Jesus Heals Us | Good Shepherd Lutheran Church (ELCA) Manchester MO

Pastor:

Pr. Tom Schoenherr

Sermon audio:

“Jesus Heals Us”

August 21-22, 2010

Pr. Tom Schoenherr

Do you ever wonder why we do this? Why do we come together for singing, listening to the Bible, receiving the Lord’s Supper, praying, preaching? What is the significance of worship? What is this Sabbath day all about? Why do we do it? Do you ever wonder? I remember when I was young our family going to church every week, and there were times that I wondered why we did it. I suppose at the front of the list was that were doing it because we were supposed to and we were fulfilling an obligation. It took me a while to grasp a deeper significance to going to church.

Sabbath means rest and renewal. Sabbath is also connected to the Exodus, to freedom, release from bondage and deliverance from captivity. It is a time for healing. We come to be healed because we know we are in need of being healed from all that keeps us bound and captive.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

So why do we come to church for worship? For some it’s just fulfilling an obligation, but maybe we can also see that we come because we want to be healed, to be set free from our captivity to fear and obligation, to rest and be renewed in our relationship with God through the Word, the Meal and through God’s people. Sabbath is about freedom to receive from God and to be in service to other people.

The woman who is bent over comes to church, maybe as she has done for many years. It is what she does every week. Maybe she feels an obligation to be there. This time when she goes to church it is different. Jesus is there. She has been bent over, even bent together like a pretzel, for 18 years. Jesus is there and when we come to worship hoping to see Jesus, I wonder what can happen.

Jesus seeing her, called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” There are so many places in our world where women are not free and where they are captive to rules and laws that keep them bound. Jesus’ way is a way of compassion and love that turns the world upside down. Don’t you think he would said this looking into her eyes? But how would he have done this to a bent over woman who had to look at him by looking out of the corner of her eye, maybe trying to look up and sideways at him? I know my father’s head was turned forward and down by arthritis and he was only able to look at us by turning his head or looking over the top of his glasses.

I wonder if he got down on his knees and craned his own neck to look up to her face. This Jesus whose love for us leads him to be bent and nailed to the cross for us, who lives and loves us, is the one who gets down on his knees to speak a word of miracle and new life to this woman. He touches her, maybe on her back, but maybe also on her feet, or maybe he took her hands when he spoke those words of healing to her. That same healing love in Jesus Christ is touching us also.

Rev. Jana Childers tells the story of a little girl in a farming community, one in which you park your car or truck in front of the store in angled parking spots on both sides of the street. . She went to a two-room school. She had loving parents and sometimes she had a good teacher. But the way she had to grow up was not was not what her parents hoped for her. She had a cleft palate and the money for all the surgeries it would take to repair her mouth and jaw was not there. By the time she was seven she knew the cruelty of the world as she heard people say, “only a mother could love that child,” and she understood what they meant. Children also made fun of her.

One day a special teacher visited the school and put the children through some basic speech tests. When it was her turn the little girl went into the classroom that had been set aside for the testing. “Just stand over there by the door,” the teacher said from the back of the room. “I want to test your hearing first. Turn your back to me and face the wall, and repeat what you hear me say.”

“Apple,” the teacher said. “Apple’” she repeated.

“Banana.” “Banana.”

“Now I am going to give you a sentence” said the teacher. Other children had shared that she could expect something like “The sky is blue” or “Are your shoes brown.” She listened carefully.

So it was that standing with her face to the wall that she heard the teacher whisper, “I wish you were my little girl.” The little girl’s spirit lightened and she felt free to be who she was because someone else beside her parents cared about her.

Like the woman in the Gospel, we too may be bent over with the burdens and responsibilities we try to bear. We may feel bent over from guilt, thinking that all the problems in our family or our marriage or our workplace are our fault. We may be someone who can say the words, “Jesus loves me” but whose heart can’t believe it. We may be someone who lives with low self-esteem. We are all bent over from our sin and fears that weigh us down.

As we come forward to receive the Body and Blood of Christ for our healing and forgiveness, we can move to the communion rail to kneel, have the sign of the cross marked on us with oil, and have a person pray to God for our healing. Jesus is calling to us, placing his hands on us and looking into our eyes to say, “You are set free from all that binds you and keeps you captive.”

Set free by Christ, we can stand up and think of “going to church” and worship as a time to celebrate our freedom, to praise God for all that God has done in our lives. In what areas of your life is God actively raising you up to new life? Where is God calling you to set others free? Maybe God is also calling to Good Shepherd congregation and lifting us up to give us new life for being God’s people of mission in this community. Why do we come to worship? We come to be healed and set free to praise God and to serve others. In Jesus’ name. Amen.