Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.

Luke 13:10

Essentially, hermeneutics is the study of why certain sounds, sounds we call words, have the meanings that they do. The word takes its own name from the Greek god Hermes, who was the messenger between the gods and human beings; for to the Greeks language and meaning were wondrous, even miraculous things.

Cultural hermeneutics, then, is the study of how specific cultural factors affect how we understand language. How what is sometimes called our "social location" - our gender, our economic status, our nationality, our race - how all of that determines how we hear and understand words and stories and even entire books, including the Bible.

Take, for example, the word "bad." This is sort of a silly example, but for most of us in this room "bad" means "not good." But a few years ago in urban African American culture in particular, the word "bad" came to mean "cool," or "hip" or "excellent."

I say all of that because today's gospel lesson gives us another perfect example of how culture effects how we hear and understand words, and even stories.

Because if I were to ask you what this brief story is about, the answer might well depend on your "social location."

If you are a white male protestant you might say, quite straightforwardly, that this is a healing story, and you would be right, for certainly a woman is healed here.

But if you are a woman, you might say it's about something else. Particularly if you happen to be a woman from a patriarchal culture like this culture was - and there are plenty of them out there today - then you might say this story is about something else.

If like so many women around the world, you come from a culture that treats women like chattel, a culture where the birth of girls is not celebrated and where wives are bought with cows, this story might be about something more far-reaching than healing.

Say you grew up in a village that did not have running water, and from the time you were six you had to go fetch water from the river, and you had to do this because you were a girl. And while you were collecting that water and carrying it a mile and a half back to your village, carrying it on your head in heavy clay jars, the boys were running around in the field playing soccer.

And if the weight of that water, the weight of that culture, had bent you over so that your back was permanently curved by the obligation of serving men who where too lazy to walk to the river themselves, but were strong enough to make you do it for them.

If you were that woman, then this story might mean something different to you. This story about a woman whose back is healed, whose back is straightened; a woman who is freed a crippling spirit that kept her stooped over; if you were that woman, this story might be more about liberation than healing.

Now if you were a first century Jew, particularly if you were an observant Jew, this story might be about something else. It might be more about the Sabbath.

The fact that this story is set within the context of the Sabbath is, I believe, a key to understanding it. I think it's more than a mere coincidence that this healing takes place on this, the holiest day in the Jewish week.

But that fact is also a reminder of how much our own culture influences our reading of this text.

For we are not Sabbath people, particularly. When we went to pick out hymns to go with this text, I went to the subject index in the back of our hymnal and was surprised to find there no reference to Sabbath hymns. Every Sunday of every year we gather to worship, yet we have no hymns specifically written about the Sabbath.

So we are not Sabbath people, particularly. If the word has any resonance for us at all, particularly for those of us of a certain age, it conjures up memories of blue laws, those days not so very long ago when the stores were closed on Sundays and it seemed like it was against the law even to think about having fun.

But Jesus was a Sabbath person. Don't forget, Jesus was a Jew, after all. And it's clear from this and other stories that he spent his Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath day, in the synagogue, observing the Sabbath.

Or was he? Observing the Sabbath is, after all, one of the 10 Commandments. And whether or not Jesus was obeying the commandment seems to be the issue here; it is the source of the conflict in the story.

One thing we know for sure is that he was teaching in the synagogue. That is the opening verse in this brief story: Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.

Wouldn't you love to know what he was teaching about? For better or worse, Luke doesn't tell us. But, gosh, I'd love to know. Probably we already do know. Love God, your neighbor and yourself. Oh, and here's something new - love your enemy, too. Do this and you will live.

But it could be that he was teaching about the Sabbath itself. As we've noted, keeping the sabbath is one of the ten commandments. And that fact is significant.

The 10 Commandments come to us in two places: once in Exodus, and once in Deuteronomy. And it turns out that the Sabbath command is notably different in these two contexts.

In Exodus the command is to remember the Sabbath. It's a reference rooted in liberation. For the Jews, remembering the Sabbath is to remember that they are a free people, because slaves can't keep Sabbath. Only free people can.

Keeping the Sabbath is an act of memory, rooted in liberation and social justice.

In Deuteronomy the command is different. The people are instructed to observe the Sabbath day. It is thus a historical command, rooted in the very first story of the bible, the story of creation.

Everything God created was good. But the very first holy thing, a thing that was not made by God, but observed by God, was the Sabbath.

It is the crowning moment in the creation story, this holy day, God's favorite day.

And so taken together we get a sense of what this day is about in the Jewish tradition. It is not about blue laws, not about staying indoors and not having any fun.

It is rather about memory and identity. It is about Exodus and liberation. It's about holiness and spiritual practice; about behaving like God does. It is about the relationship between creativity and rest, the relationship between work and play.

And so, not surprisingly, Sabbath keeping lies at the heart of Judaism. What is not allowed on the sabbath is altering the natural word. What is allowed are activities that alter and enhance our relationships - our relationship to nature, to work, to God, to others, even our relationship with ourselves.

Jesus, of course, would have known all these things. He would have known that the sabbath was God's favorite day. That it was about memory and identity and holiness and liberation and justice.

Maybe that's why he took the initiative in healing this woman. Did you notice that. In virtually every other healing story in the gospels, the person in need takes the initiative. Jesus, if you are willing, you can make me clean. You can restore my sight. You can heal my little girl.

But not here. In this story, Jesus takes the initiative:

When Jesus saw her , the text says, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment."

So maybe he stopped right in the middle of his lesson that day - a lesson about memory and identity, liberation and justice - and instead he simply opted to demonstrate what he was trying to say. .

Which is why I believe it's no accident this story is set on the sabbath day, and why this woman has something to teach us.

Ever feel bent over by the weight of it all? Ever felt like you just couldn't hold it all together - earning a living, cultivating your marriage or friendships, taking care of the house and the car, taking care of your aging parent or young child, or both? And doing all of this while also trying to get some exercise from time to time and take care of yourself?

Ever feel bent over by the weight of it all? Believe me, this applies to 18 year-olds just as much as it does to 48 year-olds, or 88 year-olds.

Cause if you're new to Warren Wilson, let me say this: you're going to have a great time here. This is an awesome place, one of the most interesting colleges in the world.

But you're gonna be bent over at some point. The weight of your homework assignments and the demands of your work crew assignments, and the expectations of your friends to have some fun and of your family to stay in touch and give them some time and love - it's all gonna catch up to you at some point.

And when it does, you're gonna need some Sabbath. We all do.

I know, I'm nuts. There's just no way to keep one day holy and get everything else done in six. In fact, sometimes it probably feels like you need eight days in a week to manage everything.

I know it's hard. I was a student, too, once, and my life is busy now. So I know how challenging this can be.

It's why keeping the Sabbath is an act of faith. It's why it's a practice of faith. It's why it's kinda revolutionary and subversive. A way of saying no to tyranny. And yes to life. Yes to yourself.

Yes to God.

Amen