I never know what to expect when I log on and open our online sermon study group called Wading in the Word. The one thing I do know to expect is that I will learn and grow. This week I felt like I was in that internet “Expanding Brain” meme. I kept hitting a new level of understanding and identifying with the texts more and more as we discussed. At first sight, normal brain- Jesus performs a miracle or heals a woman and does a “mic drop” on his opponents. Kinda sad when, internally you’re thinking, “OK just another miracle story.” Later on in Luke’s Gospel, there’s a verse that says, “Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” I really got a sense of that when we started talking. It’s easy to fall into sort of a lull when you preach every week. You start to become a little production oriented and miss the beauty and the exhilaration of the text, God’s action and intention and Gospel writer’s craft. Here are some of the things that came out of our discussion. First, 18 years. This one goes to the writer’s craft and understanding something from the culture in which the Gospel was written. Gematria is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word or phrase according to an alphanumeric cipher. Gematria of 18, or in Hebrew “CHAI” is the Hebrew word for life. This woman was on the outside. She had an ailment, therefore the conclusion was that she was in a state of sinfulness or being punished by God. She had no life. Next, She does not go to Jesus, but Jesus sees her and reaches out to her. Another part of our discussion was about the Sabbath. Is it about our resting, attending services, doing no work and recharging our batteries or is there something more? Jesus indicates that there is much more here. Look back to the first reading in Isaiah. We need to hear it again but let’s put it in a little different order and allow it to answer the obvious question. “If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; then you shall take delight in the Lord.” So How do we keep from trampling the Sabbath? Are we supposed to just sit tight and avoid doing anything? “If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.” Stuff really starts to come together and my brain felt like it was shooting off sparks. Isaiah’s talking about water and Jesus is talking about untying and leading to water and drinking and BOOM! This is not a coincidence. Remember the woman at the well? Jesus said, “but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” So Jesus gives the water of life. I’m also wondering about the language used in the 110th psalm and If Luke is drawing our eyes to the assurance of victory. The last psalm says, “He will drink from the stream by the path; therefore he will lift up his head. That’s a promise that is being fulfilled to this daughter of Abraham, a phrase unseen until this time. Jesus is broadening the scope of discipleship and concern as this woman lifts her head and regains her life. So we see Jesus engaged in full on grace here. He was not bidden, the woman did not call out to him or beg him. Jesus saw her need and disconnection and brought her to the waters of life and restoration and of a head held high. The disturbing part of the lesson for me is we have this woman freed and her life restored and the topic of an irate discussion is the day of the week. When Jesus calls some of the people hypocrites, he is not using the distorted definition that we have today. He is not saying that they are saying one thing and doing another. The literal translation is hypo, like hypothermia- low temperature or hypoglycemia- low blood sugar. Something is low here. Crise- like in critical is about judgment. They are being told that they have low or poor judgment, and the word is also used for jealousy. Jealousy is something that happens when we make things all about ourselves and focus on our own self interests. Remember, Isaiah points out that the Sabbath isn’t about us, it’s about the focus and doing of God’s will which is actually the 24/7 task of putting love of neighbor and their welfare center stage. Doing so brings life. Gushing life. It changes lives, makes a difference, removes the yoke and allows people to raise their heads and then make a difference in the lives of others. Fred Craddock, a seminary professor that wrote some of the books that I studied in preaching class, told a really cool story that’s enough of a classic that it has been circulated on the internet. I didn’t realize it was a story bigger than preaching circles, but I did when I went looking for details on it. The story goes that he and his wife Nettie were vacationing in the Smoky Mountains, eating hamburgers in a restaurant. While they were waiting for their food, they noticed a white-haired man moving from table to table, visiting with the guests. The man stopped at their table. “Where are you folks from?” he asked in a friendly voice. “Oklahoma,” they answered. “Great to have you here in Tennessee.” the stranger said. “What do you do for a living?” “I teach at a seminary,” he replied. “Oh, so you teach preachers how to preach, do you? Well, I’ve got a really great story for you.” And with that, the gentleman pulled up a chair and sat down at the table with the couple. Craddock groaned and thought to himself, “Great… Just what I need another preacher story!” The man started, “See that mountain over there pointing out the restaurant window. Not far from the base of that mountain, there was a boy born to an unwed mother. He had a hard time growing up, because every place he went, he was always asked the same question, ‘Hey boy, Who’s your daddy?’ In those days that meant shame, a lot of shame. Boys at school had names for him. They guessed who his father was and knew who his mother was, and made his life hell. He ate his lunch alone. He would hide at recess and lunch time from other students. He would avoid going into stores because that question hurt him so bad. “When he was about 12 years old, a new preacher came to his church. He would always go in late and slip out early to avoid hearing the question, ‘Who’s your daddy?’. But one day, the new preacher said the benediction so fast he got caught and had to walk out with the crowd. “Just about the time he got to the back door, the new preacher, not knowing anything about him, put his hand on his shoulder and asked him, ‘Son, who’s your daddy?'” The whole church got deathly quiet. He could feel every eye in the church looking at him. Now everyone would finally know the answer to the question, ‘Who’s your daddy’. This new preacher, though, sensed the situation around him, said to that scared little boy, “‘Wait a minute!’ he said. ‘I know who you are. I see the family resemblance now. You are a child of God. With that he patted the boy on his shoulder and said, ‘Boy, you’ve got a great inheritance. Go and claim it.’ With that, the boy smiled for the first time in a long time and walked out the door a changed person. He was never the same again. Whenever anybody asked him, ‘Who’s your Daddy?’ he’d just tell them, ‘I’m a Child of God’.” The distinguished gentleman got up from the table and said, “Isn’t that a great story?” Craddock responded that it really was a great story! As the man turned to leave, he said, “You know, if that new preacher hadn’t told me that I was one of God’s children, I probably never would have amounted to anything!” You tell your students to preach that. And he walked away. The seminary professor and his wife were stunned. He called the waitress over and asked her, “Do you know who that man was who just left and that was sitting at our table?” The waitress grinned and said, “Of course. Everybody here knows him. That’s Ben Hooper. He’s the former governor of Tennessee!” Wow. Isn’t that God’s work, our hands? Let’s watch for, be aware of and earnestly pray for the opportunity to share the grace of Christ and undo the bonds of others that they may have life and have it abundantly. Amen
Nyo, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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