Reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Luke. On a Sabbath day, you weren't supposed to do any work on the Sabbath day, remember? So on a Sabbath day, Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues. There was a woman there who for eighteen years had been possessed by a spirit which drained her strength. She was badly stooped, quite incapable of standing erect.
When Jesus saw her, he called the woman over and said, woman, you are free of your infirmity. He laid his hand on her, and immediately, she stood up straight and began thanking god. The chief of the synagogue, indignant that Jesus should have healed, that is done work on the Sabbath, said to the congregation, there are six days for working. Come on those days to be cured, not on the Sabbath. Our Lord said in reply, oh you hypocrites, Which of you does not let his ox or his ass out of the stall on the Sabbath day to water it?
Should not this daughter of Abraham here, who has been in the bondage of Satan for eighteen years be freed and released from her shackles on the Sabbath? These are sins that bring the at these words, his opponents, our lord's opponents, were covered with confusion. And meanwhile, everyone else notice that. Everyone else rejoiced at the marvels that Jesus was accomplishing. And this is the gospel, the good news of the lord.
Thank you, lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. Well, once again, we have here a reference as clear as anything should be could be when our lord says, should not this daughter of Abraham, who has been in the bondage of Satan for eighteen years, be freed from the shackles? I call your attention. Here's here's just another example, illustration of the reference in the New Testament to put the possession of evil spirits.
You can't you can't get out of it. You can't avoid it. You may not like it. You may disagree with it. You may think it's nonsense, but it's there.
That's my point. It's there. Whatever the the actuality of it is, I don't know. But to say that this is all fiction and and it's all figured is speech is nonsense. It's all I can say.
You see, we're living in a world where we don't want to admit sin. Because you see sin, when you use that word sin, it's like using the word adultery or using the word thievery or the word fornication or the word immorality. See, as soon as you though use those words, you're bringing in culpability and responsibility for wrongdoing. See. And today we don't do wrong.
See. We are victims of our environment. My mother loved me too much or she didn't love me at all. Therefore, I am what I am. My father didn't love me or he loved me too much.
Therefore, I am what I am. My mother made me wear dresses when I was a one year old, therefore, I am what I am. Or she didn't make me wear dresses, therefore, I am what I am. In every in in other words, everything under the sun is brought in to explain my, not sin, but my antisocial conduct. Who cares?
Who cares? You see, when you talk like this people say, oh, look, you're just being facetious. You're you're trivializing. You're just dealing with semantics. What's the difference whether you call whether you say you're sexually active or whether you're committing fornication or adultery?
What's the difference? The the the difference is absolutely everything. Everything. When I admit sin, I am implying that there's a God. I'm his creature.
I'm obligated to him. I can break the bond that unites me to him. He won't break the bond. I break it. That's all involved in the word sin, and none of that is involved in anti antisocial conduct.
None of it. Antisocial conduct simply means I behave in a way that is disturbing to you, and I wouldn't like to disturb you, would I? Of course not. One mustn't be disturbed. You must have religion that that unites us, that gives us peace, that establishes tranquility.
You can get that out of a pint or a fifth of scotch. You can get it out of a shot in the arm. You can get it get it by going out and doing good to your neighbor and be a great philanthropist. That has nothing to do with religion. Nothing.
Nothing at all. I can lay down my life for my neighbor and it has nothing to do with God. Socrates did that. There've been plenty of martyrs for any cause. You can get martyrs for anything.
We don't want to admit that there's an actuality of sin and the devil in the world. Not that you you just well, of course, it's about two years old now, therefore, it's it's with a dodo bird. But there was a very popular song, the devil made me do it. Well, that was a very friendly thing for the to bring the devil in like that. He I hope he appreciated it.
In other words, I don't I'm not responsible for my wrongdoing. It's that my friend, the devil or my enemy, the devil or somebody, the devil. I didn't do it. But as soon as you use the word sin, you're saying I did wrong, I am guilty. Because you can't commit sin unless you know you're doing it.
See see, sin is a very difficult word. It doesn't mean antisocial conduct, whatever that may mean. What in the world does antisocial conduct mean? Because there are times when I should be completely antisocial. And so we come back to Jesus Christ.
You see, this is what we don't this I I mean, we we all remember, you say, don't believe he's up there. He's not talking to me. I'm talking to myself. We're living in this world. Did you see yesterday's parade?
Where where in a in several states and in several cities, it was forbidden to be distributed yesterday. That's the world we're living in, and you can't escape it. It's like I did this so I'm not theorizing. On a dare from a young man many years ago, I rolled myself off of a boat into what I thought was good water, and it was covered with oil. And I came up a bloody, not a bloody, but an oily mess.
I mean a mess. If you've ever got in When I say oil, I mean crude. Crude oil from the village of ships. You can't get mixed up with that kind of thing without getting some on you. And that's the world we're living in.
Don't forget that. We're not living in a world that believes in Jesus Christ, that that we're living for eternity, and that this life is simply an a preface or a vestibule to the next, and that what I do here for God has eternal consequence. That is not the world you're living in. You're living in the world of the Washington Post, of Time Magazine, of the New Yorker. I read them all, so I know the world we're living in.
You're living in the world of the Christmas catalog from iMagnet. You're living in a world where they advertise this dress, buy it because it's seductive. Buy this perfume because it's seductive. And then when you're seduced, then you accuse then you accuse the man of a crime. The perfume did just what it was supposed to do.
If you didn't do it, you ought to get your money back. That's the world you're living in. You're not living in a Christian world. The only thing you can do is to try to make your world Christian. Your world.
And that's the world in which you live today. The people you meet, the job you do, the problems you have, the decisions you make, are they controlled by some reference to Jesus Christ or are you going along with the secular humanism of the day? That's your pick, see. You have to make that choice. And sometimes it's a very difficult choice.
Don't think that it's all going to be joy when you make the right choice. You may make it with the utmost reluctance. I ask you just to look at Jesus Christ. And if you call our if you call yours if we call ourselves Christian, how can we do better than being followers of Christ? Did he show enormous joy when the hour came for him to trot off to Calvary?
He sweated blood. Blood. That's what the text says. That's how joyous he was to get on the cross. He did it he did it with the utmost reluctance.
And when we say in the canon, he did it freely, don't forget that doesn't mean that he did it without reluctance. He did it with the utmost reluctance. Three times he prayed to be spared. Three times he prayed to to get out of it. His human nature was so rebellious because he was truly human, and the human body doesn't enjoy being nailed to a cross.
We don't enjoy being nailed to the whips and the scorns of daily living. It ain't fun. It can become tremendously precious if we do it with Jesus Christ. In the name of the father, holy spirit. Amen.