Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, Yr C, Proper 16, August 24, 2025, Grace Episcopal Church, Mpls

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, Yr C, Proper 16, 

August 24, 2025, Grace Episcopal Church, Mpls
Hebrews 12:18-29, Luke 13:10-17
 
When I watch anything streaming or on actual network television I have the mute button on the remote close at hand, and I wait impatiently for the skip button, for the ads. They drive me crazy. If I were one to believe anything I see and hear in those ads, or anywhere on social media, these are the things that I think are important to Americans, in no particular order: we have to buy the right pharmaceuticals to sleep better, to feel better, or to have better sex; we have to buy a sexy car or a big truck; 
we have to buy the right investment product to have financial security; we have to drink but do so responsibly; we have to wear the right clothes; we have to buy the right toys, etc. etc. etc. Even the feel good ads that make me cry, aren’t there just to make me feel good, somebody wants me to buy something. 

It seems to me that so much of life is a transaction. And it seems to me that transaction has become the dominant world religion, and we freely hand ourselves over to it. And, when we begin to believe in the religion of commodity, the religion of transaction, a gospel of prosperity, it’s a pretty short step to start seeing yourself as the most important person in the room, the one who is most deserving, so fulfilling your needs becomes the most important endeavor you can be about. I think this is part of what we are witnessing today in our country.

Enough about everyone else, here we are, in these pews, today. Why is it that you get up on Sunday morning and come to church? You've got other places to be, the lake place, or just drinking coffee in your own kitchen, soon and very soon it will be football. And yet so many of you attend vestry meetings as leaders in this church, 
you clean and tend the yard, you make sure spaces are ready for us to gather, you read scripture, you serve at this altar, you sing in the choir. 

You do all sorts of other things none of us see, you make meals, you give rides. Here we are, honoring the Sabbath; here we are, worshipping God. Here we are, listening to stories of faith in Jesus, we are not at home, watching TV drinking our coffee. Here we are, eating the bread that is body broken to make us whole, and drinking the wine shed for us, making us into the body of Christ, why do we do it? Why do we come here?

I think it is because we are the same as the woman in our gospel today. This woman whom Jesus set free. This woman who was bound up, enslaved, for all of her adult life. This woman whom Jesus released. We are here because somewhere inside us 
we know this good news we hear today is true. You and I know it is true because it describes our lives, each one of us is set free, each one of us is released from the bonds that hold us at a distance from each other, we are released from the bonds 
that keep us believing that ultimately our needs, real or perceived, are the most important needs in the room. You see, unlike what we experience in so many places in our lives, God's relationship with us is not transactional, God's relationship with us is loving, giving, emptying.
 
We find ourselves here today not because we have to be here, or we are obligated to be here, but because we are free. We are free from the bonds of selfishness, from the bonds of self-absorption and egotism. We are free from the religion of our culture 
that preaches our worthiness is in a transaction - you must buy, you must have, you must consume, you must be the most important or most good looking person in the room.

This is keeping Sabbath and keeping Sabbath matters, your being here matters. We bring all our brokenness, we bring all our hurt, and we are healed. And in the healing and being made whole again, being put back together, we are freed. We are freed to show compassion. And in reaching out, showing compassion, we participate in bringing God’s healing, freedom, joy and peace to those in need, and that is what new life, eternal life, looks like. We are free to be transformed into the persons we are created to be. So what’s really important here? God's dream is healing and

reconciliation, God's dream is love and compassion. Keeping the Sabbath is about keeping God’s dream the main thing. It is about the nearness of the kingdom.
 
The woman in our story today was released from the bondage of her ailment. We too are released from bondage, but you and I both know that we tend to choose to stay in bondage. We tend to believe the religion of our culture that says to us either “you are like God” and deserve to have anything and anyone you want, 
OR 
“you are worthless” and deserve only what happens to you, both of which are lies.
 
The truth is so very different from any of that. The truth is that we are God’s beloved creation, and that God loves us whether or not we love God, and that God came to be part of creation, to live, love, suffer and die, so that we may be reconciled, or joined together with God, and with one another. The truth is that the story is not about any one of us, but the story is about God’s relationship with us, and our relationship with God and our neighbor.
 
That’s the main thing, and what flows from that main thing, what flows from God’s amazing and abundant love for us is the freedom to love others, regardless of approval or disapproval, regardless of whether or not they deserve our love, regardless of whether or not they brought life’s circumstances upon themselves 
or if they are a victim of circumstances. What flows from God’s amazing and abundant love for us is mercy and compassion.
 
So this week as we reflect on the gospel, as we get ready for a new school year, or newness at work, it might do us some good to linger where Jesus lingers, to begin in a moment of Sabbath, to start from a quiet place within, and remember the main thing. The main thing, that it isn’t about you today, it isn’t about any one of us, it is about what happens outside the walls of this church. It is about meeting others with God’s compassion, God’s mercy, and reminding ourselves of the dignity, the freedom, and the blessing that is God’s desire for each of us as God’s beloved child.
Amen.  
 

Life is short, my friends,
and we do not have too much time
to gladden the hearts of others.
So be quick to love,
and make haste to be kind.
And the blessing of God Almighty,
who created you in love,
who walks with you in love,
and who will bring you home in love,
be upon you and all whom you love,
this day forth and forever more. Amen.”