"&request.querystring("c")&"

“What Burdens Are Weighing You Down?”

The Reverend Elizabeth C. Knowlton
August 26, 2007
Mikell Chapel 7:45 and 9:00 a.m.
Hebrews 12:18-29 and Luke 13:10-17

Here something stubborn comes,
Dislodging the earth crumbs
And making crusty rubble.
It comes up bending double,
And looks like a green staple.

It could be seedling maple,
Or artichoke, or bean.
That remains to be seen.
Forced to make choice of ends,
The stalk in time unbends,

From: Seed Leaves by Richard Wilbur

“Forced to make a choice of ends, the stalk in time unbends.”  This excerpt from a poem by Richard Wilbur, entitled Seed Leaves, strikes at the heart of our human quest for identity.  We sometimes believe we spring from the womb, or at least as college graduates, with a fully formed sense of identity.  And while the deepest sense of our identity is indeed within us, the process of unfurling takes a while. 

And part of what allows us to unbend, is in fact a “choice of ends.”  It is not always the certainty of a specific destination or outcome, but it is a commitment to a particular way of life and identity.  It can even be the particular practices and religious observations we claim to shape and form our identity.

Our passage from Hebrews this morning talks a lot about our Christian identity.  The whole letter is basically a strongly worded sermon to remind us of who we are and how to stay on that course.  There is a deep recognition that one of the primary difficulties of that identity, is that it is not fully manifest.  The tangible here and now, before we are fully one with God, is probably much easier to focus on than “coming to something that cannot be touched.”  The assertion that it is a kingdom that cannot be shaken is not necessarily a temporal reflection of our feelings.  We can indeed feel that the promises are too far away to be helpful in the day to day burdens and tragedies that we suffer.

I often worry that the pace of our culture in fact allows very little time or space to reflect on the promises that go beyond today.  Beyond what is entered on our palm pilot or in the disturbing headlines in the paper.  It is one reason I think we have seen such an upsurge in interest in spirituality from a myriad of traditions.  We are desperately grasping for something that will give us the experience of something beyond the day to day tasks, and beyond our day to day identities.

I have been in full blown school adjustment mode the past week.  I have been struggling with calendars, carpool schedules, and how that will integrate with my work here at the Cathedral.  I can get so caught up in those responsibilities of mother and priest, that it can be hard to remember that there is anything else to my identity.  Unless, it happens to be the additional roles of wife, daughter, sister that have momentarily dropped off my radar screen.  I rarely have the time to just sit back and focus on just being.  Particularly, if I expect that time to just naturally present itself on my calendar. 

Yet, when I do take the time, I start to glimpse an identity that has nothing to do with anything I do.  It rather is centered on who I can be before God.  And it is only through being that I start to more fully grasp myself in relationship to God.

Because as much as I hate to believe it given the currency our culture attributes to our roles, I don’t actually think God cares about them very much.  Our roles may provide orientation and structure to our lives, but they are not what God thinks is particularly central to who we are in the kingdom of God. 

No, in the kingdom of God, our identity is about being loved and cherished as part of God’s creation. If there is a consuming fire, such as Hebrews describes, I don’t think it is a fiery punishment.  Rather it is the burning away of all the excess, all the things that get in the way of our freedom to be fully in relationship with God.

So how do we lose sight of this so easily?  I think it is because we allow our roles and concerns to pile up on us, until we are just as bent over as the woman in Luke’s gospel.  We are so hunched over, we would be lucky to make direct eye contact with the one who can see beyond our eyes to the soul of God within.

One reason is our inability to stop and get off the treadmill of modern life.  (And of course I don’t mean we should stop exercising).  But the reality is that something has been lost when the only way for me to take walk is in front of the TV.  When I haven’t dedicated the time to sometimes walk outside and look at the creation.

I have been noticing recently that there are an increasing number of books about the Sabbath. If you go to search on “Sabbath” in the book section of amazon.com, you get 57,594 hits.  If a book could solve this, and yes I own several of them, we should be in pretty good shape.  But the reality is the culture seems to only be increasing its pace and we have lost any sense of a regular rhythm of work and Sabbath.  But, at least we seem to understand that keeping up that pace is not without its repercussions.  So, we have started to at least long for a better balance. 

But, even with that awareness, we might not fully appreciate what we are being invited to experience by God.  Because, the danger is that we might start to equate Sabbath, with a good nap or an appointment at the spa.  And while rest from exhaustion is one facet of Sabbath, it is certainly not the key point.  Rest might just be the precondition necessary to allow us to experience Sabbath.

If we think about Sabbath as only a rest from exhaustion, we have certainly disconnected it from Genesis.  Do we really think the reminder of the seventh day of creation was a reminder that God just got a bit overextended and overcommitted in the first six days?  That the only solution God had at that point was to drop down like an eternal couch potato and watch bad TV?

We are tired and we need to rest, but that is only the first step in being able to really observe and keep the Sabbath holy.  Part of being fully immersed in the Sabbath is a freedom from bondage.  It is an invitation to discover who we are in God’s eyes.

The passage in the Gospel today is a beautiful illustration.  The woman that Jesus heals is literally bent over, and has been for eighteen years.  She has been bent over long enough for her to have no real memory of herself aside from that identity.  She cannot unbend to the point so that people can even see who she is, nor can she see the world except from the position of straining her neck.  She has gotten so used to this identity that she does not even necessarily seek healing for herself.  She does not approach Jesus.

Instead, it is Jesus that recognizes her and calls her back to her true identity.  It is striking that Jesus recognizes her as a daughter of Abraham.  Not that daughter of Josh down the road.  Not the chairwoman of the PTA, or the mom of Junior and Annabelle.  Not even the tremendously successful business owner.  No, she is a daughter of Abraham.  She is an heir to the promises of blessing that were made to Abraham long before she was afflicted.  A blessing that entitles her to observe the Sabbath free from bondage and open to the fullest praise she can muster.

Of course, the leader in the synagogue is rather bent over as well.  Just, rather than the physical hunching that the woman shows, he is bent over by the burden of following the rules to the exclusion of mercy. 

What has you hunched over?  What keeps you from meeting the eyes of Jesus?  If we don’t even know we are bent over, perhaps we need to look for the Sabbath.  Maybe if we took the time to be more intentional about freedom from work, we might just find ourselves free of burdens we didn’t even know we were carrying.

Amen

Comments? Contact Beth Knowlton at: BKnowlton@stphilipscathedral.org

view other sermons