Rev. Cari Pattison
Woodstock Reformed Church
Sunday, August 21, 2022
“How to Break the Rules”
Luke 13:10-17
10Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 11And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. 12When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." 13When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 14But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day." 15But the Lord answered him and said, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? 16And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?" 17When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.
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“How to prepare for what’s coming,” and “How to read the signs of the times,” and today is “How to break the rules”
Speaking of breaking rules…
Ollie and Martha / Helen and the text I got…
“Lead him not into temptation…”
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In any family system, there’s usually one kid who’s a rule-follower, and another kid who loves to break the rules (example of t-shirts)
Church people tend to be more like the older brother in the prodigal son…
In my experience, if you’re here on Sunday you’re prob more likely to identify as a rule follower
Which is ironic, because Jesus in many ways was the ultimate rule-breaker, rebel, revolutionary…
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Unpack the text- her debility- hunched over- the awfulness of back pain- chiropractic work
Imagine 18 years!
Jesus didn’t first stop and say, “Hmm, I don’t know, what day is it?”
He didn’t check his calendar and say, “Hey, it’s only Sunday- but how ‘bout meet me back here in a few days? I’ve got a slot open on Wednesday at 4.”
Let’s not vilify the Jewish religion here, though…
“The role of the synagogue ruler was to maintain the reading and faithful teaching of the Law. Since Sabbath observance was a central means for nourishing Jewish identity in the world of Luke’s Gospel, the way one interprets the Sabbath law is crucial.”
Jesus calls them out on their hypocrisy… “Wait, if one of your oxen or donkeys needs water, don’t you untie them and lead them to drink?”
But this woman is a daughter of Abraham- the very founder of your faith- and she’s been bound in pain for 18 years- doesn’t she deserve to be freed even more than a donkey or oxen?
His opponents were put to shame; the crowds were rejoicing
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Lots of reasons to follow rules- good order, citizenship, getting along, peaceful society; I was a teacher once…
Lots of reasons not to follow rules- blind sheep, going along with unjust policies and orders- slavery, civil rights movement, women’s suffragist movement, Nazi Germany, etc.
What if Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, MLK Jr., D. Bonhoeffer, & Elizabeth Cady Stanton had just stuck to following the rules?
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Then there are the unspoken rules of what defines success in this country…
Thomas Merton climbing ladder quote
“People may spend their whole lives climbing the ladder of success, only to find, once they reach the top, that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.”
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Religious rules- the good of it (protection, well-being, dietary & sanitation laws), and also the hypocrisy (example of wealth warnings in scripture)
And like those in the synagogue, there are always some religious people who are least happy, when someone else is freed-
Have you ever seen this? Someone goes through recovery or comes out or gets divorced and it’s a kind of freedom for them, something they’ve prayed through…
What does it mean to follow a God who operates beyond the bounds of our neat containers and restrictions? What does it mean to follow a Christ who abides not by our own limited forms of control, but moves at the speed of love?
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One thing Jesus teaches us is to thoughtfully know when to break the rules, for the sake of love. For the sake of God.
Jesus was always getting in trouble for breaking rules-
Talking to women, befriending Samaritans, eating with tax collectors and known “sinners,” setting free the woman about to be stoned for adultery, allowing people to touch him who were deemed ritually “unclean” – leprous men and hemorrhaging women, daring to claim he could forgive sins, declaring Gentiles (non-believers) loved by God and sometimes more on the path of truth
Jesus said, “I did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill the law”
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Who are the gatekeepers? The rule-abiders? The law-enforcers?
Letter of the law or the spirit of the law?
Not being legalistic, but leading from a place of love
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Takeaways for us-
What message does this rule send to the world, about who Jesus is?
Other examples of breaking rules: women in ministry, owning one’s queer identity, reading scripture critically / thoughtfully, tattoos, divorce
Phrase these as questions-
Examples in our church- Henry Needham’s cutting boards
Baptism and communion
People using the Village Green in ways that aren’t always “the rules”
Kids being quiet in church
Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, was asked a question about going to church. His wife Melinda took their children to worship, but he did not join them. In answering why he did not, he said: “Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient.” “There’s a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.”
But Pastor Phil Wold writes:
Sabbath worship is not to be valued by what is accomplished in that hour. Rather, it is time for us to hear the Word of God’s great gifts of grace, to marvel at the wonder, to give thanks and praise and to unite in prayer and song. (Of course, we are sent forth from worship with a calling and with purpose, but that’s a different conversation.)
Sabbath time is a moment of stepping out of the constant rush to “spend” all our time.
A stepping away from the vision of ourselves solely as consumers. We are to take a Sabbath. A time apart, to be with God and one another. To rest. To recognize that work is meaningless without play.
It is important to have you join us for worship.
Our community’s worship is richer with your presence and is made poorer by your absence.
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What Sheldon used to say about Sundays and why you come
Who knows which person in the pew (or on zoom) needs your smile, your handshake, your nod of kindness? Who knows which person next to you feels so much discouragement, loneliness, pain, or fear, they barely made it here this morning?
When you show up to worship, not just seeking what you can “get out of the service,” but paying attention and noticing the beauty and bravery of those around you who also bothered to show up…
you give a great gift to those around you
And that in itself, is some pretty miraculous Sabbath healing.
Dance party in a church
Children’s message
Frederick Buechner! Show poster
You think of God resting after the creation was finally all created. You think of the deep hush of it, like the hush between breakers at the beach. You think of the new creation itself resting—the gray squirrel ceasing to twitch and chatter, the kingfisher settling down on the branch by the pond, the man and the woman standing still in the garden. You think of God blessing this one day of the seven and hallowing it, making it holy.
The room is quiet. You're not feeling tired enough to sleep or energetic enough to go out. For the moment there is nowhere else you'd rather go, no one else you'd rather be. You feel at home in your body. You feel at peace in your mind. For no particular reason, you let the palms of your hands come together and close your eyes. Sometimes it is only when you happen to taste a crumb of it that you dimly realize what it is that you're so hungry for you can hardly bear it.
A legalistic religion like the Pharisees' is in some ways very appealing. All you have to do in any kind of ethical dilemma is look it up in the book and act accordingly. Jesus, on the other hand, says all you have to do is love God and your neighbors. That may seem more appealing still until, in dilemma after dilemma, you try to figure out just how to go about doing it.