\nfor a short time Gilbert was accepted, he was safe, he was warm or cool, he\ncould rest and he was at peace; he had sabbath. Maybe that is what this healing\nwas all about. Jesus and the woman were not breaking the Sabbath Law, Jesus was\nmaking it possible for the woman to truly celebrate the Sabbath. I\u2019m pretty certain\nthat, initially, Gilbert did not come to church on Sundays to celebrate the\nSabbath, but I believe he continued to come back occasionally on Sundays as\nmuch for the opportunity to worship and be in peace, as for the food or money\nthat he was given.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\ntoo can give the opportunity for sabbath, for peace just as did Jesus, as did that\ncongregation in Philly with Gilbert, as you do now with each other and\nvisitors. I here of this care that you give again and again, how you provide\ncomfort and the opportunity for sabbath to those who come her, to each other; well\nyou can expand that by offering this to a friend, by inviting a neighbor, by bringing\na home bound member to church, or by inviting a coworker. Sabbath is something\nwe all very much need. Jesus set for us an example by healing and giving\nSabbath to that woman. We can follow his example by offering Sabbath to those around\nus and especially to those whom we meet who need God\u2019s peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Isaiah 58:9b-14, Luke 13:10-17 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ So many of our thoughts are centered on the possible consequences of our actions; inside we (most of us) believe that all that we do, in some way, will either benefit or Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-and-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":320,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319\/revisions\/320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}