August 26, 2007 – Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Luke 13:10-17
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Grace and peace to you from God the Creator and the Lord Jesus. Amen.
“This is the day of Joy, the day for Jubilation;
this is the day of Joy for all of God’s creation.”
Some of you may recognize these words from the start of a song that the choir has sung on Easter morning the last couple of years. This song has been running through my mind the last week and the more I thought about it, the more I realized how appropriate that song is for today’s Gospel message. Today we celebrate the Sabbath, the day of joy. The word Sabbath in Hebrew literally means to abstain from labor, to rest.
Exhausted! was the headline on the cover of Newsweek a couple of years ago. Next to it was a picture of the president of Harvard University. He was in the middle of a major fundraising campaign and stepped away from his job. He said that he was just plain exhausted. It took him 3 months to recuperate. He had been running himself ragged and he did not take time to stop and rest. He isn’t the only one. All you have to do is Goodsearch the term feeling exhausted and you’ll get 470,183 hits and see other people in the headlines like the Canadian Governor General, jet pilots, and singers like Amy Winehouse who are calling off tours, speeches and other events because of exhaustion.
How many times have we said, I’m so busy? How about just this last week? Even if I’m not physically busy, my to do list is running through my mind and I’m sure that you have your own to do list running through your head. The idea of Sabbath is not a suggestion; it is a command from God, the third commandment; remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.
In our Gospel lesson, it was the duty of the leader of the synagogue to interpret what is work. Jesus is dealing with a synagogue leader who was doing his job. Just as we heard in the Gospel lesson 2 weeks ago, we are to be prepared and ready to do our job. We do this by being continually faithful to our vocation or calling. In our day-to-day duties, we are to glorify God. This is what the leader thought he was doing. He was interpreting the law. He believed in the law and that it permits helping animals on the Sabbath, but that it violated the law to free this woman from Satan’s bondage on the Sabbath. Jesus acts contrary to some of the people’s expectations. He is breaking their rules.
Earlier in Luke: Jesus read from the Isaiah: (Luke 4:18-21) 8 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. 20 And he rolled up the scroll… and sat down… 21 Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Jesus did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Even though we are set free from the law that does not mean that we are set free from the responsibility of the law. We are to follow the 10 commandments. We are still to honor the Sabbath. In the Hebrew Bible, in Genesis, God worked for six days, on the seventh God rested, blessed this day, and set it apart as a day of rest for humans. The Sabbath is as old as the world itself and has been celebrated since Adam and Eve. We are to continue that celebration.
According to Martin Luther in the large catechism, the third commandment teaches two things. The first thing he mentions is rest, so that the common laborer should be given time to rest and be refreshed. The second part of that is on the day of rest time should be taken to attend worship services so that the people could come together, hear God’s word, sing and pray. Rest is important, look at plants there are certain species that if they are not dormant during the winter, the plant begins to die. Therefore, rest is not just psychologically important; it is a spiritual and biological necessity.
Rest is important but how do we honor God? The leader of the synagogue was focused on what the law said and not the spirit of the law. Everybody struggles with the appropriate limits. People in power, struggle with questions like; where do you draw the line? What exceptions do you allow? What consequences do you impose when the standards aren’t meet? The people at the time of the Gospel lesson looked towards the leaders of the synagogue to help establish those limits. The leader wondered why didn’t Jesus wait a couple of hours until sundown to cure this woman. He could have cured this woman and obeyed the law. Jesus was dealing with two people who were bound. First, the woman who was physically bound whom he healed. He shocked her because she didn’t even come searching Jesus out for healing. She may have know he would be there and maybe even hoped that he could help her, but at that time, Jesus called her to come to him. Jesus takes the initiative by calling attention to this unnamed woman, laying hands on her, and healing her. By doing this Jesus shocked the leader that day that was bound to what the law said. Jesus did not intend to say that rest was not important, but that there is so much more to it. He was there to demonstrate the capacity of the Sabbath. Jesus calls his followers to honor the Sabbath and not to lose sight of the person in need. He is redefining what is “acceptable” to do on the Sabbath and changing the focus and the attention to God’s goodness, grace and mercy.
Just as Jesus was calling the synagogue leader and his followers out of their comfort zone, God called us out of our comfort zone into a new and very uncomfortable place. In the Gospel last week, Jesus’ used the shock value to tell us to be on fire and be passionate about God and God’s Kingdom. Our lives are turned upside down. Today we continue with that same shock value and are called to really look at how we celebrate the Sabbath. Not only should we rest and keep the Sabbath holy, we should follow Jesus’ example. Jesus demonstrates the command in Micah to: Do Justice, Love Mercy, and walk Humbly with our God. People all over the world and right here in Johnson County are bound or oppressed. We may not be able to lay hands on them and free them, but we are each given a gift and should use that gift accordingly. At Advent, we have many opportunities to help those that are bound. Look in the bulletin. Just last week we blessed a good number of backpacks for needy children, we are looking forward to mission trips to New Orleans and Mexico, working with Lutheran Disaster Relief in many communities that have been affected by natural disasters and many other opportunities will arise. We are called to follow Jesus’ example, honor the Sabbath and keep it holy.
Soon we will be sharing a meal at the table and then be sent out into the world to continue that celebration. May we “leave this Sabbath gathering to become what we have received: bread for the hungry, wine of peace, Christ’s body blessed, broken and given for the life of the world.” Amen!
