Sermon preached by The Rev. Noreen Seiler Dubay on Sunday, August 25, 2013 at St.
Christopher’s Episcopal Church, New Carrollton MD
Let us listen to the Word of God spoken in the Scriptures for today. Have any of you ever
broken a bone? How about a really bad sprained ankle? Have any of you ever been in a
bad car accident and hurt your back or your neck? Any of you have herniated discs? If
you’ve ever had that kind of injury, you know what the woman in today’s Gospel felt
like. As for myself, I’ve been in a couple of serious car accidents caused by distracted
drivers or drivers going too fast in bad weather. But one of the weirdest, painful injuries I
had occurred over 20 years ago. I was bringing some logs in from the porch to throw on
the fire and somehow I dropped a log on one toe on my right foot. That toe just never got
better. It continued to hurt so much that finally my doctor put me on Celebrex, saying that
it must’ve gotten arthritis in it. I took Celebrex for years until I happened to go to a
chiropractor for problems from a car accident. She asked me if there was any other part
of my body that hurt. For some reason, I thought of that toe. She took one look at it and
said, “That toe isn’t arthritic. It’s jammed. Hold on and I’ll pull it and you’ll be fine.” For
a moment I saw stars, but then, she was right. My toe felt fine. Imagine that! It had been
jammed for 22 years! I felt like she was a miracle worker. It was a revolution in my life.
In this week’s Gospel, Jesus came face to face with a person who’d been dealing
with long term pain—but hers was in her back. The writer Walter Wink in his book,
“Engaging the Power” suggests that Jesus’ action represented a revolution happening—
not only for the woman with the bent back but the entire synagogue. In this healing, Jesus
tried to wake people up to the kind of life God wants for them. Not only did Jesus talk
about the Kingdom of God where all people have dignity, he acted it out. In a highly
patriarchal culture, Jesus broke six strict cultural rules: 1) Jesus spoke to the woman. In
civilized society, Jewish men did not speak to women. By speaking to her, Jesus threw
away the male restraints on this woman’s freedom. 2) Jesus called her to the center of the
synagogue. By placing her in the middle, he challenges the idea of a male monopoly on
access to knowledge and to God. 3) Jesus touched her, which revoked the holiness code.
That is the code which protected a man from a woman’s uncleanness and from her sinful
seductiveness. 4) Jesus called her a daughter of Abraham, a term not found in any prior
Jewish literature. This is revolutionary because it was believed that women were saved
through their men. To call her a daughter of Abraham was to make her a full fledged
member of the nation of Israel with equal standing before God. 5) He healed on the
Sabbath, the holy day. In doing this, he demonstrated God’s compassion for people over
ritual and reclaimed the Sabbath as a celebration of God’s incredible goodness. 6) Last,
Jesus challenged the ancient belief that her illness was a direct punishment from God for
sin. He asserted that she was ill, not because God willed it, but because there is evil in the
world. In other words, bad things can happen to good people.
I started out this sermon asking if you have ever had a painful injury. Well even if
you haven’t, today’s Gospel story is for you. There is another part of human life that
bends us down and bows us over. It is the weight of life, the weight of failure, the weight
of “what if?” or “why did I?” The weight of loss and longing. The weight of all that we
have messed up and all that we’ve missed out on. We can start feeling these kinds of
weights or burdens no matter what our age or how physically healthy we are.
What is weighing you down today? Is it physical pain? Is it financial debt? Is it anxiety or
depression? Is it a chronic disease that makes every day both a merciful blessing and a
painful burden? Is it your family in crisis? Is it challenging school demands? Is it worry
over your children and whether they’re hanging around with the right people? Or is it
worry about your elderly parents who are far away and you cannot get to see very often?
We are all bent people. Life bends us all. All of these weights and many that you could
name can bend our body, warp our hearts or minds, and weigh down our souls.
Nevertheless, the promise for us in today’s Gospel is the same as it was for that
woman. In the Gospel, Jesus delivered this woman. But he did more than that. He offered
her a new identity. He did not define her in terms of her bent back. He refused to define
her in terms of her illness. Jesus referred to her by her true identity “a daughter of
Abraham.” And the promise is the same for us. You all are sons and daughters of God.
You are so much more than your weaknesses. Jesus Christ wants to deliver you from all
those things that weigh you down, so that you may know your truest and deepest identity
as his son, his daughter.
Several years ago, I was on a clergy retreat and I learned this in a powerful new way. The
retreat had come at a very good time for me. I was taking on an extremely challenging
situation that involved confronting injustice that had been done to many people. I was
feeling both exhausted and afraid. Who was I to confront this situation? Not only had a
chaplain treated many people badly; the institution which employed him seemed to prefer
to look the other way. I went on this retreat at Loyola Retreat House and the leader,
Martin Smith, was talking to all of us on the retreat about our relationship with God.
Smith said that the most central thing that Jesus wanted to say to us was “You are
the desire of my heart.” He asked us to close our eyes and imagine first of all Jesus
looking at us with love and saying “You are the desire of my heart.” After that session, I
went out onto the back lawn and there was a statue of Jesus with open arms. It looked
very much like this one, but slightly different colored garments. Can you close your eyes
right now and picture Jesus? Or can you look at this statue and imagine that he is looking
at you and saying that to you. “You are the desire of my heart?” “You are the desire of
my heart.” No matter how bent over you are by things that you’ve done or things that
have happened to you. No matter how much thing happening to your friends or family are
weighing you down, just rest peacefully and imagine Jesus saying “You are the desire of
my heart.”
Then Martin Smith went further. He said, “Now imagine yourself looking at Jesus
and saying to him ‘You are the desire of my heart.’ What would that be like?” Can you
imagine that? Can you imagine looking at Jesus, either as you imagine Him in your mind
or looking at this statue and saying “You are the desire of my heart?” What would it be
like to say that to Jesus every day when you wake up? “You are the desire of my heart?”
How might that change what you do each day or what you pursue each day?
And finally, Martin Smith suggested that we imagine Jesus saying “Your desire is
the desire of my heart.” He said that we are all full of deep longings and desires. Not all
of them are good, he said. But the deepest and truest desires of our hearts—Jesus knows
these things and sees these things. And because we are the desire of His heart, he will
grant our deepest longings and desires. The God who created us, created these desires in
us and will grant them to be fulfilled. Why? Because he loves us and wants us to have life
in all its fullness. Jesus sees these deep desires and wants to bring them to fruition. Jesus
loves the bent up to life. Jesus loves us to life.
Once a month we have Anointing and Laying on of Hands as part of our service.
Today is that day. Sometimes some of you tell me what you want prayers for. Sometimes
you don’t—either because you want to keep your intentions private or because you want
God to be in charge of what needs to be blessed or healed the most. Recently James
Modozie said something to me on August 4 that was “You must be tired.” And I said
something to him like, “Actually, I find the Laying on of Hands very moving and
empowering.” What I meant is I feel blessed to be able to join with you in interceding to
God for whatever are the desires of your heart. And when you don’t say anything, I just
pray that you will know in your hearts, minds and bodies how much our Lord Jesus
Christ is saying to you, “You are the desire of my heart.” That is why I end each prayer
by saying, “May you know that the love of Christ supports you and surrounds you every
day of your life.”
Remember, you are the desire of His heart. May you know that in every part of your
being, so that you may make him the desire of your heart. As a result of knowing that,
may you be strengthened to be able to love a person to life this week. And may St.
Christopher’s as a church experience the empowerment that comes from Christ’s love so
that you are set free from all that binds you and causes you to bent low. AMEN.