Sermon - August 25, 2019 - "Set Free on the Sabbath"

Luke 13:10-17 - Intro

At first glance, this passage from Luke appears to be a miracle story – because it begins with Jesus healing a woman who has been bent over for 18 years with a condition that was likely something similar to osteoporosis.

But as you listen, notice that Luke doesn’t dwell on the details as he usually does – more than any of the gospel writers, Luke loves a good story and he tends to include a lot more details than the others do…but not here.

Here he seems to rush past the healing of the bent-over woman…

because the healing in many ways is a set up for what comes next.

Jesus heals the woman in a synagogue on the Sabbath – the day of Lord.

And in doing so, he breaks the Fourth Commandment.  

“Thou shalt not do any work on the Sabbath, keep it holy, for it belongs to God.”

The conflict that follows between Jesus and the leaders of the synagogue is one that we see played out time and time again in the Gospel of Luke.

These leaders are the keepers of the faith, and they are rightly concerned about religious practices, and rituals, and making sure the faithful adhere to God’s law.

But for Jesus, the compassionate care of others is itself a religious virtue and practice, and it is deeply rooted in the Torah as he alludes to here.

For Jesus, the one commandment that anchors and lays the foundation for all of the others, is that we are to love God, and love our neighbor, as we love ourselves.

And what better way to honor the spirit of the Sabbath and show our love for our neighbor than to give another rest and release from their pain?

 

The Rev. Maureen Frescott

Congregational Church of Amherst, UCC

August 25, 2019 – Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

 Luke 13:10-17

“Set Free on the Sabbath”

What comes to mind when you hear the word “sabbath?”

Do you think of a day you have entirely to yourself –

to sleep in, perhaps go for a walk in the woods or on the beach,

and then curl up with a cup of tea and a good book?

Do you think of spiritual or religious practices, which involve hours of scripture reading and reflection, extensive prayer and meditation, and refraining from work or recreation of any kind?

Do you think of a time that has long since passed, when businesses and shops were closed on Saturday or Sunday and people spent the morning in church or synagogue followed up with the entire family gathering for an afternoon meal and uninterrupted time together?

When you hear the word Sabbath do find yourself longing for the good old days, or dreaming of a day filled with peace and quiet, or cringing at the thought of a long, boring day spent fulfilling religious obligations?

What we think of when we hear the word Sabbath largely depends on whether we think of Sabbath as a restriction that is placed upon us, or as a gift that has been given to us, or as a way of life that has been taken from us.

When Moses came down off the mountain carrying the Ten Commandments – the stone tablets that had been written upon by the hand of God –

The fourth commandment on the list was this:

Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God.

On that day you shall do no work. 

While some 3600 years have gone by since Moses walked off that mountain, the laws he carried still shape and inform the ethics and morals of our world today.

Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not lie. Thou shalt not kill.

But for some reason, this commandment about keeping the Sabbath seems to have fallen by the wayside.

It’s as if we all collectively looked at the list and said, yeah this one we really don’t have to pay attention to anymore.

It was for another time, another place, another people….

who don’t live in the modern fast-paced world that we do today –

with all its demands, and distractions, and expectations, that don’t allow for something as disruptive and as frivolous as keeping a day of Sabbath.

There are some who don’t see it this way.

For Orthodox Jews, the Fourth Commandment is not just a suggestion –

it’s a way of life, often consuming much more than the 24 hours contained within it.

On the Jewish Shabbot - from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday - work of any kind is prohibited.

And “work” includes much more than the job we do to earn a living.

Business transactions, using the telephone, driving or riding in cars, all are prohibited.

As is turning on or off anything that uses electricity, including lights, radios, computers, or air-conditioners.

Also forbidden are cooking, cleaning, washing dishes, mowing the lawn, and doing laundry.

Some of us might start observing the Sabbath just for this reason.

Now those of us who are not Orthodox Jews may think that this sounds like a pretty dreary way to spend a day –

requiring the faithful to eat cold meals, sit in the dark, and risk heatstroke on a hot day in August –

But an observant Jew would tell us that this is not the case at all. 

One needs only to prepare ahead of time.

Lights, stovetops, and air conditioners may be used as long as they’re turned on before sundown on Friday, or set with an automatic timer.

Cooking and baking for Sabbath meals is done on Friday during the day and can be kept warm on a stovetop, as long as the controls are covered and not touched. 

And you can open the refrigerator, as long as the little light bulb that turns on when you open the door has been removed the day before.

Some of the ways that observant Jews have devised to “function within” the rules of Sabbath may seem a bit questionable to those of us on the outside.

For example - certain objects cannot be moved on the Sabbath – tools, pens, or important papers – because doing so may fall under the category of work.

But while moving them with your hands is forbidden – they may be moved with other parts of the body –  with one's elbow or teeth, or in the case of paper, by blowing on it.    As awkward as that may sound.

There is also a prohibition against carrying anything from a private space, like one’s home, into a public space, like the street.

This includes carrying something in your pocket; pushing a baby carriage or shopping cart, or going outside with gum or food in your mouth.

To get around this, some Jewish neighborhoods have erected fence posts around the perimeter that they connect with wire or string on the sabbath, enclosing the public area into one big private – yet communal – domain.

Now if you think we Christians are somehow more “evolved” because we no longer adhere to these ancient practices – you should know that many Christians around the world do observe the Sabbath in this same way – albeit on Sunday, rather than Saturday.

And some states and cities still have blue laws on the books that require businesses to be closed on Sunday or prohibit the sale of alcohol or autos.

Up until 1931, it was illegal to play sports on Sunday in Pennsylvania.

Then they decided to make an exception for baseball so the Philadelphia A’s could play. Two years later Eagles came along and they decided football on Sunday was okay as well.  

It wasn’t too long ago that all Christians set Sunday aside as a day to attend church, visit with family, and read scripture well into the evening.

When people in Amherst gathered in this sanctuary on Sundays in the 17 and 1800’s, the service often lasted 3-4 hours – and that was just the morning obligation – worshipers were expected to come back in the afternoon for another 3-4 hours of Bible study and Sunday School.

So you’re all getting off easy.

The concept of “Sabbath” is not completely lost on us in the modern world.

Even the busiest among us try to grab a few hours here and there or set aside a day every now to step away from the chaos –

to go for a walk, read, meditate or pray, or just sit in a quiet space with the TV off and the phone on silent.

Going to the mall or to binge-watching Netflix doesn’t count.

Because Sabbath – as a way to honor and move closer to God – is intended to be spent with as few outside distractions as possible.

Which is the whole point of the ancient practices that Orthodox Jews observe to honor the Sabbath.

Because every time they think about turning on a light or picking up a hammer on the Sabbath, and then remember that they can’t, their focus shifts back to God – and the gift that God gave them by commanding them to rest.

Admittedly, many of us are not in the habit of making space for rest.

For even just a few hours, let alone an entire day.

And if we have a demanding job, or young children, or we’re the primary caregiver for a spouse or a parent  –

the concept of Sabbath is a luxury that we can’t even fathom having time for – as much as we may need it.

So how do we rectify this?

How might we make space for the Sabbath in our lives and honor the fourth commandment?

Because it is a commandment.

One that is pretty high up in importance –

It comes right after “Thou shalt not have any other God’s before me and thou shalt not take the Lord’s name in vain.”

Even stealing and murder don’t rank as high on the list.

Which may be an indication of just how significant the observation of Sabbath is –

Not for God’s sake, but for our sake.

What if we shifted our understanding of the purpose of Sabbath?

Because when we see it as a day of rest – a day to do no work –

something inside of us resists. 

There is always some work that awaits our attention – weeding the garden, going to the grocery store, volunteering in the community.

Call it the Protestant work ethic or good old-fashioned Yankee steadfastness  - many of us have it bred into us that to be idle when there is work to be done is not a good or Godly thing.

So there is no wonder that the concept of taking a Sabbath –

a full day off from doing any kind of work – is so foreign to us.

But if we look again at the passage from Luke, we see that Jesus didn’t encounter the woman in the synagogue and declare that she needed a day of rest.   No.   What he did was remove her burden.

He took her spirit that had been twisted and weakened and had left her bent over for 18 years, and he healed her.

He liberated her from her pain.

He removed whatever it was that was weighing her down, and allowed her to stand up straight, and see the world in front of her, rather than just the ground beneath her feet.

How might our perception of Sabbath change if we saw it not as a day of personal rest, but rather as a day to release our burdens to God?

While many of us think we’re craving rest, what we’re actually longing for is relief. Liberation.

Liberation from pain, from uncertainty, from grief, from whatever burden is twisting our spirit and weighing us down.

Think about why you came here this morning.

What brought you here – when you could have gone straight to the lake, or the beach, or the mountains?

What brought you here – on the one day you get to wake up without an alarm, eat a leisurely breakfast, and read the Sunday paper out on the patio.

What brought you here -  when you could be wandering the aisles at Home Depot picking up supplies for the weekend project you’ve been meaning to get to all summer.

What brought you here when you could have been doing X number of things, rather than getting up early, putting on presentable clothes, and sitting on a hard pew in a 245-year-old church sanctuary for an hour?

Maybe you came because you haven’t been to church all summer and you thought it was time to check back in – to catch up with people you know,

and find out what you’ve missed.

Maybe you came because you’re new – to this town, or to this church – and you were curious to see if this one would be the right fit for you –

If you’d feel welcomed, inspired, and if maybe, just maybe you could see yourself coming back again.

Maybe you came because this is where you come every Sunday.

To connect with God and others, to say a prayer, to hear music or scripture or a word that inspires you to go out and serve in the name of love, compassion, and grace.

Or maybe you came because there’s something happening in your life right now that is just too much for you to carry on your own.

And you came here seeking guidance – comfort – peace –

something or someone to lean on,

to give you the strength to move forward or to let go, as needed.

We come here for all sorts of reasons.

But few of us get up out of bed and come sit in a church sanctuary because we’re looking for rest.

We come because we’re looking for God.

The One who has the strength and the power to liberate us from whatever is weighing us down.

The One who touches our lives by working in and through the people sitting here in the pews next to us.

The One who sent us Jesus to show us how to walk upright once again and how to help others to do the same.

This is the gift of Sabbath.

This is the commandment created for us.

This the day the Lord has made.

Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Thanks be to God, and Amen.