Hebrew Testament text for Sunday 5 October 2014

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

Then God spoke all these words: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die." Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin."

Reflection      Before he died Moses preached this sermon instructing the people how they should live and worship God. We call it the Ten Commandments, the Law of Moses. The fourth law is, “Remember the Sabbath, and keep it holy.”

Another version of the fourth law is, “Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy… Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work - you or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there … therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath.” (Deut 5.12-15)

This was outrageous; Moses insisting everyone should benefit from the law.  Everyone knew Israelite women, children and slaves had no status and no rights, but under the Law of Moses everyone without exception was equal in the eyes of God and should benefit with a day of rest. This was an enormous step in the evolution of human consciousness. Everyone is equal in the eyes of God and everyone should benefit with a day of rest.

No sooner did they receive Moses’ law than the ancient religious authorities set to work definng what constituted work and therefore what exactly people were not supposed to do on the sabbath. It began with no collecting manna, then no lighting of fires. Eventually regulations became so strict that observant Jews would allow themselves to be killed rather than defend themselves on the sabbath. By the time we get to Christian or New Testament times we find Jesus violating the sabbath regulations by healing a man with a withered hand and allowing his disciples to pluck heads of grain to eat. 

It seems Jesus’ understanding of keeping the sabbath was different than the keepers of Moses’ Law. According to Jesus, “’The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath…” (Mark 2.27) The essence of sabbath is a time set aside to promote our humanity and return to God. We do this by breaking our routine, whatever it is we do six days a week, and doing something else that truly nurtures us. This we each must discover for ourselves. If we sit at a desk working all week, sabbath might include time outside, moving the body, experiencing God in the theatre of creation. On the other hand, if our work is gardening, landscaping, building bridges  or putting roofs on buildings, then our sabbath might be staying home, putting up our feet and resting in God. 

Remember the sabbath day ... means, remember to take your day off, and be sure your employees have one too! And, keep the sabbath day holy means,  througout that day direct your attention to God, let your work be finding God in all things. This is the way of promoting humanity and equal benefit for all. 

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Gospel text for Sunday 25 August 2013

Luke 13:10-17

Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then 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. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day." But the Lord answered him and said, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?" When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

Reflection     What is truth? I ask that question because unless I know what is truth how will I know how to live? For the religious leader in Luke’s text truth was revealed in the Bible and involved lots of rules about purity, fasting and sabbath. According to his version of truth, a view he shared with the Jewish religious authorities of his time, in order to live a good, right and holy life one had to obey the rules, the religious codes as written in Liviticus and interpreted by religious officials. Then along came Jesus for whom truth had a somewhat different flavor. 

Every time Jesus turned around he managed to break the rules and offend the authorities. He hung out with (even shared meals with) the wrong people, he ate the wrong foods without washing his hands, and he dared to cure people on the sabbbath. Jesus’ actions suggest that he was not bound by the priests’ elaborate holiness codes that originated some 600 years earlier in the temple in Jerusalem.  In fact, when some of the Pharisees (religious officials) asked, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath?” (Luke 6.2) Jesus answered, “The son of man is Lord of the sabbath.” I read that as an ancient way of saying, “Your rules, your customs, have nothing to do with me when they prevent me from being merciful as my Father is merciful.”

Apparently Jesus understood truth to be a matter of perspective. Was the bent over woman a sociallly unacceptable cripple or a daughter of Abraham and full member of God’s family? Is the sabbath a day for withholding goodness or a day when even ox and donkeys require care? What is truth? 

Humanity in the early stages of social and spiritual development needs straight lines drawn in the sand; e.g. This is  black, this is white. This is left, this is right. We know which side we stand on and have little tolerance for the other. This perspective works fairly well with children and mathmatics; fire burns therefore do not put your hand in it, five plus seven is eleven. Things are either correct or incorrect. Dualistic thinking is helpful... for a season. And then there is wisdom.

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace. “(Ecclesiastes 3.1-9)

Jesus embodies the inclusive wisdom of Ecclesiastes. The more simple, dualistic, externally oriented perspective of the religious officials may be a helpful starting place but was not sufficient for Jesus and is not sufficient for maturing Christians In our complex and rapidly changing world today. Jesus reminds us that the question we must ask is, “For whom is this true? “

Is the sabbath holy for a woman considered unclean and cast out of her community? Is the sabbath holy for a homeless family? For a high school student whose parents illegally entered the country when she was seven years old? For an elder person unable to receive adequate care? Is the sabbath holy for those who mourn? Those who are hated? Those whom we call enemy?

For Jesus truth is interior, personal and not relative. “Do to others as you would have them do to you... But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6,31,35-6) As Jesus did so must we dare to think differently about the world and our place in it. To do so we must stand on the shoulders of biblical revelation and reason and stretch into the unside-down world perspective modeled for us by Jesus.

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