“Situation Ethics”
Sermon Presented August 22, 2010
Luke 13:10-17
Two weeks ago, Steven Slater, a flight attendant for JetBlue cursed out a passenger over the p.a. after an altercation, and then deplaned via the emergency slide, with two beers in hand. Slater is now some kind of folk hero of the skies. This wasn’t the most levelheaded course of action: he freaked out in front of passengers, abused aircraft equipment and was later arrested. But his rebellion struck a chord and took the slide for numerous workers who have had it up to here with poor working conditions. (Time, August 23, 2010, p. 13)
Slater broke the rules of his employer and literally abandoned ship. However, as much as we sympathize with him, we still know that companies, churches, synagogues, and families need rules! Children need rules, certain lines that they cannot cross without punishment. God gave rules in order to help us live good and peaceful lives in community. But sometimes, in light of the situation, a rule needs to be broken.
My son Gary was a foreign exchange student to Israel during the summer between his junior and senior year of high school. Michael, the family member who was Gary’s age, came to visit us when both he and Gary were in college. We took Michael to First Baptist Church of Camdenton, MO on the Sunday we were at Lake of the Ozarks, and the pastor’s sermon was on “Keeping the Sabbath”. In that sermon, he told a story of a happening in Israel where a person burned to death because no one would fight a fire on the Sabbath.
On the way to the car, Michael was livid, saying that even the most orthodox Jews would break Sabbath rest in order to save a life. I’m sure the minister used a canned sermon illustration without checking it for accuracy. It was acceptable for the Jews in Jesus’ day to break the Sabbath to save a life, but not to heal an affliction that wasn’t life-threatening. Jesus did the latter. Hear the story Luke tells: Luke 13:10-17.
When my children were in school, I first became acquainted with the term situation ethics. Teachers laid out situations for children and then asked them to discuss the ethics of what to do in that situation. Some parents objected on religious grounds – believing that situations were either black or white, depending on the rule that was in place. There should be no loopholes for obedience.
What we have in our text is an ethical decision that Jesus made in a particular situation. He knew the law – that a person was supposed to rest on the Sabbath, and that meant to do no work – including healing a person in need of healing. God’s covenant with the people commands that they keep the Sabbath holy by not doing any physical labor. Jews believed that it was okay with God to take cattle to water on the Sabbath as long as the cattle carried no burdens, and they could pull an animal out of the ditch if necessary to save the animal from death or further injury. They could also save the life of a person in danger.
The situation in the synagogue this day is the appearance of a woman who has been crippled for 18 years. Her back is bent almost double with what today might be diagnosed as osteoporosis. She sees dusty roads and feet instead of sky, tree tops and peoples’ eyes. She is also in pain, as anyone with back problems will tell you. She doesn’t notice Jesus, but he sees her as a child of God in need of healing. Jesus subscribes more to the Hebrew prophetic tradition of honoring and worshiping God alone on the Sabbath and rendering justice to the neighbor, rather than to the Deuteronomic understanding of the Sabbath as refraining from all work. (Charles E. Raynal, Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol. 3, p. 384) So he heals her!
This act of healing elicits rage from some Pharisees who control the Sabbath with their cumbersome requirements that enslave the people. A religious practice meant to remember and honor God’s liberation of God’s people has become a means of social control and oppression in the hands of these Pharisees. A spirit of bondage restricts the woman’s ability to live a full and happy life. (ibid) If animals can be led to water on the Sabbath, then how much more should a daughter of Abraham receive freedom for a lifetime in the kingdom of God?
One thing we need to keep in mind is this: the woman didn’t ask for healing. She may not have known anything about Jesus until he called her to him and healed her. When the healing took place, the synagogue leaders didn’t criticize Jesus, they criticized the crowd for allowing a healing on the Sabbath. They would not have fared well in a situation ethics class.
Joan Chittister, a Catholic sister, writer and college professor, learned situation ethics from her father. She stated: “I long ago learned that sin is not always what meets the eye. I remember the lesson well.” She went on to tell of a time her father had been on strike and out of work for weeks. It was shortly after the war and the unions were pressing for higher wages and better benefits after a long period of hard work and personal sacrifice. Joan was very young, but was aware that no work meant no money. She was worried about the situation. How would they live without money? What would they eat? (The Monastic Way, November, 1999)
One night after another day of union violence, her father scooped her up out of bed and carried her to the window overlooking the main street of the little steel town. Then he made her tell him what she saw across the street. She said: “A grocery store.” Then he asked her what was in the front of the store and Joan replied “Windows.” Her dad said: “Right, Jo, and as long as there are windows on grocery stores, you and your mother will eat.” (ibid)
Joan was horrified. She asked: “Daddy, you wouldn’t break that window and steal things, would you?” Her father replied: “Honey, when people have nothing to eat, it is not a sin for them to steal food.” (ibid) While you might not agree, this is a case of situation ethics!
Joan then went on to say that “Sin… has more to do with how it affects our humanity and the lives of other people than it does with simply breaking the rules…. And sometimes keeping the rules can be more sinful than breaking them.” (ibid) This was not a lesson she learned in Catholic schools.
We approve lax rules when it is to our advantage that they be lifted or when lifting the rules can benefit someone we love. This is all about being flexible. It’s about reexamining our beliefs in light of situations. But sometimes we lock onto the keeping of a law and see nothing but black or white.
The synagogue leader couldn’t turn loose of this healing. He kept saying: “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day.” There was no hint of compassion in his tirade.
I don’t recall the country involved, but in a Middle Eastern country, a young woman was recently accused of adultery and sentenced to be stoned to death. It hadn’t even been proven that she actually committed adultery. The attention of the international community focused on this incident and the government was bombarded with letters on her behalf. The last I heard, the sentenced has been postponed, but not dropped. There is no compassion when women are subjected to such laws.
When Jesus ignores the law and heals this woman on the Sabbath, he reveals the character of God in his action. He doesn’t pray for her, but simply lays his hands on her and declares that she is healed. Her faith or the faith of another had nothing to do with her healing. Jesus simply suspends a perfectly good rule and heals her. (Ronald P. Byars, Feasting in the Word, Year C, Vol. 3, p. 387)
Luke places this story right before two illustrations of what the Kingdom of God is like. Our text also has to do with the Kingdom of God. In God’s kingdom, compassion preempts rules! This is what the Kingdom of God is like. Jesus’ ministry provides a foretaste of the coming kingdom. In the reign of God, the world will be repaired. In the reign of God, there will be no conflicts between what is good for one and what is good for all. (ibid)
Joan Chittister concluded her article with these words. “If you want to be properly sinful, it is not necessary to break the law. Just keep it to perfection. It is people who refuse compassion on the grounds of law that break the heart of God.” (ibid, Chittister) I invite you to keep these words in mind as you meet the situations of life that you will face. Jesus gave us the precedent for what life in God’s kingdom is all about. Just follow his direction!
08/22/2010
