Fr. Bill Carroll – The Second Sunday after Pentecost, June 2, 2024
Jesus said, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath.”
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In our culture, Sabbath observance is in decline. Many of us choose (or are forced) to work on the weekend. Fewer and fewer of us take time and set it apart for God and our neighbor. And that’s why I’d like to offer a meditation this morning on the Sabbath and its true, life-giving purpose. I speak as a Christian. I am basing what I say on the teaching and example of Jesus. And yet, I hope that what I’m saying would be recognizable to faithful Jews–even if we come to different conclusions about how to keep the Sabbath holy.
According to one of our foremost Old Testament scholars, Walter Brueggeman, God intends for the Sabbath to be a gift:
…God’s creation is, at root, an unanxious environment for life (he says) that is not defined by energetic productivity or self-preoccupied consumption, but is defined by the peaceableness that has confidence in the reliability of the world as God’s creation without excessive exertion on the part of God or humankind. Thus the Sabbath is the discipline of pause that celebrates the world as God’s good place for life…
In his controversies with other Jewish leaders, Jesus upholds God’s vision for the Sabbath. In so doing, he is arguing as a Jew among Jews. We ought never read the Gospel in any other way. When the Son of God becomes human, he chooses to do so as a faithful Jew.
A huge part of the Christian life is letting Jesus train us to see people and their situations correctly. Jesus teaches us to see with the eyes of God. Seeing what he sees leads us to love like he loves and to do what God commands us to do.
In the Gospels, Jesus shows us where to look for him. He tells us to seek him in our neighbors, especially the “least of these.” On the Cross, he enters our places of suffering and shame—transforming them into places where we meet God. When we feed the hungry, welcome strangers, or house the homeless poor, we are helping Jesus himself.
Jesus grounds his teaching in the Torah and the prophets. He is rooted in the traditions of his people. And so, in doing the works of mercy and justice, we take our stand with faithful Jews and other children of God. The stories Jesus tells us and the actions he shows us reveal the God of Israel, the God of the everlasting covenant. They show us who God is and what God is like.
The story of the man with the withered hand is no exception. Jesus sees this man. (He really sees this man.) And so, he responds to his needs. Jesus sees him with God’s own eyes–and he loves him with God’s own love. When the others protest his actions, Jesus gets angry with their hardness of heart. As a Jew among Jews (and like many rabbis since), Jesus insists that it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath Day. For Jesus, healing is not what the Torah forbids when it commands us to “do no servile work.” For Jesus, healing is part of what it means to keep the Sabbath holy. “The sabbath was made for humankind (he says), and not humankind for the sabbath.”
In biblical times (and still today), labor was brutally hard. The surrounding nations worked their slaves twenty-four-hours-a-day. Pharaoh wasn’t afraid to work them to death. God gives us the Sabbath, so that we might find rest and restoration–so that we might rejoice in God’s gifts and give thanks to the Giver.
Vision leads to faithful action. Seeing what God sees helps Jesus do what God requires. In the Gospels, we are offered a more comprehensive vision—one that sees all the little people that are so often ignored, those who are bowed down by the weight of human toil and oppression.
Our worship helps us widen our perspective. Often, it leads us to forsake our privilege. Worship helps us let go of a superficial and partial vision of reality that often guides our behavior. Too often, our top concern is “What’s in it for me?” Jesus delivers us from this self-centered perspective. He shows us a new and better way to live.
And so, the Sabbath is not fundamentally a legal requirement. It is a gift and blessing from God. God gives us this gift to bless us. God created it to express his love for all his creatures. God created the Sabbath, so that we might rejoice in his love–and be renewed in all his gifts.
For we are earth creatures–mortal and frail. That’s the literal meaning of Adam’s name: “the earth creature.” And we depend on God for everything: from the food we eat to the water we drink to the air we breathe. All of it is God’s good creation and gift. Genesis shows God breathing the breath of life into Adam’s nostrils.
If we are honest with ourselves, we know that we fall short of the glory of God. And yet, we are filled with God’s Spirit. We have the treasure of life. We have the treasure of God’s own presence. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels. A lot of labor is required to care for these vessels. And that work is holy. But we need rest.
We have this treasure, in spite of our weakness and sin. God keeps giving his gifts to us. Even we are not faithful, God is faithful to us. And so, we carry in our bodies the death of Jesus, so that his life might become visible in us. We are (each one of us) a love letter from God. As God sees it, we are love letters–written in flesh, sealed by the Spirit, and addressed to our neighbors. The purpose of human life is caring for one another.
Like our other spiritual disciplines (including prayer, Bible study, service, and worship), Sabbath-keeping is all about tending the flame of God’s love. It is about keeping the fire of God’s Spirit burning among us. It is about waiting for God to speak. It is about listening–and doing what he tells us.
So that, by the gift of the Spirit, we might live more like Jesus.
And the whole world might rejoice in his love.
Amen.