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St. Charles Episcopal Church - Saint Charles, IL
The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 16 RCL – Year C
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Jeremiah 1:4-10 – Psalm 71:1-6 – Hebrews 12:18-29 – Luke 13:10-17
Rev. William R. Nesbit, Jr.
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.
I don’t know if you were aware of this, but today we got to hear something new... something we have never heard in church before. The healing story that we heard in the Gospel this morning is a portion of the Bible that has never been in the regular cycle of readings before it was added to the RCL. Yes, we have heard stories of Jesus healing on the Sabbath before, (Jesus liked to do that a lot!) But this is the first time we have heard this particular story of Jesus healing the woman bent over and crippled by a spirit.
So let’s take a general look at Jesus healing on the Sabbath. If we look at all the Gospels, Jesus heals on the Sabbath seven times. Now you might think that seven would have some kind of significance, but that isn’t the case here. Three of these healings come from the Gospel of Mark, and two each from Luke and John, so the total number is not as important as reality that for Jesus, healing on the Sabbath was not an aberration, but a significant part of his ministry. And that kind of begs the question, why did the Hebrews have an injunction against healing on the Sabbath anyway.
To do that we need to go back to Torah in the books of Genesis and Exodus. In Genesis, the first story of creation ends with, “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.” On the seventh day, the Sabbath, God rested from all the work of creation, blessing and hallowing that day.
In Exodus, the first mention of Sabbath comes in the story of the manna and it is God that keeps Sabbath, only providing manna for six days a week, and commanding “a day of solemn rest, a holy sabbath to the Lord.” Later on in the book of Exodus, at the giving of the Ten Commandments, the Lord reminds them of the earlier command and expands and explains. “Remember 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, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.” Later on, as the scene of the giving of the Law is drawing to a close, the Lord gives Moses a further explanation of Sabbath. “You shall keep my sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, given in order that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you.”
And so over the following hundreds of years the Hebrews kept the Sabbath and rules began to be laid down about what was “officially” work and what wasn’t. By the time Jesus arrives on the scene the rules have become pretty involved and convoluted. To be fair, that pretty much is the way of things. Look at how involved and convoluted our constitutional rules have become in just a little over two hundred years. I hate to think what they might look like in a couple thousand! Still, I think it is important to remember that Jesus came not to throw out the Sabbath, but to correct a misunderstanding of the Sabbath rules.
Somehow, the Hebrews had come to see healing as any other kind of work, and so prohibited its use on the Sabbath. What Jesus showed to those at the synagogue that day was that the sickness that this woman suffered with was it’s own kind of work that had prevented her from fulfilling her own Sabbath duties for eighteen years. In all those years she had been disconnected from her own understanding that she was blessed by God. What Jesus was trying to get through to the leader of the synagogue was the folly that they took better care of their animals on the Sabbath than they did of each other. Why could they not see that healing was it’s own Sabbath, a holy rest from the hard labor of illness. Jesus himself describes this healing as a release from the bondage of Satan. How could they have missed that?
So what are we to make of all this? What is the good news to take from our Gospel this morning? The first, I think, is the importance of Sabbath. Though Jesus breaks the rules of Sabbath, he does so in the service of the greater Sabbath. Do not confuse Sabbath with going to church. Though going to church is certainly part of a healthy Sabbath, it is only part... and a small part at that. If we are to be healthy well rounded Christians, Sabbath discipline must be observed. Regular times of rest must be a regular part of our lives as a spiritual discipline. If we are to be right with God we must MAKE TIME TO DO NOTHING. Make no mistake about it, Sabbath is a discipline, even more so today than it was in Jesus’ time. I saw something in the paper the other day that frightened me. It frightened me because one of my greatest weaknesses is encroaching on one of my favorite sanctuaries. Wi-fi is now coming to campgrounds. Our electronic gizmo’s are touted as making work easier, and they do, but even more so they make work longer. It is getting harder and harder for us to leave work behind, and we are the poorer for it. The good news is that, at least so far, we can still turn them off. Find ways to make Sabbath a discipline in your life and let that discipline be a sign of God’s blessing.
Another piece of Good news that we can take away from our Gospel this morning is, I think, the central place that healing has, or should have, in Christian ministry. To offer healing in the name of God is to be a sign to the world of God’s continual sanctification of all creation. To be a healer is to incarnate Sabbath in the world, through the easing of the labors of illness. Throughout his time on earth, Jesus taught his followers to go out into the world and heal the sick, but even more, he lived that reality, moving among the people and healing the sick and casting out demons. Jesus showed us that though it is important to practice Sabbath, it is even more important to be Sabbath. To pray for healing is to remember, to bring into being, the sanctifying connection between God and one of God’s suffering servants. In this remembering, this re-connection to the body of Christ, the holy rest of sabbath fills all those involved; they become Sabbath.
This is the truth the world needs to hear. This is Good News we need to share, and the hard work we need to be about. We need have no fear, for God goes with us. Like Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and even Jesus, we have been appointed and consecrated to speak these truths. The words have been placed in our mouths. If we can find the courage to speak, there will be wonderful things to do. Amen.