Living in the Spirit
August 21, 2016

Scripture Reading: Luke 13:10-17

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. –Luke 13:14-17

Systems Theory seeks to find a balance between process and structure. In our story today Jesus tries to find that same balance. The structure of the Jewish religion defined life practices regarding when to work and when to rest. In our story today, structure outweighed even human kindness. Jesus had broken the Jewish rules by healing a woman on the Sabbath. Jesus did not say the rule was wrong or unwise. His biographers carefully described many instances in his life’s story of his withdrawing for prayer and rest. The Sabbath, created for the purpose of rest and renewal, was not just another item to check off a list of how many rules one obeyed on any given day nor was it an excuse to ignore human need.

I worked as a waitress while in high school and college at a restaurant with an ice machine nestled in a tiny space with just enough room to prop a bucket on a frame and fill it with ice. Any waitress that noticed the ice chest in the serving area getting low on ice knew to fill that bucket and replenish the supply. We had a manager in training working at the restaurant who observed me filling the bucket and told me that I was doing it wrong and thus wasting time. The trainee very carefully demonstrated the proper way to scoop ice from the machine and left. It took me a while to figure out what I did differently than he did. I am very left handed and thus to get the ice out I had to scoop across my body to reach into the ice machine. Set up for a right handed person, he did not reach across his body. I did try it right handed just to see if it was faster. It was not.

The church must carefully consider what it holds dear that is not productive and what it does that makes no contribution toward the goal of being the Body of Christ in the world today.

Prayer: Make us one in our quest toward your Kingdom. Help us discern well both our structure and our processes. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.