{"id":3256,"date":"2019-08-25T12:32:41","date_gmt":"2019-08-25T12:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/?page_id=3256"},"modified":"2019-08-25T12:32:41","modified_gmt":"2019-08-25T12:32:41","slug":"sermon-25th-august-2019","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/information\/sermons\/sermon-25th-august-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Sermon – 25th August 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sermons index<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tenth Sunday after Trinity \u2013 morning<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Sunday 25th August 2019 <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Trinity 10 – Proper 16 \u2013 morning
\nJeremiah 1. 4-10
\nLuke 13. 10-17<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"Maureen<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\nWhat is real, and what is just\nreligion?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThere\u2019s a great story about\na games afternoon at a secondary school. The rugby dropouts \u2013 you\nknow, those kids who never get picked for one of the main teams \u2013\nare lurking down on the bottom field, trying to keep out of\neveryone\u2019s way. They are doing nothing… lounging around,\nchatting, maybe even sneaking an illicit cigarette \u2013 watched over\nby a bored prefect called Tompkins. Suddenly the Games Master appears\nfrom the top field and it is all action \u2013 practising line outs,\nscrums, mauls \u2013 looking very busy. The master stands there watching\nall this apparent busyness going on and then turns to the prefect….\n\u201cTompkins, where\u2019s the ball?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nIn other words, what is this\ngame all about? Is there any purpose to it? It is the kind of\nquestion Jesus puts to the leader of the synagogue one Sabbath\nmorning: \u201cDo you know what it\u2019s all for, this religion you are\ngoing on about? Or have you missed the point?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe Jewish Laws \u2013 the 10\nCommandments – were incredibly important to the Jewish people. They\nwere what marked them out as different from their Gentile neighbours.\nThey were what defined them as being special to God and the rule\nabout not working on the Sabbath was doubly important. For not only\ndid it ensure that people had a proper balance of work and leisure in\ntheir lives, but it reminded every Jew of the time when their people\nhad been enslaved in Egypt. Forced to work unreasonable hours and in\npoor conditions until God \u2013 their own special God, had led them to\nliberty and a new home through the agency of first Moses and then\nJoshua. And it reminded them that even in the midst of Creation, God\nhimself had needed to rest. So not working, not labouring on the\nSabbath was really, really important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAnd here was Jesus, apparently\nsetting all that tradition and history at naught. Being disrespectful\nof God\u2019s own commandments \u2013 you can see why the leader of the\nSynagogue saw his action as a threat and pretty much as blasphemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAnd what was he doing it for?\nAn old woman \u2013 long past her usefulness in the community as either\na wife or mother. She had waited 18 years in her crippled state…\nsurely another day would not make that much difference!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nHe\u2019s missed the point\ncompletely!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAnd Jesus explodes with\nrighteous anger because an educated man \u2013 who\u2019s study of\nscripture should have taught him the principles by which God\noperates, has failed to spot the inconsistency in his own arguments.\nYou hypocrites! Jesus shouts. \u201cYou are quite happy to set your\nanimals free on the Sabbath so they can drink, but you won\u2019t let an\nold lady, made in the image of God, a daughter of Abraham, have the\nsame freedom you allow your animals! Shame on you!\u201d In modern\nparlance we could imagine him saying \u201cGet real!\u201d It is certainly\na challenge for the authorities of Jesus\u2019 day. This is real\nreligion \u2013 not just some formulaic exercise!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAnd that challenge is as real\nfor us here today. Have we got things straight? What is it all for?\nHave we somehow lost the pristine clarity of the glorious Christian\nfaith and smothered it with elaborate ritual? Have we taken a gospel\nthat gives a crippled woman a straight back and made it into an\nintricate system of dogmas and doctrine?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nIt is probably true that we\nall have a Pharisee in us just waiting to pop out. We can all play a\nreligious game with our faith, admiring the aesthetics of it, but\nmissing the blazing reality of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nOne of the joys of taking part\nin Holiday Club each year is seeing the Christian message through the\neyes of young children. They have such energy…. such energy! Such\njoy and such an immediate response to the things they like and the\nthings they don\u2019t. They are not afraid or embarrassed to enjoy\nthemselves! They know instinctively what is fair and just and what is\nnot. Rules have their place \u2013 of course they do and they are always\nintroduced for very good reasons. To keep us safe; to make groups and\nsociety at large function well \u2013 but they always have to be\ninterpreted with compassion so that we do not miss the heart of it,\nthe glorious gift of wholeness and life. Religion as a dull habit is\nnot that for which Christ died!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nSo not only are we in danger\nof behaving a bit like the leader of the Synagogue, protecting our\nown little religious system as we like it and want it; we are also\nthe woman with the crippled back. We are bent and distorted images of\nthe God we want to love and who wants nothing more than to set us\nfree. We all need a touch of Christ, the healing word that burns into\nour soul and makes us un-bend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nJesus keeps coming to us \u2013\nnot just in here on a Sunday, but in every moment of the day \u2013\noffering release and straightening. A clear set of values, an\nunderstanding of ourselves and of God, a straight path through the\ndistractions of good and evil. And the chance to stretch our backs\nand look God in the eye \u2013 not just to grovel on the ground, only\nconscious of our many burdens and shortcomings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAnd he gives us the chance to\njoin him in offering that healing to others too. To notice when\npeople we come across are bent and burdened when we meet them; to get\nstuck into causes and charities that are designed to straighten out\nthe world\u2019s crooked places. And to enjoy ourselves in the process!\nNot to claim \u2013 like Jeremiah, that we are not up to the task \u2013\nbut to trust God when he says he has given us all we need to join him\nin his mission to liberate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAnd as we let Jesus make our\nbent backs straight, so we become an Easter people, with an ascended\nLord, in a Pentecost church, sharing the glorious, liberating love of\nGod. And that is what it is all about! I\u2019ll take real faith over\ndull religion any day! What about you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tenth Sunday after Trinity \u2013 morning Sunday 25th August 2019 Trinity 10 – Proper 16 \u2013 morning Jeremiah 1. 4-10 Luke 13. 10-17 Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs What is real, and what is just religion? There\u2019s a great story about a games afternoon at a secondary school. The rugby dropouts \u2013 you know, those kids … <\/p>\n

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