Looking Ahead to October 19, 2025

The Scripture readings this week are:

• Psalm 133 Acts 2:42-47
• Hebrews 10:24-25
• Romans 12:15-18

The Sermon title is A Thankful Community

Early Thoughts: In the end we are a communal species. Certainly  we are a communal faith. Really human life, Christian life is about how we function in community.

I may not always have believed this. There may well have been a time when, speaking out of having been consistently hurt by a specific community, I thought that the Simon and Garfunkel song I Am a Rock sounded like a good motto. Or at least that is what I told myself at the time.  It felt safer to be alone behind walls.  (On reflection I am not sure I had myself totally convinced even then.)

I still understand the impulse. Bit in the end we are a communal species and Christianity is a communal faith.

Over and over again when you ask people why they go to church some part of the answer is "the community". Together we dance and celebrate. Together we weep and lament. Together we complain about how the world is and dream about what the world could be. It may be a cliche but together we are more than the sum of our individual parts.

Our Scripture readings this week talk about the blessings of community. They also talk about the importance of being in community. They talk about the importance of  supporting each other in community.

5 years ago we were pushed to re-think how we are as a community.  How could we continue to be a community when we didn't gather in one place? We learned how to be community not only in-person but on Zoom as well. 5 years later we are still a different type of community.  Some of us gather together in a room on Sunday morning, others join us online either in real time or later that day.  We have people who have joined us for Sunday worship from other towns, even other provinces. We are a community that expands well beyond the walls of our building or even the boundaries of the city. AS time goes by the community grows and reshapes, we find new things that re important about how we are community together. Still we see the importance of community.

This week, in the middle of Thanktober, I ask you all a couple of question. Why are you thankful for the communities of which you are a part? How do our various communities make a difference in the world (both local and global)? What difference does it make to be in community --both when it is easy and when it is hard, when it feels safe and when we feel really vulnerable?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to October 12, 2025 -- Thanksgiving Sunday

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Psalm 100
• Deuteronomy 26:1-11

The Sermon title is Thankful Remembering, Thankful Giving

Early Thoughts: DO you pause to remember? Do you pause to recall what God has done? What happens when you do that?

This passage from Deuteronomy describes a ritual of presenting a thank-offering. It describes it as one of the first things you do at harvest (I wonder if first fruits means every year or just the first harvest in this context?) You take a portion and offer it to God. As you do that you name those things that God has done for you and for the people and out of thankfulness you give to God as you celebrate the abundance of the land.

So what do we do with this story?  We have not just entered the Promised Land. Many of us do not have fields to harvest and bring in the first fruits. Few of us have a story of how our recent ancestors were delivered from an oppressive empire (at least not as specifically as the Exodus story). The story can't be talking about how we are to act -- can it?

It is my contention that we read these ancient stories because even if our context and lives are very different from the culture that passed them on to us they do have something to teach us about how we are called to live.

In this case the story has much to tell us.  There are three parts to the ritual that is described: offering, remembering/recalling/retelling, and celebrating.

How do we incorporate all three into our lives?

It is my firm belief that the act of remembering with thankfulness how we have benefited for the gifts we have been given changes our hearts and minds. When we intentionally pause to name those gifts, to retell the story, to celebrate the abundance we are more open to do the offering. A thankful heart is most often a generous heart.

AS we move into Thanksgiving weekend this year I encourage us all to remember. As we remember I encourage us to tell stories, talk about the gifts we have received. Then celebrate them. Be glad for the gifts, even sing  if you are so minded. Then open yourself to the next step -- sharing, making an offering. I want us to ask ourselves what 'first fruits' we might have to lay down before God, not just on Thanksgiving or in some sort of ritual but on a day-to-day basis. As I said above, we will be more open to identifying what we can share if our hearts are filled with a sense of abundance and a feeling of thankfulness.

When we forget to remember, when we don't tell ourselves the stories of gifts received we can more easily fall prey to the ongoing claxon telling us there is not enough. We miss the abundance. Worry or jealousy take the place of gratitude. In that place there is little celebrating, little impulse to be generous.

THe choice, in the end, is ours. What will we choose to remember? What will we choose to see? Will we be generous and thankful?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to October 5, 2025 --Worldwide Communion Sunday

As this is the first Sunday of the month it is our monthly day to highlight our Local Outreach Fund, the designated gifts which allow us to support our neighbours here in Grande Prairie.

Also as it is the first Sunday of the month we will be celebrating the sacrament of Communion this week.

Oh and it is the beginning of Thanktober, so our Tree of Thanks will be up and ready for folk to hang some leaves.

For Worldwide Communion Sunday this year we will be reading John 6:5-14, 35, 48-51 which is from the "Bread of Life Discourse".

The Sermon title is Daily Bread, Daily Thanks.

Early Thoughts: It is one of the most basic of foods. Ground grain, water, a little salt, usually some sort of leavening agent.... bread.

Bread has long been a staple food.  It is energy dense. When made with whole grains it provides a variety of nutrients. It is fairly easy to make.  Here is a list of links about bread as a staple food. Many communities would have had large bread ovens either for communal use or the earliest commercial bakeries.  Bread is a big deal!

In the sixth chapter of John's Gospel we hear a lot about bread. First we have the feeding of thousands with five loaves and two fish --staples that turn a hungry crowd into a giant picnic, with leftovers to boot. Then Jesus spends almost 40 verses talking about the bread of heaven. Twice in this discourse Jesus describes himself as the Bread of Life, and then also the living bread that comes from heaven.

Jesus, in this passage, links himself with a daily staple, a basic part of life. Jesus is part of maintaining life, and that in abundance.

Sometimes I think we might take bread for granted. It is a danger for those of us who seldom have to worry about it being there. At most when we think about bread it is more "what kind of bread do I prefer?" (white, whole wheat, sourdough, naan...). But what does it mean when we pray "Give us this day our daily bread"? What does it mean to stop and give thanks for that daily bread?

AS we enter into October, the month when we will celebrate Thanksgiving, I invite us all to reflect on this common staple food.  Why are we thankful for bread? I also invite us to consider what it means to give thanks daily, to look for things that make us thankful on a daily basis. How might that feed our souls?

AS we gather at the table of faith I invite us to consider what it means to hold up a loaf and say "the body of Christ, broken for you. What does it mean to consider Jesus as the bread of life, broken and shared? How are we fed at the table, how are we fed by Jesus' presence in our lives?

--Gord

Looking Ahead to September 28, 2025 -- Truth and Reconciliation Sunday

AS this is the Sunday before Orange Shirt Day (September 30th) we encourage everyone to wear an Orange Shirt to worship.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Psalm 24:1-2
• Jeremiah 32:6-15

The Sermon title is This Land is...Whose?

Early Thoughts: Who owns the land? Who benefits from the land? Who is denied benefits from the land?

 This  passage from Jeremiah comes just before Jerusalem is about to fall. As an act of faith and trust in the future Jeremiah is told to buy  a piece of land.  Realistically the timing makes no sense -- why buy land just before everything gets destroyed, what use is a title deed when the whole land is now in the hands of an invader? But the land is bought to remind the people that in the end the land will be theirs again. Some might see it as a claim that when push comes to shove the land will always belong to the people of Israel/Judah.

Several centuries later we can see that this claim of perpetual ownership can lead to a very difficult reality....

For most of human history land has been the basis of wealth and well-being. Only when we have control over the land can we have control over the economy, control over the people, control over our lives. The people who control the land can control how it is used, who gets to live where, and (especially in the last century in Alberta) who profits from the resources that lie under the surface.

But there is another claim in Scripture. Even in the same tradition that talks about a Promised Land and a Chosen People there is another perspective.  There is a perspective that says the earth is God's. If the earth (and all that is in it) is God's then maybe we should change how we talk about ownership and rights to use and rights to make decisions. Maybe.

This Sunday is 2 days before Canada's National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. There are lots of thins we could talk about when it comes to seeking truth about our history. There are lots of things that might go into finding reconciliation. (Personally I think we have much to learn from the Jewish teaching on repentance as laid out in this book by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg as we do that work.) The question of the land, and the treaties that were made to help us share (or help colonizers steal depending on one's point of view) the land is a big one.

Each week in worship we have a Land/Treaty Acknowledgement, Such things are becoming increasingly common (or perhaps even an expectation) at many/most public events in Canada by now. Which is a bit surprising because it really wasn't that long ago that they were a "do we really need to do that?" thing in many minds. Why do we do that?  How does it help us along the road to truth and reconciliation, to building right-relations? Or does it even do that, is it more performative, a meaningless gesture when not backed up by action?

Whose land is this anyway? Does it belong to us, to our ancestors, to our descendants (7 generations on perhaps?) or does it properly belong to God/Creator/Great Spirit?

I have sat with people who are deeply troubled by issues of land and treaty. Sometimes they have been troubled because of a feeling that the colonial negotiators negotiated in bad faith, that it really was a land grab. Sometimes they are troubled because they feel that the Indigenous folk are asking too much or are given too much (one I can remember clearly was about the issue of mineral rights).

I, like many of you reading, have read many stories about land claims and treaty discussions. Sometimes about lands they were not actually released through treaties. Sometimes about reservation lands that were later found to be valuable and so acquired (not always fairly) from the First Nation that had them. Sometimes about who gets to profit/benefit from the minerals (thinking most recently of mining in Northern Ontario) the land holds. Sometimes about pipelines crossing those lands. So many stories, so much heated discussion. Some of them are big stories like the Oka crisis almost 35 years ago or the long saga of the Lubicon Cree here in Alberta. Some of them hardly make the news.

Whose land is this anyway? Who has the 'best' claim on it and its riches?.  Jeremiah makes us think it can be bought and that gives the best claim. Some stories of the treaty making process name that the Indigenous negotiator knew the land was not theirs to give away. Psalm 24 says that whatever rules or agreements we might make in the end all of it belongs to God. Whose is it? Who gets to control it?

As we live seeking reconciliation, as we seek a renewal of the relationships between those who were here, those who came after and those who will come in the future we need to look hard at how we share the land. Control of the land is power and wealth. I am not at all convinced the current model is working. What might be a new one?
--Gord

Looking Forward to September 21, 2025 -- Creation 3

The Scripture Reading this week is Psalm 104:10-28

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The Sermon title is God's Great Web

Early Thoughts: Touch one strand and another vibrates. Tear open one section and the whole structure is weakened. 

This is not only true about the spider web, it is true of a much bigger web, a web of which we are all a part. In the masterful weaving of God's creation we are all attached, all interconnected, What we do impacts every thing else. We forget these links at our own peril.

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As I was typing that paragraph I reminded myself of something called the Butterfly effect. In Chaos theory the Butterfly effect reminds us that seemingly minor things can have massive impacts. The most well known formulation is to suggest that a butterfly flapping its wings in one area can spawn a tornado hundreds or thousands of miles away. That might seem a little outlandish but the fact remains that given the interconnectedness of life, the universe, and everything, we can not be sure what ripples our actions might have. If we take seriously our call to live with respect in creation then we have to think about all the impacts our choices might have.

It is possible to read the Creation stories in Genesis 1 and 2 and decide that creation is there to serve humanity. Form much of human history we appear to have lived with that impression, that human needs/wants are of first importance and the impacts on the world are secondary. Some cultures are more guilty of this than others, with industrialized Western European and North American arguably being the worst of the lot. I am not sure that is a good reading of the Creation accounts, particularly Genesis 1 where humanity is created last and everything created before us is called good in and of its own accord. Then a passage like Psalm 104 comes up and reminds us that is really is not about us.

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These verses from Psalm 104 remind me that God is out there caring for all of creation, the entire web. We humans are, in the grand sweep of billions of years, a tiny point on that web. We have punched above our weight so to speak. We have made an impact that has helped to reshape the earth, the climate, the creation itself. We may have forgotten that it may not actually be all about us.

AS a part of the web, and remembering that when one strand vibrates everything else feels is we may want to ask what vibrations we are creating. Remembering that the stone falling into a lake can, if the ripples are big enough, flood the far shore we might stop to ask what is at risk way over there. Remembering that if part of the web is damaged or destroyed the strength of the whole thing is impacted we might remember we have a duty to help keep the web strong and resilient.

I think it is what we mean when we say that we are called to live with respect in creation...
--Gord

Looking Forward to September 14, 2025 -- Creation 2

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Genesis 2:4-6, 10-14
• Ezekiel 47:1-12
• Revelation 22:1-2

The Sermon title is Water of Creation, Water of Life

Where the River Goes

Early Thoughts: Where there is water there is life.

Many of the world's cities are established near bodies of fresh water, even coastal cities are often along a river heading out to the sea. If you were establishing a settlement out in a dry area one of the first tasks would be to dig a well or some other reliable source of water. All land animals need to have access to water if they are to survive. And then the bodies of water themselves are teeming with life, from micro-organisms to complex animals and plants. 

Where there is water there is life.

Our faith story knows this to be true. The beginning of creation (according to Genesis 2) is the rising of a stream that would water the ground. In our other creation story (Genesis 1) water is present from the beginning and land is created from it -- interestingly many North American Indigenous stories of creation also have water at the beginning with land coming out of it, often on the back of a giant turtle.

Where there is water there is life.

All three of our passages this week remind us of this basic fact. All three talk about the river of life. So do our hymns for this Sunday. As we consider how humanity is going to share this earth with the rest of God's creation we must give consideration to water.

How do we take water for granted? How do we give it honour? How do we care for the river(s) of life?

Some predict that access to water is going to be (or is already becoming) a key issue in international relations. Remember Donald Trump ranting about the big tap that Canada could turn and send water down to the US instead of 'wastefully' letting it flow into the Pacific?  (Just to be clear there is no such tap and watersheds are complex things). As we move forward into a changing climate, where precipitation patterns are already changing, how do we support the river of life -- or at least get out of the way so it can thrive?

Life, we have long been told, first came out of the water. Both faith and science say this is so. Clean fresh water is mandatory for most plants and animals to exist (some actually live better in brackish water).As part of God's Creation, as people who claim to be called to "live with respect in Creation " (as A New Creed has said for 30 year), what is our duty to the water of life?
--Gord

Looking Forward to September 7, 2025 -- Creation 1

AS this is the first Sunday of a new month we will be celebrating Communion this week. It is also a day when we encourage people to consider making a dedicated donation to our Local Outreach Fund.

For the first 3 Sundays of September this year we will be marking Creation Time, a season where we reflect on the world around us and our place in it.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Jeremiah 18:1-6 
• Psalm 139:13-16 
•  Genesis 2:7-9

The Sermon title is Made of Clay, Shaped by God

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Early Thoughts: Lumps of mud, is that what we are? According to Genesis yes, that is what we are. We are formed from the dust of the ground. Now many people will point out that the only reason life is possible on Earth is because of particles, elements, 'stuff' that fell to the surface from the outer reaches of a forming universe that dust from which we were formed is in fact stardust but the fact remains we are, according to our faith story, bits of mud and dust with the breath of life blown into us.

At the same time the story tells us that we are shaped by God. Psalm 139 echoes this claim, this statement of faith. We are formed from the earth but formed with intention. We are linked to the rest of creation and linked to the one who forms us 

ANd also the one who continually re-forms and re-shapes us.

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The Jeremiah passage is about the nation. There is no doubt about that. In its literary setting, in its words it is talking about the nation being re-shaped and re-formed because it is not what the maker wanted it to be. However I think it works for individuals as well.

I think that we are (possibly) malleable lumps of clay, ready to be re-worked. The God who first formed and shaped us is constantly working on us (I remember t-shirts that used to read "Be Patient with Me---God Ain't Finished With Me Yet") to bring us more into harmony with God's vision for who we and the world in which we live could be.

In this Season of Creation I think there is great value in reminding ourselves that we are formed from the same stuff as the rest of Creation. It helps keep us humble and it reminds us that we are inextricably linked to the world around us. We forget that link at our own peril.

In this Season of Creation, and the rest of the year too, there is great value in remembering that we are formed by the Potter (in God's image as the other Creation story tells us). This brings a sacred aspect to our very existence. It calls us to live into that sacredness.

Living in a world the humanity has not always served well, a creation where humanity has often been a poor steward of what was placed in our care it is good to remember that the Potter continues to reshape the vessel. This can be a great source of hope.

What does it mean to you to be told that you are made of clay? What does it mean to be told you are shaped by God? How do those things change who you see yourself as a part of God's Creation?
--Gord

FAll Newsletter

 What do these things have in common???

• You are in a hurry, running late for an important meeting and somebody is driving really slow in front of you. You run out of patience and want to lean on the horn.

• Your favourite football player announces he is engaged to some singer (or maybe favourite singer engaged to some football player?) and in your excitement you want to scream and dance.

• Scrolling through Facebook one day you see a post from someone in your extended family that seems pretty racist. Do you bother to engage and offer a different point of view?

• With a deep sigh you read the news and discover that yet another government announcement has come out with an idea that you find so aggravating you want to throw your phone against the wall.

• A close friend gives you wonderful news but then says “don’t tell anybody else”. You are so happy for them you can barely keep it in.

• Your young child is insisting “me do!” but it is taking forever and the mess keeps growing...

The common thread? All are opportunities to practice the virtue of self-control. I am sure that given a chance you could think of a multitude of other examples when that opportunity has passed your way.

I am also sure that, like me, you can admit that your record of embracing the chance for self-control is mixed at best.

Paul lists self-control as one of the flavours of the Fruit of the Spirit. In some ways I think this is one of the most challenging, and judging from some of Paul’s letters (looking at you Corinth) I suspect Paul found that many people had issues with self-control as well. In fact when I think of Paul’s lament in Romans 7:19 “For I do not do the good I want but the evil I do not want is what I do” I suspect Paul found himself struggling with self-control from time to time.

Why is self-control an important part of living out our faith? I mean I can see why it is important for keeping us employed, or married, or out of jail but where does faith tie in? In a world where, more and more, we are encouraged to “just be yourself” why not just do that?

I think it is an act of love, the predominant flavour of the Fruit of the Spirit. Practising self-control is about pausing and asking ourselves if our automatic reaction is the most helpful, the most encouraging, the most appropriate, the most loving. We may end up doing that thing anyway, self-control does not automatically mean self-denial, but at least we have stopped to reflect on our actions and made a conscious choice. We may even find that we are moved to a more constructive action than our initial knee-jerk response.

I encourage all of us to think before we act. I encourage all of us to ask if what we are about to do or say will help accomplish the building of a loving community or will it just tick people off. Will we make a difference or just blow off steam (and if the latter will it hurt someone else in the process)? Is this event so important that we have to respond? What might the Jesus we meet in the Gospels encourage us to do in this circumstance?

In everything we do, in every situation we face, we are called to act lovingly, to love our neighbour, enemy, family member and friend. Over and over in life we are challenged to keep what is truly important in view and not be distracted by the shiny or the loud. Self-control helps us to do just that. We won’t always get it right, but we are encouraged, challenged, called to keep trying.

But I have to admit that sometimes those knee-jerk reactions (however unhelpful or immature they may be) do feel really good – in the moment. Sometimes what feels good is not what is right. May God help us all to know which is which.
--Gord

Looking Forward to August 31, 2025 -- Labour Day Weekend

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Deuteronomy 5:12-1
•  Matthew 20:1-15

The Sermon title is Labour Justice

Early Thoughts: What does justice in the working world look like? How can we raise it up as a real way of being? Does the witness of our faith have a role in discussions about labour and justice and compensation?

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The readings this week address two facets of this multi-faceted issue. One reminds us that everyone needs time to rest, that nobody should be required to be "on" all the time. The other raises the question of what is a fair way to pay people.

Let's start with Deuteronomy. There are in fact two versions of what we like to call the 10 Commandments (the Hebrew text does not actually call them that, it is a matter of tradition). One in Exodus and another in Deuteronomy. In Exodus the commandment to keep Sabbath is based on the hymn of Creation in Genesis 1 and we are to rest on the 7th day because God also rested on the 7th day. Here in Deuteronomy we are told that we are to rest to remind ourselves that we are not slaves. In both cases the commandment is clear -- not just select people are to take a day of rest, everybody (even foreigners and slaves) is entitled to a day of rest.

It has been said that this commandment is the one people often seem proud of violating. Certainly there are some people who seem to want to brag (even if they phrase it as complaint) about how long it has been since they took a day off, or how they never use their vacation time. However I think that such complaints/bragging misses the point. It is not healthy to work all the time. It is not a sign of how important we are or how strong we are. It is a sing of an imbalance in our world.

More to the point from a justice perspective though are those people who are not able to take a day off. The ones who have to work multiple jobs just to break even and so they juggle shifts and end up with one every day -- and then there is finding time to do the rest of the labour that goes into maintaining a life (laundry, eating, childcare...). This justice question is specifically raised when we remember that one of the reasons Scripture tells us to take a day of rest (by which it means a day of rest, not just a day when you don't have to go to work so you can spend the whole day doing household labour) is that the people are no longer slaves like their forebears were. Labour justice, according to Scripture, mandates that people have a chance to rest.

Then we have the parable of the day labourers in the vineyard. To be a day labourer is to be in a very tenuous position. If you don't get work that day how will you eat? That was true in 1st Century Palestine. It is true in 21st Century Canada.

The landowner in this parable has always fascinated me. Why does he keep going out to get more workers rather than hiring more in the morning? And more importantly why does he pay everybody, the ones hired at daybreak and the ones hired just before closing, the same?

What he pays them is the going rate for a day labourer, the amount needed to live that day. This landowner is ensuring that everybody he came into contact with that day got was they needed for basic necessities. Today some would accuse him of being Marxist or communist. Or they might call him an idealistic fool. 

When Jesus tells parables he is teaching a little bit about what the Kingdom/Reign of God is like. In this case Jesus is suggesting that in the Kingdom/Reign of God everybody gets what they need, everybody's basic needs are met. At first glance it seems totally unjust. Surely justice means that the longer/harder you work the more you make. Everybody knows that right? Those people who worked all day were not treated fairly...

Maybe it depends what we mean by justice and fairness. Jesus tends to turn some of our common sense and traditional understandings on their head.

This weekend we in North America mark Labour Day, a day when traditionally we are encouraged to remember the way the Labour Union movement has changed how our economic system works. Of course in Alberta we are also marking Alberta Day since Alberta and Saskatchewan officially became provinces on September 1, 1905. As with many many other things the church has a divided history when it comes to labour unions and the changes they have called for in society. It has not always been clear where the church does (or could or should) stand.

My reading of Scripture and my grounding in the Christian tradition lead me to insist that we in the church need to take a stand on those things that increase justice in the world. That means we have to at least talk about questions around  Labour Justice. We need to talk about how we ensure everybody gets basic needs met (personally I am in favor of the idea of a Guaranteed Annual Income). As it happens this will also help us ensure that everybody has the opportunity for a day of rest each week (along with some vacation time for a longer rest and revitalization). It means we need to speak out when some parts of the workforce appear to be taken advantage of. It means we need to talk about how we define justice and fairness.

HOw do you think we as the church can speak up for a must just and fair world?
--Gord

Looking Forward to August 24, 2025 -- 11th Sunday After Pentecost

The Scripture Reading for this week is Luke 13:10-17

The Sermon title is Stand Up Straight!!

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Early Thoughts: What bends you over? What bends your neighbour over? What keeps all of God's children from being able to stand up straight and tall in freedom and health?

I don't think this is (only) a story about someone's posture....

I mean if you read it in one way it is certainly about posture, about maybe a spinal issue, about a physical malady. But the story itself opens up different possibilities.

When we meet the woman we are told she has "a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight". That sounds like more than a simple, if chronic, physical ailment. It sounds like something weighing her down. I have never had good posture (despite my father constantly telling me to stand up straight while I was growing up). Over the years I have often wondered why that is, what kept me from standing up straight to the point that my body was trained into a different shape -- was it laziness, weak muscles, or was there something else at play. This woman has something that is weighing her down, bending her over.

Then later, when Jesus confronts the people who are indignant that he has healed her (done work) on the Sabbath he puts it this way: "ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage". Obviously Jesus sees this as more than a highly troubling physical ailment. Jesus, who has come to bring freedom and liberation from bondage and oppression, sees a woman who has been bound and chooses to set her free. This is not just a story about a physical healing

So what binds you up? What bends you over? What weighs you down physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually? (Remembering that a holistic approach to health would mean that being weighed down in one area impacts all the others). From what do you need Jesus to set you free?

Jesus, the Risen and Living Christ, continues to bring healing, liberation, and freedom to God's beloved people. Sometimes we may not even realize how badly bent over (literally or metaphorically, how strongly we have been bound until we are set free and allowed to stand up straight. Sometimes it is only after being set free that we can name what had been binding us. Sometime we get so used to being bound up and bent over that we think it is simply normal (I wonder if the woman in our story had some of that, I wonder how she saw the world differently before and after meeting Jesus that Sabbath day). Can we let Jesus set us free? Can we take the chance to stand up straight?

That is all wonderful and life-giving. It is great to remember that Jesus offers us freedom and healing. But I think there is a next step we need to take. As a part of the freedom and healing we find in Jesus we are told/encouraged/challenged to worry about the well-being of our neighbours. The Reign/Kingdom of God that Jesus announces is one where all people have what they need for life, abundant life. So when it comes to this story it is not enough to worry about what binds us up. We also have a duty to ask what binds up and bends over our neighbours. We have a duty to look critically and ask if there are choices we make that may bind up our neighbours and keep them from standing up straight.

So how can we help set our neighbours free? How can we help take away the weight that is keeping them bent over? How have we possibly contributed to that weight?

Jesus comes to help us all stand up straight. Jesus challenges us to be part of the forces that bring healing and freedom to the world. May God help up accept healing. May God help us bring freedom to our neighbours (possibly at some cost to ourselves).
--Gord