Last Kearney Sermon

Everything is either in storage, or in the car or stored at Tom's apartment in Omaha.  I am appreciating lovely folk who have been so kind from families who have had me over dinner or out to lunch, to the lovely lady I saw in the hospital today as my last act as pastor, to my brothers.  Bill came over to carry all my stuff in, Tom is making me bratwurst and sweet corn for dinner.

Here is somthing excerpted and adapted from my last sermon at First Presbyterian Kearney.   I say adapted because I tweaked the ending!  Sometimes the Holy Spirit throws something else in after the sermon is preached!  This sermon will also appear as my last Pastor's Pen in this weekend's Kearney Hub.  My text was Luke 13:10-17, the story of how Jesus healed a woman bent double in a synagogue on the Sabbath.


Right now, our Christian Education committee is getting ready for the start of Sunday School. We usually start Sunday School with a Kickoff Sunday that includes grilling up burgers and hot dogs.

A few years ago, I learned that someone had a problem with how this event was announced in the Kearney Hub. The announcement had the usual information, what time Sunday School stated, what time worship was held and that a free burger and hot dog lunch would follow. The problem that this anonymous critic had was this part, it ended with these controversial words, “All welcome.”

This brought up the question, “So what do we do if everyone in Kearney shows up?”

Now, please understand, this was something that was passed on to me 2nd or third hand. The person with the complaint did not come directly to me, but rather to several other people. But when I heard it, I thought it was quite a happy problem to have: What if we opened the doors to this church and everyone in Kearney showed up?

Would we be ready for that? Is that even what we want? Would we see this “everyone in Kearney” as a blessing? Would we see them as Children of God longing to hear God’s word? Or would we think they were just a bunch of mooches looking for a free hot dog? Would we resent the trip we would have to make to Wal-mart for more burgers and buns?

What if we issued an invitation, join us in God’s name, and everybody showed up?

In Jesus day, everyone showed up at the synagogue, including this woman that is bent over. Mickey Anders says, “All of us are bent people in one way or another, at one time or another. And this passage marks good news.” She was bent with her illness; she could not stand up straight. She could not meet the gaze of another person. The great commentator Charles Spurgeon writes, “She lived in a posture of forced humility.”

This woman had been bent for so long, that no one saw her anymore. She was part of the landscape, she was scenery. She came to pray to God, just like everybody else, but her infirmity kept people from seeing her.

Jesus saw her. He was teaching in the synagogue and while he was teaching, he saw her. I like to think of him walking over to her and bending down himself into that position of humility to look into her face. I like to think he grinned when he said to her, “you are set free.”

That’s what Jesus was about: setting people free, unbinding them from physical limitations, from sin. Jesus unbent those who were bent.

But there was a scheduling problem with when he did that. That darn Jesus, upset the leader of the synagogue. Jesus had healed on the Sabbath. Something had to be said.

Notice that this angry synagogue leader doesn't approach Jesus with his complaint, but addresses the crowd. On one hand, that's a tactic still is common use today -- frequently referred to as "triangling." Those who might be upset with the pastor or the organist or the youth director, etc., tell all of their friends who they think represent "everybody in the congregation", rather than talking with the person with whom they have the complaint to seek constructive ways of dealing with the perceived problem. It is an old problem. It is a modern problem. It is as far away as the Galilee in Jesus’ time. It is as close as Kearney, Nebraska in our time.

But Jesus doesn’t allow this destructive pattern to continue. He confronts the leader and everyone there by reminding them that people are more important than structure, more important than rules that are followed just for the sake of rules. This woman, imprisoned for 18 longs years, is free. People feed their donkeys and oxen on the Sabbath, they give them water. Why shouldn’t this woman, this daughter of Abraham, this child of God be set free?

William Barclay in his Daily Study Bible speaks about the tragedy of systems becoming more important than people.

I believe that many of us are in love with the structures of our churches. It has amazed me as your pastor that any changes I want to make to the worship service are usually instituted with little or no comment, but any change in committee structure or government has been opposed with vehemence.

I believe that many of us are in love with our causes, we can only oppose someone by demonizing that person. During the Bush Administration, there were those on the left who posited crazy conspiracies about the 9/11 attacks, that the Bush Administration itself was behind 9/11, that explosive charges where used to bring down the World Trade Center. There is not a shred of legitimate evidence to support these ideas, yet people still believe them.



During the Obama administration, there are those on the right, who posit crazy theories that the President is some kind of secret Muslim; that he was not born in the United States. There is not a shred of legitimate evidence to support these ideas, yet people still believe them.

There are good valid reasons from the left to oppose policies of the Bush Administration. There are good valid reasons from the right to oppose policies of the Obama Administration. But instead of simply holding a debate about the issues, people feel a need to demonize the opposition. What has happened in this country? Why have we become people who can no longer debate things in a civil manner?

We need to realize that people who disagree with us, are people. They are not awful people just because they may hold a differing opinion from us. If we don’t start to see each other, just as Jesus sees us, as children of God, we have no hope.

Last week, I spoke of the death of Rev. Dr. Howard L. Rice. Dr. Rice was moderator of the General Assembly in 1979. This is the highest elective office of our denomination. Howard was elected moderator when he was in a wheelchair from multiple sclerosis. Many Presbyterian churches were not wheelchair accessible and suddenly had to be.

Howard was the preeminent authority of his time on Presbyterian government. He sought to deepen spiritual practice to the Reformed Tradition and his book, “Reformed Spirituality” is the premier resource.

But the greatest mark of his influence was his many years as Chaplain and Professor of Ministry at San Francisco Theological Seminary. He not only taught hundreds of pastors, but for his students, Howard was the one who supported us unconditionally. I am one of many of his students who can say, most of the good things I know about being a pastor, I learned from Howard Rice. As Chaplain, Howard was the one who sometimes took his place between hope and despair, between life and death for so many of us.

Here is a Howard Rice story. Being a prominent Presbyterian means that you serve on national committees of our denomination. Howard was once serving on such a committee. Also on the committee was a member of the board of conservative organization in our denomination. This organization publishes a national paper that is critical of many policies of the Presbyterian Church. The paper has a policy of lifting quotations out of context, using a hysterical tone and finding the least flattering photograph of the people with whom they disagree and publishing it. While greatly beloved in some quarters, in many others, this organization is seen as divisive and shrill. This board member, who I will call Joe, was about as popular as a case of the flu with the others on the committee. No one talked to him, no one sat with him at meals.

That bothered Howard. He started eating with Joe, talking to him, getting to know him as a person. He asked him about his family, his work, his home church. Howard saw Joe, really saw him, not as a problem but a person. Ultimately, Joe ending up leaving this divisive organization, not because he stopped holding a conservative viewpoint, but because he learned that reconciliation is better than confrontation. Joe learned that from the same person who taught it to me: Howard Rice.

Reaching out to someone, seeing them, eating with them, talking with them, listening to them is hard work. It is certainly harder than gossip, triangulation, and anger. But it works better. It is what we are called as Christians to do, to be agents of reconciliation.

Learn to listen to each other. Learn to know that those who may feel differently than you do about any issue, are not evil, but just genuinely have a difference of opinion.

Jesus calls each one of us who follow him to notice those who are part of the scenery, those who are bent double with physical infirmity or the burden of sin or addiction or oppression or poverty. We are called to be agents of reconciliation to look around and see each other as we really are: Children of God. All Welcome.

Amen.