There are some people who are sticklers for rules. So caught up are they in the red tape, the rigid adherence to routines and regulations, that they forget the decisions they make affect human life and well being.

This tendency to prefer rules to people was brought home to me earlier this week. It came in the form of an email from the Anglican Social Justice Commission. The email read: SIGN THE PETITION TO SUPPORT ALI PANAH.

Now, you may’ve heard about Ali in the media. He’s an Iranian, who arrived in New Zealand some years ago from South Korea. He applied for refugee status, but his application was denied by the Ministry of Immigration, and eighteen months ago he was arrested and detained at Mt Eden Prison.

Well, not so long ago Ali was transferred to Auckland Hospital. On the 12th July, his supporters applied for bail, and again it was refused. So, in an act of protest and desperation, Ali began a fast or what others have called a hunger strike, and it was only recently he agreed to take liquid mineral supplements.

Of course, cases like this are always complex. The lawyers amongst us will know this to be true. Inevitably there are those who will try to manipulate the system for their own benefit. But in this case, Ali’s pleas seem legitimate.

You see, before Ali arrived in New Zealand, he converted to Christianity. It is for this reason he fears for his life if sent back to Iran. Converts risk arrest and religious persecution. For Islamic Law states apostates (in this case, someone who renounces Islam for another religion) should be put to death.

But our Government, contrary to the advice of Amnesty International and the pleas from our own Church leaders, has not been moved by these concerns. Instead they appear more focused on rubber stamping official documents than with human rights and justice for the most vulnerable in our society.

I mention Ali’s plight to you this morning because I believe such an issue lies at the heart of our lectionary readings. They invite us to ask: what guides our behaviour? Is it rules and regulations, or the justice and mercy of God?

To begin, in the Gospel passage we find Jesus teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath. This is something he’s permitted to do under Jewish law. But on this occasion his words and actions get him into trouble. For on seeing a woman bent double and unable to stand straight he reaches out to heal her.

Now, if this had happened on any other day, no eyelid would’ve been raised. But because it was the Sabbath, the Jewish holy day, the religious power brokers aren’t pleased. In fact, one cries out in disgust; he can’t see the good of this action. And instead of rejoicing with the woman, he berates the crowd. ‘Come for healing on any day,’ he tells them, ‘but not the Sabbath.’

The impression he thus gives is obeying rules and religious regulations is of greater importance than a genuine concern for life and well-being. The result is the transformative power of religion is stymied in the red tape of legalism.

But Jesus doesn’t leave things here. He cuts straight to the chase. He calls the leaders hypocrites. For they are happy to untie their animals and to lead them to water on the Sabbath, but they have little concern for a woman, a fellow human being, a child of God, who has been bound for eighteen years.

A similar point to Luke’s is made by the prophet Isaiah. In the latter part of chapter 58, he speaks of honouring the Sabbath. ‘If you cease to tread the Sabbath underfoot…’ he says, ‘you shall find your joy in the Lord’ (58:13,14).

It was perhaps a text like this the synagogue leader was thinking of when he spoke to crowd. He knew the value of keeping the Sabbath. And it’s not a bad thing to remember. For in a world like ours where the mall is the temple, and the religion consumerism, it reminds us, as Christians, we need to take a lead, a counter-cultural stand, in reclaiming the concept of a Sabbath rest.

But there’s more to Isaiah than a call to attend church on Sundays. For his point has more to do with true worship. We read about this in the verses leading up to today’s passage. Here Isaiah has some challenging things to say to us about religious rites and routines. Take a listen to these words:

‘Is not this what I require of you as a fast:
to loose the fetters of injustice,
to untie the knots of the yoke,
to snap every yoke,
and set free those who have been crushed?
Is it not sharing your food with the hungry,
taking the homeless poor into your house,
clothing the naked when you meet them
and never evading a duty to your kinsfolk?
Then shall your light break forth like the dawn
and soon you will grow healthy like a wound newly healed;
your own righteousness shall be your vanguard
and the glory of the Lord your rearguard’ (58:6-8).

In other words, religious life without justice is worth little. Yes, we need rules to give order to our society, as well as to our churches. And yes, we need regulations to protect the well-being of our communities. But when we cross the line and these inhibit life and human flourishing we need to think again. 

So what guides your actions and behaviour? Is it rules and routines, or is it a genuine desire to follow God, and a concern for life and humanity, guided not by regulations but by compassion? For the sake of people like Ali Panah and for those most vulnerable in our society, may our response be the latter.

Let me finish with the words from the letter to the Hebrews: ‘Let us therefore give thanks to God, and so worship [God] as [God] would be worshipped, with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire’ (12:28-29). Amen.

A sermon preached in St Alban’s Anglican Church, Eastbourne, on Sunday 26 August 2007 by the Reverend Damon Plimmer
(Isaiah 58:9b-14; Hebrews 12:18-29; Luke 13:10-17)

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