eNews: Freedom Thoughts for the 4th

Devotion of 02 July 2020, for “eNews” of First Christian Church of Hampton VA.

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LETTER TO THE GALATIANS 5:13-16, Common English Bible) 

You were called to freedom, brothers, and sisters; only don’t let this freedom be an opportunity to indulge your selfish impulses, but serve each other through love. All the Law has been fulfilled in a single statement: Love your neighbor as yourself. 

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First off, Happy Independence Day! We do love our nation, taking in both its glories and its failures, its achievements, and its challenges. We are still a young nation, in the broad sweep of history, and are best called the “American ‘Experiment,’” one that Thomas Jefferson rightly said needed to be given a refreshing in every generation. 

The same, of course, can be said for what we call “Church.” What made sense at one time, may still make sense… or conditions have changed over time and so it adapts. This has been true of hymns, of worship formats, even who gets to read the Bible itself (at one time they were chained to the pulpit and average people had no access!). 

I have been thinking much about “freedom” in recent days. It seems a word very much in conversation now, but what does “freedom” mean to us who follow Jesus? How does this singular word relate to how we live our lives, and how we see the community of the beloved centered in Jesus? 

For instance, the latest issue has been the wearing of masks to reduce the numbers of those who acquire COVID-19. I’m not here to convince you as to their need, but engage in a conversation as to what is our primary source of revelation, and what guides our personal and communal effort in witness of Jesus Christ:  Now, to be honest, Jesus didn’t use the word “freedom,” but he instead spoke of “he who lays down his life for his friends…” [John 15:13].  In short, he spoke of those who surrendered their very right to life, to freedom, to save others. He did this by his own example. We proclaim this as a central tenet of our faith. 

Paul did often use the word “freedom” but let’s look at his usage. So it is that Paul wrote to the Corinthian community, which had a tough time understanding that freedom was not license… and what we may feel fine about doing, may harm another. So, he saw in I Corinthians 6:12, “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything.”  This is what underlies his later statement; “Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible” [9:19]. In his Letter to the Galatians [5:13-15], Paul elaborates, saying how we are “called to freedom,” but he then goes on directly to say not to use freedom as “an opportunity to indulge your selfish impulses, but serve each other through love.”  Love, then, is the highest form of freedom – the operative force in the life of the Jesus follower. 

There it is. The question as to what we witness to, as those who follow Jesus. Does sacrificial love for others guide us? Is freedom something we seize to justify ourselves, or to surrender at times to uphold others? This all raises the question, as we celebrate “Freedom” – thankful for our nation and most of all thankful for Jesus Christ, to what meaning of this word are we moored?  

Again, I wish you a most happy and safe Fourth of July. Be well! Love one another. 

In Christ, 

Pastor Vinson 

©2020 by Vinson W. Miller, Hampton VA.

Unshackled!

Sermon of 25 August 2019, preached at First Christian Church of Hampton VA.  Honestly, this is one of those texts and sermons I would love to just sit and talk through – vice preach – it is such a rich, poignant text that has so many possibilities for discussion.  So, when you read it… just take time for each piece to soak a bit in the ground before moving on.  Re-read the creation narrative and God calling things “Good!” Then ask yourself why it’s hard for us to celebrate the “good” done for others?  Or why animals will gain sympathy, but a woman would not?  If God’s grace in Christ is truly amazing, we likewise do well to ponder the story,,, and who we identify with in various places and times.

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GOSPEL OF LUKE 13:10-17 (New Revised Standard Version)

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.  And 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.  When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.”  When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.  But 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.”  But 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?  And 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?”  When 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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INTRODUCTION

On this day there was perhaps a bit of a buzz with Jesus present.  The crowd made up of mostly observant Jews with a smattering of Gentiles who feared God or were attracted to the moral teachings of Jewish law.  Sure, there was word of Jesus being at the synagogue, but like decades ago in Virginia, when there were the “Blue Laws,” when everything was closed on Sundays, in this village everything would have been shut down for the sabbath and most folk would have been found at weekly worship.

The woman had already missed the opening of the service with the recitation of the shema – the confession of faith of “Hear O’ Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.  Blessed is the name of His glorious kingdom for ever and ever,” as it continued with the words of Deuteronomy 6:5-9, Deuteronomy 11:13-21 and then Numbers 15:37-41.  She would have also missed the readings from the Law and the Prophets, along with the prayer and thanksgiving that would have followed, walking in late, with Jesus already amid teaching and perhaps not sure what he was expounding upon.

Now think for a moment about this kind of entrance.

If any of us were so late as to not get here until during the sermon, would we have even bothered to enter into the service?  {PAUSE}  We’d be embarrassed or whatever else, I expect.  At least from my perspective, even the last portion still matters, but if we were late… would we think so?  In the end, she came on in, amid Jesus’ teaching.

WHY I BRING THIS UP

So it is that the Gospel reading implies some questions, between the lines of the text, for us to ponder amid our over-familiarity with Sunday worship, such as:  What has us struggling in life?  What kind of expectations do we bring before the Lord and just how might our vision on life be changed by encountering Jesus?

FOR INSTANCE

Writes Luke, “…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. 

After 18 years she had certainly become used to the routine of the life she endured, as she made her way in, others parting to let her through as she sat among the women, at the back of the synagogue as that’s likely where the women would have been seated or standing.  In the shadows.

She didn’t approach him.  Instead, Jesus noticed her.  She is called up front.

Imagine for a moment, a life of being looked upon… with pity by some… maybe judgment by others… visible with affliction and now the center of attention by a prominent guest preacher.

“When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are set free from your ailment.’  When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.”

She makes no request, gives no plea, begs for no help, and makes no apology for being tardy.  She is wordless.  Like most of us, if we are honest, self-conscious about asking for ourselves on any given Sunday morning.  Am I right?

We certainly aren’t told by Luke, the narrator, if she was anxious at being called up to the front.  Nor are we told if she came forward with any hopes.  There is just silence upon her lips, until Jesus speaks the word of healing.

Then things go sideways as the leader of the synagogue interrupts that sacred moment with something of an indirect rebuke to Jesus, when he addresses the synagogue – exercising an attempt to control the message of Jesus.  Now I’m not really convinced the leader is a “bad guy,” but as the one responsible for upholding what is holy he appears stuck on the letter of the Law instead of its spirit, where Exodus 31:14 speaks of keeping the sabbath holy as a day of rest.  It’s like there is a veil over his spiritual eyesight and the words of the Torah that are intended to reveal God’s will for wholeness has instead become a blinder that’s his infirmity of judgment and every bit as constricting of his spirit as physical disease was to the woman’s body.

He cannot celebrate what God has pronounced as “good.”

We might speculate he was thinking there’s no emergency after 18 years, no immediate danger, so no reason to act – the exception to the sabbath rule being action only to prevent an evil.  After all, in a few hours the sun would be down and sabbath over – so if she’s already waited for 18 years, can’t she until then?  It’s not like she isn’t late, so what’s the hurry?  He doesn’t perceive the evil of leaving someone in an unjust situation.

As for the woman?

Maybe she was one of those who are chronically late.

Maybe it just took a long time for her to walk the distance from her home.

Maybe she was just tired of being asked if her back was any better, and it was just so much easier on her spirit to slide in late and avoid the well-meant or simply questions of curiosity.

Maybe she had gone back and forth in her mind, curious about this new teacher, before finally deciding to go – even if she would be severely late.

Maybe she had grown bitter in her pain and was making a point by creating a bit of a stir as a physical interruption to Jesus’ teaching.

We are not told why she was late.

We do know, having been through, or been with others through physical suffering, how suffering can really wear down the spirit, as fatigue sets in.

We do know that whether seeking the peace of acceptance or hope for change – either can sometimes seem rather elusive.

18 years.  Half of the average lifespan in the days of Jesus.  18 years of being bent over, of having to look at people sideways when talking, of seeing the world constrained, of knowing no other future.  18 years of getting used to a present that’s also the future without mention by Luke, the ever-observant physician, of any previous attempts at cures as she apparently had not the means for what then passed for medical care.

Think of the perspective this woman had lived, bent over in life… in body… in spirit… with the disease process not just involving her spine, but her spiritual life as one never being able to look anyone in the eye and perhaps of not being free to take her rightful place among any ordinary crowd.  She who had been broken in spirit as much as much as with pain and physical deformity.  People can be so unkind.  Some would make fun of her.  With no husband mentioned, she may have been rejected… we just don’t know.

What we do know is that when suffering goes on month after month, year after year, it isn’t uncommon to think less of oneself.  Denied the dignity that should be the lot of each person, a stand-in for everyone of us who has experienced impediments and restrictions.  After 18 years, I would wonder if there was even a thought as to how her vision of the world could be changed that day.

And here’s the thing…. Jesus did not ask the woman what she can bear, what she is used to, or what she will settle for.  Nor are there the unhelpful pep talk phrases that may feel good for the speaker but not the listener.  There is only the Lord’s desire to restore a person’s life to her proper stature and that she can now be able to look our Lord in the eye.

Thus Jesus adds:

“And 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?”

People matter.

The phrase “daughter of Abraham” is no trite phrase, but the potent reminder that whether she is late or crippled or whatever else is going on – she is a member of the covenant community and this NATURALLY worthy of compassion.

So when challenged, it’s no wonder then that Jesus doesn’t let it pass but responds with the same kind of edge with the synagogue leader he does elsewhere with Martha, Peter, and even his own mother – when they get in the way of the work of the Kingdom:

“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?

On this Sunday, poignant with history in Hampton in remembering the introduction of slavery 400 years ago this weekend upon these very shores, we are freshly reminded of the evils that regularly attack the worth of human beings.

Those evils in the past, like slavery.

Those evils in the present, like racism, sexism, and a host of other offenses which diminish people.

Those evils in the present which devalue, demean, injure, and isolate – whether of the body, mind or spirit – denying the full measure of living.

Jesus did not then and does not now let this pass unchallenged – inviting us to hear the words of freedom… to live in His joy… to praise God who has given us the song of freedom in His world!

SO WHAT?

If, as another has written, “Sometimes we see ourselves as hopeless, as failures, as cripples, as defeated, as small in our own eyes and in the eyes of others,” we also “…hear Jesus call (us), ‘My son,’ ‘my daughter,’ ‘daughter of Abraham,’ ‘child of God.’” [Sacred Space]

And so if “…Jesus loves me, then I CAN be someone to be proud of.  I can change. I can leave the past behind.  If God is for me, then who can be against me?”  Each is therefore a son or daughter of Abraham , and in the gathering in Christ’s community – an acceptance of God’s love that generously gifts such acceptance to other sons and daughters.

“Daughter of Abraham,” says our Lord, “you’ve been bent over too long.  Stand up, hold your head up and your healed back erect, for you ARE a child of God!”

Son of Abraham, straighten up and experience the unshackling of your spirit from that which cripples, for you ARE a child of God!

Amen!

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Notes:  Sacred Space, “Luke 13:10-17.”  Accessed on 23 August 2019 at: https://www.sacredspace.ie/scripture/luke-1310-17-0

©2019 by Vinson W. Miller, Hampton VA.

Good News for Bad News

Sermon of 27 January 2019, preached at First Christian Church of Hampton VA.  The sermon delivered had a few really minor changes in the moment, as we continue to look at the intersection of discipleship and being a community centered in Jesus.

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GOSPEL OF LUKE 4:14-21 (New Revised Standard Version

Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country.  He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.   When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom.  He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: “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 favor.”  And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down.  The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.  Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

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INTRODUCTION

Returning to his hometown of Nazareth following his temptation by Satan in the wilderness, Jesus entered into his home synagogue.  Word about him was already filtering through Galilee about their native son.  Given most synagogues did not have their own clergy, it would not have been unusual for a distinguished person to speak, so Jesus was invited up front.  In an age when Hebrew had been replaced by Aramaic as the common language with many not literate in Hebrew enough to read the scriptures, I expect is wasn’t his first time, but now was different as Jesus was asked to read scripture and comment upon it.  Taken from the synagogue’s ark, the Book of Isaiah was handed to Jesus, a tightly rolled up scroll probably much like the Isaiah scroll found in an Israeli cave back in 1947 and dated to sometime between 150 and 400 BC.  A foot wide and written on maybe 17 or 18 parchment sheets stitched together, a few minutes would have rolled by as Jesus had to unroll most of 25-feet long 66-chapter book just to get to the reading from Isaiah 61.

Now, far from Jerusalem at an intersection of commerce from the nearby foreign nations, in a town lying in perhaps the most progressive part of tetrarchies that made up the former nation of Israel, if anywhere would seem a great place for Jesus to start, this would be it.  Eyes focused upon him as Jesus found the place and read.  Then, sitting down in the style of the time when preparing to give a commentary and an application of the text, Jesus taught.  To us it would have been closer to a Sunday school lesson that what we would call a sermon.  Whether we’re seeking a personal relationship with Jesus, or we want to speak of what a Jesus-centered faith community is supposed to look like, this is the scripture for us to first sit with as we take our next steps.  While there is certainly the hint Jesus had much more to say than recorded in the gospel, here in a few powerful sentences – Jesus conveys God’s vision statement for his ministry… bringing good news to a world often very much occupied with bad news.

WHY I BRING THIS UP

I only bring this up because if we have listened closely to the gospel text this morning from Luke, this good news of Jesus is only “good” when we first admit what hurts in our lives, what’s lacking, what’s been difficult, what’s our wounds and our sins.

FOR INSTANCE

So let’s hear the words of Jesus again, as we ponder this.  “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 favor.”  It’s a truly hope-filled text, but in truth – it’s only is so when one is willing to embrace both sides of it.

I’ll unpack what I mean.  It is pretty easy to hear all the positive inflections when we read these words.  It even reminds me of hearing the words spoken of Jesus as he entered Jerusalem on what we know as Palm Sunday.  But, that day of glory is darkly mirrored in Good Friday, is it not?  So Jesus lifts up hope in the face of poverty, of captivity, of blindness, of oppression.  None of those are happy experiences, in whatever form we experience them – personal, relational, work, or anything else.  It’s to acknowledge that at some level, all of us are certainly touched by sorrow, if we are honest with God.  Some of us, at least in an objective sense, undoubtedly experience more than others.  In our shared humanity we know this truth:  None of us are immune from pain, from suffering, from wounds to the heart, the body, the spirit.  It is to this, Jesus says, that he has come to bring good news, to bring release, to bring freedom, to bring recovery, and to bring favor.  The words themselves hearkening back to Leviticus, chapters 25 to 27, with a key verse at 25:10, wherein it is said: “Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you…”

If those words sound familiar, I’d note that they are what’s inscribed upon our nation’s Liberty Bell, these words of the Biblical “Jubilee.”  Released from debt, released from captivity to sin and evil – setting aside whatever “captivity” binds people in prison, in addictions, in abusive situations, and so forth.  Not just for the year as in Leviticus, but it’s expanded by Jesus into the broader sense that this will be the way of the Kingdom breaking forth now until he returns.  Life will be reordered by God’s values for people, resetting our lives to God’s intention in the Creative act recorded in Genesis.

There is a caveat that the listeners in the synagogue ran into: they marveled at the words of Jesus, but ultimately could not take them into their being.  It points to how that it’s only when we accept the realization that we aren’t complete in and of ourselves and difficult “bad news” is present in our lives, that we are able to fully participant in this new reality that is Jesus Christ.  The folks in the synagogue are thinking Jesus speaks oh so well, but they’re too comfortable with themselves to take his words into their being.  Jesus comes bringing good news to those in need, not to those who are comfortable in seeing nothing needs to change.  Accepting our release from such captivity takes us surrendering our will to God, as we are.

As we mull over the words of Jesus as being fulfilled in our own hearing “today,” we hear how there’s good news to be had for the poor, the captive, the blind, the oppressed.  God offers comfort, but such comfort will only mean something to those who acknowledge their own discomfort.  It is held at a distance, with the heart silenced by the head.  It’s like wrapping ourselves so tightly in the concept of the resurrection to come that we don’t acknowledge it is a resurrected life in the now.  Such a life in the now always starts with honesty about where we are today in life if our walk with the Lord is to heal.  Accepting our recovery from such blindness is about surrounding our heart to God, as we are.

However, over the years of ministry I’ve known enough folk along the way who knew the answer as to what would make them truly free, but just could not surrender what was owning them in one form or another.  I have found it painful at times to witness, because I see the suffering that could end in the grace of God.  Let’s be honest, our own internal messages, the ones we learned somewhere in life about not it not being OK to be sad, or angry, or hurt, can be a real roadblock to Jesus and is a limit to the work of the Spirit.  Not has everyone has experienced needed permissions from family and friends, or been granted a fulsome ear – and so ready to open up.  And too, sharing stuff may have an aspect of guilt or shame tied up in it somehow that increase the fear of accepting grace – and so it gets locked away, sometimes for decades.  Accepting our freedom from oppression in this and every form is about surrounding our life to God, as we are.

It’s only then we experience the immense freedom from speaking our truth, and receive the help and comfort that God offers – release, sight, healing, freedom, and more, and as a follower, that we move beyond receiving help and comfort to living a life that offers it to others.  It is only then we hear Jesus is happening TODAY in our lives for we receive the good news AND we become a part of his Good News.  “Today” is an important word for Luke; he uses it more than all the other gospels combined.  “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you.”  “Today you will be with me in paradise.”  And twice in the Zacchaeus story: “Zacchaeus, come down immediately.  I must stay in your house today.”  And then, “Today, salvation has come to this house.”  And finally, in our text: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”  So I would suggest as good a description as one can have for what it is to be the Body of Christ – is being God’s presence to those in need TODAY, according to the mercies we’ve received and the gifts we’ve been granted TODAY.  Accepting such favor from God is to become a part of the proclamation itself of the Kingdom breaking forth as our spirit honors God, as we are.

SO WHAT?

We talked last week about our huge team and all the smaller sub-teams that make this ministry we have in common.  I know that I can pretty much look around and say, there are no bystanders here.  Each is seeking to serve.  That’s one sign of a healthy congregation.  Another sign of a healthy congregation is Jesus is how we translate the words of Jesus into our individual lives and life as a community gathered in him – as those called to offer his healing and a place of safety for ourselves and each other – that we may find hope and healing, that if one is:

If you are afraid?  Come and find courage.

If you are lonely?  Come and be included in our family.

If you are ill?  Come here – or better, let us come to you – to care for you.

If you are isolated?  We will visit you.  We will welcome you.  We will bring you into our community as an equal.

If you are discouraged?  In our every gathering together, we encourage one another.

In such a spirit, we remember that God has come for not for the perfect but the imperfect, not for the healthy but for the ill, not for the righteous but unrighteous, not for the strong but for the weak.  God comes, that is, for all of us.

In this, I would ask you to join with me in prayer for one another, to have the strength and energy to live in response to Jesus’ promise.  So I am going to ask you to close your eyes and hold in your mind’s eye those around you…  [extemporaneous prayer]

Amen.

©2019 by Vinson W. Miller, Hampton VA.