Rally Sunday  
August 26, 2007
The Rev. Kristin Krantz
Associate Rector, All Souls Parish
Proper 16/Year C
Jer 1:4-10; Heb 12:18-29; Lk 13:10-17

Gracious God, take our minds and think through them;
take our hands and work through them;
take our hearts and set them on fire.
Amen.

I remember when I was growing up that we never had bumper stickers on our cars. I asked my dad about this one time and his stoic response was that the world was divided into two groups of people: those that put bumper stickers on their cars and those that don’t. We were clearly the ‘don’t’ kind of people. This made me kind of sad, since it seemed that there was so much wisdom and humor to be found in bumper stickers, and for someone who felt things passionately, what better way was there to convey truth and beliefs? I knew that once I had a car of my own I would plaster it with bumper stickers and let the whole world know just where I stood.

And while I have spent the better part of my life collecting bumper stickers, it turns out that I’m still a ‘don’t’ person – I have yet to put one on my car. The closest I’ve gotten is taping one in the rear window. That way it can come off after an election! But I still somehow believe in the power of bumper stickers to reveal truth, make a political statement and even make us laugh. This brings me to a bumper sticker that a classmate of mine at seminary had on her car: grace happens.

What truth that reveals! In fact, I think it is one of the best summaries of Christian faith that you can find. Grace happens. It doesn’t happen because we are good enough, work hard enough or have enough stuff. The grace of God happens to us simply because God loves us enough to send it our way. And that’s where our lessons today are leadings us, I believe, into the truth that grace happens.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you born I consecrated you.” Thus begins the call of Jeremiah to be a prophet of God. Until recently, I have had an ambivalent, even hostile, reaction to this particular scripture passage. Instead of seeing it for what it offers, a testament to the all-consuming love of God and proclamation of God’s grace, I instead saw it for how it was used by people pushing their own agenda. You see, in the Midwest where I grew up, it is quite common to see this particular scripture passage on anti-abortion billboards found along the interstates. And what is a billboard if not a really big bumper sticker? If only I could plaster those highways with ‘grace happens’ billboards to share that bit of truth!

Because instead of using Jeremiah’s words as a weapon or scare tactic, I think they should be proclaimed as a sign of God’s grace. This passage, along with Psalm 139, are, I think, two of the most beautiful expressions of intimacy with God. They offer assurance of God’s presence in our lives and address our deepest need to be fully known and loved by another.

It seems like a far stretch to go from being fully known by God to the rhetorical rant that we read from the letter to the Hebrews today. But what the author is trying to illustrate here is God’s grace. In fact, in my handy dandy Harper Collins Study Bible, this passage is titled ‘Warnings against rejecting God’s grace.’ The author uses imagery from the Book of Exodus describing God on Mt. Sinai – a blazing fire, darkness, a tempest, the sound of a trumpet. All the traditional symbols of God’s presence are there – wind, fire and thick darkness – but the author casts it in such a way that God is seen as distant and inaccessible. In contrast, he presents Mt. Zion, that heavenly city wherein lies the hope of all who believe in Christ. God is immanent and accessible in that place.

I would argue that God’s grace is found both in Mt. Sinai and Mt. Zion, for both the earthly and the heavenly, that which is shakable and unshakable, have their source in God. In the end the author is not offering an either/or, but a both/and – for God’s grace is all encompassing. And the way we live into that both/and is included in this letter – it is through worship.

Now, there are few things that Episcopalians will spend as much time discussing and arguing about as worship and liturgy. What hymns should we sing? Which prayers should we use? What about that children’s homily? These discussions are often tainted with the phrase, “but that’s the way we’ve always done it” which implies that there is a ‘right’ way to do it and most certainly a ‘wrong’ way. Recently a friend was telling me about a parishioner at her church who complained about a hymn that was sung one Sunday. She chose to be diplomatic in her answer, but what she really wanted to say to this person was, “What part of singing that hymn do you think God didn’t like?!”

I think that is the same point Jesus makes in the Gospel reading today. Jesus broke the standing rules for ‘but that’s the way we’ve always done it’ – he healed on the sabbath. Maybe he too wanted to say, “What part of that healing to you think God didn’t like?” But instead, when he is challenged by the leader of the synagogue, he (not very diplomatically – unless calling people hypocrites is somehow diplomatic) changed the nature of the argument. The leader wanted to make the issue about Jesus’ violation of the sabbath, but Jesus turned the focus to the needs and dignity of the woman whom he healed.

It’s a subtle, or not, way of shaking people out of ‘how we do things’ and into ‘striving for justice and peace among all people, and respecting the dignity of every human being.’ Because when we focus too much on ‘how we do things’ then we are unable to be in relationship with those around us and worship God together as a community. It’s about ‘us’ (singular) and not about ‘us’ (the community). We try to focus the argument on what’s right, and Jesus reminds us it is really all about being together in the presence of God. For where two or three are gathered in God’s name, God’s presence is among them.

I think this reminder about change is important for us as a congregation as we look ahead to the next few years. This interim year will of course offer changes, but so will our first years with our new rector as we try to blend ‘how we do things’ with how our rector ‘has done things.’

And our gospel today shows us that change can actually bring healing. As I was preparing to write this sermon, a friend directed me to a blog called Lectionary Musings posted by a retired guy in Florida named Phil who is a Presbyterian elder and deacon. He offered this slightly adapted version of today’s gospel. “One Sabbath day Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and there before him was a believer who for eighteen years had been possessed by traditions and doctrines that crippled her; whose mind was bent double and quite unable to think straight. When Jesus saw her he called her over and said, ‘Christian, you are freed from your disability,’ and he laid his hands on her. And at once she thought straight, and she glorified God.’

Have we, like this imagined woman, been bent over by either holding on to or being forced to hold on to ‘the way we do things’ in church instead of living and breathing God? I find truth and grace in this story. Jesus didn’t just loose the ties that bound that woman in the synagogue – he is still reaching out to each of us to loose those things that bind us and bend us over.

So what are the things that bend us over and bind us? Political decisions can bind us – look at our recent state budget. Military occupation can bend us over – the weight of sorrow. Disease and disability can bind us. Relationships can surely bend us over. And what spiritually binds us? If we were to be honest with ourselves I think each of us could come up with our own list of things that have bound us so tightly that we can no longer stand up straight for the weight of them.

The good news of the gospel today is that we can be healed by the grace of God. The woman that entered the synagogue did not ask to be healed. Jesus saw her, called to her, declared that she was set free and laid his hands on her. It was an act of grace. Because the grace of God sees deep into us, and without even a request, sets us free. We need only respond to God’s call and accept the blessing of God’s grace like that woman in the synagogue so long ago. Then we too will stand up straight and begin praising God.

Now I have to switch gears just a bit and address the issue of sabbath, which I believe to be one of the most important tenants of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Do you remember those creation stories from Genesis? The whole, ‘let there be light’ and all of that? Well, in case you’ve forgotten, after God finished this huge task of creation, God rested on the seventh day. In fact, it says God blessed and hallowed that day of rest.

This story from Luke, along with a few others similar to it, shows Jesus apparently disregarding the sabbath. I don’t believe this is the case. I believe that Jesus is pointing to the fact that showing compassion and working for the dignity of every human being is appropriate on every day of the week.

Jesus sets us free from a legalistic view of sabbath, not from sabbath outright. One preacher far wiser than I put it like this: “In Jesus, we are set free from a legal observance of Sabbath, but what are we set free for? Are we simply free to add ten more hours to our work week? To work every day so that those who work for us never have a day during which we have not added something to their list of things to do? Are we free simply to participate every day in our consumer culture, every day making purchases, acquiring, accumulating? Are we free so that our children’s lives can be structured every day, fully scheduled, so they never miss a chance to compete, excel, keep up, or add an activity to a college or scholarship application?”

How true this is! When was the last time you or you and your family had a day that wasn’t programmed? You just meandered through a Saturday, or came to church on Sunday and then let the afternoon take you where it might? I believe the gift of sabbath is a gift of God’s grace. The fact is, that we, like God, need rest.

I invite each of you to find a way to make sabbath a priority in your lives – and yes I’m speaking to myself as well. I know that there are always dishes to be done, playdough to be sculpted and more work that is piling up. But I would offer you this thought – sabbath is not simply a special day, it is an attitude. It is an attitude that opens your heart to God’s grace and accepts the invitation to rest in small ways every day. It is the attitude that allows us to let go of trying to be God and to instead spend a few moments resting in the presence of God. And it is an attitude that opens us up to being freed from the binds that tie us and the things that bend us over.

May all of us live into this attitude of sabbath and glory in the grace of God.

~AMEN~