13th Sunday after Pentecost August 22, 2010

Sermon

Sunday and Date: 13th Sunday after Pentecost/Lectionary 21 August 22, 2010

Location: Immanuel Lutheran

Text: Luke 13.10-17, Psalm 103.1-8

One of my favorite books is called “The Year of Living Biblically” By A.J. Jacobs, an editor for Esquire Magazine. In it he decides to live by the rules of the Bible, all of them. He dresses in white clothing of a single fabric, he grows his beard out, (not a bad thing to do, but he can’t cut his at all, it ended up getting so big his wife would not kiss him for two months), he tries to love his neighbor, and since he and his wife are expecting a child during the year he is able to “be fruitful and multiply.” He also carries a small stash of pebbles with him, so that he can “stone” people he sees on the street disobeying rules. In all of it he travels and explores various parts of religion, both Jewish (his background and the majority of the book) and Christianity (to explore what is the majority religion in the United States.)

He has many adventures, but one that stands out for me is his journeying and difficulty with Sabbath keeping. Now since he was following the laws of Judaism, he went to great lengths to make sure he did no work. He tried to not check email, (this often failed,) and for him just the simple task of not working was difficult. In an interview he called it one of the hardest, yet most meaningful things he did during the year. He quotes a Rabbi that he talks to during his year who describes the Sabbath as a “sanctuary in time.”

His story of finally achieving his first true Sabbath is wonderful. He explains that the doors in his house are notorious for falling off, just on their own. Usually he will just screw them back on and it will be solved for a week or so. But one day, a Tuesday, he gets up in the morning at 9:30 to head to the bathroom. He closes the door. And as he says “I don’t realize what I’ve done until I reach for the nonexistent inside doorknob. It had molted sometime during the night. For the first ten minutes, I try to excape. I bang on the door, shout for help. No answer.” “By 11:00 I’ve become the world’s greatest expert on this bathroom. I know the fake marble tiles with their spider-vein pattern and the power outlet that is tilted at a rakishly diagonal angle. … By noon I’m sitting on the floor, my back against the shower door. I sit. And sit some more. And something odd happens. I know that, outside the bathroom, the world is speeding along. That blogs are being read. Wild salmon is being grilled. … But I’m OK with it. It doesn’t cause my shoulders to tighten. Nothing I can do about it. I’ve reached an unexpected level of acceptance. For once, I’m savoring the present. I’m admiring what I have, even if it’s thirty-two square feet of fake marble and an angled electrical outlet. I start to pray. And, perhaps for the first time, I pray in true peace and silence—without glancing at the clock, without my brain hopscotching from topic to topic. This is what the Sabbath should feel like. A pause. Not just a minor pause, but a major pause.”

We ourselves should observe Sabbath. Shabbot, the Hebrew word that Sabbath comes from means “to cease.” We are to cease our work and keep from our own works. We should call the Sabbath a delight, not a burden. Pursuing not our affairs, but honoring the holy day.

I find it interesting that we get this text at the beginning of football season, when a lot of attention in this country shifts to Sunday afternoons. I know that I will probably spend a good portion of the coming months watching the Vikings on Sunday afternoons. Is that something that is allowed? Is it ok to garden? To sew? Cooking? Some orthodox Jewish groups will not cook on the Sabbath, they have it prepared in advance. What if your job schedules you to work on Sundays? It gets to be that we can think of any number of reasons why we are breaking the Sabbath. So often we give it up. Should we allow football to consume our lives to the detriment of our families, church and God? Of course not, any time that we allow things other than love for God to consume our lives we risk idolatry. This can be our regular jobs, hobbies, idologies, and probably most common in this country, money. As Christians we have the luxury of not holding to a specific day, or holding to the rules that Jews are required to follow. Yet we still need Sabbath. We need to take time out of our schedule, whether a whole day or an hour a day; whether on our own or when we get trapped in a bathroom. We need to take time to give praise for the God who loves us, and rest. But why?

When we look further into this story we find messages being formed. Jesus is attempting to reinterpret why the Sabbath is observed. He is showing the leader of the synagogue and the surrounding crowds that they have gone astray, not because they observe the Sabbath, but through the specific rules that they feel are necessary in order to observe the Sabbath correctly.

This does not mean that the Synagogue leader’s interpretation was incorrect. He defined what Jesus did as work. Exodus 31:15 “Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD.” The problem arises in how to define what work is. Part of the Synagogue leader’s job was to define what the law meant. To the leader’s interpretation, and most Israelite scholars of that time, Jesus’ healing is work and against the Sabbath commandment.

It is this interpretation that Jesus is objecting to when he calls them “hypocrites,” which would also make sense as “pretenders.” They were pretending to follow the law, but were in fact only serving themselves. They had taken the rules and put them above that actual commandment.

Jesus uses the example of animals to get this point across. If it is fine to set animals loose to eat and drink, how is it not fine to set a human free from ailment? The Sabbath had become not a rest and a remembrance of God, but in fact work in making sure that one kept and held all the many rules surrounding it. In Deuteronomy the reason for keeping the Sabbath has expanded from a remembrance of God creating the world and then resting, to one of remembrance of God’s work in freeing them from labor as slaves in Egypt. Now the rules were made so that the Israelites did not have to spend their day’s trying to know whether they were obeying the commandment. But by Jesus’ time the sheer volume of rules and regulations that have surrounded the Sabbath have ceased making it a time of rest, and it in fact has become a day of work.

Jesus attacks that notion, putting it forward that the Sabbath is not about making sure one does no work, trying to obey countless rules, but in remembering and giving thanks to God for God’s creating and liberating work. And because of this Jesus states that it is in fact even more appropriate for him to heal on the Sabbath. He has this in mind even before the Synagogue leader targets him. Jesus uses the words, “you are set free from your ailment,” implying not only healing, but in fact liberation. To Jesus the Sabbath is in fact the perfect time to focus on the liberating action of God in all of history, freeing the slaves, and in healing this woman.

Jesus addresses her as a Daughter of Abraham, connecting her directly to her ancestors and their entire story. A story of capture and imprisonment one after the other, slavery in Egypt, exodus through the desert, exile in Babylon. And each time God comes and liberates the Israelites. But when Jesus sets her free from her ailment, the leaders react. They are so caught up in their understanding of the Sabbath as following a set of rules that they have forgotten the reason for the Sabbath. For the Sabbath is not just remembrance of liberation, but continued liberation. We are not forced to set aside our daily work and think of God, we are free to do so.

The Sabbath is not actually about us, and what we do or don’t do on it. It is about the recognition that we have a God who loves us, cares for us, heals us, and most importantly in Christ’s life, death and resurrection liberates us.

It is in Psalm 103 that we find the reason for the Sabbath.

“Bless the LORD, | O my soul,

and all that is within me, bless God's | holy name.

2Bless the LORD, | O my soul,

and forget not | all God's benefits—

3who forgives | all your sins

and heals all | your diseases;

4who redeems your life | from the grave

and crowns you with steadfast | love and mercy;

5who satisfies your desires | with good things

so that your youth is renewed | like an eagle's.

6O LORD, you provide | vindication

and justice for all who | are oppressed.

7You made known your | ways to Moses

and your works to the chil- | dren of Israel.

8LORD, you are full of compas- | sion and mercy,

slow to anger and abounding in | steadfast love.

God has done so much for us, forgiven us, healed us, redeemed us, given justice to the oppressed. And that may be part of the true meaning of Sabbath. We are sick, broken, injured people. We have physical ailments, mental fatigue, and issues of the spirit affecting us all. When we set time aside to observe the Sabbath, we know that we have a God that heals us, and will continue to heal us, time and time again. For our God is a liberating God, God has liberated us from the power of death and sin. We are free people, who willingly give praise and blessing to the Lord. God indeed is merciful and gracious and very much slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Let us Pray,

God of Liberation, Hold us in our fears and concerns which hold us captive. Be with all those who are under persecution. This week we marked the end of combat operations in Iraq, hold all those still in that country safe and all those travelling home, be with the peoples of Iraq in their transition. In all this world, show us the light of your presence and give us peace.

Amen