I’m sure I’ve said it before, but one of the great things about the summer period is having the evenings free of meetings and the like. But the problem is, if you do manage to get sitting down to watch a bit of TV, the choice of programmes is often abysmal. I use that term ‘choice’ liberally because with three females in the household, you can forget about watching things like ‘Top Gear’ or the golf! Paul Boyle will know what I mean in a few years time. In the famous words of Mel Gibson in the film “What Woman Want”, he said, “There’s far too much oestrogen on television”.

I happened to get a glimpse of “Ten years younger” the other evening. Have you seen it? I can’t remember the figures, but a woman who was, say 45, was judged to look more like 56, by a random pole. After extensive cosmetic surgery to her face and body and teeth, a new hair style and new clothes, the average age the public then judged her at was 44. The programme had made her look ‘ten years younger’, but after all these appalling procedures, she ended up with an age which was only a year younger that her actual age. Not really a result at all. Are we living a lie about ourselves?

Alan invited his mother over for dinner. During the course of the meal, Alan’s mother couldn’t help noticing how beautiful Alan’s roommate, Stephanie, was. Alan’s mom had long been suspicious of a relationship between Alan and Stephanie, and this had only made her more curious.

Over the course of the evening she wondered was there more between Alan and Stephanie than met the eye. Reading his mom’s thoughts, Alan volunteered, “I know what you must be thinking, but I assure you Stephanie and I are just roommates.”

About a week later, Stephanie came to Alan saying, “Ever since your mother came to dinner, I’ve been unable to find the beautiful silver gravy ladle. You don’t suppose she took it, do you?”

Alan said, “Well, I doubt it, but I’ll send her an email just to be sure.” So he sat down and wrote,

‘Dear Mum,

I’m not saying that you “did” take the gravy ladle from the house, I’m not saying that you “did not” take the gravy ladle. But the fact remains that one has been missing ever since you were here for dinner. Love, Alan.”

Several days later, Alan received an email back from his mother that read:

‘Dear Son,

I’m not saying that Stephanie “does” stay with you; I’m not saying that Stephanie “does not” stay with you. But the fact remains that if Stephanie was sleeping in her own bed, she would have found the gravy ladle by now. Love, Mom.”

And the moral of the story is, never lie to your mother – she knows everything. And how many mothers do we have here this morning? But perhaps more importantly, we can’t lie to ourselves.

We seem to be all buying into a ‘system’ that says certain things. It’s a system that says things about how we behave and how we are to look, and we are not being true to ourselves or to God. It’s a system which has far more reaching consequences in modern life.

It’s a part of modern life that political correctness, for example, has gone to an extreme. Human rights have gone to an extreme that the wife of the murdered Headmaster says that the right of the victim has been forgotten about altogether. How is it that abused children can so easily fall through the social security net? Who says we have to work eight days a week and get so stressed out, we all look ten years older than we should? You want to ask the question, who made up these rules? Is it all part of the “system” that we are all buying into?

When the system becomes more important than the individual, then we have real problems.

Jesus never had much time for the system. He flew in the face of the system all the time, especially when people thought the system was more important than the individual. Here, in our Gospel, he is healing the crippled woman of 18 long years, on the Sabbath! We forget that the Sabbath law was for our benefit; it makes perfect sense to take a complete day off every week. How many times have we said that?

“Oh, the joy of the law of the Lord”, the psalmist says. When are we going to start realising that God’s laws are not there to stop us enjoying ourselves, they are there for our benefit and to keep us well and to keep us young! Amen!