Rev. Tessie Mandeville
August 26, 2007
Christ Covenant MCC
Decatur, GA 30030

A kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they drew. She would occasionally walk around to see each child’s artwork. As the got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was.

The girl replied, “I’m drawing God.”

The teacher paused and said, “But no one knows what God looks like.”

Without missing a beat or looking up from her drawing the girl replied, “They will in a minute.”

The story of this little girl says to me that we all have some image of God, whether it’s vague or specific, whether we consider ourselves believers or nonbelievers.

In his book, The God We Never Knew, Marcus Borg says, “that 95% of Americans polled say they believe in God but for most of that 95%, the notion of God is more functional than thought out and examined. We all have some kind of root conception of God and for many the root conception that was adopted or absorbed in childhood is of a God ‘out there’ or in heaven, far away. A God who is omnipotent, or all-powerful, and omnipresent. A God who is supernatural.”

I personally grew up with an image of a supernatural God who was “out there” and “up in heaven.” I also had very masculine images of God because I always heard God referred to as “Father” or “King.” I had images of a God who was removed from the world yet somehow either made everything happen or allowed it to happen; therefore, nothing happened apart from God’s will.

I was taught that “God is love” but when it came down to it, that wasn’t always my lived experience and so my image of God had much more to do with a God who was harsh and judgmental. My image of God was of one who would punish me quickly and severely for whatever I did wrong. There wasn’t always room for me to see God as a “personal God” who loved me for who I am; I saw God as a judge who was pretty angry with me all the time. I had an image of God who was exclusive and narrow-minded. These images of God that I have carried in my body and spirit have not served me well. The God I now know as an adult is different than the God I knew as a child and for that I am grateful.

How we imagine God matters. How we imagine God’s relationship to the world matters.It matters because what we believe about God affects how we live. If I believe in a God that is harsh and judgmental, then not only do I judge myself harshly, I judge others the same way. If I imagine a God that is exclusive and narrow-minded, then I practice exclusion and narrow-mindedness in my relationships with others.

It matters what kind of God we believe in, and what kind of God we don’t believe in, especially during times of crisis. When I worked as a chaplain in a hospital, I spent a great deal of my time at the bedsides of people who were having a crisis of faith. Everything they had ever believed about God was called into question when they received a life-threatening diagnosis or when someone they loved died. I have found that in times of crisis, it is easy to slip into a childhood conception about God, and these images of God don’t always serve us.

Everyday my patients said things to me like, “I don’t know if God exists anymore. Why would God let this happen to me? What have I done to deserve God’s anger and punishment?” I had a patient tell me that God was punishing him with cancer because of all the bad things he did in his life. If we hold an image of God who punishes humans with illness, it is really difficult for us to find hope and healing and new images of a God that is with us in our illness. Sometimes, what we believe about God binds us and prevents us from seeing God in new and life-giving ways.

This is one of the lessons from our gospel story today. On a first reading, it’s easy to see who was bound in this story. It’s a woman who was bent over and unable to stand up straight for 18 years. But as I kept reading this story, I kept being drawn to the leader of the synagogue and I finally realized he was bound too. He may not have had the same physical binding that the woman had, but I believe his spirit was bound in a way that was just as debilitating.

This man worked in the synagogue and was probably the rabbi; I believe he was incredibly devoted to the people of God. He was a spiritual leader among his people. His heart desired to serve God by serving the people. I believe his heart was in the right place and that he loved God just as much as Jesus loved God.

The difference between this synagogue leader and Jesus was in how they imagined God . The leader of the synagogue imagined a God much more concerned with the letter of the law and rules; he would say that we love God by keeping God’s commandments, no questions asked. Jesus imagined a God who was much more concerned about loving people and meeting their needs than with the commandments or the letter of the law. The two of them had a profound theological difference in what they believed about God. Jesus had one image of God; the synagogue leader had another image of God. These images of God informed their actions.

So the bigger issue is that what we believe about God affects how we live our lives . If we see God as a rule enforcer and score keeper, then we are obliged to follow the letter of the law. There’s a right answer; there’s a wrong answer and there isn’t any gray area between the two. The letter of the law for the synagogue leader was that he was to “keep the Sabbath and not work on that day.”

But Jesus interpreted the law differently. He knew what the letter of the law said but he followed the spirit of the law and engaged the gray area in between. He knew that he wasn’t supposed to work on the Sabbath. But ask him why he healed on the Sabbath and he’d say, “Because people are in pain and need healing.” Ask him why he fed people on the Sabbath and he’d say, “Because they were hungry.” Human need is all around us and we can’t wait for a convenient or easy time to help; those times rarely come. In effect, Jesus is teaching us that when it comes between the letter of the law and mercy, choose mercy. The law is there to guide us; it is not there to bind us.

The gospel story tells us that the synagogue leader was upset because Jesus healed the woman. I honestly think it’s absurd to think that a spiritual leader among his people wouldn’t want his people healed. You have to ask yourself, What kind of God must he have believed in to think God would be upset that someone was healed?

But here’s the thing. I don’t believe he was upset because the woman was healed. He was upset because Jesus was showing him a different image of God that he wasn’t ready to see yet, perhaps even an image of God that he didn’t believe was possible. The God he knew was all about rules and inevitably about punishment when rules were broken. He didn’t see a God of mercy, justice or love. His image of God bound him and prevented him from seeing God in new and life-giving ways.

How we imagine God matters. How we imagine God’s relationship to the world matters. It matters because what we believe about God affects how we live.

Yes, the woman in the gospel story was bound but through his acts of mercy and compassion, Jesus showed her a God who desired her healing and wholeness. The scriptures tell us that when Jesus healed her, she stood up straight up for the first time in 18 years and praised God. I like to think that when she stood up, she saw a loving God face to face for the first time in her life and that’s why she started praising God. It wasn’t just the healing; it was the loving God behind the healing, the loving and merciful God that she would continue to believe in.

Sometimes, what we believe about God binds us and prevents us from seeing God in new and life-giving ways .

It’s so easy to point fingers at and to find fault with the synagogue leader. We don’t know if he ever learned to see God in a new way. We can hope he did. I mean after all, I rarely learn my own lessons the first time around and I doubt that he was any different. But imagine this leader being met many other times by a merciful God. A God of second and third chances. A God who will give us as many chances as we need.

And finally, one day imagine him learning to trust and believe in that God. I bet if you listen closely enough you can hear him praising God and singing, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a soul like me. I once was lost but now I’m found, was bound but now I’m free.” Thanks be to God and amen.

A form of this question was originally asked by William Loader and I adapted it for this sermon.

Copyright © 2007 by Rev. Tessie Mandeville. Permission granted for non- profit circulation with attribution of author and venue. Other rights reserved.