The Daughter of Abraham

The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

The Ven. Richard I. Cluett

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

When I have visited Kajo Keji in South Sudan I have seen this “bent over woman” many times. She lives her life bent over – bent over by poverty, by malnutrition, by disease, by lack of medical care, by life. And when I have been in Israel and Palestine, when I have walked the streets of Europe, when I have been in the supermarket in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and when I sipped tea in a neighbor’s home, I have met this woman. I have met her in all these places and I have even known her name sometimes. The name Jesus gives her is Daughter of Abraham. Others called her by a description of her malady, the “Bent Over Woman”.

If I had the power, if I had the knowledge, if I had the authority, I would have moved heaven and earth to help her stand up right so she could look at us straight in the eyes.

In the gospel today we hear that for 18 years this bent-over woman had to look at those around her out of the corner of her eye, looking up and sideways. It had been so long and she had learned to hope for no other life than this one she had – bent over.

But seeing her, without being asked, Jesus called her and used his power and his knowledge and his authority, and he moved heaven and earth to enable this woman to stand upright, to stand in the midst of the congregation restored to her full stature as a child of God, as a Daughter of Abraham, able to look at each person eye to eye, and then raising her eyes to heaven to look straight into the eyes of God, she gave thanks and praise to God that she had been set free from that terrible condition that had bound her to the ground.

She stood erect and tall before God, in the presence of Jesus and all the people. She had been set free. And except for one misguided synagogue leader who himself was bound up by law and tradition, everyone knew that heaven and earth had been moved to set her free. Thanks be to God.

In the reading from Isaiah we also hear the story of freedom. For 50 years, for more than two generations, the people of Israel had lived in bondage, in slavery in Babylon. And they had finally been set free to return to their homeland, to Jerusalem, to rebuild it and to rebuild their lives.

As they begin to establish their new life in the homeland, the prophet speaks to them about God's promises for renewal, about bringing into the fold those who have been cast out and providing a hopeful vision for what can and will be. He gives them a reminder of God's command to live justly. The prophet proclaims that the Lord will fulfill his promises as the people fulfill their call to live with justice and to honor the Sabbath.

To act justly is to remove the yoke that oppresses others. To act justly is to give of oneself to the hungry and to those who are oppressed. The word our bible has as food is in the original Hebrew the word nephesh . The Hebrew text does not say to give food to the hungry, but to give one's whole being. Then, one's light will rise out of darkness and one's whole being will be satisfied, be nourished, and have a future.

For Isaiah, and we remember that he speaks for God, nothing is to get in the way of living out God’s justice in our day-to-day life. If we attempt to live that way, we will know God’s blessing and God’s world will slowly be healed. Isaiah says, “you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.”

Another rabbi says, “We are to reweave the torn fabric of the world”. It is done by one person at a time, one act at a time, one healing at a time, freeing one person at a time from what binds them up or bows them down.

In the gospel today, one Daughter of Abraham standing up right with Jesus to give praise and thanks to God because she, too, has been freed from her bondage.

Nor are you or I or anyone among us or in our communities meant to be bound up or bowed down by life, or loneliness, or disease, or the malevolent powers of this world. As one writer put it, “The bent over woman is everyone who has ever struggled to rise above the pain of oppression and low self-worth and judgment from others… she is everyone who has struggled with illness, addictions, loss of value, loss of spouse, or self-esteem or innocence… she is anyone who has lived in a situation that is intolerable… anyone who has been told "You Can't" and believed it.... anyone who has lost hope…”

I want to remind us that we, too, are children of God, daughters and sons of Abraham, disciples of Jesus and followers in his way. What these readings tell us today is that we too are meant to be free, to stand tall, and to take our rightful place, standing in the midst of God’s people, and taking our own personal part in the healing of the world, one act at a time, one person at a time as we live out the daily lives God has given us. It’s not done yet and we have a part to play in the reweaving of God’s world and the healing of God’s people.

Fifty years ago this coming Wednesday, on the 28^th of August in 1963, a mighty congregation gathered in Washington, DC on the national mall at the Lincoln Memorial to stand together and before God to bring freedom and healing to more of God’s children, more sons and daughters of Abraham, more people of color and those mired in poverty in this rich nation, any and all who need to be freed from a modern form of bondage.

Martin Luther King, a prophet for our time and place, echoed the words of the prophet Isaiah. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

He issued a renewed call for God’s justice and God’s healing of the broken people and places of our day and time and place; those bent low by injustice and poverty, so all would someday in God’s time be able to stand tall in the midst of the people and give praise and thanks to God for healing, for release, for freedom.

We don’t know the words used by that Daughter of Abraham standing up with Jesus, but they may well have been akin to the words used 50 years ago on the mall in Washington, in that prophetic vision of God’s justice and healing: when all of God’s people, each of God’s daughter and sons, can say with that Daughter of Abraham standing tall with Jesus, who raised her eyes and her voice to God, to say, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

Daughters and sons of Abraham, one and all.