Stretch Out Your Hand by Rev. Dr. Jay Marshall Groat on February 16, 2025, at Mount Vernon, Ohio based on Luke 6: 6-11

I’m not sure what is about to happen here, so I want to lead with my vulnerability and tell you that I’m not sure what I’m sharing with you this morning. I’m not sure if it’s a sermon or not. I’m going to lead with my vulnerability and say that, because this passage took me places that I didn’t really want to go. But I kept going there, and I did something that I normally don’t do. I was sitting at home preparing this message and I thought, “I’m not really sure where this is taking me so I’m going to write it out.” So, I did. So, I’m going to say that. I’m not sure if it’s a sermon or not because I’m not going to really preach at you, and that’s simply because it’s been in this church’s DNA since the beginning to be focused on what we call today social justice. In preparation for our new member information session this past week I boned up some more on our church history. Most of you know this, if you don’t you will now, that this place started in 1834 because the Presbyterian church in Mount Vernon was pro-slavery. There were 15 to 20 or so people there who said, “We’re anti-slavery.” And the Presbyterians said, “But we’re pro-slavery.” This group of people said, “Well, we’re anti-slavery, so we’re going to break off. We’re going to start a new faith community.” And that’s what this faith community is.

With that said, here’s what I have to share with you this morning. I’m on a journey, you’re on a journey, for a few minutes I’m hoping that we can journey together. And if somebody wants me to just not do this speak now or forever hold your peace. Waiting? OK.

Stretch out your hand. Albert Einstein had a lot to say about change. He said the world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking. He also said we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. These two are speaking to me lately, and I’m inviting you to let them speak to you. Einstein said when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. And the measure of intelligence is the ability to change. Change. I’m in my 37^th year of ordained Christian ministry, and I thought at this point in my career I would have been able to say something like this – maybe I have come close to seeing just about any challenge a congregation I serve would have to face. Wrong.

As a nation, as a world, as local communities, it seems like everything is changing. And I also think that Albert Einstein was a pretty smart guy, and he said the measure of intelligence is the ability to change. Our lectionary passage this morning is about change, it is about new ways of looking at things. It is about healing, it is about the living spirit of Christ bringing a new era of vision and thinking into our minds, our hearts and our souls. The saying is this, the saying is critically important – it was the Sabbath, and Jesus was teaching in the synagogue, in the synagogue. The Bible, what we call the Old Testament, includes many laws about the Sabbath, primarily in Exodus and Deuteronomy but also in a few other books of the Old Testament. The Pharisees composed 39 primary forbidden Sabbath labors, which included – by the way, you can Google “39 Sabbath;” please don’t do it during this message. I did it, you can read all 39 if you’d like. Thirty-nine primary forbidden Sabbath labors, which included carrying, cooking, writing, building, sowing, plowing. That’s six. Orthodox Jews follow this to this day. You can look them all up. And it takes an interpretation to decide whether healing is on the list, because it’s not. It’s not. That’s why Luke says this – “the scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath so that they might find an accusation against him.” Is there any way we can manipulate the situation so that we can get him? Luke tells us Jesus knew what was going on around him, so he decided to create a very public moment. “Jesus said to the man with the withered hand” – depending on the translation; this is one of them – “‘Get up and stand in front of everyone.’” Jesus now says there was a larger question here, and Jesus puts forth the question – “I ask you, what should we do on the Sabbath? What should we not do on the Sabbath? Should we do good? Should we do evil? Should we save life? Should we destroy life?”

When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change. Jesus is saying this is not about following rules, this is about people. Jesus back then, and the living spirit of Christ through us now, can bring us new wisdom and new courage for the facing of this hour. The measure of our intelligence today is the ability to change. My favorite Bible commentator on this passage puts it this way, quote, “Jesus brings a new era, sweeping away old conventions, requiring a revaluing of traditions and relations to persons.”

It seems to me we are in the midst of great change and challenge, and now I’m going to be personal. This is why I’m not sure this is a sermon, but I’m going to tell you what I think I see. Never before in my ministry have I felt our government brazenly walking through these doors into our Sabbath worship place, bringing fear, bringing racism, bringing xenophobia, bringing anti-LGBTQ and more. How do we respond? How are we faithful to our calling as disciples of Christ? Well, here’s one thing that I want all of us to know. This is from an Associated Press article that appeared last week, and the title of the article is, “27 religious groups sue Trump administration to protect churches from immigration arrests.” Quote, the article – “More than two dozen Christian and Jewish groups representing millions of Americans ranging from the Episcopal Church and the Union for Reformed Judaism to the Mennonites and Unitarian Universalists filed a federal court lawsuit Tuesday challenging a Trump administration move giving immigration agents more leeway to make arrests at houses of worship.” And this is a quote from the Most Reverend Sean Rowe – can we talk about changing my title to Most Reverend? Nah, just kidding. The Most Reverend Sean Rowe, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, quote – “We cannot worship freely if some of us are living in fear. By joining this lawsuit, we’re seeking the ability to gather and fully practice our faith, to follow Jesus’ command to love our neighbors as ourselves.” The article goes on, “The plaintiffs in the new lawsuit represent a vastly larger swath of American worshipers – including more than 1 million followers of Reform Judaism, the estimated 1.5 million Episcopalians in 6,700 congregations nationwide, nearly 1.1 million members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and the estimated 1.5 million active members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the country’s oldest predominantly Black denomination. Among the other plaintiffs are the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ); the Church of the Brethren; the Convencion Bautista Hispana de Texas; the Friends General Conference, an association of regional Quaker organizations; the Mennonite Church USA; the Unitarian Universalist Association; the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism; and regional branches of the United Methodist Church and the United Church of Christ.”

The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking. We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. The measure of intelligence is the ability to change. When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change. “Jesus knew everyone was looking at him in the synagogue that day, so he said to the man with the withered man, ‘Get up and stand in front of everyone.’” Maybe that’s what the living spirit of Christ is saying to us. “And he said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’” Maybe we can stretch out our hearts, stretch out our minds, stretch out our souls, stretch out our spirit, and ask God for the wisdom and the courage and the healing to stand up and come together, to practice our faith, to follow Jesus’ command to love one another and our neighbors as ourselves, as this congregation has been doing from the beginning. And I finish with this – please know this, that Jesus heals the man with the withered hand not even by touching him. No touch or cleansing process is needed. Just as Jesus had defeated his critics moments before with a word, so he heals the man by simply saying, “Stretch out your hand.” God, give us the words. Amen?