August 22, 2010
Pentecost 13
Hebrews 12:18-29
Luke 13:10-17
(prayer)
I am big into compromise. I’m not sure if it one of things within me that drew me into ministry or if, by the nature of the church itself, I have been taught to comprise … but I consistently find myself in situations where compromise is warranted, and helpful.
The church as an institution has a structure that often mandates group decision making. Perhaps more so than other organizations, the church finds an importance in “consulting” widely before decisions are made. These processes are often mandated into our structure, both locally as a congregation and in the wider courts of the church, like Presbytery, Conference and General Council.
The church is more than an institution, it is a movement. As a movement, the church strives for relationships without class or judgement. We believe (as the Apostle Paul wrote) that we are one in Christ. There may be diversity among us, different skill, abilities, desires, but we live and move and have our being in the one God, the one Christ, the one Spirit. We are “differently gifted”. Because that is foundational to the Jesus Movement, we want to move together as much as possible. And so compromise seems to be a natural fit within the church.
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Now, not every group that I find myself active with operates with the same desire to find the common path. When I am sitting around a table with others charged with leadership of some kind, I am always uncomfortable when things come to a close vote. It’s easy to call “the question” and see who has 50% + 1 support, but generally, I prefer the often harder (and more time consuming) work of compromise.
Kind of unfairly, we compromisers are labelled as wishy-washy or wafflely. The mantra of our detractors is: “you’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything.” I would suggest that would be a good line for a country song, but it already is (Aaron Tippin, 1991).
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The truth is that as much as compromise is valuable and almost always possible, our call as disciples includes a base from which to begin, a place from which we draw our strength and inspiration.
This is the third of four services planned around the theme of discipleship. I have been focusing on some key characteristics of discipleship for a couple of weeks now. So far, I have spoken about being ATTENTIVE to the glimpses of the spirit all around us, the work of God in the world. And last week the theme was being COMMITTED to the path and Way that Jesus led.
For me, perhaps the most important characteristic of discipleship is AUTHENTICITY. In all that we do, in all that we are as Christians, our base, our foundation needs to shine through. Even through times of change and compromise and transformation, we are invited to have that authentic grounding which unites us with our source.
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I admit that the Hebrews passage for today was a bit verbose and tricky to follow, but there was that message at the end which sums up the author’s theme: some things are unshakable. In the end, we have to stand for something. And that something should be consistent with the life we live. Disciples need to be authentic.
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Now, I didn’t say perfect, I said authentic. It means we build from a foundation up. One of Jesus well-known parables was about the two home builders, one who chose the quick and easy construction founded on sandy soil; the other chose a rock-solid foundation. And the rains came and the wind blew. And with a huff and a puff, the little pigs had no place to live. Wait, I may have added in a nursery rhyme. The point is: the foundation matters. That’s where authentic discipleship comes from: the foundation.
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To explore that a bit, let’s look at the story from the gospel of Luke today.
Jesus was away from home and was visiting a local synagogue. Perhaps, the purpose of this visit was because Jesus’ reputation had grown and he had been invited to come and teach there. Jesus notices that one of the women of the congregation is all bent over. She has had some injury or illness that has left her this way for eighteen years. When someone has such an obvious physical ailment, people sometime naturally see the malady before the person. Jesus calls the woman forward and she does. He simply touches her and declares that she has been set free. She slowly straightens up … it is true the woman had been healed.
It must have been a moment of wonder and excitement. But it was also a moment of controversy. Hebrew law required that the Sabbath day be honoured as a day of holy rest and worship. It is one of the Ten Commandments. Honouring the Sabbath was an important part of living out one’s faith in Jesus’ time. What Jesus has done was interpreted as “work” by the leader of this synagogue. Saving a person’s life was allowed on a Sabbath, but the appropriatness of healing other non-life threatening illnesses was a matter of debate. It could wait until the next day. Jesus’ contribution to the discussion was that the Sabbath laws allowed for animals to be cared for: fed and walked as necessary. Surely this woman was as valuable as a donkey or an ox.
This woman’s dignity, as a daughter of Abraham, as a child of God, was paramount. She should not be made to wait for God’s touch in her life.
Jesus, within the mysteries of God’s abilities, was the divine hand for her. It is who Jesus was. He had to be who he was to be.
As far as the rules went, Jesus was concerned with the Spirit of the Law, when the letter of the law seemed out of whack with the needs of the community.
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As followers – disciples – of Jesus, we are to be true to our calling to “love as Jesus loved”. In John 13:34-35, Jesus is recorded as saying: I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’
Having love for others is a sign of our discipleship. That is our unshakable foundation. That is where our authenticity is measured.
“Love for one another” means that we care about how the other person’s life is going. We all want to feel like we belong; we all want to be happy; we all want to know that our lives have value. The measure of our authenticity is centered in how we actively care about these things.
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We are all children of God and so we have a commonality that cannot be taken from us. Within God’s family, there is variety, which is one of its greatest blessings. But in our diversity, we are one. We are to matter to each other.
And so, when sisters and brothers are suffering, we suffer too. When three weeks of flooding wash away the lives of some of our family, we are all affected. When bullets and bombs fly, we are all affected. When the cost of living outstretches a family in the inner city, we are all affected. When someone feels they have to turn to an addiction to escape the hardness of life, we are all affected.
To be a disciple of Christ is to be our brothers’ and sisters’ keeper – and to be kept by them.
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Jesus’ healing abilities were mysterious and holy. We may not be able to heal the ills that plague human dignity and the integrity of our world with a simple touch, but we do have the resources necessary and the ability to truly live out the love that Jesus calls us to have. It’s just hard … and time consuming and … emotionally taxing but … possible.
The big work of discipleship is really the combination of all of the small acts of kindness and compassion we can do. As each one of us struggles and strives to be an authentic follower of Jesus, the sum of our parts will have power beyond our imaginings.
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Jesus welcomes, loves and restores in the mystery of God’s healing reign. We are invited to celebrate that mystery. We are also called to be agents of such healing freedom. Who in our world and our communities is “bent over”, is living in the shadow in some way. How might each of us (as individuals and as a church) reach out into our world so that everyone knows they are a valuable child of God?
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It begins with us – living as authentic disciples of our Christ.
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Let us pray:
Holy Healing God,
When we feel weighed down by the challenges of life, help us know that we are valuable to you. Give us the courage to simply be who we are called to be: honest, authentic followers of Jesus. AMEN.
#619VU “Healer of Our Every Ill”
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