Hebrews 12:18-29, Luke 13:10-17
The Tenth Sunday after Trinity, 21 August 2022
Austwick, Clapham, Eldroth
Jesus was at it again. Like a good rabbi, teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath; but when a woman appeared needing healing, he healed her; rousing the leader of the synagogue to call him a very bad rabbi, saying, ‘There are six days on which work should be done, people should be cured, and not on the sabbath day.’ Jesus gave him short shrift, shaming his opponents and delighting the crowd who thought what he was doing was truly wonderful.
Now, please note this: Jesus was a rabbi. He worked from within his faith tradition. But Jesus was an utterly unpredictable rabbi. Jesus was always surprising his synagogue friends by eating at the wrong houses (those of sinners), hanging around the wrong people (tax collectors, adulterers, prostitutes, lepers), and healing people on the wrong day (the Sabbath).
With Jesus, there was no digital diary, no strategic plan, no mission statement; there was only the eager anticipation of the present moment. But the Pharisees wanted Jesus to be the same as they were. They wanted his truth to be the same truth that they had spent centuries taming. Their encounters with Jesus reminded them that truth is unpredictable. People rarely like surprises - church people included - and we don't want to be uncomfortable. We want a nice, tame Jesus.
But with Jesus, tameness is not an option. When Jesus is present, traditional practices get upset: and whilst some traditionalists around him get angry, others feel mysteriously glad at the same time.
You take surprise out of faith and all that is left is dry and dead religion. Take away mystery from the gospel and all that is left is a frozen and petrified dogma. Lose your awe of God and you are left with an impotent deity. Abandon astonishment and you are left with meaningless piety. When religion is characterised by sameness, when tradition is set in stone, then the uniqueness of God's people is dead and the church is lost.
Most people believe that following Jesus is all about living right. This is not true. Following Jesus is all about living fully. And that means being open to the idea that faith and tradition are evolving things.
Jesus met a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years, bent over unable to stand up straight: a woman, possessed, a cripple - there are three reasons why her society would probably exclude her. What did Jesus do? He immediately called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are set free from your ailment’, laid his hands on her, set her free.
Jesus taught by example that Christianity is tradition in motion: it’s not about learning how to live within the lines; it is about the joy of colouring.
Christianity is faith in motion: it causes us to often ask, which is the most important, sticking to the rules or acting out in love? Which is the most important, sticking to the Sabbath law or this woman’s well-being?
Christianity is love in motion: it’s not about Christians moving with the times to keep up with the good morals of the world around us; no, it’s about keeping open to the Spirit who will prompt us to reform our ways when those ways have become stale and even worse, oppressive.
What do you want from your Christian faith? Something substantial that grounds you; something familiar which holds and affirms you; and maybe also something which can surprise you and offer you new beginnings, something that can give you a lifetime of holy moments…?
When you arrive in church, what do you think you’ve come to? The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews says that:
You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
Worshipping God is never tame. It’s always an encounter with the most powerful force for good we can ever meet.
And it’s a force in motion; for Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant; which means that Christians are committing to a life of living right, for sure. But more, much more than that, we’re committing to a life of living fully. A lifetime of holy moments with a Saviour who loves us so much that he affirms us in our traditions whilst keeping them, and us, in forward motion.
The great spiritual writer Frederick Buechner who died this week aged 96, once wrote that “Faith is the word that describes the direction our feet start moving when we find that we are loved. Faith is stepping out into the unknown with nothing to guide us but a hand just beyond our grasp.” [2]
Those who love Christ are at one with a force in motion.
So let us watch - and see what God has in store for you this week. Watch - and pray to spend your time with Jesus, crying and laughing with him, all the way.
Notes
[1] This sermon is based substantially on quotes from Mike Yaconelli, Dangerous Wonder: The Adventure of Childlike Faith.
Mike Yaconelli was a writer, theologian, church leader and satirist. Co-Founder of Youth Specialties, a training organisation for Christian youth leaders, and The Wittenburg Door (sometimes just The Door), a satirical magazine, Yaconelli was also the pastor of a small church in Yreka, California - "the slowest growing church in America" as he called it. As well as his contributions to the Wittenburg Door, Yaconelli also wrote a number of books for youth leaders, and was a well-received Christian conference speaker, a regular at the Greenbelt festival in the UK. Mike was killed in a car accident on October 30, 2003, aged 61. Source: Wikipedia.
[2] Frederick Buechner, ordained minister and author of nearly forty books, passed away on Aug 15, 2022, aged 96. The quote is an excerpt from the sermon 'Follow Me' found in The Magnificent Defeat.
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