August 21, 2022 – Pentecost +11C, 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 to 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 being done by him.”

Jesus was doing a new thing in the Synagogue that day – it was new and it was a change – and it bound the leader of the synagogue as much as the woman was bound by her illness. We know the Jewish leaders seem to us to be bound by silly and ridiculous “rules”. But they were G-d’s chosen people – people of Abraham, and they tried their best to understand their relationship with G-d – one that required following very specific rules and laws and commandments – 613 commandments to be specific. What Jesus was teaching and doing was going to have a direct impact on people’s faith. 

Is the church today or our attitudes about faith bound up – restricting our faith in different ways? What is it that binds us in the church today? We know that the church has at time restricted people and done more to squelch faith rather than build our faith. Let me tell you the story of Haley.  When she was five years old she was diagnosed with celiac sprue disease.  This disorder occurs in people with a genetic intolerance of gluten, a food protein contained in wheat. When people with this disorder eat gluten it damages the lining of the small intestine and blocks nutrient absorption leading to all kinds of problems. Now, as a third grader she was approaching the age for first communion. Haley’s mother told the church officials at her Catholic church that she could not take the standard wafer because of her disorder. The church initially refused her request, but then a priest at a local parish offered her a rice wafer for communion. That following May, she received the Catholic Church’s sacrament of Holy Communion along with her friends. But, two months later, the Diocese of Trenton told the priest that the church would not validate Haley’s sacrament because of the substitute wafer. It seems that Catholic Church doctrine states that Communion wafers must have some wheat – and the church leaders are reluctant to change anything about their Doctrine. The mother complained all the way to the Vatican, but found no one willing to hear her argument. She said, “How does this corrupt the tradition of the Last Supper? It’s just rice verses wheat?”

It might seem silly to us, but when it comes to considering change, we can be very slow in changing our way of thinking – especially when it comes to the church. But we are Lutherans – we are people of the Reformation. The Lutheran faith springs out of a revolutionary movement for change – Luther’s interest in and reaction to church abuses like indulgences and manmade rules that he believed restricted the freedom and power of the Holy Spirit that builds faith.

The point of this text that we must walk away with, that is crucial for our understanding this morning is that Jesus has come to release us from the clutches of feelings, thoughts and desires that damage us emotionally and physically and cause us to depend on other substances or behaviors that are destructive. Jesus says “Woman, you have been set free from your ailment.”  The perfect tense is used indicating action that has begun in the past and continues into the present. When did her freedom begin? We don’t know.  Perhaps it was in her decision to continue to come to the synagogue – to continue to live life even though she could have retreated into the pain and misery of her disability. By deciding to do something, taking positive steps in her life – and in this case in fact coming to worship – she came where she knew she would see Jesus – she took the steps that started the wheels of her eventual freedom into motion. 

As people of faith, we need to continue to move forward, taking positive steps in our lives and in our faith.

Amen.