Monday, February 3, 2014

4th Epiphany 2012, Restoration

Kenneth Dowdy
4th Epiphany
Luke 13: 10-17

Once he was teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit weakening her for eighteen years: she was bent over and could not stand upright [lift her head all the way up]. When Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said to her, “Woman, you are released from your illness!”

He laid his hands upon her, and at once she was able to straighten up. And she praised the power of God. Then the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days for doing work; on those days you can come and let yourselves be healed—but not on the Sabbath.”

But the Lord replied, “You hypocrites! Does not every one of you untie his ox or his ass from the manger on the Sabbath and lead it away to the water trough? But this daughter of Abraham, who was held bound by the dark might of Satan for eighteen years, wasn’t supposed to be released from her bondage on the day of the Sabbath?”

All his opponents were put to shame by these words, and the people rejoiced over all the signs of spiritual power that happened through him.

4th Epiphany

January 29, 2012
Luke 13:10-17

When a plant doesn’t get enough water, it wilts. Give it water and shortly it is upright again.

Sometimes we too are parched. We don’t have enough life force to counter the forces of droop. It may be that we are tired, or ill. But if enough life force is restored, we can upright ourselves again.

Some of the restoration we can do ourselves—through food and water, through sleep, through medicine. It is our responsibility to do what we can. But the true source of the Water of Life is Christ. Even today.

That is why we come to communion—to restore the level of life force in the world. We can do so not only for ourselves, but also for others. For it is possible to forward to others the strength and blessings of communion with Christ. It is possible to form the intention to send His healing and the peace of His touch into the world.

As Wendell Berry says:

As timely as a river
God's timeless life passes
Into this world. It passes
Through bodies, giving life,
….
The secret fish leaps up
Into the light and is
Again darkened. The sun
Comes from the dark, it lights
The always passing river,
Shines on the great-branched tree,
And goes. Longing and dark,
We are completely filled
With breath of love, in us
Forever incomplete.[1]







[1] Wendell Berry, poem III, in Given

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