Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Episcopal Church
August 25, 2013
16 Proper C
When I was a child, one of the best things about summer was the occurrence of approximately one holiday per month. Memorial Day followed by Independence Day followed by Labor Day seemed to be just about right. If the whole year could be like that, with parades, fireworks, and cook-outs about once a month, surely the world would be a better place. That was even before I realized that most stores and businesses actually closed on those days giving the grown ups a day off work. While the point of those holidays was a little lost on me as a 6 year old, the festivities were not. Now I realize, of course, that most of our national holidays are days to stop our work and honor the work and courage of people generations ago and the benefits we now enjoy from their efforts. We stop to honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to preserve our freedom, or those whose leadership created this nation, or those who continue to offer their lives on behalf of freedom and peace. While the parades, fireworks, cook-outs, and days off work are much enjoyed, the point of the holidays is to stop our work, recognize our dependence on the efforts of those who have gone before us, and give thanks.
Today we hear the rather peculiar story of the woman who was healed of a spirit that had crippled her for 18 years. The story does not tell us this, but I think we can assume that, for 18 years, the woman has come faithfully to the synagogue Sabbath after Sabbath. On this particular Sabbath, she arrives at the synagogue, and Jesus, who happens to be teaching there that day, takes notice of the bent over woman and calls to her. Jesus says "Woman you are set free from your ailment," and the woman is healed. And the woman, who did nothing other than show up for Sabbath worship, is nailed by the leader of the synagogue. "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day." What is wrong with this picture? If anything, the leader should be criticizing Jesus for violating the Sabbath, not the woman. And even if Jesus had cured her on the Sabbath, had he actually violated the Sabbath commandment?
In the Book of Exodus, the 4th Commandment says "Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You shall not do any work-you, your son, your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, but rested on the 7th day; therefore the Lord blessed the day and consecrated it." Since God rested on the 7th day, we are called to do the same. On this view, Jesus is, in some sense, guilty of violating the Sabbath, even if for good and admirable reason.
However, we find a second rendering of the 10 commandments in the book of Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy, the 4th commandment reads exactly the same way, up through the list of all who shall have a day of rest on the Sabbath. But Deuteronomy gives a different reason for the Sabbath. Rather than basing the commandment in the creation story in the first chapter of Genesis, Deuteronomy bases the command on the story of the Exodus from Egypt. "Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day." In the book of Deuteronomy, the people are commanded to keep the Sabbath every week as a time to stop all that they are doing and remember that God brought them out of bondage in Egypt, led them through the wilderness and into the Promised Land.
In the gospel lesson, Jesus sets the woman free from bondage on the Sabbath day. Jesus has not broken the Sabbath, rather Jesus has lived into the Sabbath. If the Sabbath is the weekly ritual of stopping to honor the God who brought the people out of bondage, then the act of releasing the woman from her 18 year long bondage to a crippling bondage is an appropriate response to the Sabbath, entering into God’s liberating work of releasing captives from bondage.
As Christians, we keep holy the Sabbath in order to stop each week and worship the God who continued the work of liberation from bondage through the death and resurrection of Jesus. We stop to stand in awe of that which was done for us by Someone else and give thanks. The same Sabbath that calls us to stop also calls us to action-responding to the gift of liberation we honor on the Sabbath by working to end oppression or bondage in whatever form it occurs. This coming Wednesday is the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King, Jr’s "I have a dream" speech. King quoted the prophet Isaiah when he said "I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together." King’s dream, Isaiah’s dream, and God’s dream is that no one suffers from bondage or oppression for who they are or what resources they do or do not have. The Sabbath calls us to stop, remember and honor the liberating work of God, give thanks and then respond by making liberation a reality for all those who are crippled by bondage. That is what Jesus did in the synagogue on the Sabbath, and that is what Jesus calls us to do with our lives. Amen.
Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Episcopal Church
August 11, 2013
14 Proper C
Last August, we hosted what was likely the largest Neighborhood Fair in our 12 summer history. Of course, we did not know when we arrived early that afternoon that we would serve more people than ever before. But, other than having enough food, which we did, the numbers really don’t matter in terms of our set up. We haul every table out of the Parish Hall and all of the chairs. We bring up all the cement blocks and stakes out of the basement to create the booths. We inflate all of the colorful balloons, cook all of the hot dogs, and sort all of the rummage with no idea how many people will show up. And thanks to the efforts of many people, every year the Neighborhood Fair is a roaring success. But last year, more people came than ever before. Perhaps word about free food and rummage, along with a good time, is getting out. Perhaps people are hungrier and a little more anxious for a free afternoon of family entertainment. Whatever the reason, the food line stretched from the entry to the alleyway all the way to the porch of Hollenbeck House for the whole two hours. Most of rummage had all been claimed in a few short minutes, but the there were lines at the games and the ice cream stand all afternoon. Because my husband takes photos during the Fair, we know we see familiar faces at the Fair year after year. We’ve watched children grow up by looking at the Fair photos over the years. Our neighbors now look forward to the Fair and they voice their appreciation for the occasion.
The easy connection this morning is between our efforts with the Neighborhood Fair and the reading from Luke’s gospel. "Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit. Be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks." At Christ Church, we are called, in the words of the Baptismal Covenant, to seek and serve Christ in all people. We draw on Jesus’ words in the gospel of Matthew "For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me." Jesus comes to the Neighborhood Fair and we serve him. We are ready. There are many Jesus moments at the Fair-when we see the light in a child’s eye at something so simple as a second hotdog or the choice of a cheap prize at the prize booth, or when we see the small occasions of fellowship created as strangers sit together for a meal, or when we are able to engage in conversation with our guests over both the joys and the challenges of life, or moments of grace with each other when we are hot and tired and are asked to do just one more thing. When we look out at our parking lot during the Neighborhood Fair, we see a more robust expression of the Kingdom of God than most of us see in our everyday lives. We do know the time that our guests will arrive and the Fair will begin, but we never know in what ways we will experience Jesus at the Fair.
What could possibly be the connection between our Neighborhood Fair and the blistering reading from Isaiah? First, Isaiah calls his hearers "you rulers of Sodom, you people of Gomorrah." The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is a horrible story, found in the 19th chapter of the book of Genesis. This is a story that is often taken to be God’s condemnation of homosexuality. A close reading of that story, however, which should be R-rated for violence, reveals that the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is a condemnation of abominable hospitality and gross injustice. The prophet Ezekiel also refers to Sodom and Gomorrah, and the accusation against them is "pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but they did not aid the poor and needy." Isaiah’s comparison of the people to those of Sodom and Gomorrah is about worship by people who disregard justice and mercy. According to the Hebrew Scriptures themselves, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah has nothing to do with sexual orientation, and everything to do with living lives of justice and mercy.
So what does God have against the worship of the Hebrew people? After all, they are simply following the rather complex set of laws given to them, primarily in the book of Leviticus, about sacrificial worship. Apparently the people are worshiping exactly the way the law requires-making the proper sacrifices of bulls, lambs, or goats, rams, or the fat of fed beasts. When God says "Who asked this from your hand?" the answer is "You did, God." What is the problem?
God’s distress over worship is not a condemnation of worship itself, however. God’s distress is over the hypocrisy of worship when the lives of the worshipers reflect injustice and oppression. The worship outlined in Leviticus is to be an expression of faith in the God of justice and mercy, a sign of commitment to honor those values with our own lives, and a longing to seek forgiveness when we fall into sin and fail to live as God would have us live. According to Isaiah, the worship of the people is empty because they do not do justice and love mercy with their lives.
But all is not lost. There is hope. At the end of this scathing rebuke, God’s heart softens and God says. "Wash yourselves and make yourselves clean...cease to do evil, learn to do good. Rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow." Learn to do good. Or, in the words of Jesus in the gospel lesson "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." When we engage in ministries like the Neighborhood Fair, or the Food Pantry, or Interfaith Hospitality Network, or Rainbow Table, we are learning to do good. We have not mastered good. We put our treasure in places that can be challenging or uncomfortable, because when we look injustice and poverty in the eye and with an open heart, we are justifiably challenged and made uncomfortable. Once we have taken a risk with our treasure, our heart will follow and we work for justice and learn to do good. When our hearts are formed by the doing good, we can seeing new places where injustice and oppression need to be fought.
How do we keep from becoming overwhelmed by the need for justice and mercy in the world around us? We come to church to worship God, to be nourished and strengthened by that worship, to be forgiven when we fail, and to be reminded that we are not called to work justice and mercy all by ourselves. We work together with each other and the Holy Spirit. Just as in the days of Isaiah, God desires worship that nourishes us and sends us out into the world to do justice. And just as in the days of Isaiah, God desires acts of justice and mercy so profound that we are led back to worship for renewal and strength. Between acts of justice and kindness, and the nourishment and strength of worship, we will learn to do good. Amen.
Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Episcopal Church
August 4, 2013
13 Proper C
Around the time my brother was born in 1964, our father started keeping photo albums to chronicle our life together as a family. The photo albums are a look through time, with photos of every Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas, birthday party, graduation, scouting event, father/daughter dance, and all other events of significance, either real or perceived. We loved looking at those albums when we were children, even though the events were quite recent then. We love looking at the photos even more now and telling the stories that go with the photos. In those photos we see our grandparents at family gatherings and remember the way they loved us unconditionally and our grief when they died. We see friends from our teenage years at birthday parties and remember that we were not speaking to them any more three days after the photo was taken. We see the innocence of our youth, including the inevitable chicken pox photos, the joy of true love, knowing that in some cases those relationships did not work out, and the elation of accomplishment. The photos connect us to our past, to our story, sometimes in ways that speak more than words ever could. When the time comes, my brother, sister and I will not argue over who gets the house or the furniture, but we may have words over who gets the photo albums!
Hosea shows us a similar picture story this morning. The prophet gives a slide show of sorts that reminds the people of their story in which God created them, brought them out of Egypt, and led them into the Promised Land. The prophet reminds God’s people of the ways God has loved them unconditionally over and over again through out time, but the people have turned from God and trusted in idols. The people have experienced the consequences of their unfaithfulness, but Hosea reminds them that God has always been faithful. Hosea was a prophet in the 8th century B.C.E. The great kingdom of Israel had split in two following the death of King Solomon and God’s own people were divided against each other.. The Temple in Jerusalem where the Hebrew people worshiped was in the southern kingdom of Judah, so the people in the northen kingdom of Israel could not worship there. So, Jeroboam, the King of Israel in the north, built two temples and put a golden bull at the entrance to each one. The people of Israel began to worship the golden bulls rather than the God who led them out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and into the Promised Land. We hear God’s heartbreak in the words "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt, I called my son... it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with human kindness, with bands of love."
What the people of Israel have done is not just worship a foreign god. They have not simply created a golden calf out of ignorance. When the people are faced with disaster, the people are willing to put their trust in the closest, most convenient god available and that would be Baal and the golden calves. Their sin is that they fail to remember their story- a story in which, by the way, they have already gotten into trouble once for worshiping a golden calf. They fail to remember that God brought them out of Egypt, sustained them in the wilderness, and brought them into the promised land. And they fail to trust that the God who cared for them in the past would surely sustain them through whatever wilderness they face now. And we hear the heartbreak in God’s voice.
The landowner in Jesus’ parable this morning finds himself in the opposite situation. He has such an abundance of crops that he doesn’t know what to do with them all. He has no place to store them. We might think that the sin of the landowner is the sin of greed, as he decides to tear down his old barns and build new larger ones so that he can store up his crops and eat, drink, and be merry. But again, greed is only the symptom. The landowner’s real sin is that he, too, has forgotten his story. The story of the Hebrew people would remind the landowner to use times of abundance to prepare for times of famine so that everyone would have something to eat, like Joseph did in the story from Genesis. The story of the Hebrew people reminds us that everything we have is part of God’s creation, not our own. The story of the Hebrew people would remind the landowner that we are connected to each other and bear responsibility for each other, as well as ourselves. The landowner, however, has forgotten his story. And even though this is a parable, I imagine that, in the parable, God’s heart is broken again.
In our own lives, we all have times when we feel threatened, challenged, overwhelmed or insecure-much the way the Israelites felt when the Assyrians were breathing down their necks. Or we have times when we, like the landowner, are seduced by the idea that our success is our own and that our accomplishments are for our own personal enjoyment. Our great temptation is to forget that we are part of a larger story, a story in which God is always faithful to God’s people. When we forget that story, we forget our connection with God and each other. When we assume that we have to meet whatever challenge we face on our own, we turn from God and go looking for the closest, most convenient god available. When we assume that our success is of our own making and belongs all to ourselves, we cut ourselves off from God and each other. We are called to remember, over and over again, that the God who led the Israelites out of bondage, through the wilderness, and into the Promised Land will also lead us through whatever wilderness challenge we face. We are called to remember, over and over again, that the God who became human to live and die among us, lives among us now so that there is nothing we must face alone. We are called to remember the story that connects us all to each other and to God. When we remember our story, we are reminded that God is always faithful, and we can behave accordingly. When we trust God and live out of that trust, God’s heart is filled with joy and gladness.
Amen.
