Daughter of Abraham, Set Free

In one paragraph

Pastor John walked through Luke 13:10-21, a healing on the Sabbath that got the synagogue leader furious, and asked why we get so angry at the things God is doing. The sermon was honest, almost confessional, and it stayed close to the text. Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath when he noticed a woman who had been bent over double for eighteen years. He called her over, told her she was...

Read together

1. Ephesians 2:8 opening encouragement before worship: God has saved us by His grace when we believed, and we cannot take credit for this, it is a gift from God
2. Luke 13:10-21 the sermon text for the morning, covering the healing of the bent woman and the parables of the mustard seed and leaven
3. Exodus 20:9 quoted by the synagogue leader as justification that work should be done in six days, not on the Sabbath
4. Luke 6:6-11 referenced as a prior Sabbath controversy involving the healing of the man with the withered hand
5. Matthew 12:14 cited alongside the Luke 6 account to show the Pharisees conspired to destroy Jesus after the withered hand healing
6. James 1 closing benediction urging the congregation to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger because human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires

Talk about it

1. Pastor Mark described the synagogue leader as a man whose indignation at the miracle defined him in scripture for all of human history. Is there a place in your own life where righteous-feeling anger has caused you to miss what God was doing right in front of you?
2. The woman had been bent over for eighteen years and still kept coming to the synagogue. What does her faithfulness in suffering say to you about how we should respond to our own long-term struggles?
3. Pastor Mark compared his own anger at the men's intensive to the synagogue leader's indignation, noting that some of the other men were set free during those forty-two hours despite his objections. How do we stay open to what God is doing when it does not look the way we expected?
4. Jesus described the kingdom of God as a mustard seed and as leaven, both things that start small and work outward from where they are planted. Where do you see that kind of slow, unseen growth happening in your own life or in this church?
5. James says that human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. What is one practical step you can take this week to be quicker to listen and slower to speak or become angry?