Seen, Healed, and Named
(Free Version): Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost- Jeremiah 1:4-10; Psalm 71:1-6; Hebrews 12:18-29; Luke 13:10-17
Find this week’s readings here. This week, in our “Deep Dive,” we look at Dietrich Bonhoeffer on praying the Psalms, George MacDonald on the Hebrews reading; and some helpful cautions from AJ Levine on how Christians often import unhelpful stereotypes onto the Sabbath healings.
Some have asked if there is a way to subscribe to the “Deep Dive” monthly instead of Yearly. The answer is Yes! Substack limits our subscription options, but we can go around the system. Just contact me.
In our Old Testament reading, Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:4-10) was seen and named by God. Jeremiah is not defined by his age or his abilities, but by the God who called him. God puts his words in the mouth of Jeremiah. But his calling is primarily destructive. He is called to “uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow,” though his words will also construct: “to build and to plant.”
Our Hebrews reading (Hebrews 12:18-29) points to the new world which has been brought about in Jesus Christ. In this new world, there is a necessary judgement of the things which do not last. We cry for justice, but it is not a justice that we can bring about on our own. We need the God who is putting things right. The only appropriate response to this is thankfulness and awe.
In our gospel reading (Luke 13:10-17), Jesus calls, heals, and names a woman who has been bent over double. Her story is emblematic of the state of God’s people and the state of the world. By healing on the sabbath, Jesus is reminding his people of the purpose of the Sabbath: healing and restoration. The synagogue leader, steeped in his pride, does not get it. He is focused on his own ability to control the situation, to see clearly who is faithful and who is not. He has lost the plot.
My prayer for us is that we might live in the full awareness that God is the subject of our lives and of the world. God is not dependent on us. We are dependent on God. In God’s love and grace, he sees us and he names us. Many in our congregations feel unseen and beaten down. Our heart as preachers is for each of these know that they are seen even if it feels like no one else does.
Not only are they seen, but they are named. Each are a son or daughter in God’s family. This is now the primary thing about us. We have been named by the one God of grace. As we live as the people of God and are sent into a broken world, we learn to see as He sees and name as he names.
We are challenged to see the person in the cubicle next to us differently. If God is the subject and we are not the subject, that person is not defined by us in their relation to us. They are defined by their relationship to God, who loves and calls them.
Susan is not the annoying close talker who makes the office smell weird with her fake vanilla candles. That’s how she affects us. No, Susan is the one who is seen, loved, and called by God. Clark is not slimy one who bends the rules as he’s trying to climb the corporate ladder at all costs. Clark has been “bent double” needs to known that God sees his hurt, loves him, and wants to heal him.
This calling, naming, healing, and sending happens not in spite of our weakness, but through it and Christians are invited to lean-in to our weakness, to recognize the places where our dependence shines through most evidently.
As we lean into our weakness, we participate in God’s plucking up, pulling down, destroying and overthrowing as well as his building and His planting.