The crippled Woman

WELCOME

CALL TO WORSHIP

As we come to worship, let us think about what it means to be free. As we come to worship, let us remember what it feels like when people see our needs. As we come to worship, let us consider how we can respond to the needs of those around us.

Hymn 255: Crown him with many crowns

PRAYERS

Praise the Lord, my soul; praise the Lord. All my being, praise God’s holy name. God forgives, God heals and makes whole. God blesses us with love and mercy. We praise the Lord as we come to worship. Praise the Lord, my soul; praise the Lord. Amen.

Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we can never see you in all your fullness, all your glory, all your majesty. Your greatness is beyond our understanding, your deeds beyond our imagining, your love beyond our deepest yearning. You are the God we adore – certain, secure and sure. You are God from one generation to the next, not waning or changing, but forever our God. Amen.

O God, all people are part of your created order, all are worthy of love and respect, care and attention, justice and equality. Forgive us if our prejudice excludes people. Forgive us if our views are entrenched and misguided. Forgive us if we fail to see people as equals. Forgive us if in our zeal to worship we exclude so many. Forgive us for our excuses that stop us responding to the needs of others – and to your command to love as you love us. Amen.

We do not understand how you can forgive us again and again, Lord, yet we have again confessed our failings, our shortcoming, our wrongdoings, our sins – and your promise still stands: ‘My child, go in peace, your sins are forgiven.’ So, let us go and serve the Lord. Amen.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Hymn 257: How sweet the name of Jesus Sounds

READING

Luke 13.10-17

10 On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 11 and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” 13 Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

14 Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

15 The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? 16 Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

17 When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

Hymn 482: Your words to me are life and health

SERMON

Who has heard the saying when life gives you lemons make lemonade

“With Jesus, Lemons do make Excellent Lemonade!!!”

Have you ever sat in church, listening to the music or an impressive sermon, and your thoughts were all turned inward?

Thoughts like: No one cares that I am hurting. When I first was widowed or divorced or when this illness first was diagnosed, people prayed for me, called me on the phone, visited me, sent me notes. But now that time has passed and everyone is used to me, I guess they expect that I do not need anyone, that I am coping with my problem and that I not really hurting anymore. Maybe they even think that if I were really depending on the Lord, I would be able to handle my situation without any difficulty. But I am in pain, and I do not think anyone cares. I sometimes wonder if even God cares!

There was a woman in the synagogue one Sabbath morning when Jesus was teaching there that might have been feeling just like that.

I fear there are a lot of us who are walking through this life—“bent over.”

If we look especially close at our Gospel reading for this morning, we might just assume that Jesus healed the woman of a physical disease of the spine like osteoporosis.

While this is possible, it isn’t necessarily what Luke is telling us.

The seventeenth century translation says the woman was “bowed by a spirit of infirmity”—which suggests a spiritual problem rather than a physical one.

The more modern New English Bible translates the Greek by saying, she was “possessed by a spirit that had crippled her.”

J.B. Philips’ translation cuts to the heart by saying that for eighteen years the woman had been doubled over from some “psychological cause.”

Now, what might that be?

What psychological problem or spiritual crisis could keep a person “bent over” for nearly two decades?

Maybe somebody had persistently abused her, verbally or physically.

Perhaps she had been called so many bad names that she had come to own those names—bending from their pressure.

Or maybe she had some twisted up emotions that communicated themselves to her body, and she found she couldn’t get herself straight.

Have you ever been “bent over”?

Perhaps you feel that way now.

The pressures of this world can take its toll on us.

Excessive worrying can weigh on us heavily.

Sometimes the most crippling disabilities are those of the spirit…

…the doubts and insecurities that keep us paralysed, unable to act, that prevent us from realising our fullest potential as God-created and God-loved beings.

Guilt can also cause backs to bend.

As can poverty……or even having too much money.

Some people are worn out by worrying that somebody is going to steal their stuff.

Some folks are unable to see the forest for the trees due to their stuff!

They are worn out by their stuff…

…buying it, cleaning it, polishing it, and storing it.

Frankly, we just don’t know what the psychological cause was that caused the woman in our Gospel Lesson to have a bowed back.

All we know is that it was severe, and she had it for 18 years!

For 18 years she had a very, unpleasant…perspective on life.

She had been walking around looking at passing feet.

She couldn’t see the smiles on the faces of strangers passing her by.

She couldn’t see the green trees in the meadow.

One Sabbath day she entered the synagogue, and likely, she was doing nothing whatsoever to attract attention to herself.

She probably slipped in through the side door, quietly, unobtrusively.

Jesus was teaching the people, and then He looked off to one side, or up in the balcony and saw that woman come in with her peculiar, crippled, bent-over walk.

He interrupted His lesson, then and there, and invited the woman to come over to Him.

This must have come as quite a surprise to the woman…

…after-all, no one, perhaps, had paid her much attention for a long time.

“Could it be?” she may have asked herself. “Is He really speaking to me?”

So, she scurries forward in response to Jesus’ command—what else is she to do?

Then Jesus’ voice rings out with a note of authority that no one could miss: “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.’ Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.”

Notice that Jesus did not say, “I have solved your problem.”

He says that He has set her free from the burden that caused it.

Whatever it was that was driving her down, Jesus enabled her to overcome it, to live through it, to have victory over it!

And this is the way it is with Christ.

Problems still surround us.

Injustice continues to rage.

The rich keep getting richer while the poor keep getting poorer, but through Christ, we are given the power to change our perceptions of ourselves, others, and situations.

With Jesus, lemons do make excellent lemonade!!!

Enormous change can come by instilling a little self-confidence in another person.

Adding a bit of hope can brighten up any gloomy room.

Faith gives life meaning and colour!

And through Christ, we can conquer anything which comes our way!!!

For Christ is God and God is Love and Love is EVERYTHING!!!

in Matthew Chapter 11 Jesus beckons, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Are you feeling this morning as if your life doesn’t amount to much?

Christ says to you, “Come to me…”

Are you loaded down by the heavy weight of guilt?

Christ says, “Come to me…”

Is the world picking on you…trying to steal your very soul?

Are you taunted and hated?

Do you have trouble fitting in?

Has life been “close to intolerable lately”?

Do you find it hard to “straighten up at all”?

Jesus sees you.

Jesus sees deeply into your heart.

Jesus knows what is pressing down on you, bending you.

Jesus knows what you are, who you are, and what you have done!

And Jesus loves you!

And there is nothing that can take the love of Jesus away…

…not anyone nor anything!!!

It’s sad that, after Jesus heals the woman, the leader of the synagogue is indignant.

His face turns red and playing to the crowd he has a few choice words for Jesus.

“It is the Sabbath! No one is supposed to work on the Sabbath!”

And Jesus’ response?

One translation puts it like this: “You bunch of hypocrites!’ replied Jesus. ‘You would all be quite happy to untie an ox or a donkey from its stall on the Sabbath day and lead it out for a drink! And isn’t it right that this daughter of Abraham, tied up by Satan for eighteen years, should be untied from her chains on a Sabbath day?”

And of course, we are told that Jesus’ “opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.”

Time and time again, in the Gospels, Jesus declares that He is on the side of those who are bent over.

And in one way or another, I suppose that includes all of us.

In the case of the woman in the synagogue, she doesn’t even have to seek Jesus out, asking for help.

Jesus finds her.

And every single incident of Jesus healing on the Sabbath is like that: Jesus sees the person, and Jesus heals the person.

There are many other healing’s on many other days where the sick person does ask for help, yet on the Sabbath Jesus looks for us.

What a wonderful image for worship!

So often, we think of ourselves as coming to church to find God.

Yet, in reality, it’s more about positioning ourselves in such a place and in such a way so that God may find us—and heal us and give us strength to face whatever weighs upon us.

He calls us now to His Way, to His side, and to His Life!!!

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Hymn 739: May the mind of Christ my saviour

Offering

PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING AND INTERCESSION

We are so thankful, Lord, that you see us for what we are, for who we are and where we are. You know us by name, you know us through and through. Ashamed of ourselves as we are at times, we are thankful that you stick with us, persevere with us, encourage our good intentions and forgive our failings. We are thankful for all the help, support and guidance we have been given. We are thankful that people throughout our lives have introduced us to you, to your ways, to your love, to your power and glory. We are thankful that, in your name, people have noticed us and picked us up and guided us. We are thankful that you have led others to lead us and reach out to us. We are thankful for a rich history recorded in the Bible, stories of prophets, priests and kings, stories of love, help and healing. We give you thanks and praise, Lord God, for all the ways that, and all the people through whom, you are revealed to us. Amen.

Lord God, we rejoice in the fact that you are loving, healing God: heal all those sick in mind or body. Lord God, we rejoice in the fact that you are gracious God: pour your grace upon those who are mindless of the sabbath and seek to follow their own interests; may realisation bring them to your feet in worship and praise. Lord God, we rejoice that you are God who meets needs in times of trouble: bless the people of our emergency services who have to work today. Lord God, we rejoice that you are redeemer God: bring into relationship with you all those bound by their own rules, and those who do good works believing that they are enough for entry into your kingdom; release them into your freedom and the knowledge of your foundation that can never be destroyed. Loving, healing, gracious, redeeming God, hear our prayer. Amen.

Hymn 378: Be, Thou my Vision

BLESSING

Heavenly God, as we go from here give us the compassion we need to meet people’s needs, help us to make time for those around us, and may this community be a place of love and freedom – for all. Amen.