Sermon - 8/24/25

Year C – 11th Sunday after Pentecost; Lectionary 21 – August 24, 2025

Pastor Megan Floyd

Isaiah 58:9b-14

Luke 13:10-17

 

Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator, who commands us to honor a liberating Sabbath. Amen.

***

One of my colleagues shared a frustrating story this week… she has two small children who sit on the floor near the front of their sanctuary, and they quietly color while she leads worship.

They aren’t making any noise or hurting anyone.

And the kids are actually paying attention… just like someone who knits a scarf during a meeting… they’re just not paying attention in the same way that some of the adults think is appropriate.

So those adults are giving her a hard time about it… and they’ve even suggested that maybe she should tell her kids to go color in the narthex or the nursery.

These adults would rather there be no kids in worship… than to tolerate what they consider to be… the disrespectful behavior of coloring while hearing about God.

…it’s almost as if the leaders from the synagogue where Jesus was teaching are now members of my colleague’s church… and they still don’t get it.

Now… I don’t mean to throw shade over her people… because none of us are without fault. That’s why we all need God’s grace and mercy.

 

But what I hear in these texts today… from both Isaiah and the gospel, and from my colleague about her experience this past week… is that God’s people have been struggling to follow God’s commandments… for thousands of years.

It’s not a new problem… but that’s not an excuse… because we are only hurting ourselves.

How often have we given preference to rituals and traditions over radical hospitality and true welcome?

How often have we opted for the appearance of righteousness instead of doing the work of true reflection, repentance, and change?

…or opted for the appearance of clean and orderly city streets, sweeping away the problem… instead of addressing the system that created the problem?

How often do we smooth over a wound or treat only the symptoms… instead of addressing the root cause of the illness?

It’s not a new problem… this failure to follow God’s commandments… but we’re only hurting ourselves because, as Isaiah tells us, our joy and delight in the Lord…

our joy and delight in this life… is connected to following these commandments… and to truly follow… we need each other.

And we know this… we know this deep in our core… that this is true.

God knows who we are… and knows what we need for a full and flourishing life. It’s already been given to us. But we’re stubborn.

I want to give you some context for our text from Isaiah… it takes place after those who had been exiled to Babylon were allowed to return home and begin rebuilding Jerusalem and the temple. …so roughly 500 BCE

If we had begun reading Isaiah 58 at verse 1, we would have heard that the people are frustrated because they have been fasting and crying out to God, but they feel God is ignoring them…

Isaiah tells them that God is not ignoring them, but has, in fact, been paying very close attention… and is… not pleased.

You see, they fast… while also committing injustice and abu