Sermon based on Luke 13: 10-17. At the end of a show, stand-up comedians love to celebrate with a distinctive move --- perhaps you have seen it: they drop the microphone. Boom! In comedy lingo, this means they have "killed." Done a fantastic job. Set the place on fire. Left the audience in stitches. Oddly enough, the opposite of killing is bombing. If you bomb, no one laughs. If you bomb, you don't drop the mic. Another example of how English is a bizarre language…!
Anyway, dropping the mic is older than the internet and has been around for over 30 years. The story goes that the comedian Eddie Murphy gave birth to the action when he dropped his microphone in 1983 at the end of a stand-up special. Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock then made it a part of their routines. More recently, Adam Scott dropped his mic at the end of a speech on Parks and Recreation. The funny thing was that Adam Scott was not doing stand-up comedy. He was addressing a model United Nations.
Perhaps a sign of how the practice has entered into our modern American cultural landscape, just take for example, the close of the Tony Awards, when Neil Patrick Harris didn't just drop the microphone --- he tossed it, or when after singing at the MTV Video Music Awards, Beyoncé did a microphone drop and revealed that she was pregnant. But perhaps most famously, a sure sign that dropping a microphone at the end of a talk has entered the cultural landscape is when President Obama did it as part of his talk at his last time in front of an audience at the annual White house correspondent's dinner.
In every case, though the point is the same, you drop the microphone when you think you've nailed it, "killed" it --- done a fantastic job. The mic hits the floor and you walk away victorious.
I thought about that modern interpretation of expressing an exclamation point as we gather today to worship. Obviously we have the baptism of Ethan. At baptism we celebrate God's adoption by grace, because of Christ's sake of little Ethan into the family of God. Boom! We hope and pray that over the years, Ethan will grow in faith. So we celebrate, drop the mic!
But there is another reason as well, for after reading today's gospel, in a sense Jesus kills it and reminds us how and why we do the same. Today we hear how once again how Jesus saw the kind of person --- crippled, female --- that people tended not to see. Jesus saw, Jesus healed, Jesus pointed out hypocrisy! Boom!
Let's review. Jesus is teaching in one of the Galilean synagogues on the Sabbath day --- Saturday for Jews. Jesus is not singing or doing stand-up comedy, but he's drawing a crowd anyway. Just then, we are told, a woman appears --- she has a "spirit" that has crippled her for 18 years, leaving her bent over and unable to stand up straight. Is this an evil spirit or just the challenges of life and family? The Biblical Greek is unclear. Regardless, Jesus calls her over and says, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." Jesus lays his hands on her, and immediately she stands up straight and begins to praise God. Jesus is victorious over the crippling spirit, and to accentuate his triumph he drops the mic. Boom!
But not everyone is impressed, just like critics missed the point when President Obama took on this cultural metaphor this past June, the leader of the synagogue is indignant because Jesus has broken a religious law by healing on the day of rest. The leader says to the crowd, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day." He scolds the crowd for seeking healings on the Sabbath, and criticizes Jesus for performing the work of healing.
Jesus responds by picking up the mic and saying, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water?" We can just imagine the people nodding their heads yes, admitting that they do this. "And ought not this woman," asks Jesus, "a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for 18 long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?"
Again, we can just imagine people in agreement, realizing that Jesus is right. At which the opponents of Jesus are immediately put to shame, and the entire crowd rejoices at all the wonderful things that he is doing. Jesus has nailed it in that Galilean synagogue, set the place on fire and achieved a complete victory over his opponents.
Once again, Jesus drops the mic. That may not have been Jesus' self-assessment, but it certainly was the assessment of the crowd. Wow! BOOM! He nailed it! They were delighted.
And what again did Jesus nail --- the Sabbath day or not, there's nothing wrong with celebrating a healing as well as a victory over hypocrisy. When a crippled woman is healed, what a time to celebrate! Furthermore, Jesus is indicating that shame on anyone who gets hung up on religious regulations about Sabbath-keeping. Jesus knows that God's focus is on the needs of the woman, not on the letter of the law.
Well, what about us? How and when should we be celebrating, dropping the mic? Well, in a similar way, this event in the life of Jesus reminds us that not only are not to be timid about doing God's work --- but let us celebrate for freeing the bent over and speaking the truth to power as we focus on the needs of people and less on the letter of the law. As Christians, we can follow Jesus boldly and drop the mic and celebrate another day of God's kingdom. Boom!
We begin by liberating bent over people, as Jesus did when he healed the woman afflicted by a crippling spirit. As I said earlier, although Luke doesn't tell us the exact nature of her affliction, and the Biblical Greek is less than clear, we certainly know people today who are burdened by life and cannot stand up straight: Abused women, unemployed men, substance abusers, teenagers caught up in sex trafficking, children who struggle to be successful at school. For example, the United Nations recently came out with a study that there are more people in human slavery than live in the entire country of Canada. The list goes on.
All that can seem overwhelming. And the little ways that we have worked on the problems seem like a drop in a leviathan tidal wave of despair. For example, I am disappointed that we are no longer financially able to provide an afterschool program or a daycare. We know it is hard for students to stand up straight when they cannot understand their assignments and participate in class. But, now is our opportunity to consider what other ways are children bent over that are getting help?
Right next door, we have a Girl's and Boy's club who tomorrow begin a new school year. Is that one way? One-on-one tutoring is a critical intervention in the lives of needy and disadvantaged students and is happening every day. It is in line with the work that Jesus did to free the oppressed and bring good news to the poor. Christians who serve in this way are helping children to stand up straight, mount up with wings like eagles, run and not be weary, walk and not faint. Boom!
I've also had several "aha" events in this past six months regarding family members who have someone in prison. As many of you know, we have a large percentage of our population in prison for crimes. When released after paying their debt, it is a struggle for family members as well as ex-offenders for a variety of reasons. This issue keeps coming up in my life so I wonder if God is putting up a billboard telling me something. God's kingdom. Boom!
We also speak the truth to power, as Jesus did when he annoyed people who objected to his work of healing on the Sabbath. A similar kind of truth-telling was done last year when clergy members from across the state of Georgia traveled to Atlanta to criticize that state's attempt to block Syrian refugees.
Alyssa Aldape, from First Baptist Church of Dalton, pointed out that "in the gospels we have a Savior who was born a refugee child who was seeking refuge for the first years of his life." As an immigrant herself, she said to a local TV station that she experienced a warm welcome when she arrived in Georgia years ago. She wanted to provide that same comfort to refugees fleeing the violence in Syria. Likewise, clergy member Donna Mote who serves as the Episcopal chaplain at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, told how very week, she greets refugee families arriving in the United States. She made the point that "no one enters our country as a refugee, with refugee status, without having been thoroughly vetted."
These Georgia clergy spoke the truth to power, stressing the Christian task of showing hospitality to refugees. While those clergy know that our country needs a strong screening system, they also side with Jesus in wanting to ease the suffering of fellow human beings, unwilling to let one regulation crush the other. People of faith in Georgia took a stand in support of receiving refugees, and urged their elected officials to do the same. Boom!
Now obviously, laws certainly have a place in our religious and national lives as they did at the time of Jesus. On the whole, our faith tradition encourages us to be law-abiders and commandment-keepers. Jesus himself said that he came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. But the apostle Paul made it also clear that "the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself." And Jesus was additionally vibrant in reminding all of us that his mission was to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, and freedom to the oppressed.
"Ought not this woman," asked Jesus, "be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?" The answer at the time of Jesus was "yes," and it is still is "yes," boom! Together we celebrate the adoption in grace of little Ethan. Boom! Together we celebrate children being lifted and refugees finding a home. Boom! Where else is God at work where God is asking for our hands? Where else can we metaphorically drop the mic?
In a synagogue in Galilee, Jesus freed a bent over woman and spoke the truth to power. His actions healed a spirit crushed woman and put his opponents to shame. In both incidences, Jesus reminds us that God's kingdom has come into being and has taken another step into our realities. Boom! Today, Jesus challenges us to do the very same, modeling a boldness that he showed to the crowd and to the leader of the synagogue. Our fears are many including finances, an aging facility, nonetheless God is accomplishing as well as providing new opportunities for all of us to bring the kingdom one step closer into being. Like Jesus, we can and do take bold stands as we free the bent over and speak the truth to power.
The good news is that those actions of Jesus lead to celebration, not condemnation; to rejoicing, instead of rejection. Luke tells us that the healed woman immediately began praising God! Likewise, the entire crowd rejoiced at all the wonderful things that Jesus was doing and saying. Today we can and do the same. Ethan is baptized! Children are tutored! Refugees are welcomed! We too can drop the microphone, for we ourselves have been healed and can stand tall, and walk away victorious ---Boom! A very grateful thanks to http://www.homileticsonline.com for the illustration and sermon help from a tired pastor.