Hebrews 12: 18-29                                                                                                  Rev. Dr. Galen E. Russell III

Luke 13: 10-17                                                                                                                                 August 24, 2025

“When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.”

Prayer: Holy Spirit, may we feel your Divine Presence as we listen to your word as we worship you. Amen.

 I’ve worshiped God all my life. I’ve been around worshiping people all my life.  Right from day one. I didn’t have much of a choice, though. I come by it honestly. Many of you know this about me anyway… my grandfather Galen, Sr. was a pastor. My dad, Galen Jr. was a pastor. My Uncle David is a retired pastor. My daughter Cydney is a pastor serving in Connecticut. My mom, both my grandmothers, and my grandfather on my mother’s side all served God in the church in some way and in other settings. So, yeah. Worshiping God is in my blood. My DNA. I love to worship God in Christ.

But I wasn’t always this way. I remember when I was maybe 10 or 11, my brothers and I were crazy bored. And we sat up at the top of the balcony of our church and made spit wads from the bulletin and tried to roll them down the banister. The one that made it to the bottom without falling off was the winner! So, yeah. We broke the rules. And from then on, we were relegated to the first pew—right in front of Dad, the senior pastor! To watch us. For both services!

But I take it seriously now. I design our services with intentionality and love. Conner and I go over each Sunday’s worship service to make sure the flow of our worship moves well and weaves in word and music appropriately. The Worship Commission and I meet monthly to review and design worship themes.

So, we come unto to God to worship. Some of my most spiritually moving moments have come in worship. Sacramental moments. Holy Communion in the sanctuary. And in old folk’s homes who can’t come to church.  And even outside the box moments. I remember as a youth doing a version of Holy Communion we called a love feast. And we had potato chips and Coco-Cola as our communion food. I always kind of wondered—was that breaking the rules? I felt God’s presence, though.

 And baptisms… Oh my! I’ve felt the Spirit most profoundly when holding a baby. Or one year when I baptized a high school youth, again outside the box. I was an Associate Pastor, and Bevan, a high school youth didn’t want to get confirmed at Pentecost. But that fall, at a youth event, he came to me and said he wanted to be baptized and to confirm his faith. We talked about it, prayed about it, and that Saturday night, during the closing worship service, all the youth gathered around Bevan, laid hands on him as I baptized him with water. Oooh...And the Spirit was present. And it was life-giving for him. And for me, too, truthfully.

I got into trouble for that one with my Lead Pastor. He basically said I didn’t follow the rules. But even he couldn’t deny the Spirit’s power and presence in and over Bevan when he returned to church.

 Which takes me to the story about Jesus and the bent-over woman. Who knows what modern day answer we might have as to what caused her to be bent over. But she’s been stuck that way for 18 years.  And healing couldn’t come soon enough. She was also a kinswoman to Jesus, a fellow Jew, a daughter of Abraham, a sister in faith and family. When Jesus laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. And this took place on the Sabbath day.

But there are rules about Sabbath days, and at least one synagogue leader got irate that Jesus didn’t follow them. His whole argument was this—that healing the woman was the right thing to do, but the wrong time to do it. He was like, “There are six other days to do the good thing for the woman, just don’t do it on the Sabbath day.”

 And Jesus was like, “Shame on you, man. Your fixation on the rules have made you lose sight of what Sabbath really means. Every one of you breaks Sabbath rules when you lead your ox or donkey to the life-giving water that it needs on the Sabbath day. And why shouldn’t this woman, a child of God, who is infinitely more important than a donkey, know life-giving freedom from her ailment on the Sabbath?”

I mean really. What better day is there than the Sabbath day to have this woman be set free and be given new life? Because Sabbath is a day of rest from our burdens, right? Worshiping God and Sabbath-keeping are times for spiritual renewal, and rejuvenation, and restoration of life and energy. It’s life-giving. So here, on Sunday mornings, holy sabbath power means the Spirit can re-charge your spiritual batteries and get you started on going through the rest of your week.

Do you see what’s happening here? We come to God to worship, to give God our attention and our praise, and we can feel God responding with the Spirit’s presence. Renewing us. It is far from a one-way direction only. It’s a time of sharing. We come unto God; God shares the Spirit’s power with us. We worship God and God is in it with us.

 And I think it pleases God to give us that life-giving water. It pleases God to heal our souls, whether it’s Sabbath day or not. To heal us, to unburden our hearts, to straighten us up from what bends us over and prevents us from growing as a child of God.

And we know what can bend us over. We can do a list of ABCs. Anxiety. Being bullied. Cancer. Discrimination. Envy. Fear Guilt. Shame. Poverty. Loss of a loved one. Restricted movement. And so forth.

 And there are plenty of things that try to keep people bent over and under the thumb of the powerful. Like unjust laws, and redistricting voting maps, and calcifying inequities, and Christian nationalism, and dogmatizing and weaponizing the Bible to exclude people from God’s grace and love. And so forth.

 I think it’s a needed, practical thing to challenge the rules and unjust laws when those rules are bending people over and keeping them bent over. 

 It’s a needed, spiritual thing to come unto God, to practice Sabbath day worship, to share in the Spirit’s power that can straighten us up against the things that prevent us from growing as children of God.

Whenever someone’s in need, dealing with pain and suffering and things that bend that person over, like Jesus, we can embody the meaning of Sabbath—to rest, rejuvenate, renew, and receive life-giving water—by showing care, compassion, and hospitality. Being inclusive with God’s love. And we can show that person that God’s presence and love and life-giving water are receivable. And these can straighten us up. And make us stand up. And praise God! That’s holy Sabbath power.

And it’s a power that can be felt when we worship God. And it can come to any of us at any time. It can come beautifully during our regular worship services.

And it can come in our outside the box worship services. Like when we did Flicks and Faith on three Sundays this summer. Or when we worship with Praise! songs like we are doing today. With a band. And contemporary music. Loud music! And clapping your hands. And Ava dancing! And freedom to call out. And me not wearing a robe. Or preaching from the pulpit. Are we breaking the rules?

No, we are celebrating our God who has immeasurable power to unbend us. And strengthen us. And straighten us up. We are giving thanks to God who makes our lives righteous in God’s sight. Who empowers the new covenant of grace and love in us. And through us. Who shares with us the eternal gifts that make our lives complete. This is what the God of holy sabbath power can do, and these cannot be shaken!

So, we offer to God our thanks and praise. It is an acceptable form of worship with reverence and awe. Let’s stand and sing, “Shout to the Lord!” Amen!

All the earth let us sing, Power and majesty Praise’s we bring!