From the Vicar...
This Sunday: a story about our liberation
This Sunday's Gospel passage from Luke may be a new one for many of you. It has been "buried" in the Episcopal lectionary's weekday calendar until quite recently. Now, with the advent of the Revised Common Lectionary, we hear it on a Sunday morning.
Luke, in this passage, tells us the story of a woman bent over for 18 years. Condemned by some ailment to shuffle along in life, she is condemned by those around her, who believed that those who suffered were being punished for their sins.
If we skip this story entirely, as the lectionary did for so many years, we miss not only who God is in our lives, but how God is acting - right now, today. If we don't pay sufficient attention to this woman and what happened to her in that synagogue 2,000 years ago, we might miss yet another chance for us to learn something important not just about God, but about ourselves as well.
Imagine what it must have been like for this woman - to be bent over, neck stiffened, staring at the ground all day long. Then one day, Jesus comes to town, and the woman decides she wants to hear this man about whom people say such great things. So she goes to the synagogue - hobbling there, dusty step after dusty step - and she is pushed away. There is no space, she is told; no one wants to make room for her. She is about to leave, filled with sorrow because she could not be there, when Jesus calls her forward. Jesus stands in the front of the synagogue, where only men are allowed, and calls her to him.
And when she gets to that hallowed space, Jesus says to her: "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." He laid his hands on her - and immediately she stood up straight, able to look Jesus in the eye! And she began praising God.
We need to hear what this seldom-read Gospel passage is telling us. Its message is simple, but profound: God sets people free. More to the point, God sets us free, and by God, we must never forget that! That was Jesus' argument to the folks gathered in the synagogue that day - to the folks who did not "get" what Jesus was doing: God has liberated us - all of us, including you!
Jesus not only sets this woman free from her ailment - the one that had condemned her to a lesser place in that society - he sets her free as a person to stand up before the Lord, to see God face to face, to look God in the eye, as a full human being, unrestrained by "commandments" that kept her quiet in the back of the synagogue, that denied her the education, the blessing, the beauty of the Torah men took for granted.
"Woman, you are set free." This is a story about liberation - our liberation! A story about our being set free. It is a story about how God comes into our lives and removes our ailments and allows us to stand up straight before the Lord, to see God face to face and look God in the eye and rejoice in our own liberation.
This is our day of liberation ... and by God, we ought to celebrate that!
Fr. Chip
Cross Roads House volunteer training
Seven nights a week, volunteers prepare and serve dinner to the residents of Cross Roads House, Portsmouth's homeless shelter.
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer, you are encouraged to attend Volunteer Orientation on Thursday, September 8th, from 5:30-6:30 p.m. at the shelter. Orientation includes a shelter tour, an overview of kitchen operations, and volunteer expectations.
If you have any questions about volunteering or about the shelter's orientation program, email Marsha Filion at m.filion@crossroadshouse.org or call 603-436-2218 ext. 107. Pre-registration for orientation is not required.
Our Shared Ministry Cycle of Prayer
Each week, in both of our churches, we pray for one ministry we share and one or two households in each church. About once every six weeks, we will instead using the Shared Ministry Collect we prayed throughout the opening months of our Shared Ministry.
In our prayers the next two weeks, we give God thanks for...
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Aug. 21
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Concluding collect for our shared ministry
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Aug. 28
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Christ Church bookkeeper Marianne Cusano; Miguel & Yvonne Draper
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