Sunday, October 13, 2002
| Ex. 20:1-19,
1: And God spake all these words, saying, 2: I am
the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of
the house of bondage. Luke 6:1-11 1: And it came to pass on the second sabbath
after the first, that he went through the corn fields; and his disciples
plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. 2: And
certain of the Pharisees said unto them, Why do ye that which is not
lawful to do on the sabbath days? 3: And Jesus answering them said, Have
ye not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was an hungred,
and they which were with him; 4: How he went into the house of God, and
did take and eat the shewbread, and gave also to them that were with him;
which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests alone? 5: And he said
unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. 6: And it came
to pass also on another sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and
taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered. 7: And the
scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath
day; that they might find an accusation against him. 8: But he knew their
thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and
stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth. 9: Then said Jesus
unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to
do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it? 10: And looking
round about upon them all, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand.
And he did so: and his hand was restored whole as the other. |
| 604,800 seconds.... 10,080 minutes......
168 hours ..... 7 days..... or 1 Sabbath’s time. Do we normally think of the Sabbath that way, marking Sabbath after Sabbath, week after week? Or do we see the Sabbath as an expression of chunks of time or chunks of eternity carved out from the creation to the fulfillment of the new creation that will come when Jesus comes back? The Sabbaths mark little intervals or cycles that together bring us to that shalom of the new creation. Shalom is kind of a multi-purpose word, like aloha. It means “Peace”, “Goodbye”, “Hello”, but it is also that perfection, or completeness, or wholeness, which will be realized at the end of the age. We might see Sabbath as the day we worship... or the day of rest... or perhaps those two weeks vacation in August, or two minutes of reflection in the midst of a busy day. And Sabbath is all of that..... And Sabbath is more than that. From Jesus’ time back to the giving of the 10 Words to Moses on Sinai, the Sabbath played an important part in people’s lives. On Sinai God gave Moses an image, a snapshot, of what a perfect world, a world of Shalom, would look like. The words we have learned as “Thou Shalt not...” can, perhaps, be better translated from the Hebrew as “Oh, that thou wouldst...” “Oh that thou wouldst not do any work on the Sabbath”... Now I am not saying that the Ten Commandments we learned are to be regarded as merely the Ten Suggestions, or Ten Opinions. In as much as God has instituted them, I’m going to pay attention, I don’t know about you! But, really, the way they are worded shows us that God was giving Moses a picture, a vision, of what shalom would look like. In a perfect world, in a world of shalom, the Sabbath would be a day where no work would be done. A day to reflect on what God has done. A day to be consecrated, set apart, kept holy. A day where shalom would prevail. And the reason the Sabbath should be remembered and kept Holy? The idea of Sabbath was established much before the giving of the Ten Words to Moses on Mt. Sinai. In six days God created heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them. On the seventh day, God “sabbath-ed”. The Word here is a verb form, it means God “ceased and celebrated” what God had done. So the Sabbath ended the cycle of creation; completed it; made it whole; and set up a pattern for packaging time or, more precisely, activity, into little chunks. It’s as if right in the beginning God knew that the perfect and good creation, the shalom God intended, would be shattered by Sin. And so God gave the gift of Sabbath. God gave the gift of Sabbath to humans. Jesus knew that. But Jesus also knew that the Sabbath had somehow gone from being a vision of what shalom would look like to a series of laws which no longer had any bearing on God’s original intent. You couldn’t reap... you couldn’t thresh... you couldn’t heal...you couldn’t pull out a grey hair from your head. That would be considered reaping... You couldn’t look into a mirror in case you would be tempted to pull that grey hair from your head! If you were a tailor and were found with a needle and thread in your pocket that would be considered carrying a burden... The Sabbath had gotten away from being a gift and had become a burden. Some of the folks of Jesus’ time, and maybe some of us, myself included, are more concerned with maintaining the obligations of the Sabbath. We have to preach... we have to teach Sunday School... we have to lead worship... We have to get the communion elements ready. We have to attend to the ushering, the tidying up after everyone has gone. These are all very important functions of the church. But sometimes, I think that we lose sight of God’s intent. We tend not to see the Sabbath as a gift. We mark Sabbath after Sabbath by another sermon preached... or another lesson planned and delivered. 168 hours from the last one... 7 days until the next... Jesus had mastered the Sabbath. He is lord of the Sabbath. Jesus controlled the Sabbath – the Sabbath didn’t control Jesus. He knew that with his coming in the flesh a little of that shalom was breaking through. And what better time to illustrate that but on the Sabbath? And so it was certainly fitting for the disciples to alleviate their hunger on the Sabbath. It was fitting for the man with the withered hand to be made whole. Jesus is lord of the Sabbath, and he knew that it was more lawful to save life, to preserve life and make it whole, than to destroy it. He knew that recasting that vision of shalom given to Moses would help folks “cease and celebrate” what God was doing in their world. And so... Jesus defends the actions of his disciples which provided them sustenance when they were hungry and which helped to preserve their life and make them whole. Jesus is lord of the Sabbath. And so… Jesus tells a man with a disability to stretch out his withered hand, the word stretch is emphatic, it has more of a meaning of “stretching out to the fullest”. He tells the man to really stretch out that hand to the fullest... and the man reaches out, way out, grasps onto that promise of perfection, of shalom, and he is restored! So, what’s all that got to do with us here at St. Paul’s? I think that too often we, and I definitely include myself here, get so focused on what’s left... what we still need to do... I being a student get so anxious about how many credits I have left...what requirements I still need to fulfill for graduation, that I tend to forget to cease and celebrate what has already been done, what God is doing, in my life. Or maybe we are postponing our Sabbath until retirement, or until that cruise which we are planning happens. We get so caught up in marking the years, the months, the days, the minutes until we can “rest”, that we miss the wholeness that is available to us right now. The truth is, that final shalom can and does break through now, here and now, and offers us sustenance and healing... the promise of wholeness and completeness.. until Jesus comes back again and that new creation, that fulfillment of God’s perfect intent, is fully realized. Though ours isn’t a perfect world, (it wasn’t for Moses and it certainly wasn’t in Jesus’ time either), the Sabbath is still a time to be kept holy... to be kept WHOLE. It’s a time when we stop and discern just how God’s shalom has broken through in each point of our lives and receive from God whatever it is that would make us as a people WHOLE . It’s an appropriate time to cease and celebrate the shalom that is ours in the new creation. Sisters and Brothers we don’t need to wait 604,800 seconds, or 168 hours, or 7 days. Sabbaths can happen at any interval, at any time. We can enjoy them when we cease long enough to hear the good night prayers of our children and grandchildren, and we celebrate the legacy of faith that God has passed on through us to them. We can enjoy them when we cease long enough to see how our gifts of hospitality, service, and love have served to reach out and draw so many into this community of faith, and we celebrate that God has chosen to make us partners in his activity of shalom. These Sabbaths also bring that shalom to us here in this sanctuary, as we worship and pray as a community; as we cease and celebrate what God has done, and is doing among us. The Sabbath is our gift. Let us treasure it, use it, and share it, and keep it WHOLE-y.
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