Freeeedom!
This sermon was preached at our Sunday morning service on August 25th. It was my first Sunday back after my paternity leave. The sermon borrows heavily from one I gave in Oldham three years earlier, but I think that's ok! The gospel this morning was Luke 13:10-17.
Hope you enjoy...
Hope you enjoy...
It’s lovely to
be back up here in the pulpit this morning. It’s been quite a long time since I
last preached, and I’m really thankful that Huw, Alex, Cath, Fi and Vaughan
have picked up the extra services and sermons whilst I’ve been off on paternity
leave. Thank you all!
The ministry
team here are fortunate to have the freedom of being in a large team that allows
one of us time off when needed. Even with that, however, the time has still
gone pretty quickly, though! My last sermon before Miriam was born was right at
the beginning of June, and I wasn’t on the rota to do anything then until after
she was born. She was 6-weeks-old on Friday, and this is my first time back in
the pulpit since. Although it’s almost been 3 months (can you believe this is
the last Sunday in August, by the way?) it feels like it’s gone much more
quickly. I guess that’s because I’ve also been fortunate to have the freedom to
take paternity leave and holiday that I’ve saved up throughout the year during
that time. In that three-month period, I’ve only been into work for 7 weeks of
it! It’s been pretty nice!
Given all of
that time off work (well, time off paid work – time with a newborn is
certainly work, as I’m sure many of you know!), given that time away, you’d
think I’d have managed to prepare myself better for today, perhaps writing this
sermon well in advance and planning tonight’s Evensong service too. But, no.
That’s not how it worked out at all!
I guess,
then, I’m lucky that I’ve actually preached on today’s gospel before – not here
at St Michael’s mind you, but at another church where I was invited to preach almost
exactly three years ago. Remembering I’ve already spoken about this passage gave
me more freedom this week too – I didn’t need to stress too much about the
message I was going to bring today, as it’s a good one (I think), and it still
stands. As you might spot over the course of this sermon, it really fits in
with a theme we may not have known we’ve been following over the past month
too. I did, however, still need to update what I’m saying today; a sermon about
the 2016 Paralympics probably isn’t the most relevant to us here today in 2019.
So… let’s
get onto it. What does God want to say to us here this morning using today’s
gospel story about the healing of a woman on the Sabbath?
This woman,
it seems, had something like osteoporosis. Luke tells us that she’s been bent
over, unable to stand up straight for 18 years, unable to look her fellow men
and women in the eye. We are then told that Christ sees her, and asks her to
walk over to him, and then Christ cures her. Luke then tells us that the
synagogue leader became angry because Jesus had not obeyed the religious rule
that says you shouldn’t do any work on the Sabbath.
Except…
that’s not quite what happened. If we look closely at this passage, we can see
that Luke doesn’t mention ‘healing’ at all. The language used here is of
loosening, untying and freeing. The woman is talked of as having been ‘bound’,
and Jesus unties her (the word used for ‘set free’ here implies ‘untying’). Her
bones were knotted and locked, preventing her from standing up straight,
preventing her from looking upwards, and Christ loosens them, allowing her to
move freely, and look up for the first time in eighteen years. The only person
who talks about a ‘cure’ is the leader of the synagogue.
When the
synagogue leader complains, Christ points out that those who thought he’d done
wrong would untie their donkey to allow it to go free to get some water on the
Sabbath, so why shouldn’t the woman also be untied and set free? Again, he’s
using the language of freedom, rather than healing.
This is what
our Gospel today is about; not about a healing, but about freedom. And that’s an important distinction. Yes, this woman, who
Luke never gives a name to, was cured, but more importantly, she was freed. And
freedom is what Christ was all about.
He sets it
out, at the start of his ministry – earlier in Luke’s gospel, we hear of a
prior trip to the synagogue, when he’d just started to teach there. Christ
reads out the following piece from Isaiah:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He
has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to
let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
And then he
sits down, and says what he’s just read out has been fulfilled at that moment.
Release to the captives, and letting the oppressed go free – fulfilled at that
moment. Freedom is the purpose.
Freeeedom! |
Paul
confirms it in his letter to the Galatians too – why has Christ set us free, he
asks? For freedom itself.
Freedom is
not just the means, it’s the purpose.
But so what?
Why am I making this distinction here? What difference does it make whether the
woman was healed or freed? What impact does that have on our lives here today?
The
difference is this; if we want to follow Christ and imitate him, we must try to
do what he did. But, realistically, we do not all work in the health service.
We can’t all heal the sick with the tools and skills we have available to us,
and we know that some people, barring miraculous acts of God will not be healed
of their ailments this side of Heaven.
But that’s
actually ok, because we can all play
our part in bringing freedom. Freedom from oppression and captivity. Whether
that’s physical, emotional or metaphorical.
Over the
past few weeks, we’ve heard Fi, Alex and Huw all touch on a similar theme in
their sermons, and I really think it’s worth calling out. They’ve all talked
about money, and how we use it; from Fi’s sermon on the choices we make in what
we buy, to Alex talking about the ever-increasing gap between the rich and the
poor in our world, and to Huw referencing the downright cruel and evil
practices of some modern corporations that effectively keep their workers in a
form of modern-day slavery and questioning whether we should continue buying
from them. Despite what you might think, the ministry team has not colluded
behind the scenes here. For this message to have come out week after week, I
can only think God is speaking to us here at St Michael’s. And I think he’s
asking us a question: “How are you spending
your money?”. And this question is as much to me as it is to you. I am preaching
from a position of guilt here; despite me being in a pulpit, I’m on no
pedestal. How are you spending your money? How am I spending my money?
Are you donating
to charities that aim to improve people’s lives? Are you buying fair trade and
ethical products from ethical sellers and producers? In what you buy, is your
money helping to free people, or to keep them indentured? We don’t need to be
rich with vast wads of money left at the end of the month; we don’t even really
need to go without. It can be done with little things – can you swap your
coffee or tea at home for a fair-trade version? Can you forgo one pint or glass
or wine a week and give that small amount to a charity that helps to ensure
people are free? As the famous supermarket advert says, ‘every little helps’.
It doesn’t need one person doing a lot to make a difference; only a lot of
people doing a little. How are you
spending your money?
But, even if
you are someone who has more month left at the end of the money rather than the other
way around, with nothing to spare, then don’t feel guilty! Don’t feel ignored; you
still can bring freedom. This sermon
is for you, too.
We can all work
towards freedom. We can work towards ensuring greater accessibility for all in
our workplaces and our churches – if Christ has freely opened the door to us,
let us ensure it stays open for others. We can free people from the debts they
owe to us, and if that’s not actually money, it certainly includes grudges we
are holding against others; for haven’t we been freed from our own greater
debts with God? We can free people from the labels and the judgements we have
placed upon them – the illegal immigrant, the greedy banker, the workshy
unemployed, the brexitier and the remoaner – and see them instead as fellow
people, brothers and sisters in our human family; for hasn’t Christ done the
same for us, given us a new name and a new start in his Kingdom? All these
things bring freedom.
Now, I don’t
want to be guilt-inducing; it’s really not that kind of sermon. This is an
encouragement, a rally-cry. So, if you’re sitting there, with hunched
shoulders, and a tightening feeling in your stomach, look to our gospel, and
remember Christ laying his hands on the bound-woman, and feel that pressure loosening
now and those bonds being untied. Christ brings freedom, not guilt. Yes, God is asking what we are currently doing,
but that is in order for us to think about what we can do, rather than get stuck feeling guilty about what we’re doing
now. Remember, freedom for others and
for us is the end goal. That includes freedom from guilt.
Can you
imagine it? A world where all are free? Can you help bring it?
Amen
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