The Now and Future Kingdom

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 16 - C

August 25, 2013

Luke 13:10-17

Now he 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.

I had the misfortune to have a really bad bicycle accident about 10 years ago, I found myself in tremendous pain, unable to tie my own shoes, unable to move any faster than a slow walk – and I was like that for 9 months.  I couldn’t bend forward beyond a few inches, I had a bulging disc that compressed my sciatic nerve.  I went for months walking around gingerly, being concerned about the easiest of movements.  There were days when I could barely move myself to get out of bed.  Then I found healing at the hands of a Physical Therapist.  I know the wonder and relief I felt when I could once again touch my toes.  I know the wonder I felt when I could take a few tentative running steps without almost passing out from the pain.  I know what it was like to be trapped by a body that wasn’t working the way it was supposed to, and then be back to normal.

I can only imagine the frustration and life that the woman in our text must have felt after being crippled by her body for eighteen years.  During the short time that I was hurt, I found there were numerous things I couldn’t do.  When I was in a hurry, I couldn’t speed up.  I had to be careful about almost any movement; fast motions were out of the question.  Sneezing was one of the most painful things that could happen.  I found I looked at the world differently.  Rather than looking at something on the floor, and saying to myself that I needed to pick it up and clean; I looked at the item thinking instead of how I would be able to pick it up with the least amount of pain.  When I was out with friends, rather than being able to enjoy myself I was always thinking ahead, worrying about what we were going to do; if I was going to be able to join in.  My life was different, and my perspective changed.

Perspectives are important.  I remember in my fourth grade art class with Mr. Pugh how he spent a long time talking about perspective.  I remember drawing lines that extended into the horizon.  I remember how he showed us two pictures of the same thing, one drawn with perspective and one without.  One of the cool things about perspective is how talented artists can use the way we perceive perspective to create amazing optical illusions.  One of my favorite artists is MC Escher.  He was a Dutch artist who used perspective and the way the eyes sees and interprets things to create amazing visual pieces.  I’m sure you’ve seen some of his pieces: like the drawing of a hand drawing a hand which is in turn drawing the hand that is drawing it.  Or, probably his most famous drawings of impossible staircases that extend in different directions, in impossible ways, yet when looked at seem to follow rules.  Optical illusions created by using perspective.  Magicians and artists depend on perspective in their work; and it can be amazing what we are sometimes unable to see, or convinced we are seeing because of our perspective.

I recently attended my niece’s wedding.  It was held in a Catholic church, which meant that when the Eucharist (the Lord’s Supper) was celebrated, a whole bunch of us that were present had to just sit there while the Catholics present took part.  We were excluded by nature of the fact that we were not Catholic, and had a different understanding of the Sacrament.  At a wedding when extended families come together to celebrate the union of their children: would that not be the best place to celebrate the union of the diverse families of God in a common meal around the Lord’s Table?  Yet, our differing rules of religion kept half of those present from being fully included.  (Even though we were expected to be at the wedding, bring cards and gifts, dress up and smile even as we were excluded.)  I’m sure from the perspective of the Catholics it was a holy moment, but from the perspective of others it was a moment of exclusion and separation in the midst of joy and celebration.

The woman was bent over, and unable to see what was around her clearly.  The leader of the synagogue was also unable to see certain things.  They were both limited by their perspectives.  How often are we also blind?  We see our own path much more easily than others – and when we do see them we see only the dust of their feet, rarely the fullness of their life.  We are often comfortable this way (like the woman who seems to have accepted her condition – she didn’t ask to be healed).  Yet, in Jesus we are healed and called to look up and see life in all its facets – both good and bad.  If we keep our eyes down we will never see the reality of the lives of those around us.

I’ve mentioned before how when I was younger I would often escape into books filled with stories of fantasy and science fiction.  I would immerse myself in created worlds of magic, of dragons, of beautiful women and manly men.  Creating worlds that are different than the world we live in is natural.  All of us have things about the place where we live that we wish were somehow different.  That desire for a better place is one of the reasons why the Christian faith is so attractive to many, because we have the promise from God of the Kingdom to come.  We have the promise of God of a place in heaven that has been prepared for all of us.  We look for the coming of the Kingdom, of the Reign of God, with hopeful expectation.

But is the Kingdom of God something that is still far off?  Or is it something that is coming about now?  This weekend marks the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington on August 28, 1963.  This march was a dream put forward by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and many others to speak about a dream they had of a new reality, a new kingdom of racial equality in the United States.  Dr. King and many others believed that the dream of racial equality was something not just to look forward to happening some day in the future, but something to be worked for each and every day.  Dr. King, as a minister knew well the promises of God for the coming Kingdom with all its blessing and promise; but he also took seriously the idea that the Kingdom of God was something that was also here and now, and something we were called to play a part in putting into action.

In our text, the crowd exclaims in wonder about the things Jesus was doing, the statements Jesus was making.  It’s important to note that the word we translate as ‘doing’ in most texts, is not the same word in Greek that we normally translate as doing.  The word in this text has without question the idea of doing, but it goes much deeper.  It is the word used in the Greek Old Testament in reference to the ‘doing’ God did in creation.  This isn’t just doing, this is creating a new reality; this is making something new; this is bringing about the Kingdom of God right then and there.

On that Sabbath day long ago, Jesus cured a woman who was bent over, whose life had been marked by pain and discomfort for eighteen long years.  He reached out and touched her, transforming her life.  In so doing he opened the eyes of many of those present.  He showed the power of God to transform the life of those in bondage.  Bondage is something that all of us can relate to.  We may use different words for it, we may not even thing about it as being in bondage, but we are all in bondage in one way or another.

We may be in bondage because of physical limitations.  Perhaps our body is not working quite as well as it did when we were younger.  Maybe we are fighting against a disease that will never leave our body.  Maybe we are burdened by the trauma a disease or a treatment has left on our body.  Maybe we feel trapped and in bondage by our situation in life, feel that we are unable to find a way to move forward, find the career we want or need.  Maybe we are in bondage to family obligations that keep us from being able to move forward.  Maybe we are in bondage to expectations other people have for us, that keep us from being what we might otherwise want to be.  Maybe we are in bondage to an addiction or a need that we focus so much time on that we lose our appreciation for other things in life.  Maybe we are in bondage to feelings of fear or anxiety, doubt and depression. 

On that Sabbath day long ago, Jesus set the woman free from the bondage of being bent over.  He reached out his hand (against the advice and desire of the religious people of that day) and created a new reality in the life of that woman, and she praised God.  We have all been given a glimpse of the kingdom to come, we have all been given an idea of what the reign of God looks like – the freeing from bondage that weighs us down, bends us over and keeps us from being able to stand straight.  We know what that world looks like.  But is it just a fantasy world, something better left to some point in the future.  As the leader of the synagogue said, “come back some other time for healing- now isn’t a good time.”

So, when is a good time?  Is there a better time to be set free from bondage?  Which world would you rather live in: the world of the leader of the synagogue who says we need to wait until the time is right, until we are ready, or Jesus’ world where the pain and bondage of those we encounter is addressed, a world where through the touch of God people are set free?

We may not have the miraculous ability to heal that Jesus had, but we can still work to do our part.  We can still reach out to those who are hurting or in pain.  We can still speak out against those who use their positions of power for their own gain and to keep others in positions of scarcity and weakness.  We can still say the church is a place where all people may find a welcome: rich and poor, black and white, married and single, old and young, liberal and conservative, republican and democrat, gay and straight, able and disabled.  We can still say that in the welcoming arms of God we find our place and our peace.  We can work to bring about the Kingdom of God here and now.

Which world would you rather live in, which church would you rather be a part of: one where bondage and oppression are seen but pushed aside to be dealt with on another day, or one where we do all we can to correct that which is burdening people, keeping them from standing up straight and giving praise to God?  May God guide us as we seek to make the Kingdom a reality here and now.  Amen.