- 4 hours ago
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Beloved Members of St. Martin's,
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When I was just starting out after college, one of the popular bands at the time was called, ironically, 10,000 Maniacs. Their music was ethereal, dreamy, uplifting pop, led by the lilting voice of their lead singer, Natalie Marchant. It hardly the sounds of a screaming horde of people who had lost their minds.
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One of their hits was a song called "Trouble Me." It was a song addressed to a friend who is dealing with some problem. Right from the start, help is offered to the friend who is bent beneath their cares:
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(Trouble me) on the days when you feel spent
Why let your shoulders bend Underneath this burden When my back is sturdy and strong? Trouble me
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This song came to mind as I was thinking about this week's gospel passage from Luke 13: 10-17, which tells the story of Jesus healing a woman with a severely bent back while he is in a synagogue on the sabbath. It's part of a playlist I put together a few years ago as a pick me up when there was a whole lot on my plate and I felt overwhelmed by the burdens I was carrying. This playlist included songs like "Bridge Over Troubled Water," by Simon and Garfunkel; "Wind Beneath My Wings," by Bette Midler, "The Life is the Red Wagon," by Jane Siberry; "You've Got a Friend," by Carole King; and "With a Little Help From My Friends," by the Beatles; to name a few.
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The woman in our gospel story carries a burden, and needs to help to be freed of it. Even without asking, Jesus sees her and acts to give her that freedom. Jesus's opponents criticize him for performing an act of healing as being at the wrong place and at the wrong time. The sabbath, they say, is for rest. Yet Jesus corrects them: the sabbath is for freedom, especially freedom from burdens. How much so for a burden that is too much to bear, and prevents someone from looking up and forward?
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One thing that is true about burdens is that they are easier to bear when they are shared, and that when we have the chance to help remove a burden from someone, Jesus calls us to act. As we approach the 60th anniversary of the first Eucharist of this parish in September, I hope you all have memories of times when this parish and its ministries have helped you be freed from burdens. I hope you can also look back on times when this parish has also enabled you to ease the burdens of others. I invite you to spend the next month before our 60th birthday celebration on September 20 thinking of those stories-- and dreaming of ways St. Martin's can continue to be that kind of healing, liberating, caring community for the next sixty year-- and beyond. Because a Sabbath community is a liberating community.
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In Christ,
Mother Leslie+
