Opening Verse of Scripture

Ps 111 v 4a, 5b, 7-8

The Lord is gracious and compassionate; He is ever mindful of His covenant.  His handiwork is truth and justice; all His precepts are enduring well founded for all eternity. 

Psalm 71:3

Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. 

Collect Prayer for the Day—Before we read we pray

Let your merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of your humble servants; and that they may obtain their petitions make them to ask such things as shall please you; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,

who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. CW

Lord of heaven and earth, as Jesus taught his disciples to be persistent in prayer, give us patience and courage never to lose hope, but always to bring our prayers before you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. CW

First Bible Reading  Jeremiah 1.4–10

Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.’ Then I said, ‘Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.’ But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not say, “I am only a boy”; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.’ Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, ‘Now I have put my words in your mouth.  See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.’

Second Reading Hebrews 12:18-29 

You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them. (For they could not endure the order that was given, ‘If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death.’ Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, ‘I tremble with fear.‘) But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking; for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven! At that time his voice shook the earth; but now he has promised, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.’ This phrase, ‘Yet once more,‘ indicates the removal of what is shaken – that is, created things – so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire

Gospel Reading 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 that he was doing. 

Post Communion Prayer

God of our pilgrimage, you have willed that the gate of mercy should stand open for those who trust in you: look upon us with your favour that we who follow the path of your will may never wander from the way of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. CW

Commentary

The synagogue ruler, who is outraged at the actions of Jesus, was not so much concerned with what Jesus had done, that He had healed the woman, but more when He had done it.  He had done it at the wrong time, on the Sabbath.  Not surprisingly his outburst provokes a reaction from Jesus who points to the hypocrisy of the religious leaders who would routinely sanction “breaking the Sabbath” for the benefit of one of their animals, but seem to take exception to Jesus doing the same for a fellow human being.  They would have no problem in freeing their donkeys on the Sabbath and letting them drink, but are resistant to Jesus freeing a woman from years of her own bondage.  Their compassion and adherence to the law seems to be selective, self-centred, and hypocritical. 

Jesus challenges the synagogue ruler and those around him to think about what their faith was all about.  Was it really about observing the plethora of rules and regulations which had grown up around the Torah governing all aspects of Jewish life and worship, or was it about obeying the principles of the Torah itself?  The synagogue ruler was likely to have been a devout Jew, someone who had a good understanding of the law and probably rest of the Jewish scriptures too.  His problem was not about a lack of knowledge, it was about a lack of understanding of how to apply the knowledge he knew so well.  In challenging him, Jesus uses the orthodox form of reasoning which was used to develop many of the precepts guiding the Jewish way of life.  He uses an example of something which would be acceptable on the Sabbath and extends and applies the principle in a related manner.  It would be inconceivable that something that would be acceptable for an animal, to be set free on a Sabbath, would not be acceptable for a human, of whatever status.  His argument is irrefutable.   

In the book of Hebrews the Christian life is presented in the context of a story which is fundamental to Judaism, the Exodus and the importance of faith from the Red Sea encounter forwards but also encourages believers to life their eyes and see the bigger context of faith and a relationship with God that Jesus inaugurates.  For the writer of Hebrews, everything about this new faith is infinitely better than the old.  The destination is not the promised land of Israel but the promised land of the heaven Jerusalem.  Jesus is presented as being superior of the angels, to Moses, to Joshua and of a higher priesthood of Aaron, that of Melchizedek.  The worship and sacrifice of the Aaronic and Levitical Priesthood of the Old Covenant has been superseded by the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus.  The Passover of the Jews has become the Passover of Christ.  The exodus and the way to the Promised Land of the heavenly Jerusalem is guided not by Moses but by Christ as an incomparably superior leader.  The letter therefore shows how the early Christians understood the harmony between the Old and New Testaments and how they understood the redemptive work of Jesus in terms of God’s whole plan of salvation.  Because of this, combined with the instructions it contains regarding the central points of Christian faith, it make Hebrews one of the most important books of the New Testament.  Like the Synagogue ruler in the gospel reading, the Hebrews needed a fundamental change to the way in which they viewed, and experienced religion.  Up to now the Jewish faith had been a very sensual faith with elements that could easily be touched and felt.  For the Jews this sensual element was an important and essential component.  They experienced their faith, at least in part through these rituals.  The sacrifices, the incense, the priests entering into the Holy of Holies, the blood of the sacrifice, the wearing of prayer shawls (Tallit) and phylacteries, the re-enactment of the exodus each year and so on were central to expressing their faith.  But now the focus was not so much on the sensual but the spiritual, the relationship with the creator God through His Son Jesus Christ.  And in some ways, although that made the faith of the new Christians more personal and dynamic, it did make it harder to express. At the very least they needed to add a spiritual dimension to their sensual one.  Focus on the core of their belief rather than the trappings which surrounded it.  Focus on Christ and their relationship through Him with God rather than the law and its observance.  And in so doing, God was able to transform their faith into something better than they ever imagined and give their life and worship new meaning.  The law, with which the Jews were so familiar, was only a means to an end, not an end in itself.  Over the years they lost sight of that reality. And whilst we may smile at the Jews and their somewhat slavish adherence to the law it’s very easy for us to fall into the same trap.  We can do the same, when the structures of our religion become the end in themselves not the means to an end, a deeper and more spiritual walk with God. We can get carried away with the material things that surround our faith, our churches, our organisations our structures, forgetting that at its core our faith is centred on having a spiritual relationship with God.  We end us settling for second best, a faith that is based almost solely on ritual and a cerebral understanding of the knowledge that gives it rational meaning.  God wants our relationship with Him to deepen day by day.  To be dynamic and real.  To be based on us being open to Him to touch and transform our lives as we expose more of them to Him.  To become more Christ like day by day.  Structures such as church services can have an important role to play as they help us understand more about Jesus and help us worship Him together.  Our church structures, the forms of worship we use, following the cycles of the Christian year are all part of the way in which we open ourselves to God.  In our worship we meet to, to ask his forgiveness of our sins, to hear and receive his holy word, to offer Him praise and thanksgiving, words we use week by week in our services.  Opening ourselves to be more Christ centred and less self-centred, giving everything that we do meaning and purpose.  Hence the old hymn writer writing ‘We have a purpose to fulfil’.  Without that the rituals themselves just become increasingly empty and meaningless, just as they were doing for the Synagogue leader and the Hebrews.  Hebrews, perhaps more than any other book in the bible reminds us of the importance of our spiritual heritage.  It also reminds us too that our faith needs to be firmly fixed on our spiritual relationship with God through His ultimate sacrifice of His Son Jesus.  As we focus on Christ, our faith, our worship and our lives themselves becomes ones which take all of our life and experiences (of worship and more) to date, just as it did for the Hebrews, builds on them to turn them into something better than we ever imagined.  Slowly the Hebrew Christians got the message.  Their faith moved from the ritualistic faith of the Old Testament to the dynamic and living faith of the New.  Life empowered by their dynamic faith, became much better than they ever imagined.

Understanding the meaning of scripture and living out its reality are two sides of the same coin. To live out the reality of scripture we do need to understand its meaning.  Jesus is not saying we should not spend time understanding what scripture (both the Old and the New Testaments) has to say to us and how it should guide our lives, but that studying the scripture and applying it in our lives should go hand in hand.  Living out our faith is about experiencing the living God in our lives, becoming more Christ like through the power of the Holy Spirit.  It’s not an academic exercise in biblical or doctrinal knowledge which can occur in isolation from the spiritual dimension of our lives.  As the woman in the gospel reading was to find out, it’s only when we experience the reality of God’s words in action that we are set free from whatever would keep us bound.   Ultimately, how we experience God and let Him touch our lives, how we respond to His active word and prompting, is far more important than how much we know about Him and the details of His organisation. 

Sam Cappleman

Meditation

 In Luke 13, our New Testament reading, Jesus calls the crippled woman over to Him.  He speaks to her and puts His hands on her and she is healed.  As a response she praises God.  But Jesus’ actions on the Sabbath infuriate the synagogue ruler.  There is no indication that the woman specifically came to the Synagogue to be healed.  If anything, it would appear she is known to the Synagogue ruler and worshippers, perhaps having been a regular member for years.  A stark reminder that sometimes the people with which God asks us to share His compassion are closer to us than we think.  A challenge for us to see the world and those in need through the eyes of faith and love, rather than just the perspective of religion.  Each day, and perhaps especially in our Sunday worship, our words and actions should be a reflection of God’s love in our daily lives and the compassion we have for the world and others around us in response to that love. 

Sam Cappleman

Additional Material

In Victor Hugo' s memorable novel the "Hunchback of Notre Dame," he uses an interesting literary technique. The reader is allowed to see the basic decency and humanity of Quasimodo, the hunchback, while the crowd sees him only as a monstrous freak. In our passage from Luke today we read about a woman, we do not know her name, but we do know that she too was a hunchback. Like 'Quasi' she would have been held in low regard by the crowd around her. Her prolonged illness would be seen by many as a sign of sinfulness and God's punishment, little wonder that it was attributed to an evil spirit. we know that this had been her condition for 18 years, the implication is that she had not been born with it. Perhaps it was a calcium deficiency, a spinal injury, or genetic, or some extreme case of osteoporosis. We don't know. We are simply told that a spirit has crippled her. Life must have been very hard for her, she missed the sky, the birds, and the rainbow. But physical ailments can do far more than bend a back. It can rob us of our livelihood and cause bankruptcy, it can take us away from our families, it can cause depression. Jesus called her and said, "Woman, you are set free from your infirmity." She suddenly stood erect, and began praising God. Was the woman cured? Notice that Jesus says, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." She is set free. Immediately her talk is of praise and release from the burden. Jesus changed her focus from herself to God.

We are rightly indignant at the response of the synagogue ruler to the woman's condition. However he did have the law on his side, healing was work and it should not be done on the Sabbath. Jesus could have healed six days in any week, that should be sufficient miracles for everyone. Of course Jesus is not just making people well, he is picking a fight and making a point. Compassion trumps rules, even the Sabbath commandment. For this reason Jesus calls those who oppose him hypocrites. They take care of animals on the Sabbath, isn't the woman, a daughter of Abraham, a daughter of the covenant, of more value than they? Jesus is saying that restrictions, laws, rules, and institutions can, if we are not careful, keep us from rising to the heights of charity to which we are called. Jesus came not to throw out tradition, but to show us that it can never replace-and should never be allowed to hinder-the expression of genuine love for one another.

The woman on the surface was attacked by a crippling condition of body and mind, she had been bent physically and no doubt she had suffered years of abuse just like 'Quasi.' Her condition was visible and obvious, but instead of being critical of her Jesus looked through surface, past the illness, and saw a human being. She was not a worthless, sinful, sick woman, she was nothing less than 'a daughter of Abraham!' The synagogue ruler on the surface had the appearance of being well and approved of by God. He was physically well, he was male and he was of religious standing. However, Jesus looked through the surface of him too and saw that he was rotten to the core. No evil spirit had attacked his body, instead he had been attacked by a spirit, which has crippled his soul. It wasn't wrong for the leader to want to protect the Sabbath day and worship from intrusions of regular work. However in the context of this miracle, the leader appears sick and shrivelled; being indignant at mercy and goodness looks ridiculous. What is missing is a delight in God's mercy, in Jesus' power. In attempting to protect what was holy, the leader misses a transforming encounter with Jesus, the Holy One. And in trying to protect the holy, he sees the broken woman as an intrusion. 

Now, do we become indignant when God's moves catch us by surprise? Are we in danger of confusing our interests with God's? Do we see a needy person as one more interruption or as a child of God longing for freedom, restoration or healing? Do we trample the poor by protecting our piety from them or by always being busy with "more important" things? Have our delight and our rest in God been crowded out by other concerns? So we ask ourselves what is our response to the grace and mercy of God, are we like the woman so full of joy that we praise God.? Charles Royden

Meditation

On the Sunday when we remember this poor woman,  physically bent and crippled, it is worth remembering George Handel. He was somebody who also suffered from being bent and in 1741 he was struggling and depressed. He had suffered a stroke the year before and he was paralysed down his right side  this made it difficult for him to walk and he struggled with life even though he was a great composer, the king’s chief musician. He was in this state of depression and despair when he walked past a church and heard the words “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”.

These words of the Psalm uttered by Jesus from the cross were a transformation and he went home to write music. From August 22nd, until September 14th he wrote practically non stop and slept and ate little. He produced what we now know as “The Messiah”. Exhausted afterwards he was asleep for 17 hours. The Messiah is an opera in which the life of Jesus from his birth to his death and resurrection is sung and it is now repeated often at Christmas and Easter.

The first performance was in Covent Garden on 23 March 1743. The King George II was present and was so impressed that at the 'Hallelujah Chorus' he stood up and so did everybody else. There is now a tradition which continues where the the audience all stand up throughout the “Hallelujah Chorus.”

Handel was a committed Christian, and all performances of his music whilst he was alive were in aid of charities of his choice. The “Messiah” was first performed in Dublin, in aid of some charities which included “poor and distressed people who were in prison for debt”. Whilst talking about the time he was composing the “Hallelujah Chorus”, Handel is reputed to have said: “I thought I saw all heaven before me, and the great God himself.” 

Hymns

• Immortal, invisible 
• We really want to thank you Lord
• Be thou my vision
• What does the Lord require
• May the mind of Christ (St. Leonard)
• Praise to the Lord
• Let us sing to the God of salvation
• Christ for the world we sing (Tune Moscow)
• Stand up, stand up, for Jesus
• Jesus Christ gives life and gladness 

Prayers for Sunday and the week ahead

Lord Jesus Christ, since you have taught us that we do not live by bread alone; feed us now and evermore with the > bread which comes down from heaven, even your own self, our Saviour and our Redeemer. Amen. John Dowden, 1840-1910

We give you our thanks, O God, with reverence and awe, for before we were formed in the womb, you knew us; before we were born, you consecrated us. You are our rock and haven, to whom we can always turn. In times past you appointed prophets and put your words in their mouths, appointing them over nations and kingdoms to destroy wickedness and overthrow the ruthless, and to build justice and plant righteousness. But in these last days you have sent your son, Jesus Christ, to whom every day is a sacred new day of freedom. You have appointed him as the mediator of a new covenant, in which we are brought to the city of the living God with the angels and saints and the faithful of every age to rejoice together at the wonderful things you are doing. Through him, your living word, you reach out to us unbidden, and touch us and set us free. We glorify your most holy name.

Father and Mother of us all - we pray for those who are part of our human family and part of the community in which we live. We pray for the little ones - for those who are seen as unimportant - for those who are lost - for those who grieve as ones with no hope - for those who hunger for the Bread of Heaven and thirst for the Wine of Forgiveness. Grant, we pray, that they may receive the vision that they need from your hands and the encouragement that they long for

We pray, Father, for those who are afflicted and in various ways and for all those whom we know who require a blessing - be it physical, emotional, financial, or Spiritual Touch, O God all those who are bent over and oppressed by crippling spirits - and set free all those who are afflicted by attitudes and opinions and viewpoints that cause them and others to become bowed down and to suffer needlessly. Create in them the joy that is meant to be part of the Sabbath day - the day in which we have rest from our labours and celebrate the wholeness that comes from you.