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“Stand up straight!” This exhortation has been heard by many a boy or girl, often as an admonition from a stern grandparent. One’s posture, the quality of one’s carriage may say a lot about the confidence of one’s character.

The slouch, the down-turned eyes, the limp hand-shake and mumbled greeting – you see it among a significant percentage of students on any Middle School campus. Seventh and eighth graders are still in the process of discovering their giftedness. They are still discovering the ground upon which they may stand up straight, and tall and strong.

The slouch, the down-turned eyes, the limp hand-shake and mumbled greeting in 12 or 13 year- olds is not unusual. But when we see the same characteristics in an adult, we know something is wrong. It reveals a crippled spirit.

The crippled spirit may be the most tragic of human ailments. When the body fails, a vital spirit can rise up and overcome the present challenge. But when the spirit falters, an otherwise healthy body collapses unable to rise again.

Sometimes people mask a crippled spirit with an artificial smile. Although the life within may be stumbling, something compels us to feign spiritual health. And because the struggle remains hidden, no one knows to come alongside to provide relief, and renewal.

Alone in its affliction, the crippled spirit continues to deteriorate. Until, eventually, the broken spirit manifests in the tell-tales signs of a breaking body: The slouch, the down-turned eyes, the limp handshake, the mumbled greeting.

This may have been the descent of the woman described in today’s gospel reading. The scripture describes the brokenness of eighteen years of living with a crippling spirit. It simply says,

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.

As one would expect, when Jesus encounters this woman, he reaches out to her. He heals her crippled spirit and her life is restored. Such a blessing! Such a gift! Such an opportunity for rejoicing!

And yet accompanying the blessing is a deeper tragedy. The healing takes place on the Sabbath day and in the midst of the covenant community gathered together to celebrate their life with God.

Instead of celebrating the great gift of life renewed, leaders in the community condemn the healing as being somehow inappropriate or out of place. Why is it that a church that truly welcomes Jesus’ healing presence, sometimes projects a culture where people struggling with a crippling spirit feel they must hide their struggle, and hiding their struggle never experience their healing?

We, of course, reject the notion that we may not welcome healing whenever and wherever it comes. Nevertheless there persists a hesitancy within the crippled spirit to step forward to seek the healing touch.

Because the crippled spirit will not step forward, we must. What must we do to become a covenant community where truly no one stands alone. How must we be proactive to assure that the person with the crippled spirit can come among us and experience Jesus’ healing touch, any time, any place -- even on the Sabbath day.