Sermon for Sunday, August 22, 2004  

STRAIGHTEN UP

By

Rev. Cindy Bates

Luke 13:10-17

¹⁰ Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. ¹¹And 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. ¹²When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are set free from your ailment.’ ¹³When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. ¹⁴But 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.’ ¹⁵But 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? ¹⁶And 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?’ ¹⁷When 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. 

When I hear the words “straighten up” I immediately return to my childhood.  It was a phrase that often came out of my father’s mouth.  Growing up with four brothers, I’m sure my father’s admonition to “straighten up” was directed toward one of my brothers rather than to me. (But I do remember hearing it a lot!!)  When my father was particularly wanting his children to behave in a certain way, he would say, “Straighten up and fly right!”  Those words definitely stated it was time to change one’s actions or “flight” pattern, and act or behave in a certain way, which was the way my father thought one ought to behave.

Today’s scripture tells a story about the need for someone to “straighten up”, but in this story it is not about what someone ought to do but it is a story about what someone, with God’s help, could do.  It is a story that sometimes gets lost in our scriptures because it only appears in one place, the Gospel of Luke.  And it is a short story, only eight verses, but I think it is a very powerful story that tells us much about ourselves and even more about the nature of God.  It is a story of a woman who was bent over and could not straighten up.  Luke says she had “a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years.”  He does not say what that “spirit” was.  He leaves that to our imagination.  Was she bent over by some physical ailment or was she literally bent over because something was wrong with her spirit?  Had she been abused, ignored, or mistreated?  Was she lonely? Depressed?  That does not seem to matter.  What we do know is that she was literally bent over.  We know that in a very real, physical way that can happen to people.  Just this last Thursday as I was thinking about this sermon, there on 6^th Avenue close to York Street, appeared a man who looked to be about ninety years old.  He was walking with a cane and he was completely bent over at the waist.  The only thing he could possibly see was his feet and a few inches of sidewalk.  Just a few hours later I was talking to a clergy friend of mine in Nebraska and told him I was working on Sunday’s sermon.  He said, “Are you using that scripture about the woman who was all bent over?”  I said, “Yes, Ed, I am.”  He said, “Me too and to get ready for it I have been walking all over the house bent over.  You know you can’t see much from that perspective, from just looking down.”  Well, that’s the point, I believe.  This poor woman could not see much and she could not do much because her perspective was so narrow.  Her world was very small.

In some ways, I think the woman in this story represents all of us.  There are experiences in our life, circumstances in our life, attitudes in our life, that tend to bend us over, hurt us, wound us. Unfortunately, like this woman, it then changes our perspective; it tends to mean we see things out of the lens of our own pain.

I remember a time years ago when I found myself “bent over” after the death of my father.  He died at an early age and I was still in my twenties.  I was going through those stages of grief that are normal and necessary when going through the grief process but I realized one day that I had gotten stuck in a particular place.  It had been a few months since Dad had died and I was riding in a car with a friend.  We stopped at a light and some pedestrians crossed the street in front of us…a man in his early fifties and a young woman who appeared to be his daughter.  They were laughing and enjoying life and one another.  All of a sudden I was overwhelmed with a sense of anger at these two persons whom I did not know and who certainly were not doing anything to harm me or threaten me or make me angry.  But, I wanted to shout at them.  I wanted to get out of the car and say, “How can you be enjoying this day and one another?  Don’t you know my Dad has died?”  At that point in time I was seeing life and others out of a very pain-filled, narrow perspective.  Thank God it was a stage of grief and eventually I got “unstuck”, but it helped me realize that what happens to us in life colors how we see things.  Are those life circumstances opening us up to see a bigger picture or are they bending us over and restricting our view?

When I was serving a congregation in Indianapolis, I was working with the American Cancer Society on a program called “Families Facing Cancer.”  They asked me to serve on a panel discussion that would be responding to questions related to faith and how faith could play a significant role in the life of the patient and his or her family.  There were three of us on the panel, a rabbi, a young man named Chet, who was a cancer patient, and me.  The rabbi and I did our share of pontificating about the importance of faith, I’m sure.  But what I really remember about that evening was what Chet, the young man with cancer, had to say.  A few months previous to this evening Chet had been told that his cancer was terminal.  As he was talking to our group and trying to make a point  with a sense of urgency and with almost a sense of frustration he said, “You know, I wish everyone could have the opportunity to have a terminal illness just once in their life!”  There was a moment of hushed heaviness in the room.  And then Chet began to smile when he realized what he had said.  Of course you can only have a terminal disease once in your life! And for a moment we were all able to laugh at a painful situation.  But then we came back to what Chet was really saying and it was a very powerful statement.  He was saying so often it takes something as crucial as a terminal illness to make us see what is really important after all.  People become important rather than “things” and we begin to see ourselves and others and life’s meaning in a new light.  Chet’s illness had the potential to weigh him down and bend him over so he could only see a very limited view of the world.  Instead, his illness opened him up so he could see a much more expansive view… the bigger picture.

I would ask you to take a moment this morning and think about those things in your life that bend you, burden you and at times feel like they might break you.  How have those life circumstances shaped how you see things?  Have they narrowed your vision of life or have they opened you to new possibilities?

Since moving to Denver a few months ago I’ve had an opportunity to meet some new neighbors.  One person in particular has become a good friend.  I take him vegetables from my garden and he returns the kindness in many ways.  The other day he shared his homemade enchiladas from his mother’s secret recipe.  What I have noticed about Martin is that I really like to be around him because he seems so centered and so in tune with the world around him.  Even though he works very hard at his day job, his hobby is growing flowers.  They are some of the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen.  Some evenings when I need to let go of the stress of the day, I walk through Martin’s garden.  One evening I was telling him how much I admired his love of life and the gentle caring way he treated everyone and everything around him.  He looked at me and smiled.  He said, “Twenty years ago I was diagnosed as being HIV positive.  I’ve watched most of my friends die.  I’m so grateful for everyday that comes to me.”  Instead of being bound by  anger, bitterness, and fear, Martin has found a wonderful freedom in life.  For him, each day is a gift from God, and he lives his life out of that gratefulness.

A few moments ago I mentioned that the story of the bent over woman tells us something about ourselves, but more importantly, I think it tells us more about the nature of God.

There was Jesus, doing what was his custom on the Sabbath.  He was in the synagogue and he was teaching.  By this point in his ministry, Jesus was being followed by crowds of people, so the synagogue was probably pretty crowded to hear what he had to say.  But Jesus words were never more important than his actions.  He was never so focused on his own agenda that he missed the wounds and the pain and the “bent-overness” of the people around him.  In the midst of what he was saying Jesus saw the woman, and the scripture says he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.”

He laid his hands on her and she stood up.  She became unbent!  Someone has said this is an example of radical grace…of radical love.  Jesus wanted to free that woman.  He wanted her to be able to stand up and see the world from a new perspective.

Now we know the story does not stop there.  This action by Jesus caused a great “brouhaha.”   The leader of the synagogue was indignant because Jesus had the audacity to heal on the Sabbath, a day when no work was to be done.  In reality, the one protesting the healing was probably also furious because Jesus was interrupting the teaching by calling a woman over into the section where only men were allowed.  And then, he actually touched her!  The rules did not allow for that!  And for many in that synagogue the rules were more important than anything.  Jesus knew that and that is why he 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 this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?”  The word for “hypocrite” could also be translated “pretender”.  Jesus knew there were those self-righteous people who only pretended to honor God by making the rules their god.  In this story Jesus demonstrates that God is not a rule maker, but a life giver.  Jesus was not about what someone ought to do, but what someone could do because of God’s healing presence.  That is so important for us to remember…not only as individuals but for those of us who make up the Church.  Are we about making rules or giving life.  Someone the other day was quoting author and theologian Edward Hays who was asking what the nature of the Church should be.  He said, “Let us be temples, not courthouses.”   Sometimes our beliefs make us rigid.  Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. 

Jesus didn’t say to the woman, “What is the matter with you?  Get a grip.  Straighten up.”

He understood that life had been very difficult and painful and he wanted her to know more of life, to experience the healing, loving touch of God, to see from a larger perspective.  He said, “You are set free.” Is that not what God wants for all of us…to know how to stand up even in the midst of a life that often threatens to bind us, bend us and even break us? 

One of my heroines in this life is Maya Angelou.  Many of you probably know of her as well.  She is a beautiful Afro-American woman who is a poet and an author, a singer and a dancer and a composer of an opera.  She worked passionately alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. during the Civil Rights period.   But her early life was anything but promising. She grew up in a little town in Arkansas in the 1930’s in the height of racism, segregation and dire poverty.  As a young woman there was even a time that she worked as a prostitute in order to exist.  She knew what it was like to be beaten down by life but she also knew what could help her stand.  In her Memoir, Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now, she recalls the day when a great realization came to her.  She was twenty-four and thought of herself as very erudite and worldly and a teacher asked her to read from a little book called Lessons in Truth.  She was asked to read a section that ended with the words: “God loves me.”  She said, “I read the piece and closed the book, and the teacher said, ‘Read it again.’   “I pointedly opened the book and I sarcastically read, ‘God loves me.’  He said, ‘Again.’    “After about the seventh repetition I began to sense there might be some truth in the statement, that there was a possibility that God really did love me. Me, Maya Angelou.  I suddenly began to cry at the grandness of it all.  I knew that if God loved me, then I could do wonderful things, I could try great things, learn anything, achieve anything.  For what could stand against me with God, since one person, any person with God, constitutes the majority?” Another part of her memoir said this: “God loves me.  Each time I allow myself to say the words I am suffused with tears of gratitude and wonder.  And I am reestablished as a giving, living, full human being, with every right to everything right here on this earth.”  Isn’t that a wonderful example of a bent-over woman raised up by God’s love?  It is as if Maya Angelou heard Jesus say to her, “Maya, you are set free.”    “Chet, you are set free.”  “Martin, you are set free.”  “Cindy, you are set free.”

Those same words are intended for each one of us.  Can you hear him calling your name?

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