Broadway Christian Church · Columbia, Missouri

The Worship of God · August 22, 2010

Litany of Praise

Based on Psalm 71

We take refuge in you, O Lord.

      Deliver us through your righteousness. Hear us and save us.

Rescue all those abused by the intentions of the wicked, the unjust and cruel.

      We have leaned upon you from our births; our praise is continually of you.

Let us pray:

      To whom else shall we turn, Lord of our lives?

      We place our lives in your tender care. Amen.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,

World without end. Amen. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer

Jacob Thorne

Our hearts our restless, until they rest in you, O God. This day, we come into your presence seeking your touch of peace. 

As we begin yet another school year, we pray a special blessing for our students, our teachers, and our school administrators. We give thanks for the gift of summertime and the start of fall. We know that you are the one who orchestrates our lives. As we move through life, we are thankful that you move with us. 

Today, and every day, we pray that you will open our eyes and the depths of our hearts in order that we may see you more clearly. In the gentle touch of the sunlight and the mighty roar of the thunder, remind us that you are the Creator of all that we are and all that we have. 

We give thanks for your grace, for you are aware of both our sorrows and our joys. You hold us to our worse, and yet you push us toward our best. We give thanks for your love that creates and re-creates, bringing fresh possibilities and new experiences each day.

Hear us now as we say together the prayer your Son taught us…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: for thine is the kingdom, the power, and glory, forever. Amen.

New Testament Lesson

Luke 13:10-17

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And 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. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But 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.”  But 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? 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?” When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things he was doing.

Message

Breaking the Rules To Do the Right Thing

Jacob Thorne

My mother’s mother was full of life. When we would come to visit Columbia, even in her old age into her 80s, she was always up for an aggressive game of basketball. She was one of the fiercest Scrabble players I had ever met. Even if you were a child, she wouldn’t let you win in Checkers. It was always, “King me. King me. King me!”

At some point, she became a bit of a health nut. Every day, she would take long walks that would last for hours. If the weather weren’t good enough outside, she would fill up the bathtub with ice cubes. (I don’t know why.) She would walk in the tub for hours. (Does anybody know why she would do that? I asked my mother, and she didn’t know.)

For most of her meals, she ate organic turkey, steamed squash, and organic peanut butter. She was eccentric. She was a journalist, a published author, and a very competitive tennis player. 

When she married my grandfather, they had quite an adventure. At one point in time, Sam Walton worked for my grandfather. He came over to their house one night, and Sam Walton asked my grandfather to join him in a new business idea that he had – something about starting a line of stores called Wal-Mart. My grandfather said it sounded way too risky. (You can actually read about that story in Sam Walton’s biography.)

However, as my grandmother grew older, she began to succumb to the challenges of both osteoporosis and a little bit of dementia. Her spine began to curve. When she walked, you could tell she was just a little bit bent over. It wasn’t too bad, but it was enough to notice. 

Eventually, the walks became a concern. She would get very far from home. Then she wouldn’t remember where she lived. Several times, my family was awed by the generosity of both neighbors and strangers who would stop, ask if there was a problem, and then help my grandmother find her way back to her house.

One time, out for a walk, at the very beginning of the walk, she fell in the garage. She knew immediately she had broken a hip. This is the kind of person she was: it didn’t really trouble her. She just figured that the day would move along, and somebody would eventually find her. Sure enough, late in the evening, a young man, delivering the Tribune, noticed her, helped her, and called the ambulance. I don’t know what would have happened if that young man hadn’t stopped to help.

As I was preparing for today, I couldn’t help but think of my grandmother, for the woman in the story from our Scripture reading this morning was also in need of help. In the Scripture reading, Jesus has been invited to the synagogue as a guest preacher. Now, everyone knows that it is very dangerous to invite a guest preacher to your church. Guest preachers have this huge advantage. They can say or do anything they want, because they know that when Monday morning rolls around, they will not be answering the telephone. So, in this sense, Jesus doesn’t disappoint at all. 

Jesus shows up at the synagogue on the Sabbath, a holy day. It is a day of rest and worship. The two were intertwined, and nothing else was supposed to interrupt. As soon as he begins to preach, Jesus sees a woman who was bent over. He looked at her. He noticed her. (This is where I think of my grandmother.) When Jesus sees her, he can’t help but stop what he is doing and places his hands upon her. He says to her, “You are healed.”

Immediately, she stands up straight. The crowd is both astonished and upset. This woman was a common person. Luke doesn’t even bother to tell us her name. We know that, for 18 years, she had some sort of ailment that caused her not to be able to stand up straight. Think of what it must be like to walk bent over. You could never see ahead of you. You could never see behind you. No one would ever make eye contact with you. The reader is left to assume that, for 18 years, no one paid any attention to her. 

But this guest preacher walks right in, starts preaching, sees her, and heals her on the day of the Sabbath. To perform a miracle on the Sabbath day would have broken every rule of the Jewish tradition. The leader of the synagogue – the rabbi – is so upset at what has taken place that he begins to chastise Jesus right in the middle of worship. But Jesus responds by saying, “Don’t be a hypocrite. This woman was hurting, and she needed to be set free.”

As far as Jesus is concerned, even in the middle of a sermon, our lives can be interrupted to reach out to help somebody else. All too often, our lives are so busy we refuse to be interrupted.

Several years ago, there was a study done at Princeton Theological Seminary. The students were asked to participate by giving a lecture on the other side of the campus. These are the up-and-coming ministers. They go into a classroom, and the professor hands them a sheet of paper. On the paper is the parable of the Good Samaritan, a very familiar parable, in which we are called to help other people. The seminary professor said to the students, “Take a moment to look at this parable. Studying it very closely. Think about how this parable relates to your life and how it relates to other people in your life. When you are done, hand the sheet of paper back. We want to see how you can speak without any notes. It is a way for us to see how you can speak extemporaneously. 

The students handed in the parable, but there was one catch to the assignment. After turning the parable back, some of the students were told they had only a very short time – in fact, they were late – before giving their lecture. They needed to hurry across campus. Other students were told to take their time. They had plenty of time and not to worry when they got there.

As they walked across campus, each student came across a person who was slumped in a doorway. This represented the sick person. The sick person had his head down and his eyes closed. As the seminary students walked by, the sick person coughed twice. If the seminary student stopped to ask about their problem, the ill person would say, “Oh, don’t worry about it. I have a bad respiratory condition. My doctor has given me some medicine. I will be OK.”

If the student persisted in helping, the sick person would allow the student to help him inside.

Now, can you guess what happened? Without fail, almost 100% of those seminary students who were in a hurry failed to notice the sick person right in the doorway. In fact, when asked about it, either consciously or subconsciously, they couldn’t even remember seeing the sick person.

The exact opposite was true for those who had a little bit of extra time. For those students with a bit of time, almost all of them noticed the sick person, and most of them helped the sick person back inside.

Perhaps the same is true for us. Do we ever have a little bit of extra time to reach out and to help those who are in need?

Another way to illustrate our Scripture story this morning is to share a story that has been told before. It’s a familiar story, but it is worth telling again. 

 

In 1862, Victor Hugo wrote Les Miserables. In French, Les Miserables refers to the miserable one, the pitiful, the poor, the wretched, the outcast, those who surrounded the countryside and the cities during the time of Victor Hugo. The purpose of this book, for those who were willing to read the entire 1,500 pages, was to challenge the readers to act differently – to show acts of mercy and kindness and compassion – to look after the sick people. 

Millions of people read Hugo’s novel. In fact, he became a national hero. At the time of his death, three-million people attended his funeral. His books have been translated into film and musical productions 49 times. Since it opened in 1980, in Paris, France, Les Miz has been the most successful musical.

Now the musical will grip your soul. The music is powerful and strong. When you listen to the story, it becomes clear that it is not just a story from 1862. It is also a story that is more 2,000 years old. It is a story of redemption, of grace, of salvation.

The novel begins in 1795, which was the year of the French Revolution. The main protagonist, Jean Valjean, was the sole breadwinner in his house. He held a variety of jobs – a little bit of everything. Eventually, the economy became so bad that all of his jobs ceased to exist. His family, which included seven children, was literally starving. One night, Jean Valjean did something that he had never done before. He became a common criminal. He broke into a bakery and stole a loaf of bread to feed his family.

On the way back home to his family, however, he was caught. He was arrested, and for stealing a loaf of bread during this time, he was sent to prison to work in a rock quarry. Several times, while in prison, he tried to escape, but each time he did, he was caught. Each time he was caught, more time was added to his sentence. Eventually, he spent 19 years in prison for stealing one loaf of bread.

When he got out of prison, he is handed a set of papers. These papers identify him as an ex-convict. Very quickly, he realizes that he really isn’t free, because nobody wants to help an ex-convict. Nobody wants to give him a place to stay or a meal to share. He wanders around lost. Somebody finally tells him, “You can go to the church, and the bishop will help you.”

He enters the church, and the bishop warmly welcomes him and gives him a meal to eat – some soup and some bread – and a place to stay the night. He goes upstairs ready to go to bed, but Jean Valjean’s mind keeps racing. He realizes what a bad situation he is in. So, he sneaks back downstairs. He takes all of the silver; he steals it all. He is ready to walk out the door, but just when he is ready to leave, the bishop shows up. Jean Valjean strikes the bishop, and the bishop falls down. Jean Valjean runs away.

He doesn’t get very far, though. The next morning, he is caught, and the police bring him back to the bishop. The police say to the bishop, “This man says that you gave him this silver.”

The bishop looks at Jean Valjean. You can tell that he has been hit the night before. He looks right at Jean Valjean, and he says to him, “You forgot the candlesticks. It is true.”

The police leave. The bishop turns to Jean Valjean and says to him, “I have ransomed you, so that you might be a good man.”

The bishop puts people before the rules. Do you hear the story of the gospel here?

Eventually, Jean Valjean reinvents himself. He takes on a new name and a new persona. Over time, he rebuilds his character; he becomes a successful businessman. He opens hospitals and orphanages. He gives money to the poor. He even becomes mayor of the town where he lives. 

But, at one point in the novel, Valjean recognizes that he has become too busy. One of his workers, Fantine, is forced to quit her job. She is forced to go into prostitution. She even cuts off all of her hair in order to try to sell it to make some money, so she could support her daughter. When Fantine sees Valjean, she blames him for the situation she is in. Valjean says to her, “I didn’t know. I was preoccupied. I’m sorry.”

Then he looks at her. He really looks at her. He sees her value as a human being.

Do you hear the story of the gospel here?

Throughout all of this, however, there is a police officer continually casing Valjean. He knows Valjean’s true identity. Despite all of the good works, the good deeds, the lives he has saved; the police officer, Inspector Javert, believes Valjean should be arrested and put back into prison.

You see, Javert believed that people couldn’t change. He refused to see people for who they really are. Javert will always put rules, and traditions, and custom before people.

In the same way, the leader of the synagogue where Jesus was preaching refused to see people for their true identity. For 18 years, the woman who was bent over had suffered. When she is healed, the leader of the synagogue, instead of celebrating, condemns Jesus for breaking the Sabbath law.

Which person in these stories do we relate to? Do we see those with whom we do not even make eye contact? Are we too busy with our schedules even to hear people cry for help? Are we willing to cross boundaries in order to help others? Do we… Do we? Do we believe that people can change? Would we really help the un-named and the criminal? Would we know? Would we see the need? Would we know the right action? Would we be too hurried? Or would we break the rules, break a habit, break a schedule, break a false conviction, and do the right thing?

Do we hear the gospel?

Through Christ, we say together… “Amen.”

Benediction

As you go forth today, may God keep you. May God’s faithfulness walk with you. And may you know the love of God through one another. Amen.