"God our Chiropractor"
A sermon preached on The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, August 26, 2007 at Edgemont Chrsitian Church (Disciples of Christ) , by the Rev. Christopher E. Yopp. The sermon is based on Luke 12:10-17.
It is said that about eighty-percent of the population will at some point in their lives experience a bout with severe back pain. In fact it is the most common cause of work-related disabilities and the second-most common cause of doctor visits behind the cold and flu. It cost the economy billions of dollars and, not to mention, puts a burden on the livelihood of millions of people. Probably most of us here have experience, at one time or another, some form of back pain - whether it be from a pulled back, a slipped or ruptured disk, sciatic nerve, arthritis or osteoporosis; and most of us know how debilitating and crippling such back pain can be.
And so, many of us can both relate and sympathize with the woman in our Gospel Lesson this morning. We are told that her back pain was so severe that it left her crippled to the point that she could not stand up straight. The pain must have been almost unbearable. What a tremendous burden this must have been on her - weighing her down, ruining her life for eighteen years. And not only would this have been debilitating and crippling physically, but also emotionally and spiritually. In fact, the Greek word, astheneia is used to describe her condition. Astheneia stresses both the physical, as well as the mental or emotional strain this would have had on her. Her condition would have been a source of shame, robbing her of her human dignity. But as the woman encountered Jesus - the Great Chiropractor, in our Gospel Lesson this morning, she was set free of this great burden that weighed her down. Jesus enabled her to stand up straight, both physically and emotionally. Jesus restored her dignity as a woman - a daughter of Abraham and a child of God. Jesus brought both healing and wholeness to this woman’s life.
As a pastor, I have often encountered people who have shared with me their story of defeat and told me how for years they have carried burdens on their backs that have weighed them down emotionally, spiritually, and ultimately physically. Guilt over real or perceived sin, defeat, poor self-esteem and self-image, self-hatred, loneliness, anger, abuse and the list goes on and on; but how comforting and assuring it is to know that God - the Great Chiropractor wants to take our yoke from us, God wants to heal us, to set us free from such things. God doesn’t just want to alleviate these things from our lives, God wants to bring healing and wholeness to our lives.
I like the story that is told of the two guys and the union worker, all of whom suffered from severe back pain, and they were out fishing one day on the lake. They began to compare and contrast their pain with each other. "Oh, you have no idea how bad my back is..." one of the men said." Mine is obviously worst than both of yall’s..." another said. "Oh, neither of you know what back pain is, unless you’ve walked in my shoes," said the third man. All of a sudden, Jesus walked across the water and joined the men in the boat. When the three astonished men had settled down enough to speak, the first guy asked Jesus humbly; "Lord, I've suffered from back pain ever since I took shrapnel in the Vietnam war, could you please help me?" "Of course, my child," Jesus said, and when he touched the man’s back, he felt instant relief for the first time in years. The second man spoke up and said; "Master, I too experience severe back pain from an injury that I suffered in an automobile accident, could you please cure my back pain." Jesus smiled, touched the man’s back and, once again, instant relief came to the man. Jesus turned to heal the union worker, and the guy put his hands up and cried defensively; "Don’t touch me, Jesus, don’t touch me - I’m on long term disability." Some of us just are not ready to lay our burdens down - to give them to God and experience God’s healing and wholeness.
Walter Wink, in his book Engaging the Powers, suggests that Jesus’ healing of this woman is a revolution. In this short story, Jesus tries to wake people up to the kind of life God wants for them. He often talks about the Kingdom of God where everyone is a child of God and has value. But in the latter part of his ministry, Jesus begins to act this out. In the midst of a highly patriarchal society and culture Jesus breaks at least six strict cultural rules within these 7 verses:
And so, many of us can both relate and sympathize with the woman in our Gospel Lesson this morning. We are told that her back pain was so severe that it left her crippled to the point that she could not stand up straight. The pain must have been almost unbearable. What a tremendous burden this must have been on her - weighing her down, ruining her life for eighteen years. And not only would this have been debilitating and crippling physically, but also emotionally and spiritually. In fact, the Greek word, astheneia is used to describe her condition. Astheneia stresses both the physical, as well as the mental or emotional strain this would have had on her. Her condition would have been a source of shame, robbing her of her human dignity. But as the woman encountered Jesus - the Great Chiropractor, in our Gospel Lesson this morning, she was set free of this great burden that weighed her down. Jesus enabled her to stand up straight, both physically and emotionally. Jesus restored her dignity as a woman - a daughter of Abraham and a child of God. Jesus brought both healing and wholeness to this woman’s life.
As a pastor, I have often encountered people who have shared with me their story of defeat and told me how for years they have carried burdens on their backs that have weighed them down emotionally, spiritually, and ultimately physically. Guilt over real or perceived sin, defeat, poor self-esteem and self-image, self-hatred, loneliness, anger, abuse and the list goes on and on; but how comforting and assuring it is to know that God - the Great Chiropractor wants to take our yoke from us, God wants to heal us, to set us free from such things. God doesn’t just want to alleviate these things from our lives, God wants to bring healing and wholeness to our lives.
I like the story that is told of the two guys and the union worker, all of whom suffered from severe back pain, and they were out fishing one day on the lake. They began to compare and contrast their pain with each other. "Oh, you have no idea how bad my back is..." one of the men said." Mine is obviously worst than both of yall’s..." another said. "Oh, neither of you know what back pain is, unless you’ve walked in my shoes," said the third man. All of a sudden, Jesus walked across the water and joined the men in the boat. When the three astonished men had settled down enough to speak, the first guy asked Jesus humbly; "Lord, I've suffered from back pain ever since I took shrapnel in the Vietnam war, could you please help me?" "Of course, my child," Jesus said, and when he touched the man’s back, he felt instant relief for the first time in years. The second man spoke up and said; "Master, I too experience severe back pain from an injury that I suffered in an automobile accident, could you please cure my back pain." Jesus smiled, touched the man’s back and, once again, instant relief came to the man. Jesus turned to heal the union worker, and the guy put his hands up and cried defensively; "Don’t touch me, Jesus, don’t touch me - I’m on long term disability." Some of us just are not ready to lay our burdens down - to give them to God and experience God’s healing and wholeness.
Walter Wink, in his book Engaging the Powers, suggests that Jesus’ healing of this woman is a revolution. In this short story, Jesus tries to wake people up to the kind of life God wants for them. He often talks about the Kingdom of God where everyone is a child of God and has value. But in the latter part of his ministry, Jesus begins to act this out. In the midst of a highly patriarchal society and culture Jesus breaks at least six strict cultural rules within these 7 verses:
1. First of all, Jesus speaks to the woman. In biblical times, Jewish men did not speak to women in public.
2. Secondly, he calls her to the center of the synagogue. By placing her geographically in the middle of the synagogue, Jesus challenges the notion of a male monopoly on access to knowledge and to God.
3. Thirdly, he touches her, which revokes the holiness code. That is the code which protected men from a woman’s uncleanliness and from her sinful seductiveness.
4. Fourthly, he calls her a "daughter of Abraham," a term not found in any of the prior Jewish literature. This is revolutionary because it was believed that women were saved through their men. To call her a daughter of Abraham is to make her a full-fledged member of the nation of Israel with equal standing before God.
5. Fifthly, he heals on the Sabbath - the holy day. And in doing so he demonstrates God’s compassion for people over ceremony - reclaiming the Sabbath for the celebration of God’s liberal goodness. And he reminds us that in God we find the true sabbath - true rest and true wholeness.
6. And finally, he challenges the ancient belief that her illness is a direct punishment from God for sin. He asserts that she is ill, not because God willed it, but because there is evil in the world. Jesus challenges, both here in this story and in the opening verses of chapter 13, the ancient Jewish philosophy that sin and suffering were connected - that if suffering was your lot it was because of something bad you did.
In that great Christian classic, Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan tells the story of a man who had a great burden on his back - a burden that threatened to sink him lower than the grave. The man sets off on a journey in search of a way to rid himself of the great burden that weighs him down. In the course of his journey the man comes upon a cross on a hill. Only after he runs up the hill with the burden on his back and sees the one hanging on a tree does the burden fall from his back and roll down the hill into an empty tomb, where it is seen no more. As the old hymn affirms; "Burdens are lifted at Calvary..."
Jesus is the one who came to give life and to set people free. He is the great Liberator who extends God’s grace to all, especially to the weak, the oppressed and the marginalized. Through Jesus, we experience more fully the God of love and grace, healing and wholeness.
I want to close with a parable that is told of a man who went into the forest seeking any bird of interest he might find. He caught a young eagle, brought it home and put it among the chickens. He gave it chicken food to eat and raised it as a chicken even though it was an eagle. Five years later, a naturalist came to see him and, after passing through the garden, said "That bird is an eagle, not a chicken." "Yes," said the owner, "but I have trained it to be a chicken. It is no longer an eagle. It may look like an eagle, but it has the heart and mind of a chicken." "No," said the naturalist, "it is an eagle and will always be an eagle. It has the heart of an eagle, and I will help it soar high up into the heavens." "No," said the owner, "it is a chicken and it will never fly." And so, they agreed to put their theories to the test. The naturalist picked up the eagle, held it up high over his head and said with great intensity. "Eagle thou art an eagle; thou dost belong to the sky and not to this earth; stretch forth thy wings and fly." The eagle turned this way and that, and then looking down, saw the chickens eating their food, and down he jumped. The owner said; "I told you it was a chicken." "No," said the naturalist, "it is an eagle. Give me another chance tomorrow." And so, the next day he took it to the top of the house and lifting the eagle overhead he said; "Eagle, thou art an eagle; stretch forth thy wings and fly." But again the eagle, seeing the chickens feeding, jumped down and fed with them. Once again, the owner said; "I told you so!" The naturalist said; "Just give me one more chance." And so the next morning he rose early and took the eagle outside the city and away from the houses, to the foot of a high mountain. The sun was just rising over the mountains. He picked up the eagle and faced it toward the sun and said: "Eagle, thou art an eagle; thou dost belong to the sky and not to the earth; stretch forth thy wings and fly." The eagle looked around and trembled as if new life were coming to it and suddenly it stretched out its wings and, with the screech of an eagle, it mounted higher and higher and never returned. Though it had been kept and tamed as a chicken, it was an eagle.
Society has a way dehumanizing us sometimes - of causing us to fail to see our true worth before God - of making us little more than objects to whom advertisers make their pitch, and about whom governments create statistics and form policies to keep everything safe and predictable. And religion without vision has a tendency to do this, as well; reducing us to the status of law keepers or law breakers, classifying us according to what we believe or do not believe and categorizing us according to the way in which we conform or do not conform to the expectations of the church or denomination in which we happen to find ourselves. But it is in Christ that we are sons and daughters of God. Like the woman in our Gospel Lesson this morning, once we were weighed down by sin, crippled, debilitated, unable to fly - but then we met Jesus - the Great Chiropractor who brought us healing, wholeness and new life. Therefore, let us stretch forth our wings and fly!
Jesus is the one who came to give life and to set people free. He is the great Liberator who extends God’s grace to all, especially to the weak, the oppressed and the marginalized. Through Jesus, we experience more fully the God of love and grace, healing and wholeness.
I want to close with a parable that is told of a man who went into the forest seeking any bird of interest he might find. He caught a young eagle, brought it home and put it among the chickens. He gave it chicken food to eat and raised it as a chicken even though it was an eagle. Five years later, a naturalist came to see him and, after passing through the garden, said "That bird is an eagle, not a chicken." "Yes," said the owner, "but I have trained it to be a chicken. It is no longer an eagle. It may look like an eagle, but it has the heart and mind of a chicken." "No," said the naturalist, "it is an eagle and will always be an eagle. It has the heart of an eagle, and I will help it soar high up into the heavens." "No," said the owner, "it is a chicken and it will never fly." And so, they agreed to put their theories to the test. The naturalist picked up the eagle, held it up high over his head and said with great intensity. "Eagle thou art an eagle; thou dost belong to the sky and not to this earth; stretch forth thy wings and fly." The eagle turned this way and that, and then looking down, saw the chickens eating their food, and down he jumped. The owner said; "I told you it was a chicken." "No," said the naturalist, "it is an eagle. Give me another chance tomorrow." And so, the next day he took it to the top of the house and lifting the eagle overhead he said; "Eagle, thou art an eagle; stretch forth thy wings and fly." But again the eagle, seeing the chickens feeding, jumped down and fed with them. Once again, the owner said; "I told you so!" The naturalist said; "Just give me one more chance." And so the next morning he rose early and took the eagle outside the city and away from the houses, to the foot of a high mountain. The sun was just rising over the mountains. He picked up the eagle and faced it toward the sun and said: "Eagle, thou art an eagle; thou dost belong to the sky and not to the earth; stretch forth thy wings and fly." The eagle looked around and trembled as if new life were coming to it and suddenly it stretched out its wings and, with the screech of an eagle, it mounted higher and higher and never returned. Though it had been kept and tamed as a chicken, it was an eagle.
Society has a way dehumanizing us sometimes - of causing us to fail to see our true worth before God - of making us little more than objects to whom advertisers make their pitch, and about whom governments create statistics and form policies to keep everything safe and predictable. And religion without vision has a tendency to do this, as well; reducing us to the status of law keepers or law breakers, classifying us according to what we believe or do not believe and categorizing us according to the way in which we conform or do not conform to the expectations of the church or denomination in which we happen to find ourselves. But it is in Christ that we are sons and daughters of God. Like the woman in our Gospel Lesson this morning, once we were weighed down by sin, crippled, debilitated, unable to fly - but then we met Jesus - the Great Chiropractor who brought us healing, wholeness and new life. Therefore, let us stretch forth our wings and fly!
posted by Pastor Christopher @ 11:09 AM
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