Third Sunday of Lent: The God who Makes Bent things Straight
Of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy. Oh man. I have been reading the space Trilogy. With by C.S Lewis with my son Agustin in my household. I got pretty bored on the third book. And we've put it down. So, I'm, I mean, but just this week, we picked it up and read some, right?
Yeah, but, um? Gotten pretty bored. I think we'll finish it. I hope that I'll be motivated enough to finish it, but we have finished peralandra, which is the second book in the series. In the book, the main character Ransom. Is put in contact with, like a pre-fallen planet, so a planet that hasn't rebelled against God yet, right?
And Weston, who's another character in the book is motivated by greed and anger and hatred, and he gives in to these vices in significant ways and becomes overtaken. Even like, demonized is what it would look like, right? And I was really impacted by the description of this that this innocent woman on this planet, a woman I like, alien.
Female alien, you know, uh? Uh, yeah, it's a it's a space Trilogy, but uh, a female alien she gives to him. She refers to him as the bent one. Right, she calls him the bent one. And I think that's a phenomenal description of the impact of sin. Sin turns us inward.
It has us looking at creation rather than the Creator. It has. It's a corrupting influence, right? One of the things that happened it happens in this book. Is that Ransom, who's notably less wicked than Weston when he's confronted with true innocence? He realizes that he is also a bent one.
He realizes he's bent. You know, have you ever bought Lumber like you're doing a project I had to do? More home project than I ever wanted to do. I had two floods in my basement, so I had to do some, uh, rebuilding a couple years ago. And have you ever brought bought Lumber and then got it home, only to realize that you picked the one you picked up is way too bent to do anything with it.
Like, I mean, usually, you can salvage it by cutting it into smaller pieces, uh, but uh, that's what really the only way you've got you've got home. You've realized that it's just too bent that you can do anything with it, and you didn't notice until you put it next to the straight board that might be on your framing of your house, right?
Then you say, oh, this is really bent, right? When you got it next to the straight board? He's next to Westin. He looks straight. But next to these innocent people. In paralandra, he realizes he's bent. Right? And I just love that description again. Did it bent to describe the impact of sin?
And I was reflecting this week freshly on the physical impact of sin in our lives. Do you realize that we carry physical manifestation of sin in our bodies? We carry the effects of sin with us. Sometimes there's a personal choice aspect to that. Maybe we're over consuming food or alcohol?
Maybe we're dealing with drug addiction, and then there are these physical changes. To our bodies that are visible. People can see them, right? Sometimes there isn't personal choice involved in it, right? We're dealing with mental illness or insomnia or physical illness. We're not making choices, but we're still dealing with the manifestation of sin.
On our bodies of just being in a fallen World on our bodies, and we're carrying it on our bodies, right? It's always a mix of both this personal choice and what happens to us just by being in a fallen world, right? We were made to shine with the glory of God.
And instead, we're bent. In Our Gospel reading today, we see a woman who is bent up. We don't know a ton about her, but we know that her body is bent, and we know the cause of that bending is a disabling. We aren't given much more than that, but What an example of someone who is bearing the result of a world bet by sin in her very body.
Right? She is literally a bent one. She's crippled. She's fruitless. She's discarded. In our readings today, we see God's response to his bent creation, his creation that is bent. And when we look at God's response to his bent creation. We're invited into learning to love as he loves. Value what he values.
So, let's take a look at his. Response God's response to the bentness of creation. His response to bent creation is made straight, not consumed. I don't know who's talking on a group thread right now on a Sunday morning, but I'm turning on. Do not disturb right now. Because that is gonna bug me.
Maybe I am? Yep. So, God's response to his bent creation is to make straight and not consume. Luke gives us two teachings of Jesus right before he shows us this bent woman, right? And actually, we talked about this bent woman last week in the sermon last week because we talked about.
Uh, what happens right after this, and I was trying to to make a point about what we talked about. It was kind of weird what our legendary did our lectionary. Was in, like the next chapter, and now we just like rewound, which we don't do that very often in our lectionary.
But here we are at the passage right before what we were last week, right? And there's these two teachings. The first teaching are these victims of sacrilegious Injustice, right? And Jesus said, hey, it's not because they're more sinful that they suffered in this way. So? Luke chooses a very.
Um, violent and and visceral description of these victims of Injustice, right? Pilot mingled their blood with their sacrifices. Right, that's what. That's how he describes them. Pilot mingled their blood with their with their sacrifices, so their religious observance. They were martyred in the midst of it or killed in the midst of it, and they had.
Their own blood mingled with the sacrifices of their. Religious observance really violent, uh? And evil, and and they were victims of this grave Injustice in the midst of their worship right and connected to their worship. And Jesus says, hey, it's not because they're more sinful than you, that they suffered like this.
Unless you repent, you'll likewise suffer. And he talked about people that are evicted, maybe not of the Sac religious aspect, but of an accident. An accident, right where Tower falls on them? And same thing, he says. It's not, cuz they're more sinful, right? But then that second teaching he gives.
He gives this this description. Then he gives this second teaching of a fruitless fig tree, right? That is given more time, just a little bit more time. Right to bear fruit after receiving manure. Right? And it's only then that we're shown the bent woman. We're told that Jesus is teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath spoiler alert.
Luke's telling us that because it's going to be a fight, right? And then. We're and we're told the cause of this bentness is a disabling spirit. And here's the deal. We don't know the level of personal responsibility. That the woman shared in the reception of the disabling. We don't know if she participated in idolatry of some kind if she had some sort of sinful habit that invited this oppression of this demonic Force.
We really don't know, but I'll tell you, we do know what most people thought about her. Surely, she was more sinful than the other people. Have suffered this fate to have received this day. This disabling Spirit, obviously this woman is fruitless like that fig tree. She can't produce anything.
You know that? We know what people thought of her. Right? And I think. The people. As I was reflecting on this, I think the people that we've we most often experience in our day-to-day lives. That we would experience the same way as these people experienced this woman. Would probably be the homeless and drug addicted.
Okay. We experience them. About the same way that? These people were experiencing this woman. When we look at them and surely, you know, they don't have their stuff together. And this is why they're in the situation they're in, right? And just like the people of that synagogue. As Jesus taught, let me tell you something that we as bent people.
Are really bad at. Something that we're really not very good at at all. We're bad at rightly assessing the level of personal responsibility in someone's bentness. We're really bad at it. So, we think we're good at it, but we're bent up pieces of lumber like they are, so we're just not very good at.
So we're very bad at looking at that person that's bent, and that is experiencing the effects of sin on their own body. And we're terrible at looking at that, and rightly assessing the level of personal responsibility they have. Sometimes we underestimate personal responsibility. Our kids are being downright naughty.
And we attribute it to their learning disability or something like that because we don't want to deal with the fact that they're just being naughty, right? The kids are being bad, and sometimes they are. I know even mine, you know, even mine. Sometimes they're just being naughty, you know?
But sometimes we overestimate personal responsibility. We come across a Vietnam veteran who runs into danger and drags his friend out. He's unsuccessful in saving his life. And he's coping with survivors guilt, and he starts using drugs, and he picks up a habit. And there we are. And word, and we over emphasize personal responsibility in in some cases too.
So, we're we, we're just bad on both ends. Sometimes, we underestimate personal responsibility. Sometimes, we overestimate personal responsibility, but the fact is, we aren't very good at giving a good evaluation because we're bent pieces of lumber.
And God's response to people who are dealing with bentness of creation is to make straight. And not consume. You know, I? There are two organic pictures given to us in the readings today. The first? Is actually a burning bush. We see a burning bush and what happens to the bush.
It's lit on fire with the presence of God, but what happens it's not consumed? It stays a bush. It stays intact, and it's not consumed. Now, let me geek out for just a second. This is a good picture of the Eucharist. This is where this is an area where we actually disagree with our Roman brothers and sisters.
Day that the presence of God takes away the presence of bread. It's no longer bread, and now it's. The body of Christ right now. It's the body of Christ only. What we see in the burning bush and what we see, the reason it matters. That we would say, hey, no, the presence of God leaves it bread.
It's still bread, and it's also the body of Jesus. It's a gift, and what we would say is this is actually really important. Matter of? Disagreement because we would say the pattern in scripture is actually not God blowing up and making something new. It's God, renewing and mediating his presence in using.
To give us the glory of God. Right? Well, it's Stills bread. His goal for all of creation is to shine with the light of his presence. Like that bush to be burnt up but not consumed to be lit on fire with the presence of God and not consumed. And this is what he does all the way through.
This is why we think this is actually kind of important. Communion theology actually important, right?
We also have the Fig Tree, right? The fig tree, that's fruitless. And God doesn't. Brewed up that fig tree in the story. What's he do instead? Puts poo on it. You know? That's how he he actually puts poo on it. But in this in these two organic pictures, the manure and the burning is this picture of the same thing.
It's a picture of the presence of God, the presence of God, which brings fruitfulness rather than destroying the burning bush brings for like the, the bush shines with the radiance of God's glory without being consumed. That fig tree is given manure, the radiance of God, glory, meant to bear fruit within this fig tree, not consume the frick tree, not rooted up and plant a new fig tree.
Bonds to bent creation. He makes it straight. He doesn't destroy it. He makes it new. He doesn't destroy. And then this woman experiences the same thing. She isn't condemned. She isn't destroyed. She isn't even told come back some other day, much to the Sagrin of the butt heads in the synagogue, who thought that was the point of the story.
They watched the story, and they thought the point was whether or not he did it on the Sabbath day. Right?
He touches her. And she's made straight. That's what God does with a bank creation. He brings his presence. Any make straight?
Jesus spoke words to her. He laid hands on her and his presence healed her, the bent one made straight. The presence of God makes bent things straight, makes the bent creation straight. That's what it is, and just so, like, like Bread and Wine shine with, give us the body of Christ.
They realize what the end of all of creation is, which is to shine with the glory of God and all of us who have the spirit of God and are touched with the presence of God are meant to shine with the radiance of God's glory, and instead of destroying us, God touches us, makes us straight.
That's the story of the Gospel. This is the good news.
And we look at God's people's response to this God, who comes and touches things and makes them straight. The wrong response is to limit the ways bent things could be made straight. They were worried. About whether was out of bounds with the law. These people who likely Unbound their cattle and Drew them to and brought them to water on the Sabbath day because they know it, even though it's Sabbath.
My cattle needs a drink. Really wondering whether it's okay to heal this? Been up woman on the Sabbath day? How insane is that? Right, they're actually wondering the, the probably on the way to synagogue. They watered their animals. Right? And then they actually wondered. Can a woman be made straight in the synagogue on the Sabbath?
What else is the point of the law, except to put us in touch? With our bentness so that we can be made straight. That was the whole point. That's why God gave us the law, the entire point of the law. The purpose of the law is to reveal God's character to us, and in so doing, to show us that we're bent.
Is to take us home. Is to take us home, like the lumber piece, and to put us up next to the straight piece of wood and say, oh, I'm bent, right? The law, the whole point of the law, is that it was to reveal God to them. It was a merciful gift of God to show them they're bent.
They missed the whole point. The woman already knew she was bent. Dealing with the physical effects of sin. In the world. So the right response? It's not to limit how and when someone could be made straight. The right response is to be made straight. And what makes bent people straight?
God's presence. Being with the Lord. The best way to be made straight from our bentness is to be in the presence of God.
And then the other right response is to reach out to other bent ones to see them made straight to. You know, I'm pretty convicted that the people in that synagogue found this woman repulsive.
And it, and it just made me wonder how, how do you and I? Respond to bentness. When we see someone bearing the effects of sin on their bodies? Think again. I, the closest example, the the drug addicted homeless person. How do you respond to that? How do I respond to that when we see someone who's bearing the bentness of a Fallen World and abetoness of their own personal choices and all of it mixed together in their very bodies.
How, what's our response?
Are you? Are you immediately trying to assess the level of personal responsibility? This person has. Cuz I promise you, you're getting the answer wrong, you don't know. You don't know? And you're getting it wrong. 100 times out of 100, you're getting it wrong. Do you view yourself as above or higher than the bent one that's in your midst?
You're probably wrong. Well, I think we're being invited to look with compassion on the people who are Bent by sin. And to invite them to touch Jesus and be made straight. We're being invited to just invite them in to touch Jesus and be made straight. The one who makes all of creation shine with the radiance of his presence.
That's the end of it all. So, we learned something today about how God made the world to display his glory bushes, fig trees, and all that he made. Is meant to reveal him and to mediate his presence. Most centrally, though, we are made to reveal him and to display him where his image bearers and send Ben us and it bent all of creation.
No longer do we shine with his glory brightly because we're bent. Of creation is bent. It doesn't do what it's supposed to do, but God shows us how he responds. He responds by bringing his presence. His presence causes creation to shine, like it was supposed to again. He doesn't blow up things and start over.
He brings his presence and makes straight. He does this with the burning bush where his presence Burns, but it doesn't consume he does it with the fig tree, where the manure brings life rather than destroying. He does this in the Eucharist when the Bread and Wine find their ultimate end.
Body and blood of Jesus. And most importantly, he does it with people when the touch of God makes the bent woman straight. Were invited today to come into the presence of God. We're invited to be made straight. In the presence of Jesus. God will meet us, he'll cure our Bentoness, and he'll make us straight.
And we're also invited to celebrate the God who can make others straight. When we see bent people, we don't see people who are different from us. We see other bent people. Like us, and if they are brought into contact with Jesus, they can be made straight. So, we invite them to touch the Lord.
In so doing, they are made straight right along with us. So, this Lent, may we draw ourselves and others into the presence of Jesus, the one who makes the bent ones straight. Amen.