Proper 4/Ordinary 9/Pentecost 2 Year B June 3, 2018
Luther Memorial Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie Hutson
Deuteronomy 5: 12-15 + 2 Cor. 4: 5-12 + Mark 2:23-3:6
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
You might remember that in April, Vicar Laura had to cover for me by preaching at the last minute when I was sick. Well, today, I’m returning the favor, unfortunately. Vicar Laura has a terrible sinus infection made worse by inflammation in her chest lining that is quite painful. Please pray for her as she recovers. I’ve had to insist that she not try to work during this and that she take some time to rest.
At this time of year, the minds and hearts of students and teachers also turn to rest. A summer off. If you aren’t currently a student, do you remember what that was like? The idea that every day when you awoke there wasn’t a schedule you had to keep….that the day stretched pretty much entirely ahead…just waiting to be filled. And if you are currently a teacher…well, God bless you, first of all. But teachers and students already have summer break in their sights, counting the days until they can take time to rest.
Where do we, as adults, learn that being busy is a virtue? When did we go from the sweetness of unscheduled restful days to the idea that the busier we are the more we are justified or valued in society?
A study from the Statistics Portal Statista[1] shows that those of us who live in the Pacific Northwest have the largest number of unused paid vacation days compared to anywhere else in the United States. We have left 59%….more than half….a lot more than half….we’ve left 59% of our vacation time unused.
Honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy, as YHWH, your God, commanded.
And then the writer of Deuteronomy goes on to give a detailed account of what that will look like: For six days you will labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to YHWH, your God. You will do no work that day, neither you nor your daughter nor your son nor your workers – women or men – not your ox nor your donkey, nor any of your animals, not even foreigners among you. Thus your workers – both women and men – will rest as you do. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and that YHWH, your God, brought you out from there with a mighty hand and outstretched arm; because of this, YHWH your God, has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.[2]
Because they were slaves, because they once did not have the freedom to rest, YHWH wants the Israelites to purposefully take a day of rest. And so it is given as commandment. Note that it is not punishment, it is not discipline, it is given for their sake. So that the beloved people of God, who have not had the freedom to rest until now, will remember to do so.
Beloved community, the very God who created us in the image of God desires the very best for us. This command of Sabbath does not say that we will only rest or always rest. We will work for six of the seven days. But for one of those days we will rest.
Our confirmation class was discussing this commandment, and immediately noted that if our Sabbath day is Sunday, I am breaking this commandment, and so is David and so are the first responders and those who work in hospitals and those who work in stores. Of course, many of us can remember a time when stores weren’t open and the only people who worked were essential personnel. Plus pastors. It’s probably arguable whether we’re considered essential personnel.
Somewhere along the way, our society as a whole drifted away from what were called “blue laws”, those guidelines that enforced abstinence from work on Sundays. And maybe that’s not a bad thing. Because offering a top down approach to this also misses the point of this commandment.
And that’s what was happening with Jesus and the disciples and the religious authorities in the Gospel reading today. The disciples were picking grain in the field and the Pharisees immediately pounced upon their inability to keep the commandment about Sabbath. So Jesus reminds them that even David was known to bend that rule and then in our reading he goes on to heal on the Sabbath day as well. And his point is made in this statement: “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath.”
In other words, the whole point of the Sabbath is the rest and renewal of God’s people. On it’s own, as a day of the week or a day on our calendar, the day or the date has no significance. It is our taking time on one day…one day out of six….maybe it’s Thursday or like me, it’s Monday….taking the time to rest.
Finding time for Sabbath offers us another way of being besides the way that prizes busy-ness for it’s own sake and that leaves paid vacation time unused. Sabbath resists a culture of work/produce/sleep/work/produce sleep. Sabbath calls us apart. Sabbath asks us to honor ourselves as we are made in God’s beautiful image.
Theologian Walter Bruggeman describes Sabbath this way:
“In our own contemporary context of the rat race of anxiety, the celebration of Sabbath is an act of both resistance and alternative. It is resistance because it is a visible insistence that our lives are not defined by the production and consumption of commodity goods.
“But Sabbath is not only resistance. It is alternative. It is an alternative to the demanding, chattering, pervasive presence of advertising and its great liturgical claim of professional sports that devour all our “rest time.”[3]
Oh my! Did Walter Bruggemann just suggest that watching sports is a violation of Sabbath? So, those Sunday Seahawks games? Mariner’s games? Husky games? Or worst of all….BAMA games? Watching them isn’t an act of rest? You’ve clearly never watched one of those Alabama games with me.
When we think about it, finding those things that truly invite us into a posture of rest… that call us to deep renewal….that’s something besides turning on the game. And it’s definitely not scrolling through Facebook. We are all different. For some, rest might be listening to music; for others it might be reading or painting or taking a hike through creation.
When we do not rest, our bodies and our spirits often resist. We ache in our bones and in our hearts. Our breathing is shallow and quick. Our minds do not settle. Our hearts do not rest.
Still, the God who created us calls us to this rest. Jesus reminds us that Sabbath was created for our benefit and for the benefit of community. Because surely, if we rested more we would have more patience with ourselves and one another. If we knew how to sink deeply into Sabbath keeping, we would both resist the urge to judge and criticize and we would be strengthened when the task at hand is actually to name evil.
I hope you will hear anew the words of YHWH to the people of Israel as words for us, for you, as well. And I hope you will hear them as loving invitation. For six days you will labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to YHWH, your God.
Dear Ones, find the time to rest your body and spirit. Carve out a day for this and jealously protect it. You won’t always be successful, but when you are, restoration will be yours and will be greater in the community.
Thanks be to God and let the Church say…Amen.
[2] Deuteronomy 5: 12-15
[3] Brueggeman, Walter. Sabbath As Resistance.