Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year C

“Ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham and Sarah … be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?”
~Luke 13:16
 
Then the chains fell from his hands.
~Acts 12:7
 
If the Christian story is anything, it is a story of liberation. Women and men, bent over, beaten down, battered by demons of all sorts, are freed and restored to new life, returned to their communities, or new ones. Chains are miraculously removed, prisoners are released. Powers and principalities are confronted and overcome from below for the emancipation of those pressed down beneath them.
 
There are tensions, of course. Onesimus’ story (Book of Philemon) finds the whole community valuing him, advocating for him. But he remains an object “useful” to others; no one advocates for his liberation. Paul is freed from prison and shows up at Mary’s door. But Rhoda, who is a reliable observer, is mocked as the butt of a joke. She remains enslaved in a Christian household.
 
Societal attitudes should never be out from under the scrutiny of this gospel that always moves us toward freedom and toward the freeing of those who live under oppression in our midst because of gender identity or appearance or any other factor that diminishes them in our eyes. The stone has been rolled away, but all are not yet free.
 
The good work of Easter continues.
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Acts 12:6-17 † Psalm 69:1-3, 13-17, 30-34 † Philemon 1:1-2, 7-16 † Luke 13:10-17
 
About the Art: Gogh, Vincent van, 1853-1890. Road Menders, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55606 [retrieved April 28, 2025]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vincent_van_Gogh_-_The_Road_Menders_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg.

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