Rev. Eric Anderson Pastor's Corner, Sermons, Uncategorized

Sermon: Unlawful (Sort Of)

August 24, 2025

Isaiah 58:9-14
Luke 13:10-17

Let’s see if we can sort out the question of “lawfulness.” Jesus had healed on the Sabbath. Was that forbidden by the Old Testament law?

It’s a little fuzzy, to be honest, and first century rabbis didn’t entirely agree. As Carolyn J. Sharp writes at Working Preacher, “The list of types of forbidden labor does not discuss healing. Rabbinic authorities agreed that lifesaving intervention was permitted on the Sabbath, but were divided on whether healings of non-life-threatening conditions, such as a withered hand (Mark 3:1–5; parallels in Matthew 12:9–13; Luke 6:6–10) or the orthopedic disease that had afflicted the woman for years in our Luke 13 passage, should be healed on the Sabbath.”

There were people who drew a very firm line. In a document known as the Damascus Document found among Dead Sea Scrolls near Qumran, it reads, “No man shall help a beast give birth on the Sabbath day; and if it falls in a pit or a hollow, he shall not lift it out on the Sabbath.” The community that wrote those words, however, was an extremely pious one, and may have substantially removed itself from the “sinful world.” In other words, they represented an extreme, because rather more people would have assisted an animal on the Sabbath.

Jesus, therefore, might have argued from the other end of the spectrum. He might have said, “It is lawful to save life on the Sabbath day. Does it not follow that one should extend healing on the Sabbath day?”

That’s probably the argument that the synagogue leader expected. What he said rather anticipates it, I think. “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured.” In other words, there was healing which was an emergency, and could be done on the Sabbath, and there was healing that wasn’t an emergency, and could wait. Until Sunday.

There was another argument that Jesus might have offered. To quote Dr. Sharp again, “Some interpreters would aver that miracle-working ought not be forbidden, even theoretically, in regulations designed to shape faithful life in the covenant community, since stipulations regarding what is permitted and what is forbidden were intended to honor the Holy One whose divine power would be performing any authentic miracle that occurred.”

In other words, can you challenge the work that God chooses to do, on the Sabbath day or at any time? Jesus might have simply observed that a miracle is the work of God, the one who gave the Sabbath commandment. God can do what God wants to do. And if God thinks that the Sabbath is an appropriate day for healing, then it is.

That’s a pretty good argument, don’t you think?

Why didn’t Jesus make it?

Instead, he chose one of the most mundane acts that was permissible to observant Jews on the Sabbath: untying an animal that had been tied up overnight so that it could make its way to the watering trough. That’s an absolutely necessary accommodation in a pre-industrial agricultural community. You can’t condemn animals to thirst for a day. That’s cruel on its face, and it puts your livestock’s health at risk. Even though tying or untying knots was considered work inappropriate for Sabbath, you could untie them to lead an animal to water.

That’s just common sense. Everyday. One of the things you just don’t think about.

It’s also one of the most profound things that you can do for any creature: set it free so that it can slake it thirst.

It’s thirsty. And it’s bound.

Set it free. Make sure there’s water.

Set it free.

As Ira Brent Driggers writes at Working Preacher, “In Jesus’ view, since the Sabbath law commemorates and celebrates Israel’s liberation, it ought to be a day for enacting — not inhibiting — the present-day liberation of Israelites. Moreover, given the custom of providing water for thirsty livestock on the Sabbath (verse 15), it is surely appropriate to heal a long-suffering Israelite on the Sabbath (verse 16).”

The Sabbath commandment, in fact, has its roots in the liberation of Israel. Most of the Ten Commandments come without an explanation. “Do not steal,” for example. But a few get some expansion, for instance the commandment against misusing the name of God, “for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.” The Sabbath commandment, uniquely, has two explanations.

The first is found in Exodus 20, and it’s the one most of us know best. We keep the Sabbath because God rested on the seventh day from the labor of Creation. Six days work, one day rest, just like God.

The second is found in Deuteronomy 5, and it reads, “Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.”

The Sabbath is the celebration of freedom. The Sabbath is the embodiment of freedom. Slaves cannot take a day off. Free people can.

How appropriate, then, for somebody to be freed from pain on the Sabbath day?

More to the point, how appropriate is it for us to put freedom front and center in our religious practice?

I don’t mean a life of “freedom” that excuses or pathetically justifies cruelty. If you’d like that, there are plenty of religious leaders out there who’ll accommodate you. “Do what you like,” they’ll say, “and you’ll be forgiven.” Frankly, there’s some truth to that. God’s forgiveness is, thankfully, considerably greater than mine. That does not mean that God issued liberty to harm others or ignore their pain.

Instead, this is a liberty that permits and fosters the growth of each human being into the person God imagined.

There are cultures in this world that don’t think women should be educated. The most famous activist for education for girls is, of course, Malala Yousafzai, who survived an assassination attempt in 2012 and is the youngest person to have received a Nobel Peace Prize at age 17 for her advocacy for educating girls in Pakistan.

If Pakistan’s culture seems a long way off, let’s remember that a number of churches refuse to ordain women, most notably the largest single one, the Roman Catholic Church. The United States of America only gave women the right to vote in 1920, and the current Secretary of Defense has approvingly reposted videos in which conservative pastors assert that women should not have the right to vote. Mind you, a Pentagon spokesperson has claimed that the Secretary certainly endorses women’s right to vote, even as he fires senior female generals and admirals at a stunning rate. According to Tom Nichols at The Atlantic, “Of the three dozen four-star officers on active duty in the U.S. armed forces, none is female, and none of the administration’s pending appointments for senior jobs even at the three-star level is a woman.”

I would guess that the woman Jesus met in the synagogue that day would have liked to be liberated from a lot of sexism.

I am quite sure she was glad to be freed from pain. For some disabled people, healing stories are troublesome. Those whose disability brings physical pain tend to say that they would like to be liberated from it. The biggest obstacles most disabled people face, however, is the casual way in which we have constructed things that make it hard for them to enter or to use. How many steps do you climb or descend each day (you may even have a device to measure that)? How many of those steps are an unnecessary obstacle for someone with crutches or a wheelchair? Why did we ever build street lights, especially pedestrian walk signals, without an audible signal?

Is it because, somewhere the backs of our minds, that we believe just a little bit that if someone is disabled that it’s their fault somehow? That we’re relieved of considering them, or caring about them, or making the way accessible for them?

No. We’re supposed to help them as they make their way to freedom.

Debie Thomas writes at JourneyWithJesus.net, “I am not accustomed to thinking of the Church as a place where hunched, crippled, exhausted people are invited, encouraged, and released to ‘stand up straight.’  Especially not people who are disenfranchised and marginalized by those who hold power and authority both inside and outside the Church.  Women, people of color, immigrants, the LGBTQ community, the poor, the homeless, the elderly, the incarcerated, the mentally ill, the differently abled, the uneducated or under-educated, the spiritually broken.”

Let’s make this church, let’s make every church, let’s make the Church of Jesus Christ one in which everyone can find welcome, affection, and most of all, release from what binds them. Let’s make this Church of Jesus Christ into one fit for the entire human community. Let’s make this Church of Jesus Christ into one fit for the all-encompassing love of God.

Amen.

by Eric Anderson

Watch the Recorded Sermon

Pastor Eric tends to improvise while preaching, sometimes intentionally, and sometimes accidentally. The sermon he prepared will not be identical to the sermon he delivered.

The image is “Christ Heals a Crippled Woman,” a print by Philips Galle based on a design by Anthonie Blocklandt for a Dutch Bible (ca. 1577-1579). Digital copy by Rijksmuseum – http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.411762, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84445705.

Rev. Eric Anderson Pastor's Corner, What I'm Thinking

What I’m Thinking: Sabbath Liberation

Jesus healed out of compassion, but he grounded his arguments for healing in liberation.

Here’s a transcript:

I’m thinking about the thirteenth chapter of Luke’s Gospel (Luke 13:10-17), in which Jesus healed a woman in a synagogue on the Sabbath day. The healing itself is reasonably straightforward. Luke described the woman as having been afflicted by a spirit that had bent her over for eighteen years. Jesus called her over, laid a hand upon her, and she stood up straight.

Often these stories appear in the gospels because somebody objects, and that’s the case here. The leader of the synagogue said to Jesus that there are six days in the week in which to do work, and one day in which to rest and to honor God. That is, indeed, one of the Ten Commandments.

now let it be understood that in first century Judaism there was a clear understanding that care and compassion, works of care and compassion, were consistent with the Sabbath day. In particular, acts which saved human life were not just allowed but encouraged, whatever day of the week it might happen to be.

Jesus could have argued from that that healing this woman on the Sabbath day was consistent with the understanding that doing good for human beings was allowed, was permitted, was encouraged on the Sabbath. Jesus approached it from a very different angle, however.

Another thing that was permitted on the Sabbath was to untie domestic animals so that they could get to their food and their water. To leave animals tied up for the twenty-four hours of the Sabbath, that would have been cruel. It would have been inhumane.

Jesus said this woman has been bound by this spirit for eighteen years. Is it not consistent with the Sabbath, is it not consistent with the grace of God, to free her from what has confined her, whatever day of the week it might be? Is not the Sabbath a time to set people free?

And everybody, including the leader of the synagogue, approved of his words.

it is always time to provide deliverance to people.

It is important to understand what deliverance looks like to them. Not everybody who is bent over considers themselves bound; not everybody who has a disability wants to be “freed” from it. Oh, yes, they would like to be liberated from pain, and I’m sure they would like to be liberated from the casual disregard so many people show to disabled people.

But it’s not just folks with disabilities. It’s folks who are oppressed for one reason or another: whether it be out of poverty, whether it be because of a mental illness, whether it be because they’re homeless, whether it be because they have the wrong gender, or the wrong affections, whether they have the wrong skin color, or the wrong heritage.

We need to free people — we need to make sure all people are free from these kinds of bonds. There is no need to retain the shackles of prejudice for any time or any space, especially our houses of worship.

That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.

Rev. Eric Anderson Sermons, Uncategorized

Sermon: They Were Noticed

June 1, 2025

Acts 16:16-34
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

Two weeks ago the Sunday School made some presentations to the teachers who’ve worked with them during this school year. I was one of those honored. They were kind enough to say they were nuts about me, which really touched my heart. They gave me nuts, too.

They also gave me this insulated travel mug bearing these words: “Difference Maker: A dedicated individual who can make a big impact even with just a small action or few words. Someone who makes a difference in the lives of others.”

Difference maker.

That’s what I’ve wanted to be since I was a small child. I went through a number of ways to make a difference: I wanted to be a firefighter, a doctor, a scientist, a teacher, an actor, and some others before I followed a call to ministry. Which, you’ll notice, is a profession that seeks to make a difference.

Whether I have or not, whether I do or not, is something we can debate. I’ve got to tell you, there are days it feels like the world is going on without paying any attention to me at all. Sometimes that’s just fine. Other times, I desperately wish I could change the course of events.

The Apostle Paul along with Silas and some other companions had been in Philippi for a few days. We read of their work and welcome from the Jewish community in the city last week. Lydia, a leader among them, hosted them in her own home.

The woman described in this story came from much further down the social spectrum. She was a slave – Luke didn’t know or didn’t record her name – and she was a person afflicted by demonic possession. It doesn’t really matter whether the first century diagnosis or a twenty-first century diagnosis of severe mental illness was actually correct. She was doubly bound as an enslaved person and as someone who could not control her own speech and actions.

As Jaclyn P. Williams writes at Working Preacher, “One who needed freedom could clearly call out the source of salvation but could not so clearly embrace that salvation. The same spirit that oppressed her could see the presence of the way of redemption—the way that is Jesus Christ. It is also meaningful that she refers to Paul and Silas as ‘slaves of the most high God’ (verse 17) while she was enslaved by the spirit of divination and those who were taking advantage of her torment.”

She may have been doubly bound, but she made a difference. She made a difference to her owners, who sold her words as predictions of the future. She made a difference to those who purchased her words, or so we assume, because people kept paying for them. She made a difference to Paul, because when she followed and shouted at him over a few days he got annoyed.

You know, I really wish Paul had exorcised the demon for better reasons than pique, but that’s how Luke told the story, so what can I do?

Paul and Silas, up to this point, hadn’t made much of a ripple in Philippi. They’d made friends among the Jewish community, but that was a small group in a big city. The rest of the population didn’t notice them. Until…

Paul got annoyed, and healed a young woman, and cut off her owners’ source of income. That made a difference.

Suddenly they were noticed.

Eric Barreto writes at Working Preacher, “Gripped with avarice, the formerly profitable girl’s owners accuse Paul and Silas of profound treachery before the city’s ruling authorities. Notice, however, that their indictments fail to mention one key piece of evidence: the loss of the unnamed slave girl’s services in a lucrative endeavor! Instead, these rapacious merchants resort to the tried and true method of base ethnocentrism. They accuse Paul and Silas of drawing Philippi’s denizens away from the approved Roman way of life to Jewish customs incommensurate with the city’s ethnic values. Of course, the charges are false.”

The charges may have been false, but the magistrates found them guilty. They imposed the punishments given to people who were not citizens of Rome, which would have been most people at this time in the first century.

Jerusha Matsen Neal writes at Working Preacher, “Acts 16 narrates a leveraging of cultural superiority and social fear for the preservation of an economic system that grounds the status quo. The torture, beatings, and social isolation of prison are powerful technologies in that mechanism. Paul and Silas are not imprisoned because they break a law. They are imprisoned because they are imprisonable people—vulnerable people—who threaten the bottom line of the powerful.”

If you want to be noticed, if you want to make a difference, if you want to change the future: threaten the bottom line of the powerful.

You may not enjoy the attention. Paul and Silas didn’t. Is there a way of making a difference that does not incur the baleful attention of the wealthy, the powerful, the ones with intrenched interests? I’m not sure there is.

Greed is never satisfied. The author known simply as “The Preacher” wrote in Ecclesiastes 5: “The lover of money will not be satisfied with money, nor the lover of wealth with gain. This also is vanity.” Last week I shared some figures compiled by Robert Reich about the budget bill currently before the Senate. The richest .1%, said Dr. Reich, would receive a $390,000 tax cut on average. What I hadn’t checked was how much they earn in the first place.

According to James Royal of Bankrate, in 2022 average earnings for the top .1% were $2.8 million. So they’d be adding 1.3% to their income with the tax cut. Not shabby, I suppose, but hardly dramatic.

At the same time, those earning less than $17,000 will lose about $1,000, 5.8% of their income. They’ve got a lot less to lose.

I’m probably as annoyed as the Apostle Paul was two thousand years ago. I wish I had the power to heal these people double chained by poverty, illness, circumstance, or oppression. I wish I had the power to free people who are chained to their greed, because that’s a harsh bond as well.

Most of all, though, I hope I make a difference. I hope I make things difficult for the ones who exploit others. I hope I make things difficult for those who deprive people of their liberties. I hope I make things difficult for those who use lies and distortions to get their way.

Paul and Silas were noticed. May we be noticed, too.

Amen.

by Eric Anderson

Watch the Recorded Sermon

Pastor Eric prepares his sermon beforehand, but he tends to make changes while preaching. Sometimes he does it intentionally.

The image is Paul and Silas in Philippi, by an unknown artist (between 1591 and 1600). Photo by Rijksmuseum – http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.223502, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84114572.