Luke 13:10-17
Proper 16 (21) - Year C
Understanding that G*D is an unassailable authority and that Satan is the great tester there are some questions to ask about who is being tested and where authority lies.
The woman? She seems to have remained faithful to her religious duties for 18 years.
The pharisees? They have been consistent about the importance of Sabbath and waiting some brief number of hours would better honor the import of Sabbath.
Jesus? This appears to have been an opportune time for the Satan to return, not with another big test but an ordinary one about patience? Jesus sounds as if he is anticipating the American way of wanting what he wants when he wants it. Is the use of authority qua authority the hammer to pull out for all situations requiring a too?
As always a dearth of information leads to speculation. You may be interested in the series, Provoking the Gospel of __________ by Richard W. Swanson which looks at the Gospels through the lens of theatre. Here is his concluding paragraph:
Did the woman want to be healed on Sabbath and disrupt services? Play the scene assuming that she did. Play it also assuming that she did not. After all, she was still attending synagogue services even though she had been praying (I am sure) for eighteen years for God to straighten her. Sabbath is crucial for faithful Jews. What happens in the scene if she is annoyed at being made the occasion for the Sabbath to be disrupted.
Happy imagining to you.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/08/luke-1310-17.html
How many wonderful things are you willing to do on a Sabbath. Oh, by the way, is Sabbath to be a time limited thing? Is it a specified time such as the dark of Friday to the dark of Saturday? Is is simply Saturday? Is it Sunday? Is it any renewal time? Is it every night that you rest?
Regardless of how you might define Sabbath, it is probably important to focus on wonderful things, sabbatarian or not. The scripture story seems to suggest that wonderful things are always judged against the interests of the rich and powerful. As such, wonder is accused of being subversive. In times such as ours (and probably any time if we were to be more humble) one of the most transformative acts we can participate in are acts of wonder.
Go to it. Offer folks the opportunity to wonder if they might be freer than they currently are. Then wait for the indignation to arise and the wonder to spread. While waiting for these consequences of your actions, do another wonderful act and another. Don't let anything, including death, keep you from participating in the miracle of transformation.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/august2004.html
"We should not be surprised at the indignation of the chief of the synagogue. Since he had never been able to help his sick sister, he must have felt discredited by Jesus' move. Would it not be the same with us? But it never occurred to Jesus to ask the authorities to save people." [ The Christian Community Bible ]
All too often we find ourselves asking permission to do good. This is particularly ironic because there is no limit to the good we might do. In this day when everything gets spun the other way around - those who are to give consent to be governed are shamed into acquiescence instead of consent by turning their very words against them and having them sound in an accusers mouth to be words of treason instead of the patriotism of raising questions to make things better - we are to do nothing other than give allegiance to a particular party's perspective.
May it soon occur to us that standing outside of permission-requesting begins the process of setting loose wonder - wonder that there is a larger, saner, healthier way to go than that to which we have so far come.
While we are to watch that we do no harm (at least as little as possible in a world that is so interdependent that one action assists some and the same motion injures others - thank you Janists for your concern and insight) we are called to every degree of good available to us (and that is so much more than we think or feel is within our reach - we are not only our own grandpa, but our own limiter).
So who has been invisible to you (yes, of course that is an impossible question - can we at least hear those who are claiming to be invisible in our eyes?) that we have neither acknowledged needed recognition first and then helped or been able to help even when we recognized their need? To even consider such a question puts us in the midst of shame and also sets loose wonderful new opportunities that will grow our spirits well.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/august2004.html
We are crippled by all manner of events. Eighteen years is a long time. Was it the length of reign of Tiberius to that date, as some of suggested? Political decisions can bend us over. Military occupation can bend us over. Was it some relational issue that had bent her over? A spouse, a divorce, a death, a child, and/or a friend can bend us over. Was it physical? Disease and disability can bend us over. Was it spiritual? Satanic? Testing?
Regardless of what the form of bent-overness might be, this woman, already demonstrating the same faith as Abram and Sarai, can be recognized as their "daughter." She occupied her promised land, a synagogue.
It is this recognition that sets Jesus apart from the others present. Who among us can see G*D's child in another, particularly another who is bent over? Can such contain G*D? While hypocrites usually put on masks to fool other about themselves, here hypocrites put masks on others so they don't have to deal with them. A mask here is the mask of Sabbath.
- - -
want to set the folks rejoicing
Mr. Religious Leader
tear down this mask
dividing people
we are after healing of nations
pray for Rwanda and Iraq
America, Israel, and Iran
this is a day for unbinding
in such a day
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
Thursday, Friday, Saturday
or Sunday is a Sabbath
and since a Sabbath can be any day
it can also be every day
seven Sabbaths every week
is very good
creation is underway
that work is over and done
new non-work is needed
to hallow every hollow
we are like a sinkhole
our ground of being
has sunk until
we are bent over
reach out and touch someone
ground them in your steadfastness
loved and patted into new shape
standing and striding forth
our hollow places filled in
our mutual ministry
beyond our isolation
creates new Sabbaths
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html
A question has arisen regarding whether Jesus can be hypocritical? A good bit of this depends on how one sees Chalcedon - now calcified or not? A reference book I find helpful is John Hick's, The Metaphor of God Incarnate in which he describes the difficulties theologians have today, regardless of their stripe, in justifying the divine/human uniqueness of Jesus and Christ. Hypocrisy is a justification of the past and a fear of changing it.
One story that comes to the fore is when Jesus dismisses the Syrophoenician woman and her daughter, only to recognize his hypocrisy when hearing her response. In the gospel lesson for this week, those who hear Jesus response are not able to recognize their own hypocrisy and to change directions.
Having light feet is one helpful way to reduce one's hypocrisy level. Folks whose feet are stuck in one concrete or other and whose mouths deny this reality, seem unable to dance away from hypocrisy and reform their lives.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/08/luke-1310-17_17.html
Life brings opportunity after opportunity to respond to what is before us, rather than what is already past. A built-in response, even from such a revered place as doctrine, seems to continually miss the mark. If we substitute any systemic response for that of paying attention to what is needed now, we eventually run afoul of the hypocrisy demon.
To know a rule without the ability to recognize when to use it and when to ignore it begins to put us in a box that will eventually, in turn, be used to put everyone else in a box and relate to them as less than human (otherwise they wouldn't be in a box).
So it is that Jesus [read, "you"] is able to see a woman in need of an encouraging word (a first step toward a healing word - a healing word that would allow a scan of a larger horizon than the dirt at her feet).
Jesus could have joined others in the hypocrisy box, simply by having his eye on G*D's judgment and rule from yesterday that would constrain us today. Instead, Jesus actually saw a woman first, rather than a set of rules that would dim her in his eye (each layer of rule further obscuring her presence and reality) and perhaps make her invisible. Instead, Jesus was looking around him with an eye to G*D's mercy. Instead of dimming the woman, she began to become brighter and clearer. Jesus was able to see the straightness in her bent form and to call it forth.
It is noteworthy that the issue of hypocrisy is connected with shame. The approach to rules first, rather than mercy, is meant as an insulation from engaging life. The rules simplify our life and we all participate in them to some extent (they do keep traffic moving). And to be caught out, when we thought we had our protection up, failing in basic care for one another, we are ashamed - partly for the good we could have done, but didn't, but mostly for having trusted our rules and finding that they didn't keep us from getting called out - the Living G*D we thought we had under control is moving on leaving the husks of rules behind.
It seems our lives are complex enough that there is hypocrisy in every life. At stake is the amount and the arena of our hypocrisy. A part of our task is simply to be aware of the many avenues through which we are hypocritical and to begin lessening how much we have in a particular arena and to reduce the fields in which we are active. This is both individual and communal work.
In this story shame will lead to revenge for having been shown to be out of touch. An important question for every day is how we gauge our hypocrisy level. Can we even see that we have one? Is it high enough to keep us blind to the needs of people as we "should" all over them? Is is low enough that we can better see folks and move toward them with mercy? May you be blessed with a bit less tolerance for rules for the sake of power than yesterday and a bit more mercy toward all than you thought you had - and the same tomorrow.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/08/luke-1310-17.html