Let's Keep it Oldschool
RCL Year C • Sermon • Submitted
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As we are all aware, school has started again. Some of our children and youth in this congregation are excited to be back in school, and others I have talked with are nervous about the classes they are taking and the grades they will get.
Last year Aubreigh was in Kindergarten, so I didn’t worry too much about homework and things like math equations, but now she’s in first grade and as she continues to go into higher grades I am worried that I will not be able to help her with her homework. Especially the math part. I was always a good student, but math was never my favorite subject because it was the one I had to put the most effort into learning. Part of my concern is that for years I have heard parents share with me that the way they teach math now isn’t even the same as it had been taught for so many generations. So now I feel like I am at a double disadvantage. Not only is math not my greatest subject, but now the math that my children may be learning is going to be solved differently than how I had learned it in the first place.
I had a taste of what it is going to be like when one day before LOGOS one of the youth asked me to help them with their math homework. Literally all I remember the youth saying was something about using a smiley face or an upside down smiley face to as a way to remember to solve the equation. I was completely lost and took a picture and texted the equation to one of my brothers to see if he would respond in enough time to help this teen out. It was at that moment that I knew that I was probably not going to be able to help my daughter with any math as she got older.
All of this also reminds me of the movie The Incredibles 2 when Mr. Incredible is trying to be a stay at home dad and tries to help Dash with his math homework and is so frustrated that he can’t help his son figure out his math homework because he has changed it from the way that he had learned it when he was a kid.
He famously says, “Why would they change math? MATH is MATH! MATH is MATH!” Now I don’t know enough about the “new” way to do the common core math, but I do know that it is hard for older generations to understand, and from what I have heard, it is hard to switch for anyone once they had learned the old way of doing math. After all math has been done the same way for so long.
Why change? That’s pretty much the question we’re asking and resisting to the common core math. I believe it is also the root of the objection that the leader of the synagogue has as soon as he sees Jesus heal this crippled woman. Why change? Do you not know that there are 6 days every single week to do work and today is the one day that has been set aside for that not to happen?
Why would you change something that has been set in place by God since the beginning of creation? Just like the old way of doing math. There is no need for change. The leader of the synagogue tries to appeal and even incite the crowds to rally to his cause that the need for order and following the sabbath law was the right thing to do. Now the leader doesn’t say this, but it has been 18 years that she has suffered from being bent over by a spirit, what is another couple of hours until sundown, when it becomes acceptable to heal her from her ailment? Why change when you don’t have to change especially when it comes to following the law?
Now Jesus has this argument after he has already healed the woman instead of waiting for permission to do it, because he would rather have this woman free from the grasp of the unclean spirit, free from the devil than he would rather wait a few hours. Jesus was presented with an opportunity to heal someone. He was presented with an opportunity to make her whole again. He was presented with an opportunity to show the people and the leader that sometimes doing something the way it has “always been done” isn’t necessarily the right reason to keep doing it.
Like I said I don’t know if common core math is a good or bad thing, but maybe doing math differently could be a good thing for our children. I’m sure that it will be hard for me to understand, but hard for me doesn’t mean that it’s bad. Doing something different like healing a woman so that she no longer suffers isn’t a bad thing. Last week we talked about how doing the right thing isn’t always the easy thing. This week I think we continue that idea and expand upon it by learning that doing the right thing or trying to do something better means changing the way that we’ve done it in the past.
Eighteen years is far too long for someone to be bent over due to an evil spirit. It is not okay to say that she’s been that way for that long, it is her norm, she can’t wait longer. It’s not okay to keep doing things the same way just because it’s always been done that way. As hard as change can be sometimes change is what we need. That applies to our faith and it applies to our church as well. We need to be able to adapt and change so that we can continue to reach out to those people who have been bent over and crippled for 18 years or more. We might need to set aside things we have done for a long time so that we can welcome people who for one reason or another do not feel that they belong here or are welcome here. We need to set those things aside that separate us from God’s love. We need to embrace God’s love and allow God’s love to be shared with anyone who enters this place. And we need to be willing to go out into this community and let people know that they are loved. Let people know they are welcomed here. Let people know that there should be nothing that gets in the way between them and God’s love and healing for them.
After all it is God through Christ Jesus who has loved us and forgiven each of us so that we too are healed of our ailments that bring us down. It is God who offers us forgiveness each and every day of our lives so that we do not have to be burdened by the things that weigh us down in this life. It is Jesus who first healed and continues to heal us no matter the consequence to his actions. He did that for us so that we might know love and wholeness with God. He did this so that we might not ever have to be worried about being bound by Satan. He did this so that we, like this woman would be called Children of Abraham. And for doing this he died on a cross. He suffered our sin so that we might not have to worry about ever being separated from God’s love. Extend that love to all, and be like the crowds and rejoice at all the wonderful things that he is doing. Amen.