10th Sunday after Trinity 2022 St Andrew’s Milngavie
Dear All
Today we celebrated the tenth Sunday after Trinity. We welcomed Hugh to play. In Gordon’s absence I am choosing the hymns, please let me know if there are any particular hymns you would like to sing, I can include them as appropriate.
Gordon remains very much in our prayers.
Notices for this week:
Tuesday 10am Prayer Group in the Garden Room
Thursday 10am Said Eucharist followed by coffee in Friendship House
Looking ahead……… Saturday 17th September Cake walk with All Saints – more details to follow
Readings for next Sunday – Eleventh Sunday after Trinity Proverbs 25:6-7 Hebrews 13:1-8,15-16 Luke 14:1,7-14
Today’s Readings – Hebrews 12:18-29 Isaiah 58:9-14 Luke 13:10-17
“She was bent over and quite unable to stand up”
Being bent over and unable to stand up reminds me of the time I walked out of our hotel in Machrihanish. The wind was blowing so hard we were “bent over and quite unable to stand up” I am sure we all have our own examples of when walking upright is impossible, be it in a driving wet wind, suffering a debilitating back condition or similar ailment.
Metaphorically speaking when the burdens of anxiety, pain and stress become too much we can also be bent over and unable to stand up straight and face the challenges of life.
In the days when I used to do school assemblies, I enjoyed telling the children the miracle stories of Jesus. I explained to them that the miracles Jesus performed told us two main points about his character: one that he showed compassion and wanted to help people and two that through these miracles he displayed special powers that indicated he was the Son of God.
“Who is this man that even the winds and the waves obey him” the disciples cry at the calming of the storm. Mark 4:41
This morning we have just such an example as Jesus heals the crippled women. It is the classic miracle story. Jesus sees the women bent over and is moved with compassion. Immediately he lays hands on her and heals her. This action alone – the manifestation of his power to heal – speaks clearly of his divinity and so all around are amazed. But also interestingly, this short miracle story presents a picture of what may be called “the overflow ministry of Jesus”, in other words, acts of ministry Jesus performs as an aside rather than the main focus.
In the gospels there are many examples of this kind of “aside” ministry. For example, the account of the healing of the woman with haemorrhages. At the time Jesus was in the middle of another errand to raise Jairus’ daughter. Matthew 9:21
In the raising of the widow’s son Jesus was travelling across country when he met a funeral procession. He stops long enough in this journey to restore this boy to life.
Again, in the case of the woman of Samaria, when he is going about his ministry, he stops by the well to rest, and even in his resting moments engages in deep conversation with a woman and as a result she spreads the good news of Christ to an entire city.
Sometimes in our lives it is the spontaneous things we do, the unplanned visits and conversations which can bring us the most pleasure and fulfilment. It’s the small acts of kindness and odd words of encouragement which can transform and help others. The minutia of our lives is important because it forms the rock on which we build our souls. Jesus’ ministry was often focused in the detail.
In the gospel today the crippled woman was a daughter of Abraham. “And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be set free this bond on the Sabbath day?” Luke 13:16
In a sense we are all daughters of Abraham. And we are all bound in different complicated ways whether emotionally or physically or both. We don’t always know what binds people – even people close to us – we may not always know what binds ourselves sometimes.
The crippled woman was certainly bound by her physical condition, and we can only guess what mental suffering she endured as well. When Jesus entered the synagogue his eye saw her instantly, and he detected her difficulty even though she did not cry out to him or was brought to his attention. In the same way he is in the midst of us to-day, and while we might be unconscious of the bondage of those around us, he understands it perfectly. He knows our inner souls.
The woman in the story was powerless to help herself, no doubt she had tried again and again to lift herself up. In her disability she had been unable to turn her eyes upward to see the stars, her vision had been centred upon things below. In this way she is like many of us as we struggle in life focusing on earthly below things instead of looking up to the divine.
Christ’s word and his touch – that is all it took. Both privileges we may have as we receive the sacrament today: the bread and the wine reminding us of God’s love for us and his very presence with us.
So even in the minutia and detail of our lives he is with us restoring us to wholeness so that we may too stand up straight and praise and glorify God.