Seen, called and healed

‘…Woman, you are set free from your ailment ..’ (Luke 13:12)

Luke 13:10-17 (Year C: Trinity+13)

Sundays yesterday and today

Sunday used to be a time to meet up, to rest, to enjoy, to converse, to visit, to savour, to have a sing-song in a neighbour’s house and marvel at nature.  That is, Sunday in the rare auld times it might be said before 24 hour shopping, multi-channel TV and web surfing arrived. In secular France it is still a bit like Ireland in the rare auld times at least on Sunday mornings thanks to Gallic stubbornness in the face of global market pressure.

Here in Ireland, the political anoraks revel in gloomy current affair arguments first thing on Sunday morning while Ma and Da are frantically driving here and there to children’s sports events 50 Km away at 10am on Sunday morning. The regrettable arrival of ‘Saturday night mass’ in the early 1980s for the dwindling minority that attend church every Sunday was the last straw for Sunday morning gatherings especially in some areas and traditions (notwithstanding the good intentions and liturgical propriety of beginning – but not terminating – a celebration of the Lord’s resurrection on the eve of Sunday).

Of course, in addition to retail, hospitality and other Sunday workers there are millions of nurses, police officers, transport workers and others across the world doing essential work that we can often assume or take for granted until we find ourselves in a particular need.

Setting the scene

healing on the sabbath

This Sunday’s story is unique, among the Gospels, to that of Luke. You have already guessed correctly: a woman features in this story.  It is a Saturday when every Jew is expected to rest and do no ‘work’ (in modern day Israel the ‘weekend’ comprises Saturday and Friday the latter being availed of by Muslims). And Jesus lands himself in trouble – again – and it is over what a decent and respectable Jew should be doing or not doing on a Sabbath day (see, for example, another Sabbath spat with the religious authorities in Luke 6:6-11).

Now the word Sabbath is derives from the Hebrew word Sabat which means to stop, to cease or to keep.  And, so we have the seventh day of the week or the seventh week after every seven Sabbaths or the Sabbath year in which the land is left to rest from sowing. And after 49 years there is a Sabbath year during which, in biblical times, slaves and prisoners were set free and debts forgiven. God rested on the seventh day after ‘six days’ of creating. We, too, need to rest and stop regularly. Some of us are enjoying the August sabat here in the Northern Hemisphere.  Christians, in a way, still acknowledge the ‘last day of the week’ or the Sabbath that Jesus valued. After all, our ‘first day of the week’ – the day of the resurrection when we meet, hear, give thanks, break bread and are sent out again – begins liturgically on Saturday evening and lasts until Sunday evening.

So, what was Jesus doing on this particular Sabbath? He was ‘teaching in one of the synagogues’.  That’s what any decent Jewish Rabbi would do. But, a woman arrives on the scene. We are told that ‘a spirit’ had ‘crippled her for eighteen years’ and that ‘she was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight’ (v. 11). There followed an extraordinary episode and conversation. Jesus ‘saw’, ‘called’ and ‘set free’.

• He saw a person in pain and in a prison of social disdain.
• He called that person over in front of everyone.
• He set that person free from her ailment to the astonishment of all present.

The woman who was healed stood up straight in confidence.  She was able to stand her ground now and would never forget this moment. She immediately ‘began praising God’ (v. 13

We see and yet we don’t see. To see/guess/intuit the need of another next door, by the bus stop, in the pew at church is a great gift. We don’t need to be fussy busy bodies stirring up conversations or gestures that are more annoying than helpful. Yet, to offer a smile, a helping hand or even just a look to acknowledge the check-out worker at the supermarket and not just some anonymous being is a work of compassion.

Compassion first

The point about Jesus healing on the Sabbath is that proclaiming the world of God, reaching out and healing are all linked in. The authorities that Jesus had to contend with had forgotten the meaning of Sabbath or, rather, had turned it into an absolute thing to which all else including human compassion must bow. This was the death of true religion – the placing of good principles and laws on a pedestal to the exclusion of all else.  Religious persons had forgotten that what God wants is mercy, compassion, and love. Yes, Jesus could have waited another 24 hours or so before healing this woman. But that was not the point.  Jesus was showing them and us that God is master of the Sabbath and along with it the 100s of other rules and conventions summed up in one command – to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbour in the here and now.  We, too, are in need of healing. Perhaps we need healing from our false gods?  Do we need to be healed from absolutes, reified traditions, literalism and disregard for real people in our present day real world? If we think that we are confronted with an awful choice between ‘obeying God’ means and genuinely helping someone then the answer is clear: to help someone in need is to obey God!

The keeping of the Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments for all Christians and Jews alike. However, Jews and Christians, alike, have 9 other commandments to work on in such manner that all is in harmony!  In a letter to the early Christians in Rome St Paul writes (Romans 13:8-10):

 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

There is the meaning of Sabbath – it means stopping from our normal routine and work but not stopping to offer help, support, encouragement and – who knows – healing as well. 

The special place of the Eucharist in healing

Thinking about healing – we may ask what is the special place of the special weekly gathering for Christians on the day of the Lord’s resurrection? That place in the weekly calendar is a very precious moment in our busy weeks to come before a compassionate God who delights to see us, hear us and touch us. This is why, for many Christians, the idea of celebrating the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus on the Sabbath day with the Eucharist make complete sense. We know from Acts 2:46 that the disciples met to break bread and pray together very regularly (it reads as ‘Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home [some translations have ‘from house to house’] and ate their food with glad and generous hearts’).

While the New Testament does not specify how often the early disciples met to break bread it was a normal and regular part of their gathering and the association of what was to become the new Sabbath of the ‘Lord’s own day’ and the Eucharist is testified in a number of early sources such as, for example, the Didache (14.1) we read that

And on the Lord's own day gather yourselves together and break bread and give thanks, first confessing your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure.

I approach the matter not as some obligation laid down but, rather, a wonderfully amazing opportunity to be part of such a celebration week after week. How could one not resist taking part!  Of course, there are many Christians who cannot participate in the Eucharist for one reason or another (an ordained may not be available within 100 KM or one may be confined to a hospital or a nursing home without access to the Eucharist or in some parts of the world Christians risk their lives meeting together). However, we have little excuse not to celebrate the Eucharist on Resurrection Day if we, as a community, have the means to do it. And what more excellent way to warm up for the Eucharist than a Vigil or early community morning prayer just before the Eucharist!! Some Eastern Christian traditions do Sunday in style by focussing on one major community celebration that is so good that it lasts for hours not including the socialising, partying and eating afterwards! They have never encountered the ‘clear the carpark within the hour’ syndrome.

For those among us who might hesitate ('it has been so long' or 'I am not sure' 'I'd be something of a hypocrite to go and receive' etc.) there is comfort in the following:

‘The Eucharist, although it is the fullness of sacramental life, is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak’ (Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium, p40)

No more excuses!

Welcome changes in practice

We may rejoice that there is a renewed appreciation of the Eucharist as ‘the source and summit of the Christian life’ and in the case of some churches in the reformation tradition  the practice of a weekly Sunday Eucharist as the principle service has been recovered. I say recovered because I am not aware of any evidence that the ‘mainstream reformers’ in the 16^th century sought to make the reception of holy communion less frequent. There was a legacy of bad pastoral practice from the late middle ages whereby lay Christians did not receive communion except once or twice a year after a thorough spiritual scan and virus fix!. Given the difficulty of breaking this habit it is understandable that Sunday services omitted the Eucharist for most weeks of the month in the reformation traditions because Eucharist meant a meal as well as a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.

Meeting today, in the breaking of the Bread and the Word we can be confident that each one of us is personally welcomed and:

Seen
Called
Healed and 

restored to a point where, like the woman in this story, we can stand up with honour and self-respect and are ready for whatever lies ahead.

There is one Chief Host at every eucharistic gathering and He invites us as we are - repentant, seeking and ready to receive and begin again.

The Eucharist can be a great time of healing because it is physical and ‘real-time’ in the way of a sacrament that involves outward signs and actions as channels of inward grace and healing.

It is time to hear the call this morning and go there. What a privilege if we have legs to walk, ears to hear and mouths to speak and receive and a place to meet where Word and Bread of Life are broken and the Wine of Joy is poured. 

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:26)

Happy Sabbath!