"Woman, You Are Free!"

Readings: Psalm 71:1-6, Jeremiah 1:4-10, Hebrews 12:18-29,  Luke13:10-17
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, August 21, 2022

To reach into today’s Bible Story, let us consider it from three perspectives. Firstly, how would the story seem from the perspective of the woman who was healed? Secondly, how did things appear from the leader of the synagogues point of view? Thirdly, how might an onlooker consider the scene?

Firstly, let us imagine that we have discovered the woman’s diary. What might she have written into her journal that day?

1. Excerpts from Diary

"Dear Diary,

What a day. Has there ever been such an unexpected, liberating, breath of fresh air day as this? You know diary how I have shared everything with you since the first day I could write. Now, I am scribbling away with an urgency never experienced before. Diary, I have a smile on my face and my head is held high!

You know it has not always been so. It has been twenty years since mother died. Being the only woman in a house full of men, life has not been easy. As Father grew older somebody had to care for him and my brothers being younger than I needed somebody looking out for them.

I never asked to be the mother they never had.  If I had been, they may have treated me with some respect. As the years have rolled by it seems as though all I've heard is ..."It is a woman's duty".

A woman’s duty? What to be treated worse than a paid servant? To be at the beck and call of a whole household, just because they are men? Do not I have a voice? Do not I have a life to live? Did not I have hopes and dreams and needs to be met? "It is God's way" they would tell me. "Remember ... It was Eve who took the fruit. Do not our Scriptures teach that woman is to obey?"

I thought after Father had died things would be different. Yet increasingly my brothers took advantage. They knew I relied on them for my food and my lodging. A woman on her own had little hope of a decent life. And marriage was out of the question. What man would look to me? Particularly after the problems started in my back.

It was just a nagging pain at first.  Maybe it was lifting Father or fetching the water. I always had something weighing down on me. Over these last eighteen years things have grown worse. I guess I've just spent too much time bending over washing clothes, bending over making meals, over the well, over the fire, making the beds, cleaning the floor.

I had never really thought until today how I had become accustomed to looking down. It meant I could avoid making eye contact with anybody. I knew what they were thinking when they looked at me. Old Maid. Poor thing. What a shame. But now they can keep their pity.

It came around to the Sabbath and, dutifully I went to synagogue. Diary, you know how much I hate that place. Of all the things that drag me down, that has got to be the worst. As soon as I walk through the door it is as though a cloud of disapproval settles upon me.

So, there I sat. Grinding my teeth. Looking at my shoes. Going through the motions like I always do. Suddenly the preacher calls me over. "Woman" he said. I almost answered, "I have a name you know!" but held my self in check.

As I drew near, he reached and took both of my hands. I tilted my head back and looked him in the eye. Those eyes of his! Looked right into me. They were so full of love and acceptance. He smiled as he held my hands, and it was as though he was drawing into himself all the hurt and the pain and the rejection I had felt for so long. I have never felt so totally known by another person in all my life.

I was aware of joints in my back clicking away. I felt as though I was having a huge weight lifted from my shoulders. Then, as though it were something I had done everyday of my life, I straightened up and stared back into those healing eyes. Tears beginning to flow in mine. "Woman" he said, "You are free."

As he let go of my hands and returned to the podium an involuntary, over loud "Praise God" slipped from my lips. By then the atmosphere in the place was electric. People were coming up out of their seats, looking me in the eye, giving hugs, and a murmur of astonished awe and wonder was flowing through the room.

Well, diary, you know what happened next. Some of those religious stuffed shirts took offense. The head man took over and started telling everybody to calm down.  They started accusing the preacher of doing bad things on the Sabbath. But - diary - that preacher tore a strip off them. "Daughter of Abraham" he called me.

Daughter of Abraham! Inheritor of God's promises. Child of God. Oh yes diary things are going to be different from now on. This lady is taking control. This lady is walking with her head held high. I am free. I am free. Praise God. "

The woman’s perspective. But what of the head of the synagogue?

2. Minutes of Closed Session Meeting : Regarding events on the previous Sabbath.

"A report was given on the problems that had arisen. Last Sabbath's service was plainly lacking in decency and order. We will not tolerate such laxity in the House of God. Nor will we tolerate those who excite congregations to emotionalism and dissent.

We wish to make the following statements.

i) On upholding the Sabbath.

Religion is a matter of loving God with heart, mind, and soul. That love is expressed through our obedience to God's commandments. One of those commandments is "Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy." We have a great heritage to uphold.

ii) On healing

We acknowledge the work of healing as an important part of God's covenant with His people. However, guided by our traditions, we recognize there are times when works of healing are either appropriate or inappropriate. We are particularly skeptical regarding alleged healing that appears to be performed purely to garnish support for a particular speaker’s viewpoint or message.  

This appears to have been the situation the previous Sabbath. Our speaker put forward views, which were plainly in contradiction to the traditions of our Fathers. He then used a member of our faith community to make a point by alleging to have healed her. The genuine motives of this man are questionable as:-

a) This was not an instance, such as the rescuing of an animal, that required an immediate response. This act could have taken place at a time when Torah law would not have been broken. We suggest this was a deliberate and calculated act of disobedience.

b) The use of godly actions, (such as healing), to promote an ungodly view, (namely that breaking Sabbath law is permitable), proves this man to be fraudulent in his claims to be a servant of God.  We furthermore suggest that his whole presentation was an attempt to discredit the synagogue and defame the true people of our most Holy and Righteous God.

The Session therefore makes the following resolutions:

1: To be more careful whom we invite to exegete the Scriptures during Worship. We have appointed a task force to consider background checks upon those we allow to speak. Had such a check been accomplished we would have discovered this was not the first time the speaker had deliberately promoted dissent in the house of God.

2: To send a copy of this report to our central Council in Jerusalem, as well as to local religious leaders that they may be aware of this man’s blasphemous ways.

Meeting ended after much discussion later that evening."

We've had a woman's view and a Pharisees view. But had a reporter from the local newspaper been present that day, how would the headlines appear? Maybe something along these lines;

3."VISITING PREACHER CREATES DISSENT”

"He's been described as controversial and charismatic. Some say he's a charlatan, others that he could be the Christ. (For you Gentile readers that is a Jewish term meaning ‘God’s chosen One’). They call him by the name of Jesus, he hails from Nazareth, and he surely brewed up a storm during morning services down at the local synagogue.

Things went along their usual predictable way, until during sermon time he invited forward a woman. He said a few words about setting her free, then healed her of an illness that had crippled her for eighteen years.  A number of folks in attendance knew of her past suffering and there followed a period of exuberant rejoicing such as never before witnessed in any synagogue around here!

The Chief Pharisee attempted to restore calm by suggesting that healing and disorder in the sanctuary were not appropriate on the Sabbath.  That is when the sparks really started to fly! Jesus, to the approval of many in the crowd, accused the Pharisees of hypocrisy, suggested they cared more for their animals than their women, and warned them to watch out, because the Kingdom of God was near.

I have the impression, dear readers, that the sparks will continue to fly for many a year. Charlatan or Man of God... I do not believe we have heard the last of the preacher from Galilee…. that some call a fraud and others call “The Lord.”"

CONCLUSIONS

This passage of Scripture calls us to embrace the freedom that knowing Jesus Christ can bring within our own our lives. The extent to which we taste and see that freedom is dependant on the faith we have in who He said He was, what He is able to do and how He works in our world today.

This passage also calls us to examine our prejudices and traditions. Is there a balance between freedom and order in our lives? How radically has the gospel captured our hearts? Are we prepared to have our lives challenged and renewed by the Spirit of Jesus Christ?

My response is simply to affirm that the Jesus whom people eventually crucified for breaking the laws, rose from the dead, and His Holy Spirit is still about the business of straightening people up and bringing the freedom of God's love alive in their hearts.

My prayer is that God's freedom will work in our lives in as equally powerful ways as we have heard in this morning’s gospel lesson.

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D