SERMON: You Are Seen (Luke 10:13-17)

Spoken Live on August 21, 2022

at Kaleo Phoenix in downtown Phoenix, AZ

Today we will be in Luke 13:10-17

I thank God for Luke’s Gospel.

Like walking into a room from a different door, each gospel gives us a certain perspective on Jesus.

Every gospel reveals Jesus as being with and for those who are oppressed, poor, and marginalized,

but I believe Luke gives special attention to Jesus’ compassion and work for the least, lost, and left out. 

Luke shows us that Jesus is very deliberate and purposeful with each step he makes.

Jesus is on a mission to create a new humanity of brothers and sisters who work with him to redeem his diseased creation.

Throughout the book of Luke the author tells the story of Jesus in Galilee to Jesus then in Jerusalem. 

Where we are today in Luke, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem.

Each intentional step Jesus makes to Jerusalem he gives examples to us what the new humanity is like. 

So let us peer in today and contemplate on what it looks like for us to follow Jesus on his way to

Jerusalem and to practice the ways of Jesus together as the multi-ethnic family of God.

In our story today Jesus is teaching in the synagogue.

Can we imagine for a moment that we are there? 

Luke 13:10-17 

10 Now vhe was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And behold, there was a woman who had had wa disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” 13 And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she yglorified God. 14 But zthe ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus ahad healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, b“There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” 15 Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! cDoes not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? 16 And ought not this woman, da daughter of Abraham whom eSatan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” 17 As he said these things, fall his adversaries were put to shame, and gall the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.

Who here likes group projects? Who here works on a team?

Teamwork is necessary for projects to be completed and for problems to be solved. 

I caved a couple of weeks ago when my parents were in town and finally watched the movie Top Gun.

In the movie, I won’t spoil it, there was a beautiful scene where we got this view of these pilots intensely working together to keep their planes from being hit by missiles and by staying alive. 

I’m sure you know the scene if you’ve seen it. 

It was incredible, and it was beautiful to watch. 

Teamwork is a beautiful thing.

Even our time today required teamwork of the worship team, working with our sound guy Treasure, working with Pastor Erin to create a space for us to encounter God. 

A beautiful thing. 

There is something satisfying about seeing teamwork.

It captivates me. 

Erin and I watched this surprising movie in Puerto Penasco last weekend titled Best of Enemies. 

The movie told the true story of a white male KKK leader named CP Ellis and a Civil rights activist black woman named Ann Atwater who were put on a team together in Durham, North Carolina to grapple with the issue of school desegregation.

The two were long-standing enemies before being put as co-chairs of a community meeting that would decide on local school integration. 

The movie told the story and revealed how these two enemies became friends while working together. 

It began with Ann Atwater seeing the hurt that CP Ellis had in his life and then doing something for him that blessed him and his family.

CP Ellis then began to open his eyes and saw the pain that the black community was living in under a segregated world through his relationship with Ann Atwater. 

He renounced his leadership of the local KKK and became a Civil Rights Activist. 

The movie left me moved and speechless. 

Teamwork is a beautiful thing. Amen? 

What allows for this type of teamwork to work? 

This movie showed me that what allows teamwork to happen is when everyone feels seen. 

Erin makes me feel seen in our partnership as husband and wife. 

She took me to Warby Parker to try one and buy glasses as a date night because she remembered me talking about wanting to go to Warby Parker. 

There was another time when Erin grieved not seeing me. 

At a prayer retreat we went to last month I asked for prayer because I was feeling depleted and drained. 

Erin came to me later that night and said she thought to herself, 

“How did I miss that? How am I not seeing what my best friend is going through?”.

In general, who here hates not being seen? 

Being looked over or ignored. 

There was a TikTok video of a husband pulling a prank, gone wrong, on his wife. 

It was the husband acting as if his wife died and she cries out for him to see her and see that she’s actually alive. 

Here is a bit of that clip…

There is something about not feeling seen that will break you to tears. 

Often many of us go through life longing to be seen by others. 

Here in our story today we observe how the synagogue leader missed it. 

He missed the celebration of this woman being healed. 

A woman who had suffered for 18 years was miraculously healed in a moment and this leader missed it!

The reason he missed it I believe is because he never saw her.

This woman was bent over and couldn’t see people properly because of her disability but it was truly this man who was bent over and couldn’t see this hurting woman in his synagogue and couldn’t see the compassion of God through Jesus. 

He couldn’t see because of his religious rules that missed him from being compassionate!

He couldn’t see because of self-righteousness that he believed would save him!

He couldn’t see because of the system he was in that oppresses people! 

A system that upholds the status quo of keeping people left out and weighed down. 

However, I thank God for Jesus who saw the woman.

I thank God for Jesus who saw this woman who was bent over for eighteen years and could finally see straight up and celebrate God. 

I thank God for Jesus who calls out the blindness of the Pharisee leaders and his followers by calling out their hypocrisy and implying they value their animals more than human life and freedom from evil. 

Because we read how Jesus saw this woman, we can trust that Jesus sees us today. 

This is how we may become a team and become a beloved community Kaleo Church by seeing one another. 

Jesus was unconventional in how he did this. Can you imagine the scene? He was in the middle of teaching and stopped everything as soon as he saw her. 

Jesus most likely broke protocol and broke the norm of what time in the sanctuary looks like on a Sabbath day. 

Can we be unconventional today like Jesus?

Can we be unconventional and see one another by praying for one another today? 

Find 5 or so people around you and come together.

And Just like the woman praised God in the story I want you to share:

What have you been praising God about/ or what have you been grateful for lately?

And then, just like how the woman was in bondage and tied down and bent over by evil forces I would like you to share: What has you weighed down? 

Take 10 minutes to pray with one another. 

Now if you don’t know how to pray or you’re uncomfortable there is no pressure to engage but I encourage you to just listen and observe the prayer requests of the people around you. And if you don’t want to do that take time to write it down on paper or notes in your phone and share it with a close friend. 

AMEN.