Seen, Called, Set Free

I don’t think any of us want to be invisible. No, we long to be seen. To be noticed, to be known for who we are.

I don’t think any of us want to live without purpose in our lives. No, we long to be called to something meaningful, to live lives of meaning and purpose.

I don’t think any of us want to be oppressed, to be held down. No, we long to be set free, freed from constraints and bonds that prevent us from being the people we were created to be.

When we are seen, called and liberated, that’s the kingdom of God breaking into our world. That’s what happens in the gospel that we just heard.

“When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, ‘You are set free.’

Seen. Called. Set free.

We see it too in today’s Old Testament reading, the beginning of the story of the prophet Jeremiah.  Jeremiah is seen at an early age, in fact, according to the text, even before that:

God says to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” He calls Jeremiah to be a prophet, one who will speak God’s word over nations and kingdoms, to pluck up and pull down, to build and to plant.  It is a mighty purpose – yet one that Jeremiah resists:

“I don’t know how to speak, for I am only a boy.”

Jeremiah, still young, is held back by his limited speaking ability. But God then acts to overcome the very thing that is holding Jeremiah back. He touches his mouth and says,

“Now I have put my words in your mouth.” Now you can speak, and speak as a prophet.

Seen. Called. Set free.

Do you feel seen? Have you been called? What’s holding you back?

When I was traveling in Israel a few years ago, at Magdala, the village of Mary Magdalene, I was able to see the remains of the synagogue that would have been used at the time of Jesus, similar to the synagogue in today’s gospel.

At the centre there is a low stone table. The rabbi or teacher, Jesus in today’s gospel, would have taken the scripture scroll and placed it on the table. In a rectangle around the table are low benches on which the worshippers would be seated, and in behind the benches, an area where people could stand. Jesus was a big draw, a renowned teacher. On this day, people would have come from miles around and so the benches would be crowded, and the synagogue would be standing room only.

And as Jesus was teaching, the woman who was bent over appeared. Barely. She would have been scarcely visible over the heads of those seated on the benches, hard to notice in the midst of those standing. But Jesus noticed; and rather than turn his attention back to whatever he was teaching, he called her over. She would have made her way forward slowly, waiting for people to move aside, awkwardly climbing over and around the folks crowded on the front benches. When she reached Jesus, he laid his hands on her and healed her. He calls it a liberation. “You are set free.”

She was seen. Called. And set free.

How could anyone object? Yet the leader of the synagogue is indignant, because Jesus had healed the woman on the sabbath.

And we don’t really understand the controversy, because we’ve kind of lost the sabbath in our time and place. Which is too bad.

Because if ever there was a generation that needed sabbath, it just might be our generation. The gift of sabbath is one of the best gifts that God has ever given us – and yet, many of us have lost the practice of sabbath in our lives.  We need to recover the sabbath.  It’s good for us.

But we need to recover sabbath in the way that God intended, in the way that Jesus teaches in the synagogue in today’s gospel. 

Sabbath is meant to be life-giving. Rest is an important part of that. We all need rest as part of the rhythm of our lives.  That’s the bit about sabbath that we understand best.  We know the creation story in Genesis, how God created the heavens and the earth in six days, and rested on the seventh, establishing a pattern for us to follow.  That’s the understanding that the synagogue leader is relying upon in today’s gospel.

Sabbath as rest is good.  But here’s a surprise!  Rest is not Jesus’ primary way of understanding the sabbath.  There is more to it than rest. 

Jesus draws his understanding of sabbath from the teaching on sabbath found in the book of Deuteronomy, part of the giving of the ten commandments:

“Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you.  Six days you shall labour and do all your work.  But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work . . . Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.”

The sabbath is the day that God brought the Hebrew people out of slavery.  The sabbath is the day that God set the people free.  The sabbath is the day of liberation.

When Jesus sees a woman who has been bent over for eighteen long years, he doesn’t say “Let’s put the sabbath on hold for a few minutes while I heal this woman.”

No, what he says is “This is what the sabbath is for.  This is the day of liberation.  Woman you are set free.”  And he heals her.

Isn’t this the purpose of sabbath? “And ought not this woman be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?”

Absolutely.  And she responds by praising God, and the crowd goes wild.

Best. Sabbath. Ever.

Liberation is at the core of the sabbath. Liberation is at the core of the gospel.  Liberation is at the core of our work as a church.  God desires nothing more for us, nothing more for all of God’s children, than for each one of us to be set free from the things that oppress us, from all that binds us and weighs us down.  Liberation, so that we can really live.

Now, a rhythm of life that includes rest and sets time aside for prayer and worship and relationships can be freeing.  For slaves oppressed by hard labour seven days a week, a day when they don’t have to work is liberating.  For modern people who have to work seven days a week to make a living wage, that needs to change. For those of us who work too much, worry too much, are on their phones too much, who are stressed out, who lack community, who don’t see our kids enough - sabbath rest is freeing, is good for us, is restorative, is life-giving.  So by all means practice sabbath by recovering a rhythm of rest and a time set aside for God and community each week. 

But always keep the end in mind. Because for sabbath and for all of our religious and life practices, for our scripture interpretations and theological understandings, we have to remember what these things are for, what God intends for us.  Are our practices liberating or oppressive?  Are they merciful or judgmental?  Are they generous or controlling?  Are they life-giving or life-denying?

The leader in the synagogue had got caught up in an oppressive understanding of sabbath.  He emphasized rest and forgot about liberation.  He turned the gift of sabbath into a narrow, rule-based practice that forgot the original intent, that denied God’s mercy and failed to see the liberating power of God right in front of his own eyes.  How could he be so blind?

It's easy for us to see the fault of others.  But how are we doing with our own habits and practices?  This gospel text is not just about the sabbath.  It’s a challenge to all of us who have settled into narrow interpretations of scripture or ungenerous theological positions.  Compassion and liberation are at the heart of what God is doing in Jesus.  We see it in the synagogue in today’s gospel.  Do we also see it in our own practices and in the work of the church today?

It's not hard to find more recent examples of where we’ve gone wrong. Two generations ago, our church took a hard line against the remarriage of divorced people, and that was based on a certain interpretation of scripture.  But it was a practice that hurt a lot of people, and made it difficult for them to move on with their lives.  It wasn’t merciful.  It wasn’t liberating.  It wasn’t generous.  Thankfully, we opened our minds and we changed our practice.

In the 19^th and 20^th centuries our theological understanding of what it meant to be a Christian, our narrow understanding salvation and of the need for conversion, were at the root of our church’s involvement in Indian Residential Schools.  Our church became an agent of oppression because of a religious understanding which was narrow and oppressive rather than merciful.  We got it wrong, terribly and tragically wrong.

Today is the Pride Parade in Ottawa, and many of us will be marching in the Parade. It is a powerful reminder that when we exclude queer people from the life of the church, we get it wrong. Thankfully, prompted by the Spirit of God, we are living into a new reality, at least in our small corner of the church, that fully includes LGBTQ people.

You can probably think of other examples of where we got it wrong, just like the synagogue leader in today’s gospel got it wrong.  But as we read today’s text, we need to resist the temptation to feel a bit smug and to think that we’re on the right side of history.  More constructively, it’s an opportunity for us to think about which of our life habits, religious practices and theological understandings today are compassionate, generous, liberating and life-giving, and which ones are narrow, oppressive, controlling and harmful.

Our God sees us, just as we are, as God’s beloved children. God calls us to the purposes for which we were created. God longs to free us from everything that holds us back, all that oppresses us, all that enslaves us, as individuals and as a community, so that we might have life in all of its abundance.  That’s why Jesus came, and that’s why he is calling us to participate in the work of liberation.  Liberation is at the core of the gospel. Liberation must also be at the core of our work as church. Let’s get on with it, and not get in the way.

Amen.

Homily: Yr C Proper 21, August 24 2025, Trinity

Readings: Jeremiah 1.4-10; Psalm 71.1-6; Hebrews 12.18-29; Luke 13.10-17

Photo by Kevin Malik