My latest song release, "The Good Old Days." I wrote it back in 2013 and was able to get it recorded in 2021. Looking back to all the days gone by...maybe these are good old days too.
Tuesday, August 30, 2022
Tuesday, August 23, 2022
Becoming a People Healed
The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Emmanuel Episcopal Church
August 21, 2022
Isaiah 58:9b-14
Hebrews 12:18-29
Luke 13:10-17
Becoming a People Healed
“There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” That’s what the leader of the synagogue taught the crowd who was gathered there. “Don’t bother us with that crippled woman, we gotta keep God happy with us,” is basically what the leader of the synagogue was saying after Jesus healed a woman on the Sabbath. When this woman came to synagogue on the Sabbath, Jesus actually paid attention to her and paid enough attention to realize that she was not only crippled, but that she had been crippled for 18 years.
Now, he was able to heal her, but what was he to do? It was the Sabbath, after all, and no work was to be done on the Sabbath. Never mind that people made all kinds of exceptions to the “no work” rule because they had to. You weren’t going to let your animals starve or go without water, so you had to do some kind of work to feed and water them.
Healing a woman, though, well, that was a bridge too far. “To Hell with all these needy people. This is the Sabbath, damnit. We’re here to get right with God.” Jesus was hardly the first to question such an idea that God was more concerned with proper religion than with how people treat one another.
“Why do we fast…but you do not notice?” The people cried out in Isaiah 58. “Well,” God said, “because you serve your own interests with your fasts and oppress your workers.” ‘You have a fine way of seeking to please me through your religion, through your belief,’ God was saying, ‘but what will really please me is if you will recognize me in all of the people around you and then act towards them as you would towards me.’
As Jesus said in Matthew 25, whatever you have done to each other, you have done to me. In other words, the way we treat people is the way we treat God. All of creation is one with God. All of creation is within God. Nothing is separate from God. So, when we don’t care about another person, we don’t care about God. When we treat others poorly, we treat God poorly.
I’m thankful for these reminders, by the way. When I’m bothered by this jerk or that jerk who’s been doing this or that jerky thing, I’m actually bothered and annoyed with God in that other person, and that other person probably has their challenges they’re dealing with, maybe I could be more compassionate.
When we treat others poorly, we treat God poorly. So, when the leader of the Synagogue in Jesus’ day said that the woman shouldn’t have come to be healed on the Sabbath, he was saying that God shouldn’t have bothered them to be healed on the Sabbath.
The leader of the synagogue wanted to be right with God and wanted to lead the people to be right with God. He lost sight of God’s teaching, however, that the way they treated other people was the way they treated God. When Jesus healed this woman on the Sabbath, he was teaching the people that caring about others, seeking justice and healing for others, striving for relationship with others was how they were going to be right with God.
Nowadays in our country, there is also a longing by many to be right with God, or to get back to being right with God. If we would be a country that trusts in God, then God would smile upon this nation, and we would all be better off.
I just read about public schools having to display “In God we trust” signs in prominent places, if those signs are donated to the schools. This is a new law in Texas, and I think I understand the sentiment behind the law. If we get people to be more religious minded, to believe in and have some fear and reverence of God, then surely many of the ills of society will be reduced. If we can get people back into church (or synagogue, mosque, what have you), then society will go back to honoring one another, treating one another well, and living as though God is concerned with each of our actions.
Perhaps if we convinced more people to go to church, then God would see and be pleased. Of course, going to church is not a formula, nor is simply believing in God. There are many who believe and trust in God who are then violent toward others because those others don’t believe in the same way.
The idea of trusting in God more, going to church more, is really about us being healed more. Healed in our bodies. Healed in our minds. Healed in our spirits. Healed in our relationships and in community. Being part of a church is about being part of a community, knowing and loving other people. Being part of a church is about recognizing God in all the people around us, realizing that treating God with honor in the people around us is the religion and the community God seeks for us. Treating God with respect and dignity in the people around us is the religion and community God seeks for us.
If we look at the “In God We Trust” signs through the lenses of Isaiah 58 and Jesus’ healing of the woman on the Sabbath, we might say, “In Caring About and Loving People We Trust.”
“In believing that people deserve high wages more than they deserve charity, we trust.”
“In wanting to give schools adequate funding, rather than ‘In God We Trust’ signs so that teachers are paid enough not to have to have second jobs and don’t have to buy classroom supplies, we trust.”
“In reducing cycles of poverty because we see and act towards all people in our society as though we were seeing and acting toward God, we trust.”
“In striving for a medical and insurance system in which one medical bill no longer bankrupts many of the working poor, we trust.”
“In tenants no longer being thrown out on the street because landlords didn’t pay for water and electricity included in rent, we trust.”
Perhaps if we trusted in God by approaching our business and personal finances, our actions and daily choices in such a way that we saw people as being as vitally important as God, then God would see and be pleased. Our “light would rise in the darkness”, God would guide us, and we would be called “repairers of the breach.”
We don’t please God by being religious enough. We please God by becoming a people healed. Caring about and loving people leads to a people healed. Seeing each person as God leads to a people healed. That’s our way, the way we strive for at Emmanuel.
Building relationships with teachers and families at Rhoads is about becoming a people healed, a larger community healed. Building relationships and serving folks at The Gathering Place is about becoming a people healed, a larger community healed. Building relationships here, seeing someone you don’t know well and introducing yourself, our newcomers’ lunch, calling each other and supporting one another is about becoming a people healed, a larger community healed.
All of the ways that we are working to see others, to see God as we see others, are helping to ensure that we are all seen. We’re striving with God to build relationships and connections, with one another and with others beyond here, to become a people healed.
Jesus healed a woman on the Sabbath because Jesus knew that becoming a people healed was what the Sabbath was for in the first place. “In God we trust,” because we know God wants us to be a people healed. Knowing that God’s desire for us is to be healed, we trust that we don’t need to be good, righteous, or religious enough for God to be pleased with us, and we don’t need to try to force anyone else to be either. “In God we trust,” because God desires healing for us, and “in God we trust,” because honoring one another is how we honor God.
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