Sunday, February 2, 2020

4th Epiphany 2020, Restoring

4th Epiphany
Luke 13: 10-17

Kenneth Dowdy
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
February 2, 2020
Luke 13: 10-17

Tissot
The woman in the Gospel could not stand upright. She was subject to the hardening imprisonment of the adversary. The effect of such imprisonment was likely painful misery, a sense of being severely hampered, forced to face earthward like an animal, cut off.

Jesus is in the synagogue teaching. It is the Sabbath, the day of rest, the day for remembering back to the human being’s divine origins. It is the day for remembering how God created human beings in His own image and likeness: radiant with light, bursting with life, exuding love.

Christ, the Creator, calls the woman to him. And she responds to his call. The power of his divine, creating Word releases her soul and spirit from the adversary’s dark might. Then Christ places his hands on her and creates her anew. She rises upright. The image of the original human being is restored in her. Once more, she is the picture of humanity: head in the stars, feet firmly planted on the earth, heart free.

But there are others there whose souls continue to be bound by Satan’s dark power. They indignantly chastise Him and all the others for doing work on the Sabbath instead of resting and remembering. How ironic that for them, remembering how human beings once were, seems more important than re-creating, restoring the human being in front of them.

And Christ’s response once again overcomes the dark power that works, not only in human bodies but also in human souls. For love and goodwill, like water, like sunshine, will flow outward wherever needed. To stop Christ’s will is to darken the sun, to dam up the life-giving waters.

The results of Christ’s admonishment are shame and joy. Shame for what we recognize in ourselves. Joy in recognizing the healing warmth of the Christ-Sun. And hope—the hope of healing for all humankind

As Denise Levertov says:

It’s when we face for a moment
The worst our kind can do, and shudder to know
The taint in our own selves, that awe
Cracks the mind’s shell and enters the heart:
Not to a flower, not to a dolphin,
To no innocent form
But to this creature vainly sure
It and no other is god-like, God
(out of compassion for our ugly
failure to evolve) entrusts,
As guest, as brother,
The word.*

* “On the Mystery of the Incarnation”, in The Stream and the Sapphire, by Denise Levertov, p. 19



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