Full of Compassion and Mercy

St. Mary’s Episcopal Church

Let us pray: God of compassion, mercy and great kindness, be present, heal and lift us up with these words. Amen.

Today’s readings provide us with some wonderful images of God’s restoration and healing. From the prophet Isaiah: “The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places.” “The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places.” Parched places. Appropriate for these hot and dry times of our climate, and in these arid, and scorched times in our nation and in our world. God also promises to make our bones strong and says that we shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters never fail. God speaks to the people of Israel through the prophet Isaiah, and God speaks to us gathered here today. The assurance that God IS with us and WILL remain with us, continually guiding us, and satisfying our needs, even, and especially, in the driest and hardest of times. God’s love will rain down on us from an overflowing watering can, a hose of refreshment, the clearest, coolest spring water to cleanse, heal, and nurture us.

Today’s psalm also reminds us of the healing and restorative nature of God. Beginning at verse three and continuing from there: God forgives ALL your sins and heals ALL your infirmities. Let me say that again. God forgives ALL your sins and heals ALL your infirmities.

God redeems your life and crowns you with mercy and loving-kindness. God satisfies you with good things and renews your youth. And verse eight is my favorite: God is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great kindness…full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great kindness.

Compassion, mercy, great kindness. These are the qualities of God that we see on full display in today’s gospel story of the bent-over woman.

“And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years.” EIGHTEEN YEARS! “She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.” I wonder what ailments, what spirits, have been, or are, weighing on you, bending you over, making you “quite unable to stand up straight”? Whether it’s been eighteen years, or more, or eighteen minutes, or less, we ALL know, and experience the burdens of this life. Very real physical ailments, aches and pains, our body’s inability to do what we want it to, to move and feel how we want it to, connected to and with the emotional and psychological weight pressing down, making it impossible to lift our eyes, forced to gaze only on our feet, our heads bowed down. We are, all of us, the bent-over woman.

“When Jesus saw her, he called her over…” Jesus sees this woman, he recognizes her and he beckons her. The fact that she is even there in the synagogue is an act of courage and determination on her part. As a woman, strike one, and as a disabled person, strike two, it wouldn’t have been easy for her to be in that space. Nevertheless, she comes, she is there. We don’t know why or how, there’s no indication that she came to hear Jesus, maybe she did, she doesn’t ask Jesus to heal her, but she has made the effort to come to the synagogue. Maybe she’s been coming all these years, diligent and faithful, tireless in her seeking God. We don’t know. But what we do know is that Jesus sees her. Jesus recognizes her, the outcast, and he calls to her. Jesus invites her from the outside to the in. Reminding the detractors that she too, is a daughter of Abraham, entitled to God’s mercy and blessing. Jesus identifies and validates this woman and then he sets here free. “Woman, you are set free…!” And he lays his hands on her and immediately she stands up straight and begins praising God. The burden has been lifted, the weight gone from her body, both physically AND spiritually and now she CAN stand straight up and she praises God for this miracle. Siblings in Christ, Jesus sees YOU, Jesus knows YOU and your burdens, all that is weighing YOU down, and Jesus calls YOU, inviting you to seek and receive the healing of YOUR ailments-- the freedom offered by our compassionate, merciful and loving God. Your liberation may not look like exactly like this woman’s, but…it will be what you need to lift your head and your heart, to stand tall, confident that God sees, calls, and heals you.

It’s in God’s nature: God is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great kindness. And it’s in our nature: We are God’s beloved children, worthy to receive and grow.

And what about those who were unhappy with this restoration happening on the Sabbath? What Jesus tells them and what Jesus reminds us, is that with God it’s not about rules, but about compassion and love. As our presiding Bishop Michael Curry is fond of saying, “If it’s not about love, it’s not about God.” To Jesus, there are no barriers, no qualifications, no “ins” or “outs” for receiving the mercy and healing of God. Nope. That’s not how God works.

The Lord is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great kindness.

Remember this! Remind yourself! You are IN! You are worthy through nothing you’ve done or not done, through nothing you can or can’t do. You have a right to receive the full pressure of God’s water hose of love because that’s who God made you to be! Recall this invitation of Jesus: “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30).

Amen.