Availability

Pentecost 11, Proper 16

August 24, 2025

Fr. Tim Nunez

May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen

There is a lot to consider in today’s Gospel, particularly Jesus’s healing touch and his teaching about what honors God on the sabbath. But let’s not rush past the opening sentences.

“Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And just then, there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.”

Here she is, crippled and unable to stand up straight, and going to church. We must not rush past her effort, which is an expression of great faith. Even now, we are among people who make a similar effort, people for whom it takes a great deal of time and struggle to get ready for and get to church.

Some may be like this woman, with osteoporosis, or arthritis, or old injuries, or chronic illnesses that affect their ability to function every day. Others may be parents who haven’t had a decent night of sleep in weeks, yet wrangle the kids into readiness, with laundry and breakfast and baths and outfits and, Lord help them, the occasional attitudes.

I think about the grief and sorrows people bear that make it difficult to be in a group setting like this. There is a whole range of circumstances and conditions people have, some of which we would know or expect, some we would not guess.

And there are people who would dearly love to be here in person, but they simply cannot because of their health, distance or other issues. I heard from one over the weekend, lamenting and even apologizing for their absence. One of the very best consequences of the pandemic was forcing us to live-stream our Sunday services, Compline and Bible study. And we mail physical copies of the sermon each week to those who are home-bound and not computer savvy.

So, here she is, a woman. We don’t know how old she is. We don’t know her name. We don’t know where this synagogue was. We don’t know what verses have been read or what Jesus was teaching. She didn’t ask Jesus for anything, but he saw her. Her faithfulness opened her path of healing. She showed up and was simply available for Jesus to demonstrate how God’s grace honors the sabbath.

As football cranks up over the next few weeks, one of its proverbs is, “The best ability is availability.” In football, that means you can be the most talented player around, but if you cannot play because of your grades, or some trouble with the law, or whatever, you cannot participate on the field.

Availability is also vital in our faith, but it has nothing to do with grades or legal trouble or, as this woman demonstrates, physical health. It has everything to do with our willingness and readiness to be open to God. The very fact that we’ve come here this morning, or tuned in online, or decided to read a physical copy of this sermon, or pray, or read scripture or some faithful book, or listen to some Jesus-infused music.

There are infinite ways that people might demonstrate their faith such that Jesus will touch them in some way.

And remember Jesus isn’t just calling you into community, or to be on his team, as it were. He is calling us to get into the game. Again, our availability is the most important ability.

We have set up today’s Connection Sunday in faith that many of you will reaffirm your ongoing service in ministries or decide to try something new. We hope and pray that many of you who have been on the sidelines for whatever reasons will try something at all.

And we know that some of you are doing your utmost to simply be here, or to tune in online, or to read the sermon when it comes to you in the mail. It may be that you are so limited by age, illness, injury or whatever circumstances that all you really can do is to pray.

No matter what our circumstances or stage of life, our most important ability is to remain available to Jesus and to expect his touch.   AMEN