21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Proper 16), Year C

Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me,
“Now I have put my words in your mouth.
See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to pull down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.”.
~Jeremiah 1:9-10
 
When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.
~Luke 13:13
 
We don’t know much about the bent over woman in Luke. She could have been an old woman bent over for eighteen years by osteoporosis. She could have been a young woman born with a condition that she had known all her life. Or anything in between. He interrupts “church” to call to her. She doesn’t call to him. Is she just living her best life? Attending synagogue, studying the scriptures, praying, like anyone else? Some people are at home in their bodies in ways others of us could never imagine. Some are at peace with abilities that some think of as disabilities. ​
 
In any event, a healing that she may or may not have asked for comes to her, and when it does, she offers praise to God. She receives it, and for the first time in 18 years she stands up straight.
 
That’s when it gets interesting. Well, interesting in a different way. There are many ways in which we as individuals and as a people can be healed. And even while we can’t heal like Jesus heals, we understand that the church is to be a place of healing.
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings:  Jeremiah 1:4-10 † Psalm 71:1-6 † Hebrews 12:18-29 † Luke 13:10-17
 
About the Art: Leuthold, Julie. Tree of Hope, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57033 [retrieved August 12, 2025]. Original source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/julieleuthold/7521645058 - Julie.​

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