Pickled Piety?

By Lucy Strohl OPA ~ October 27, 2008

Reading: Luke13:10-17

Women have little difficulty identifying with today's scripture and this daughter of the promise. "Surely you meant-- when you lifted her up long ago, to your praise, Compassionate God-- not one woman only, but all women bent by unbending ways," Miriam Therese Winters writes. In a story that is unique to Luke, Jesus heals a woman, giving her freedom to stand up straight after she’s lived for years in crippling bondage. This person did not ask to be healed; she simply finds herself in Jesus' presence. That's what leads to healing and life for her.

Yet this story is not without conflict. The healing takes place in a sacred space and within a sacred time, namely on a Sabbath. Jesus is criticized for this breach of the law. Still he  insists that the synagogue and the Sabbath are not the only things that are holy--so is this woman's life. She is a daughter of the promise, a daughter of Abraham.  We can focus on the woman-- but what about the synagogue leader?  Wasn't he bound as well? Too tied to a sense of obligation and the necessity of being right? Would the temple leader ever admit his own need for healing? Couldn't this man see that Jesus looks beyond the rules to whatever the official was holding onto so tightly? Of course, it would  be easier to hide behind pious rituals and regulations than to be vulnerable. Gathering here in Jesus' presence now, with whom do we identify? What's the one thing we hold onto so tightly these days?

Continuing to reflect on these scriptures I thought of the story of Caryll Houselander.  She was a self-described bent over woman-- a neurotic, emotionally wounded child of divorce, a loner, an outsider. She sought God along the highways and byways of belief.  Suffering from neglect and rejection made it difficult for her to trust God or others. Years later, though, Caryll used her unhappy history to help others as a counselor, mother figure, craftswoman and author. Instead of inhibiting regulations, Caryll wrote of this mandate: "Each of us has an absolute Obligation to Live, not merely to exist, not just to pickle ourselves in piety, awaiting the eternal feast." How crucial it became for this woman to stand up and speak in her own way. What an example for us to see!

And both the man and the woman of the scripture are seen by Jesus. One is deeply touched and healed. We pray for the synagogue official and bent over woman within each of us. May we let Jesus look at us as we are.  Sometimes that's too unbending and too demanding of ourselves and others. Sometimes that's open to a moment of healing-- being looked at with tenderness and understanding. We come again to the feast of this table claiming that the lives of ALL are sacred, invited to be healed and to flourish in the presence of the Holy One.

 Compassionate seeing, gentle speaking and sacred touch--may someone experience these generous gifts of Jesus through US today.