The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost – August 23, 2025

Before you spoke a word,
before you knew your name,
God knew you.
God formed you.
God appointed you.

Jeremiah protests—“I am only a boy.”
But God does not call the qualified.
God qualifies the called.
And the call is not to comfort,
but to courage.
To speak.
To uproot and to build.
To name what binds and to proclaim what frees.

In Luke’s gospel, Jesus sees a woman bent low for eighteen years.
She does not ask for healing.
She does not cry out.
But Jesus calls her forward.
He speaks.
He lays hands.
And she stands tall.

The crowd is divided.
Some rejoice.
Some resist.
But Jesus will not be silenced.
“Ought not this woman be set free?”

This is the heart of the call:
To speak when silence is easier.
To act when tradition says wait.
To lift up what others overlook.
To declare that healing is not bound by time,
and dignity is not reserved for the few.

So today—
Where are you being called to speak?
What injustice must be named?
What healing must be claimed?
What fear must be released?

You may feel unready.
You may feel unseen.
But the One who formed you also sends you.
The One who heals also empowers you.
The One who speaks also listens.

So rise.
Speak.
Stretch.
And let your life be a holy disruption—
a voice of truth,
a vessel of grace,
a witness to the God who unbinds.

Amen.