Citizens of Heaven - Week 4: Restoration Over Rules

It’s (Still)The Season of Pentecost!  Yeah, I know it's still going.  And we are on the fourth week of our sermon series, "Citizens of Heaven," which coins a phrase from the Apostle Paul. 

“What did Paul mean when he said that “Our citizenship is in heaven?”  It simply means that it doesn't matter what empire, powers-that-be, nation, politics, or any other entity that is vying for or even demanding our loyalty; our first loyalty is to the kingdom of God.   

This series will help us live according to the values of God’s kingdom, which Jesus talked about more than he spoke of anything else.  

Today, we will read a story about Jesus healing a woman on the Sabbath and how that went over with the overly religious folk. 

First, I want to talk about what happens when our “rules and regulations” act as blinders to seeing others, and what happens when we let them. 

Have you ever experienced a moment when you felt unseen and unknown?  It's one of the worst feelings that we can feel as human beings.  You see, all humans have the same longings, to know and be known.  Even the most introverted among us.  

We long to be truly seen by people, and we also long to have genuine connections with people in the world around us.  

When we are not seen, it can cause us a tremendous amount of pain, and it can lead to disastrous results for not only us, but also any future relationships we might have.

We may have memories of being outcasts or ostracized as kids.  Maybe some of you hold on to that pain even to this day.  You remember vividly what it was like to be misunderstood in your school, to be the one eating their lunch all by themselves, to be bullied by people who had no clue who you really are.  

Most of us have also known the pain of being misunderstood into our adult years.  We feel ignored or passed over at work.  We struggle to maintain friendships.  We might be in a relationship where our partner doesn't really see us for who we are, only what they want us to be.  

Or we might feel the pain that comes from being ignored, dismissed, or worse because of who we are, who we love, what we believe, and so much more.  

When we look out into the world there are scores of people around us who are living with that pain, and worse.  There are people we encounter each and every day who live on the margins of society, some of whom desperately long for someone to see them.  

There is this phrase that I have coined before in sermons, and it's one that I am reminded of from time to time:  "The dignity of notice."  What is it about being given the “dignity of notice” that is life-giving?

Sadly, far too many people who call themselves Christians do not seem to have the capacity or the desire to offer the dignity of notice to people who are marginalized and longing to be seen.  Far too many of us who claim to follow Jesus let the rules and boundaries erected by our religious beliefs keep us from seeing.  

When our systems of belief, our boundaries to love, become impediments to Jesus’ ongoing work of restoration and renewal, we’ve lost the plot. 

CITIZENS OF HEAVEN DON’T LET RULES GET IN THE WAY OF RESTORATION

Luke 13:10-17

10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.

The woman in this story knew the pain of invisibility all too well. 

12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” 13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.

 “When Jesus saw her…” he sought her out; she didn’t belong there.  

He gives the woman a sacred title, “Daughter of Abraham.” 

14 But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured and not on the Sabbath day.”

“But the leader…” There’s always someone who doesn’t get it.  

15 But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it to water? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?”

Jesus responds with a rabbinical argument: “How much more?” 

17 When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame, and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things being done by him.

The work of restoration that Jesus did here defied the religiosity of those who refused to see suffering and address it.  He did it anyway. 

What Do We Learn Here?

1. When we refuse to see suffering because of our religion, Jesus confronts. 

2. The church is not meant to be a country club or a gated community. 

3. If your religion keeps you from doing the work or restoration, it’s not godly. 

When I got this wrong, and how it changed me. 

CITIZENS OF HEAVEN DON’T LET RULES GET IN THE WAY OF RESTORATION