Sermon for 2004 August 22, St Mary Magdalen, Sheet

Bible readings: Hebrews 12:18-29, Luke 13:10-17

I’m enjoying the Olympics, especially as Great Britain is doing very well at the moment. Now here is a quote from an athlete: "I believe God made me for a purpose. But He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure. To win is to honour Him. "

Does anyone recognize that quote? It is from the film Chariots of Fire, set around the 1924 Paris Olympics. One of the two heroes of the film is Eric Liddell, a Presbyterian missionary who was to honour God in his missionary work in China, where he lost his life under Japanese internment in the Second World War. But he was also one of the fastest men in the world. One of the main themes of the film is that Eric cannot run the heat for his event in the Olympics because it takes place on a Sunday. As a devout observer of the Lord’s Day, and despite pressure from the Prince of Wales among others, he gives up the opportunity and instead runs in the 400 metres, not his chosen distance. One of his intimidating American rivals hands him a note that reads "He who honours me, I will honour" – and that’s exactly what happens. He goes on to win the 400 metres and sets a new world record. A very moving story.

Observance of the Sabbath day is a theme of our Gospel reading. Jesus heals a crippled woman on the Sabbath, and because it was not a case where life was in immediate danger, his action was greeted with indignation by the ruler of the synagogue.

We may think that to take a stand like that of Eric Liddell is a little quaint. I don’t think many Christians will be tut-tutting because Paula Radcliffe is running today. Sunday has changed, even since 1981 when Chariots of Fire was made. We now have Sunday trading as part of our national life. But there are still many Christians who take a strong line on Sunday observance, (or Saturday observance, by the way – a great many of the websites on this subject are arguments why we should continue to observe the seventh day and not the first day as God’s special day.)

But we Anglicans are more woolly, are we not? I have observed that a typical St Mary’s Sunday morning has three parts; Parish Communion, coffee, and Waitrose. Unless it’s the first Sunday in the month, in which case it’s Family Service, coffee, and the Farmers’ Market! I have to say I personally opposed Sunday trading when the law was being changed back in the ‘80s, not so much for strict "Sabbath" reasons as a feeling that the change was driven by greed, and that to hold off commercial activity for just one day in seven left a breathing space and made life a bit more balanced, as well as fairer for smaller businesses, for example. I don’t really want to reopen the debate. But I would like to make an observation about that debate: one word that kept coming up at the time was the word "freedom". Freedom to do what you want on a Sunday. I want to go shopping. Why should churchgoers prevent me? I work hard, I’m not free to buy nuts and bolts or fork handles on other days, why should I not be free to do so on a Sunday? And balanced against that is the freedom of workers to have free time with their family on a common day, or to go to church. The debate was all about balancing freedoms to do things.

Now our Lord Jesus has something to say about the observance of the Sabbath, and right at the centre of what he has to say is that same word, freedom. The same word, but not quite the same idea. And first Jesus has to deal with legalism and hypocrisy. The synagogue ruler complained that Jesus should not be healing this woman on the Sabbath day. He was trying to uphold the law. But Jesus sweeps away legalism with what appears to us to be common sense. "Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water?" It does seem like common sense, as if we would say to a over-strict Lord’s Day observer of our own time, "Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath turn on the electric light?"

But it’s not quite as simple as that. Jesus himself observed the Sabbath as a day of rest. He did not despise those who did the same. God did not despise Eric Liddell. He honoured his commitment. Nor does he despise the Christian second hand car dealer who refuses to open his business on a Sunday, nor those residents of the Outer Hebrides who oppose the granting of a licence for a paintball business to operate on a Sunday. Jesus doesn’t say, "of course, we should all be free to do what we wish".

As I said, freedom is at the centre but in a very different way. Here was a woman who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. Now however people might choose to diagnose her condition today hardly matters, the fact is that she was in a kind of prison, she was bound. Bound to walk bent over, unable to straighten up. Bound by Satan, as Jesus said, for eighteen long years. All she had to do was to come forward when Jesus called her. What Jesus did was to set her free from bondage and it was not a single day too soon. The Kingdom of Heaven does not wait for even one day, the Kingdom is at hand. Actually Jesus’ example was not just common sense, it was all about freedom too – you recognize how essential it is to free your animals from thirst, to take them to drink. That cannot wait either. It’s as if he’s saying to the hypocritical leaders "your way is to imprison people with your legalism – my way is to set my people free".

We are once again a very legalistic society. Very many rules, well meant but once again there is the same danger of hypocrisy. The debates will go on – smoking in public places, liability for riding accidents, responsibility for play equipment, human cloning – and those debates will as ever revolve around the idea of freedom.

But instead of asking what we should be free to do, let’s ask ourselves – what is oppressing us? What is imprisoning us? What is bending us double? Is it a physical ailment, with a spiritual cause? Is it a way of behaving we seem to be trapped in? Is it debt, or is it too much wealth, dependency, fear of losing everything? Is it trying to maintain some kind of deception? Is it a family grudge going back years and tears, or is it someone you despise at work and can’t bring yourself to talk to?

Jesus longs to set us free from those things. He cannot help it, he absolutely has to, the need for him to set us free cuts right through the rules or, rather, goes above those rules. There is a rule of nature that says the winner takes all. Jesus broke that rule by choosing the path of suffering and death. There is a rule of nature that says that death is the end. Jesus broke that rule. He did that so that we can be set free from the very strongest shackles, the heaviest stones. All we have to do is to answer the call he has already made.

Selling cars, and playing paintball, and winning races – these can all wait until another day, but to be set free from whatever is bending us double, to be set free to stand up straight and proud of our citizenship of the Kingdom, this cannot wait – this is for today, for the Lord’s Day!