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BENT OUT OF SHAPE 18 years. 18 long, miserable years. Luke says she was “bent over,” “doubled over,” Luke described the woman with the greek word, sugkupto. It comes from the root words sun, meaning union; with or together, beside; and kupto meaning to bend forward:--stoop down. Sugkupto, then, means “to stoop altogether, to bow together until you are alongside your own body.” Doubled over. I wanted to get some sense of how it must have been for her, this bent woman. I imagined what she might see in the course of her day. Her world view is primarily the ground beneath her. For a woman like this today, I wondered if this is what she might see and experience in a typical morning, say getting up and going to church. (A series of images were projected demonstrating what the woman might see—floors, baseboards, thresholds, carpet, sidewalks, etc.) Sugkupto. Doubled over. A horseshoe of a human being. How could they not have noticed? I don’t know how long for these past 18 years she had been coming to the Synagogue, but surely, SURELY this wasn’t the first time? How could they see her, time after time and not be moved to mercy? Jesus sees her. Jesus calls to her, and puts his hands on her. I imagined Jesus, reaching out to touch her. Of course, it would have been difficult to reach under to touch her face. It would have been unnatural to try to embrace her. I imagine Jesus touched her, where she could be touched. Laid hands on her deformed spine. The tender touch of healing, on the very spot everyone I’m sure tried to avoid seeing. Touched her, and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from this infirmity.” And the bent woman, stands up. Miraculous! Can you simply imagine how her world view changed? No longer bound up to see only the sandals of her liberator, but his face! His touch, his compassion had set her free as surely as if chains and shackles had been broken loose. The woman standing tall in the Synagogue is no longer bent! Oh, but the Synagogue ruler immediately becomes rather...bent out of shape! Bent out of shape that the rules had been broken. Bent out of shape that the law had been disobeyed. Bent out of shape, perhaps, that the attention now in the house of worship was now on the woman this man had touched and not on God! The Ruler, sort of the lay leader of the Synagogue, is bent out of shape, and says, rather loudly I suppose, “There are six days for work. You ought to come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.” She’s no longer bent, yet he’s all tied up in knots! Bent out of shape over the rules! Now, a rule is nothing more than a true, straight line, against which things can be aligned. Do you comprehend the irony here? The rules, which the Synagogue ruler wants to protect, are meant to keep things straight--or, help make the crooked straight. For example, put a stop sign at an intersection along with the rule that a red octagon means stop, and it straightens out the traffic, brings order and prevents collisions. Write an ordinance to keep dogs on a leash, and it straightens things out, no more loose dogs scaring children, biting postal workers or leaving little gifts in your yard. A rule straightens things out. But the ruler’s rules, have done nothing but bend things up worse than ever. And that’s how it is when the letter of the law becomes more important than the intent of the law, don’t you think? The rule, or law here in question, is the Sabbath. The letter of the law, says that no work can be done on the Sabbath. It is a day to honor and worship God, and rest. So, by gum, you SHALL REST! That means, no work. People even counted their steps to avoid breaking the rule. Jesus understood the intent of the Sabbath. To rest, as God rested, so as to be made new. To be refreshed, released from burden, and strengthened. The letter of the law mandates that no one be healed on the Sabbath, for that constituted work. Jesus argues that the intent of the Sabbath mandates that anyone suffering under burden on the Sabbath shall be released. Set free. Just as one would untie one’s working animals and let them drink and be refreshed. So, the rule: meant to straighten things out, was “bent” so that a bent woman could be straightened out. Isn’t that lovely? Her shackles were broken, and she was set free. While the “ruler” of the Synagogue remains bound up. Even today, we have those who are bound to the rules when compassion is called for. The hospital worker that strictly enforces visitation policies, even when it’s clear the family only wants to spend these last moments with their loved one before the final goodbye. We hear that mandatory sentencing guidelines often “tie judges hands” and will not allow them to consider extenuating circumstances that might warrant leniency in some cases. Dr. Godbey and I both sit on the Board of Ordained Ministry, that ordains and credentials pastors for the United Methodist Church. To be sure, rules are important, they straighten things out. But sometimes, these same rules burden and bind up the work of Jesus Christ--and it’s essential to know when that is happening. Jesus comes to set the prisoner free. We’ve all heard that, especially through Advent. Jesus says: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the prisoner, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4: 18-19) Are we truly ready to embrace the radical gospel of freedom that Jesus has come to bring? Jesus comes to bring freedom, liberation. That is good news if you are bound up with the burdens of illness, burdens of poverty, burdens of struggle and trial. It may not at first seem like good news if your burden is like the Synagogue Ruler’s burden. Burdens of a hard heart. People and systems that use the rules to keep the status quo, even if the status quo has kept some in chains. Rules that keep good medical care out of the hands of those who often most need it. Rules that continue to store up wealth and resources that could help bring an end to the Sudanese famine or even make sure that every child in America has enough for food and other basic needs. Rules of immigration that frighten and intimidate rather than help and assist. To those who want the rules to protect the way things are, even if the way things are is harmful or burdensome to others, can get bent out of shape when Jesus begins liberating the oppressed. The world is bound up, and in need of liberation. Some need liberating from that which hold them down, that which keeps them imprisoned. Others need liberating from the belief that the poor, the sick, the elderly, the oppressed, the hungry, the immigrant are left to finally fight it out under the constraints of the rules. One is like the woman who was touched, and healed. The other like the Synagogue Ruler, who was bound up and bent out of shape. The liberating ministry of Jesus Christ can set both free! Jesus can set those like the woman free, with his touch. Jesus can set those bound up like the ruler free, with his words. They are not kind words--but they are words intended to free him and others like him. “You hypocrites!” Jesus says. “If you would set an animal free, why not a beloved child of God?” He aims to free the ruler, indeed to free the world, to care. To be compassionate. That the rule of our hearts, that which straightens things out, will be the rule of God. The rule of the Kingdom, come on earth as it is in heaven. The prophet whose words made way for the Savior to come, said it best: “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. And every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked shall become straight, the rough ways smooth.” (Luke 3: 4-5) And the rule of compassion, the rule of love, the rule of God’s mercy and grace, shall set us all free! Thanks be to God.
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