Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost: August 26, 2007
Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe
Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe
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Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 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. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are set free from your ailment.’ When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.
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Stretching to the fullest.A few years ago I went back to South Korea to visit and I toured an old prison. It had been turned into a walk through museum. In the basement of the jail, I saw small prison cells no bigger than a broom closet. They were purposely designed with very low ceilings so the prisoners could only stand with their necks bent. Can you imagine never being allowed to stand fully erect? My neck hurts as I think about it now. The effect of such prison cells was to break prisoners’ spirits as well as their bodies.
The prison was built and used during the Japanese military occupation of Korea from 1909 to 1945. The jail is now a museum so visitors can see and experience the shameful period of Korean history when the Japanese Military Regime ruled Korea with brutality and violence until the Atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.
The prison cell in South Korea reminds me of Luke’s story of a bent woman with a spirit that had crippled her for 18 years. Not being able to stretch to her full height must have been torturous. Only seeing the ground she was walking on – littered with things people would carefully avoid stepping on. Never being able to look people in the eye. But the worst part of it all must have been the inability to stretch to the fullest of her being.
An unnamed, bent over woman encounters Jesus one Sabbath Day – a day of rest to remember the holy day when God rested after creating the universe – and was set free from her ailment and was able to stand straight and praise God for letting her be able to stretch to her full height.
In the time of Jesus, physical difference was accepted as a curse, a sign of an individual’s sin or the sins of one’s ancestors. Having any physical contact with such a person also placed one at the risk of being cursed as well. It was not just during the time of Jesus that physical difference was seen as a curse. It continues to happen in our time.
Society continues to define what is acceptable to the public. Media spins the “orthodoxy” – “belief in or agreement with what is, or is currently held to be right, especially in religious matters” according to The Canadian Oxford Dictionary.[i] – and the public continues to perpetuate the orthodoxy until a brave soul, like Jesus, stands tall and challenges public opinion.
Tracy Turnblad is a “pleasantly plump” high school student in Baltimore, Maryland in 1962. The highlight of her day is to watch The Corny Collins Show, a local teen dance show from Station WYZT, with her friend, Penny Pingleton.
When the Station is looking for a new dancer for The Corny Collins Show, Tracy auditions for the show but gets turned away for being overweight and supportive of racial integration of the show. “I want every day to be Negro Day,” Tracy blurts with passion at the interview.
This is 1962 in Baltimore after all. “Negro Day,” is held once a month, and is the only time that African American kids are allowed to be part of The Corny Collins Show. Racism was in full swing, including the words used to describe people of African descent.
Tracy’s chance meeting with cool Black schoolmates leads her to learn R&B dance moves. When TV host Corny Collins sees her dance at a school dance he is hosting, Tracy gets a spot as a dancer on his show.
Besides catchy tunes and wonderful dance moves, the movie Hairspray shows how the United States struggled with the issues of race, intertwined with socio-political disparities, in the 1960s. The physical standards – physical preferences of the media, to be precise – based on people’s sizes, both height and width, along with the colour of one’s skin is also at a forefront of the issues the movie deals with.
When Black and White young people fall in love with one another – like Seaweed and Penny – and people finally stand up for their rights – the way African Americans and Tracy and her Mom march for racial integration of the dance show – the walls of segregation begin to tumble down. When people begin to lift their heads and reach to their full potential, equal rights, and privileges, communities begin to experience healing and freedom.
It was not just African Americans who began their journey toward healing and freedom when they stood up for their God-given inalienable rights to be equal with their White neighbours. The rest of American society – Blacks, Whites, and people of all shades began to be healed and freed in the process. By segregating one segment of the US society, those who were enforcing segregation were also in need of healing and freedom from their racism and hatred of their neighbours.
It is amazing how societies do not seem to realise that the disease of discrimination against the downtrodden and minorities of society always points to the illness of the majority of the society. Discrimination of Others by those in power is manifested as discrimination against themselves. But there is much resistance toward the healing of the community and the Other within our own society just the way the bent woman’s community seemed unwilling to heal her themselves, and heal themselves in the process.
There is a song in the movie Hairspray that brought tears to my eyes. “I Know Where I’ve Been” is the song the marchers sing as they demonstrate for the de-segregation of the dance show.
Motormouth Maybelle Stubbs, played by Queen Latifah, leads the singing as they march for freedom and the healing of society.
“There's a dream
In the future
There's a struggle
We have yet to win
And there's pride
In my heart'Cause I know
Where I'm going
And I know where I've been
In my heart'Cause I know
Where I'm going
And I know where I've been
There's a road
We must travel
There's a promise
We must make
'Cause the riches
Will be plenty
Worth the risk
And chances that we take
There's a dream
In the future
There's a struggle
We have yet to win
Use that pride
In our hearts
To lift us up
To tomorrow
'Cause just to sit still
Would be a sin
And lord knows
I know
Where I've been
Oh! When we win,
I'll give thanks to my God
'Cause I know where I've been
When people stand up to say “No” to the orthodoxy of the day and society’s prevailing beliefs and attitudes that threaten and force people to live at a less than their fullest, then healing of the society begins.
When a woman who has been in an abusive relationship finally stands tall to her partner and says “No!” to the relationship that has been stunting her self, then healing and freedom begins for her, and quite possibly for her partner.
When gays and lesbian people of faith begin to challenge the hatred spoken against them in the name of God, then healing and transformation begins for them, and hopefully for the faith community.
When the rest of the Canada could begin to hear the pleas from Peoples of the First Nations and participate in the healing journey for all Canadians, the healing in Canada will begin.
When society begins to realise that the healing of the entire society depends on the healing of the wounded and marginalised in the society, then healing has begun.
When we do not participate in this healing process, we are diminished, stunted, living with our heads down so we cannot see our brothers and sisters. Being an affirming congregation is more than saying “welcome” to gays and lesbians. It is about affirming life for all so that all can live to their fullest.
Luke recorded the day when Jesus not only sought out the bent woman but also touched her and healed her on the Sabbath. The story does not end after her healing. The healing also comes to the community. Jan Richardson, a Methodist pastor, writes the following in her book, Sacred Journey: A Woman’s Book of Daily Prayer.
“The community also receives Jesus’ freeing touch as it begins to learn about the care God calls us to have for one another. With Jesus’ touch of the woman’s body, with her song of praise, and with the community’s rejoicing, this story challenges us to consider how we participate in the diminishment of those around us and how we must provide the condition of healing – physical, emotional, economic, relational – to happen for us all.”[ii]
Both the current movie Hairspray and the story in Luke have happy endings. The bent woman got un-bent and she was able to celebrate with her community and praise God for the gift. Tracy and her mother Edna – from whom Tracy inherited her generous physique, Motormouth Maybelle Stubbs and her son Seaweed, Penny Pingleton, and the rest of Baltimore eventually began to celebrate integration. But Hairspray was a fictional story, about fictional characters. The bent woman lived a long time ago.
What about us? in the here and now?
What parts of our lives are not living to the fullest?
Who are we in the face of those who live at less than the fullest?
Jesus continues to challenge us to seek out those who are prevented from living to their fullest, and to heal them. Jesus continues to seek us out and heal us when we are bent and stunted by the prejudices and unwillingness of others to see us the way God sees us. For we, too, need healing. For we know where we’ve been. And we know we are going on a journey of healing and freedom.
May our life be abundant with creative ways of stretching to our fullest.
Amen.
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[i] The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, (Oxford University Press: Toronto, 1998), 1027.
[ii] Jan L. Richardson, Sacred Journeys: A Woman’s Book of Daily Prayer, (Upper Room Books: Nashville, 1996), 414.
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