The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, August 22, 2010

The Reverend Dr. Katharine C. Black, preaching

Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71:1-6
Hebrews 12:18-29
Luke 13: 10-17

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Amen.

"Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, an before you were born I consecrated you...'" "I have been sustained by you ever since I was born; and from my mother's womb you have been my strength." Jeremiah and today's Psalm tell us that each of us is filled as an individual with God's good purpose from our earliest beginnings. Jesus shows what that looks like. He had been raised as a good Jew, and knew that no work was to be done on the Sabbath, but the woman was "bent over and was quite unable to stand up," and had been so for 18 years. Jesus helped her be well, saying he was freeing her from her ailment.

The rule-keepers immediately sniped at him for violating the Sabbath rules. Jesus had carefully said he was freeing the woman, not healing her, so his action was on the justice rather than the medical scale.. The woman, and those watching, were pretty clear though, that the woman was healed, not simply freed.

Jesus, however, made it clear that he was not a doctor, not involved in the work of medicine. He was involved in his Creator's work, the freeing of souls from Satan, the bringing of souls to God. He knew that about himself, from the time he'd stayed behind at the Temple, and panicked his parents by not being in the group returning home from that expedition, and they'd had to worry that he was lost. He knew he was doing his pre-ordained work at that temple, and when he was baptized by John the Baptist he was confirmed in that knowledge. He knew again at the wedding at Cana that God has chosen him, and that there was a time for him to begin acting which he, Jesus chose to move on earlier, given a prompting from Mary. As clearly as Jeremiah and the Psalmist said, Jesus knew he was chosen to bring out the reign of God.

How did he know that? He knew by knowing, and by people reinforcing that surety over and over. They reinforced him, not because he bullied them, the way dictators, generals, and other powerful manipulators terrorize those around them. They reinforced him because from Mary's original information from Gabriel and other subsequent actions, people around him recognized in him God in action. In this Gospel, when he freed the woman from her ailment, and his detractors complained, they were put to shame, and the entire crowd rejoiced.

The argument put forward by a religious literalist was that Jesus violated the prohibition of work on the Sabbath, with Jesus countering that he was freeing her from the forces of evil. Many of the healing "miracles" are problematic, because most of us, when we've been ill, didn't receive either healing or freeing from what ailed us. Also doctors who do heal the sick then can confounded with having God-like attributes. Medicine is miraculous, and in our time, we have been able to prevent and cure a host of medical situations. This morning's Gospel is simply not in that category. However Jesus made the woman well, from her being bound up by whatever ailed her, was not work for Jesus. He was demonstrating his authentic vocation to bring about God's reign by freeing a woman on the Sabbath to live and enjoy life, and the woman's community, the one Jesus was visiting, recognized her return to herself, and his divine authority, and they rejoiced.

Part of freeing people into their authentic selves, to settle into living into their real vocations, contributing to bringing about the reign of God, a better world, peace on earth, however you word that, is what both the Gospel is about, and also the baptism of Hugh Pierre Watson to come shortly. Several strands of story make this particularly special for me. I have an artist friend, Judy, who comes from the far west, lived here for years, and for many reasons went back when her kids were roughly high school age. The middle daughter, Heather, went to college in Indiana, but longed to come "back east," as they say out there, to visit friends here. She brought her French (or really from Sarajevo) friend Alexandra college friend and they stayed with us for Thanksgiving. Alexandra felt she just belonged here, and wanted to join the Boston medical community, which instinctively felt like home to her. She has studied here after Indiana, then Ireland, and back happily to work as a doctor here.

My artist friend has worked in pottery, drawing, writing and other fields, but has mainly worked to help preserve North American western salmon. She has done a variety of environmental projects in several areas, but doesn't really count herself an artist. Years ago she made me a perfect small mug, for our youngest child, and then cut out and put together my ordination stole. Years ago I'd told her that I'd seen some Matisse chasubles, in Vence at his chapel there, then in Paris at the Pompidou, and again at the Metropolitan Museum, and in books. Matisse had been raised in a family, which owned a textile business, so he'd grown up around fabrics, and it's a reason fabric figures so vividly in his painting. At the end of his life he'd designed six chasubles in 12 (for the front and back) big brown paper semi circles and chalk, called maquettes, for the priests at the Vence chapel. Apparently it was the happiest time for him, because he was confident in his design, loved the church's liturgies, and had been born to work in fabric. They were what he was born to design. Eventually an order of nuns made two sets of them, one for his chapel and one for the Vatican. I'd see a maquette and ask at its museum whether I could make a copy of it, or I'd ask some friend-like Alexandra's mother, here from Paris- to ask at the Pompidou, and the museum would not be showing the maquettes or the museum was closed for renovation, and I figured it wasn't possible. How could one translate a 2" by 3" photograph back to its own size, let alone to my size: not my skill set.

Judy's environmental work takes her to Native American communities because North American salmon is not only their food, but also their story. In her work she participates in hearing their stories. She was working and being in such a community in Lummi Island, off the west coast of Washington, the most northeasterly island in the San Juan Archipelago. A Native American woman there was working on button coats, which have appliquéd fabric on stiffer fabric with buttons around the edge of the appliqué. Judy talked to the woman and asked to learn the technique of such appliqué. The woman generously asked her to stay on, and Judy was taught for 3 days, and then went back to work with her. Someone else knew about how to blow up a design with an architect's copying machine, that can transform a small picture into a huge design, someone else about fitting in lining, or finding a long enough garment bag, 36 or 37 women in all. The colors are coordinated to the wedding colors of Heather's younger sister, then a bride in Coeur D'Alene, to which I went.  If ever there were a community event it is this chasuble, made for a wedding, made by an artist, made originally for a chapel, made from a man's true artist and family vocation, and made as a community's gift. When I say this is really a quilt, it's as American as an American friendship quilt with the beauty of French design.

More though it models the ways communities are built with individuals working out their vocations. When in a minute we baptize Hugh, I'll ask whether we all will support this child in his life in Christ, we'll all say, "We will." In earlier times, we'd have private baptisms, with a nice quiet family service, followed by a lovely tea with watercress sandwiches and sherry, or maybe cake. We now insist on baptisms at publicly scheduled services. It's important that there be non-family and friends. The world of a new baby, or any other new Christian will only have some people known to that person to interact with. The rest will be unknown, and we all represent all those people. My guess is that when someone has a flat tire in the middle of nowhere, where there is no mobile phone service, we all want the person who stops, also to be a person "who seeks and serves Christ in all persons." Friends and family are one sort of community, but the groups beyond them are the ones whom we trust to validate us in our vocations, not just our moms and dads.

The crowds around Jesus understood what he was doing. How is it that we fulfill our own vocations as individuals and in community? Sometimes it involves making some sort of quilt. Sometimes it occurs when we understand that a woman's return to health is about someone else's vocation, not the medical circumstances. Sometimes it occurs when we understand both what we ourselves do and are called to do, and when we do it in communities of some sort of service.

We're about to baptize this fine child. I'll use a real scallop shell off one of the beaches I walk, on vacation, in quiet time, in giving thanks for the wonders of oceans. Ian knows about such beaches, and so his mother has brought some water from Bermuda, Ian's birth home. There's a figurative aspect to baptism, we represent all the people Hugh will encounter, and the specific waters: Boston tap water, water from the Jordan River, and from Bermuda, represent both some of Hugh's familial communities, and also the long-term, wide-spread waters of all people ever baptized always, everywhere, in all waters.

How will Hugh grow to know and be what he is called to be? How do we know as a community? We spend time together, work together, pray and learn together. We see what we do that brings life from us and for us and to others. We ask, and we keep trying, asking, and listening.

From our mother's wombs we were each set on a path to some vocation, but most of us aren't as clear as Jesus about what that path is, and most of us would avoid pain and suffering, even if that were what we thought we were called to do or be. Again that's the strength of community for us, helping us separate desires, skills, and projections from God's calls. Our friends help us make those distinctions, buoying us when we're on a right track. Our communities, here, help us sort out constituencies, what people want or hope we do, from what we do or can do to serve God here. We offer an eclectic home for those who want welcome, and liturgies with form, reliability, and a variety of music appropriate to day, people, and occasion. Is that enough? Together through our baptism, we are lead toward God's call. We know Christ calls us and shepherds us toward that vocation. We know he waits for us in Paradise, and we know we'll all be welcomed there: Good News.

© Katharine C. Black 22 August 2010