Sunday Worship
Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish. Our Church services are at the usual times of 9.15 am at St Agnes' and 11.00 am at St Thomas'. If you're not able to be with us in person, you'll find the Gospel reading, a reflection and prayers below.
Our first hymn this morning is "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind"
Today's Gospel
Luke 13:10-17 Crippled Woman Healed on the Sabbath
Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 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..
Reflection
I’ll start this reflection off with a quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet in which the titular character says: "For 'tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petard.” This well known phrase is commonly used to express a circumstance where there has been an unexpected reversal of events and in some cases what might be perceived as poetic justice.
For those of you who may not be familiar with mediaeval language, a petard was a type of conical bomb that usually planted in the ground and invented by the French. If it wasn’t done correctly the consequence would be that it would explode and the person setting the bomb would be blown up and literally lifted off the ground.
This poetic justice is what can be clearly seen in Luke’s Gospel where Jesus shames the leaders of the Synagogue. I do not believe that Jesus was deliberately intending to humiliate them, but in speaking his mind and challenging the superficiality of their interpretation of the scriptures, the outcome was nevertheless to expose their own lack of knowledge of the scripture and their futile attempt to shame Jesus. The tables were well and truly turned!
Jesus showed mercy to the needy in a place where religious regulation sought to bring scorn and condemnation. He put love and people before piety and ignorance.
In the Old Testament we are told that the Sabbath was a day of rest and worship. In Genesis we learn that God created the world in six days and on the seventh he rested. That did not mean he was too shattered to do anything else so he took the day off! It was simply an ending of the work where he took time to revel and delight at what he had created. So God sanctified the Sabbath Day and made it Holy. It is a day for rest and enjoyment.
The fourth Commandment says on the Sabbath thou shalt not do any work, but as with all things we need to exercise caution about how literally things are interpreted. Through his actions, our Lord shed more light on the purpose of the Sabbath by many acts of redemption: Jesus not only healed the crippled woman but he also allowed the hungry to be fed, he healed a man with a withered hand, he delivered a man from demonic possession, he allowed for the caring of animals, he allowed those who rejected his teaching to be witness to miracles, and he enabled the blind to see. All on the Sabbath. Jesus was redeeming and restoring the purity of God’s creation. Sometimes, we must put loving and caring for people ahead of observing all the rules.
So where does this leave us? God instituted the Sabbath as a day when He ceased work on the creation and made it holy to remind us that He is our creator and deliverer. Jesus demonstrated the purpose of the Sabbath was to serve as a time to focus on demonstrating our love for God by loving and serving others. The Sabbath represents the rest we have in Christ who is our inspiration to love God and one another. Paul
Our Prayers
Lord of all creation,
We thank you for the time we have to work, rest and spend with our loved ones.
Help us to use our time wisely and not neglect what is important.
Help us to devote time from our busy lives
to worship You, to show our love for You
and to serve each other. Amen
