Luke writes, “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?”
Paul writes, “We are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.”
Do those two ideas seem to be totally unrelated? Last week my sermon title was, Jesus came to shake things up. And yet Paul tells us, “We are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
But the kingdom that cannot be shaken is the kingdom of God. The kingdom that is to be shaken up is the worldly kingdom. That’s the kingdom that not only can be shaken up, but must be shaken.
There is a common theme throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and that theme is not the fixed, cast in stone, judgmental relationship between God and Creation, but a flowing, developing and transforming relationship. The only thing that’s fixed in stone about God’s relationship with us is that it is a permanent relationship. It is, in a very real sense, a relationship that is unshakable.
God has in essence signed an irrevocable contract with humanity. That relationship is continuously tested by humanity’s consistent refusal to abide by the terms of the agreement. The author of Genesis says the beauty of the Garden God created was forever marred by the first man and the first woman doing the exact same thing our kids did when we were bringing them up: they refused to listen to their parent.
We think it’s fine for us to question everything, but not for our kids. When our kids act up we say, “Will you please, for once, listen to me!” And when they don’t and something goes wrong, we say, “See what happens when you don’t listen?”
As parents, we try to be a little like God for our kids. We want to put our kids on the right path. And we want to strike a little terror in their hearts when they don’t follow that path. “Don’t you dare defy your father!”
Then there’s the classic, “You can’t do that, because I SAID YOU CAN’T. I’M YOUR FATHER AND I DON’T NEED A REASON!” How many of us promised we would never say that to our kids, but then went right ahead and said it anyway. Then we said, “My goodness, I sound exactly like my own father!” And we don’t mean that in a good way.
Of course we act that way and say those things out of love. We want to protect our kids from themselves and the world. Can you imagine how much God agonizes over the freedom his Creation has been given. God has to be thinking, “Man, I wish they would stop doing those things!” Yet we persist. There are folks doing lethal amounts of drugs right now, there is war being waged right now. There are children who are terribly hungry right now: not just for food, but for love and kindness and hope. And not just thousands of miles away in some undeveloped nation, but right here in our community.
So tell me, what is it God wants from us?
Let’s look at what God has given to us: an unshakable promise to be with us, to love us and to offer us healing and forgiveness no matter how far astray we have gone.
Given that example, it would seem as though God asks us to keep the same promise. An unshakable promise to be with one another and to offer healing and forgiveness, no matter how shaken up by the world people manage to get.
Jesus gives the first century Jewish people an example they can relate to. Who wouldn’t, “Untie his ox or his donkey from the manger” on the sabbath, and, “Lead it away to give it water?”
An act of good will and charity to a beast of burden seems like a natural thing to do, even if it means working on the sacred sabbath. How much more important is the need to offer good will and charity to one another every day?
The people of the first century saw the woman Jesus healed in this story as a person who had been afflicted by a demon. They did not know that people were crippled by various diseases and physical ailments. They thought for eighteen years this woman had been possessed, most likely because of her sins. Perhaps God has allowed Satan to enter her body as a punishment.
It wasn’t a good thing to heal someone. This was sorcery. This was interfering with God’s will. To do it on the sabbath was a double evil.
Jesus said, “Nonesense.” It would be fine to lead a donkey to water on the sabbath, how could it possibly be wrong to free a woman whose body had been devastated for eighteen years?
This is not sorcery, or magic. This is God’s healing power. In first century terminology and understanding it is not the body that was healed, but the spirit. Any physician will tell you, however, that even with the most powerful drugs and machines and most advanced technologies, the most important part of the healing process is the spirit of the patient. That can make all the difference in the world.
The body can be ravaged. The body can even be killed. But the spirit that recognizes the presence of a living, healing God can never be destroyed.
God is offering us a kingdom which cannot be shaken. But we live in a world that is constantly trembling under the weight of it’s human masters. We as a group are laying waste to the earth, are wounding our fellow human beings, and are ignoring the path God has shown us and commanded us to follow.
And God lets us get away with it. God has promised to let us be free to foul things up to the best of our ability. God has also promised to be with us when we do the right thing and to lift us up, heal and restore us when we fall short.
We simply can’t follow God’s leadings without shaking up the status quo. The status quo falls very far short of the standards that have been set for us. We have to heal on the sabbath. We have to lead the beasts of burden to water. In case the parable isn’t clear, it means we need to help restore God’s creation by taking what the worldly kingdom sees as unworthy, recognize its value, and honor it. By giving proper honor to all of God’s works, we restore the people, the animals and the earth to its proper place of glory in God’s kingdom.
The false priorities of the world need to be shaken. Let them fall away. What will be left is the unshakable, the true and the righteous. The broken will be made whole, the oppressed will have dominion over the oppressor, and the sacred earth will be restored. We are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken.
PRAYER: Restoring and healing God, we seek the priorities of your kingdom. We acknowledge that we often put our own interests and the demands of the world ahead of the clear message you have revealed to us. There are many things we have failed to do to restore the beauty and vitality of your creation. We are not innocent bystanders but are each directly responsible for failing to do what must be done. Give us the strength and clearness of vision to put away the things that do damage to your creation, and to work tirelessly to restore your vision. You have kept your promise to be an abiding presence in the world, and you call upon us to keep our end of the bargain. May we be led in the path shown by the Christ, who followed your word and taught us to heal one another. AMEN.
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