Sermons

Sun, Aug 25, 2019

A hermeneutic of healing

Series:Sermons

The report of the independent health advice panel––

which oversees the medical transfer of asylum seekers—

is disturbing.

So far this year, there have been almost six thousand consultations provided to those at the Nauru centre…

and more than a thousand on Manus Island.

Among the physical ailments…

there is a high prevalence of kidney stones…

and a range of serious gastroenterological conditions…

all of which can be attributed to the poor diet… 

and inadequate access to drinking water…

that the asylum seekers experience.

But the vast majority of consultations are for mental health issues.

More than eighty percent are suffering from severe clinical depression…

and about thirty percent have attempted suicide.

For people who have experienced unspeakable terror and violence…

and who were already exhibiting signs of post-traumatic stress disorder––

to be shunted away…

kept under primitive conditions and treated inhumanely…

with no sense of hope for the future––

is it any wonder that they suffer a range of mental health issues?

Let’s face it…

if you make someone feel worthless…

if you treat them as if they’re useless and unwanted…

if you effectively deny their humanity…

then that’s how they begin to see themselves…

and that’s how they behave.

 

In our story from Luke’s Gospel this morning…

the author paints a picture of an encounter between a woman and Jesus.

As he constructs the scenario… 

we meet a woman who sees herself as useless, worthless, and devalued. 

First of all, that’s because she’s a woman.

After all, Palestine in the first century was a strongly patriarchal society.

Women were effectively second-class citizens.

And yet, even worse than that, they were seen as property––

they were the property of their fathers until they became the property of their husbands.

As inferior beings, they were excluded from much of public life.

Unable to vote or to hold any position of authority…

they were only useful for producing babies…

managing the household…

and making handicrafts.

Thus, this woman would have been devalued simply because she was a woman.

But, more than that… 

she was devalued because she’s described as suffering from demonic influence. 

As I have said before… 

in the New Testament world, people didn’t think scientifically or medically.

They didn’t understand about bacteria, viruses, cancer, or chemical imbalances.

They didn’t know about disease or infection.

And, of course, they didn’t have any sophisticated diagnostic techniques or equipment.

In such a world, and in such a culture, what mattered was physical perception.

They focussed on the externals.

A person’s character was determined by their appearance…

by their family of origin and place of birth.

So, if a person didn’t look like they ought to––

based on those things––

if a person didn’t behave like they ought to…

then that person was ill.

They also lived in a world that lacked a sense of impersonal causality––

a world where things didn’t ‘just happen’…

but everything that happened was caused by someone:

by me, personally…

by another person…

by an evil spirit…

or by God.

Thus, within their world-view…

if someone didn’t look normal…

if someone didn’t behave as expected…

then someone must be causing it.

Either God was punishing them for some sin…

or it was due to demonic influence.

Such people were regarded as impure… 

dangerous… 

and a threat to society.

So they were marginalised, shunned, and disowned.

And, having been told that they were abnormal, that’s what they increasingly became.

Having been told that they didn’t fit in, they increasingly didn’t.

Stigmatised and excluded––

they lost all sense of worth…

all sense of dignity…

all sense of belonging.

 

As the author paints his picture, that would have been this woman’s experience.

In the story, he doesn’t tell us why… 

but, for some reason, the community thought that she wasn’t normal…

that she was different…

such that people told her that she was suffering from demonic-influence.

And she would have been told that over…

and over…

and over again.

As a result, the author says…

“She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight”.

And yet, in the original Greek, it suggests that she has “become bent over”.

Literally, she’s become bent over and she’s unable to lift up her head.

She’s so broken, that she can’t lift her head up in public.

She’s been stigmatised, marginalised, ostracised, and belittled for eighteen years…

so that she has lost any sense of personal worth…

any sense of dignity… 

any sense of self-respect.

 

The author doesn’t tell us why this woman went to the synagogue that day.

After all, he never gives her a voice––

she speaks to no one.

But would we have expected otherwise?

Being a non-entity–– 

a non-person–– 

she simply slipped in, trying not to be noticed.

Of course, the author has Jesus spot her…

and, without telling us how, he suggests that Jesus understood her plight;

that he recognised her as someone in need.

And so he called to her––

he addressed her in public.

Now, back then, men didn’t speak to strange women in public.

And yet, the author has Jesus speak to her––

as if to say that she is a person of value and worth.

And Jesus pronounced her healed.

He announced that she was free from her affliction…

free from her oppression––

both demonic and social.

And then he touched her.

She had been excluded and devalued most of her life…

she had been shunned and made to feel worthless for eighteen years…

she had been treated as a non-person…

and Jesus touched her.

Verbally and symbolically, Jesus declared her to be clean, normal, and whole––

a person of worth and value––

and he restored her to her rightful place in the community:

he called her a “daughter of Abraham”

declaring that she did belong…

that she did have a place.

Ultimately, that’s what healing meant––

being re-valued, accepted, and included.

 

Today, there are many in our community who still face that sort of thing;

there are many who still experience a sense of being devalued…

rejected…

and excluded…

to the point of feeling useless…

worthless…

insignificant…

even less-than-human.

It’s the experience of many unemployed people dealing with uncaring bureaucracies…

and the constant scowl of community attitudes and prejudice.

It’s the experience of many older people dealing with the health system…

or with aged-care facilities…

where decisions are simply made for them…

and they gradually lose every shred of freedom and independence that they once knew.

And it’s especially the experience of asylum seekers in this country––

turned into a political football…

demonised and dehumanised… 

and traumatised both by their experience and by our system.

As those who follow Jesus Christ today…

we’re called to follow his example…

and to continue his work.

We’re called to touch the broken in God’s name.

We’re called to declare to them, “you are worthwhile…

you are valuable…

you are a precious human being…

you are a beloved child of God”.

We’re called to reach out with compassion… 

and to make known the healing and wholeness of God…

to whoever needs it…

to whoever is broken…

to whoever feels unwanted and unloved, devalued and dehumanised.

God calls us to touch and heal the broken…

whoever they might be––

until all can lift their heads up high.

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