12 Pentecost Proper 17 Yr C Aug 28 2022

12 Pentecost Proper 17 Yr C Aug 28 2022

Sirach 10:12-18, Psalm 112, Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16, Luke 14:1, 7-14

 

Luke, the gospel writer of hospitality, tells us a story about Jesus who is going to eat at the house of a leader of the Pharisees, who we learned all about last week as the keepers of the Law. This is the Sabbath, a day that is held in high esteem according to the Law, a day set apart from all other days. In the story that Luke is telling us, Jesus observes how the guests take their places, and tells a story about an invitation to a very special meal, a wedding banquet, and another rather ordinary meal, like a luncheon or dinner. So we have before us, a story within a story, and then, another story.

 

I just presided at the wedding of my nephew and his bride, it was a very fun affair, and a privilege to be the presider. However, a wedding banquet in 1st century Mediterranean culture would have been nothing like that. It would have gone on for days, and the celebration was public, everyone in the whole village would have come to the celebration at one time or another. And in fact, there would have been multiple meals all week long. So after Jesus talks about the wedding, he then goes on to describe meals, and hospitality sort of generally, giving an accounting for who should be invited. There are many things going on here.

 

So how can we understand these stories, these parables. Imagine yourself as an invited guest. What does that mean for you? Where do you sit? With whom do you sit? Is there ever a time you may think to yourself, surely not saying anything out loud, that person should not be here, or that person is not distinguished enough, or that person is not good enough, that person is not like me, that person should not be at this table. But Jesus says, "give this person your place." And we hear in the letter to the Hebrews, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”

 

Now, I want you to imagine yourself as the one who does the inviting. You’re throwing the party. Jesus says, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

 

Remember, Jesus tells this parable when he is at a meal in the house of a leader of the Pharisees. You gotta believe the leader of the Pharisees have an agenda in inviting Jesus over, usually, they want to test him, they want to see what he's made of, they want to find out if he is righteous before the law. And so far, in the eyes of the Pharisees, Jesus has failed miserably. He heals on the Sabbath, he eats with sinners and outcasts, and now, he's telling everyone in hearing distance not to invite the important people over for a meal but invite those who cannot return the invitation. Who do we invite to come eat with us here at this table? “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”

 

And lastly, I want you to imagine the invitation itself. This is an invitation that we cannot pay back. Jesus invites each and every one of us to the table, it's not about whether or not we deserve an invitation. Because, somehow, we are transformed in the eating. Somehow, we cannot leave the table without being changed. It is not our own doing, it is indeed the love that wins, the love that blesses, that changes us, the love that heals us. “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”

 

You see, this story within a story from the gospel writer Luke, who is all about hospitality, gives us a picture of God's kingdom. 

What does the kingdom look like in this story?

 

Again, in Jesus’ culture, the greatest good was one's honor. Of course, you sat at the head of the table, of course you expected those less than you to sit at the lowest place. Of course, you invited the important people, the people who could do something for you, the people who had something you need. You would not have considered any other way. That's the way the world worked. It's really not so much different today. Jesus came among the first century people, as Jesus comes among us and says there is a new way, a way of God's kingdom. And in that kingdom, everyone has honor, everyone has status, and that is based on God's love, that is based on being created in God's image. It is not about who you are, it is not based on how much you have, it is not based on anything you can do. In God's kingdom, we are all related, and what we do matters. In God's kingdom it is love that wins and love that blesses.

 

What do you hear in this story? I hear a story of abundance and of enough. Do not be worried about who comes to the party, there will be enough. In God's kingdom there is enough, share what you have. Jesus is inviting us to stop counting and start giving and blessing. What would it be like to live into the freedom to stop calculating our social prestige and stop worrying about what others think and simply be kind to everyone around us, particularly those who are not often the recipients of kindness? What would it look like at work, at school, and at the places we volunteer or play sports or socialize, to look out for those who seem off on the margin and to invite them into the center by inviting them into our lives, inviting them to the lunch table? Jesus invites us to experience the joy of playing “God’s helper” in handing out the abundant gifts of dignity and worth and value with which we have been blessed. There is joy that comes from blessing others with our regard.

 

We are called to this hospitality, we are called to this invitation, we are called to build this kingdom, where no one is an outcast, where all of us sinners are welcome. We are called to the table to feed and be fed. As we feed and are fed, we are sent into the world to be the heralds of this kingdom. We are sent into our work, and our school, we are sent into our communities, bearing this new reality. We are sent into the world to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so we entertain angels. By doing so we are the agents of God's kingdom. By doing so we bring God's healing and reconciliation to all who are broken, which is each and every one of us.

 

We are followers of Jesus. We are invited to the table where there is no preference of place. We are invited to be builders of the kingdom. We are charged to engage every person with mercy and compassion, for by doing so, we entertain angels. Amen. 

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 22, Yr B, Oct 3 2021

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 22, Yr B, Oct 3 2021

Job 1:1; 2:1-10, Psalm 26, Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12, Mark 10:2-16

 

The gospel of Mark just keeps getting tougher. Here we have words that fall on our ears in all sorts of ways, depending on where we have been in life. But I want to remind you again; Mark is very concerned about what it means to follow Jesus. Mark is showing us what that looks like, and we have already heard that following Jesus is not necessarily easy.

 

In showing the disciples and us about following Jesus, Mark has Jesus announcing the coming of God's kingdom, and shows us that Jesus is the embodiment of the kingdom. This passage tells us much more about God than it tells us about ourselves. It tells us about who God is and how we are to relate to God and to one another. Again, Jesus is saying and doing something radical and boundary breaking. Here Jesus shows us that relationship matters. Jesus is saying that relationship with God, and with others, matters. Indeed, not only do relationships matter, but relationships can also be where our brokenness may be made whole. 

 

Mark shows us about God. Mark shows us that God is wholeness, and in a world of brokenness, in a world of disintegration, it is God who makes us whole. The truth is that God as creator is the most powerful integrating force in existence.

 

This is how we experience God in the stories of creation; God calls order from chaos; God creates wholeness out of nothing. God’s Kingdom is about wholeness and health, God's kingdom is about compassion and mercy. God's kingdom is about being related to God and to one another. And relationships matter to God.

 

So relationship is how Jesus responds to the questions of law that the Pharisees ask. The Pharisees are concerned with laws in these questions, they are not concerned with love. You and I approach marriage from the standpoint of love and romance. The Pharisees approach marriage from a legal standpoint. But Jesus says, this is not about law, it is about love. There is a place for law, for protection of the most vulnerable in our society. A very important place. But that is not what this is about. In the 1st century, marriage is a contract by which the man takes possession of the woman from the woman's father. And Jesus responds to the Pharisees, not by upholding or disparaging the law, but by describing God's heart's desire for humanity to live in relationship, relationship that honors and respects the beloved. This kind of relationship is the way God relates to us, and this kind of relationship is God's desire for us in relationship with one another.

 

God yearns for humanity to be committed to loving one another, God wants humanity to put the beloved before self, God wants humanity to live together with dignity, respect, love. This is what the kingdom looks like. Jesus knows what happens when relationships are torn asunder. That's what Jesus describes in this passage. Humans are torn apart. Hearts are broken. Children are hurt.

 

We live in a world of contingency. Contingency and casualness are a message that is splayed across our screens. The themes of some of many of our favorite television programs are that if you are not satisfied with the partner you have, you can leave them for another. And that having things and stuff like the big house, the nice car, a beautiful spouse, successful and beautiful children is way more important than living a life of service.

 

In the world of 1st century Mediterranean culture, the highest value was honor and status, not unlike our culture today. It is into all this that Jesus invokes relationship and community. In God's kingdom, the highest good is commitment to one another. And promises are made about always being there for the other.

 

We live in this human world. You and me in all our wonder and in all the messiness of life live here, in this place. God yearns for us to be together, to put the other first, and yet God knows how we fall short of that. God knows the pain of broken relationships. God knows the pain of love. Isn't that where we are going with Jesus, on this path of discipleship? Straight to the cross, that's the road we are on with Jesus. Right through that pain and suffering of brokenness. Being human is being broken. And some might say, it ends badly with death on a cross. But you and I know differently. We know it doesn't end there. We know that God loves us so absolutely and completely that something amazing happens, that Love wins. That a new thing happens, resurrection. That's the hope in God's relationship with us, and in our relationship with others. We fail. We hurt. We are broken. But because God shares God's very self with us, and because we share our lives with others, we share the very fiber of our being, we are forgiven. We have a second chance. We live through the pain we cause; we live through the pain others cause in our lives. And God's love seeps into our brokenness, God's love seeps into the fissures of our hearts and the fissures of the fibers of our skin and bones and muscles and organs, and somehow we are healed. Somehow we can live again. Somehow, Love wins.

 

As followers of Jesus, we live in God's kingdom. We live in the place where relationships matter, where relationships are sacred. Where every person has dignity, where every person belongs. The Gospel of Mark starts in the lonely places and Jesus will end up on the cross. But being alone is not what God wants for us. God says, "I am here, in my Son, to be in relationship with you. Nothing can separate us any longer." That's why we do what we do. That's why we ask for forgiveness every time we come to the table to eat. That's why we eat the bread and drink the wine. That's why we share our prayers and deposit them in this holy place, together. And that's why we go out into the world bearing God's yearning for relationship to all who we meet. We are Jesus' disciples, we live as kingdom people, and for us, Love wins.

 

In these times in which hate and disintegration seems to rule the day, sometimes the brokenness seems so vast, the chasm between us so huge, that we cannot even imagine God re-integrating, healing, calling us back together, calling us to wholeness, dying to set us free. But I believe with all my heart and my mind and my soul, that we can be healed. But I also believe we need to act on God's love, we need to be God's hands and God's feet and God's heart and insist that no one is left out. We need to be the change we want to see, wherever we find ourselves. We are the ones we are waiting for. Find the ways to bring peace. Find the ways to build bridges. Find the ways we may be friends and neighbors again.

Amen.

 

15 Pentecost Proper 17 Yr B Sept 2 2018

15 Pentecost Proper 17 Yr B Sept 2 2018 2018 Audio

Mark 7:1-8,14-15,21-23

If it is from within, from the human heart that evil intentions come, then it is from God that all lovely, beautiful, and creative intentions come. And is this not a most beautiful world when we live together in love, beauty, and creativity. This is God’s dream for humanity, for us. But the gospel writer Mark shows us the trouble in Jesus’ time and place of misplaced intentions, misappropriated laws, misspent desire, and the disastrous consequences that result.

The traditions and laws that Mark refers to were in place to really bring order into chaos, they kept people and things in expected and predictable ways. The traditions were intended to serve as a “fence around the law” to preserve its function by protecting the law from careless or inadvertent violations. The traditions and laws were not bad unto themselves. They had meaning and purpose and were closely held by the Jewish people of Jesus’ time. Also, by observing these traditions and laws, you were identified as one of the group. They kept the order, they kept the lines of who’s in and who’s out very clear. Because the consequences of not being one of the group, the consequences of breaking the law or breaking with tradition was to be relegated to the margins, to be thrown out of the family, to be unprotected. No one wanted that, and not only was there much comfort in doing what had always been done, you could lose your life if you didn’t.

Aren’t we all looking to be identified as one of the group, whatever group that may be? Being one of the group is as important today as it ever was in first century Judaism. Whether or not we know it, we do it all the time. We wear our Packer attire so that we may be identified as a Packer backer, who wants to be a purple people eater in a sea of green?

But of course it goes so much deeper than that. Identity, and identifying with a group is at the core of our social lives. So much of our time is spent keeping people in or keeping people out. Bullying is about keeping someone out, keeping someone from identifying with your group. Any difference between you and the group the bully is in or even leads is a warrant for verbal jabs and physical barbs so that you know very well that you do not measure up, you do not fit in, you are not one of them, you are different. Gangs are about identifying with a particular group and there are very specific and often violent ways you gain access to the group. Identity is something we talk about a lot, and we say, no one should be threatened or punished because of their identity. What makes it hard, or maybe different from the traditions and the laws of the early first century is that those laws and traditions were clear, you knew where the fence was, and you knew when you jumped the fence and exactly what the consequences were for jumping the fence. It was the difference between chaos and order for them.

Our conflicts today are not much different, who’s in who’s out, who is like us, who is not like us. And our conflicts are often attributable to a zero sum game, which means there are always winners and losers. One of the differences between us and the first century Mediterranean world is that our fences are not clear like they were then. We are an enlightened people, and we think we have come far regarding the things that separate us, the things that identify us, race, religion, language, gender. But if we as a country were to be truly honest, we would see that its not that our fences are not as clear, it’s really that we don’t talk about them much, and that causes stress, anxiety, and sometimes hatred and violence.

But the good news in this text, and there is good news, is that the list; fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly, all of these misplaced intentions, misappropriated law, misspent desire, is not what God dreams for us. Jesus says, “there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” I think what Jesus may have been trying to say is that our identity is beloved children of God. And as God’s beloveds, we are imbued with grace and with spirit. God fills us with love, and with life, and with worth. And there is no one left out, the fences we build have absolutely nothing to do with God’s love for us.

We need to remember also those laws and traditions were meant to keep people healthy and well, in some ways they are very practical. But when upholding the laws and traditions are the goal, when the fences are built to keep people out, they become a distraction away from the reality that God loves, no matter what. And this is sin. We don’t talk much about sin in our culture anymore, but here it is.

Sin is missing your mark. You see, God fills us with love, and with life, and with worth. Following Jesus is loving God, loving our neighbor, and showing it, so sin is when we miss our mark, sin is when we break our relationships with God, with Jesus, with others, and sin is the resulting brokenness of our lives and our world. You see, Jesus shows us the way with his life, Jesus shows us the way by giving his life in love, and we hear the words, “forgive them, they do not know what they do.”

Jesus says, “it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come.” The whole list of evil is about broken relationships, broken hearts.

Humanity is created to be in love, to be in relationship with one another and with God. That is our identity, that is what makes us who we are. There is no fence around us keeping us in or others out. Our identity is found in Jesus, the one who lives, loves, suffers, dies, and is risen. Our identity is found in the relationship of creator, redeemer, spirit. Our identity is found in the reality that we sin, we miss the mark, our hearts are broken, and we are nevertheless, forgiven.

And the difficulty of this truth is that in God’s kingdom everyone matters. No one is to be thrown out or thrown away. There are to be no fences, we may divide people up by arbitrary differences, but God does not. And forgetting that is our sin. Never forget, that in God’s kingdom, God’s dream for us, for humanity is to be lovers, to be kind, compassionate. Never forget, that in God’s kingdom, God’s dream for us is that despite our tendency to miss the mark, to sin, we are filled with love, beauty, worth. Never forget, that in God’s kingdom, love always wins. Amen.

2 Pentecost Yr B Proper 4 June 3 2018

2 Pentecost Yr B Proper 4 June 3 2018 Audio

This is the sermon for 2 Pentecost Yr B Proper 4 June 3 2018 rewritten for my preaching class at Luther.  Mark 2:23-3:6

Here we are, on a Sunday, on the Sabbath day, and here we have this passage from the gospel of Mark, about the Sabbath. Seems like it may very well be the proverbial preaching to the choir, you’re all here, observing the Sabbath, what more is there to say? There actually is a lot more to say in this Sabbath story. Jesus makes us whole. In this world that pulls us apart, that breaks our hearts, Jesus makes us whole.

Jesus was taking a big risk, a huge chance in this Sabbath story. One Sabbath Jesus and his disciples were walking through the grain fields, and his disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. No big deal you and I think, we do it all the time. At least I do, on a Sunday afternoon, walk around my yard and my garden and pluck the weeds right outa there. But the Pharisees are watching Jesus so carefully. In fact, they seem to be doing an awful lot of hanging around just to catch him in the act.

You see, Sabbath observance was one of the fundamental characteristics of the Jewish people, marking them off from other groups of the day. So a challenge at this point is no small matter. And that’s essentially what Jesus is doing here, intentionally or not; Jesus and his followers are challenging the Pharisees. It seems that the Pharisees care more about their custom than they do about their brother: they are more eager to bring Jesus down than to restore this man’s useless hand.

In Mark’s gospel, argument about the Sabbath played a critical role in the life of Jesus; indeed, it was one of the factors that led to his death. And, Sabbath observation was a burning question at the time the gospel was written, when the Christian movement was still separating from the synagogue.

So these questions about what is lawful on the Sabbath at the time were legitimate questions. Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good, to save life? Or, by ignoring the need for healing, to harm life? This drove Jesus to anger. Jesus regards the Pharisees attitude as hardness of heart, they were stubborn, closed minded. They placed religious vigilance above concern for human need. They place the law above the wholeness and healing that Jesus offers.

So what does this Sabbath story have to do with us?

I remember the days, I don’t think they are so very far in the past, when Sundays, were for church and for Sunday dinner. I’m from a mixed marriage. Some of you remember the days when mixed marriage, that was marriage between a Lutheran and a Catholic, meant that the Lutheran signed a promise to raise the children in the Catholic church. Now I come from a large family, I’m five of eight. My mom would pile us all in the station wagon, and we were putting on our shoes and our hats and probably our gloves, as she was yelling at us to get in the car. We’d get to church; we’d empty the car like the Shriners at a parade, file into the church and take up a whole pew, just like all the other families. After church we’d all pile back into the car for the very short ride home. My dad never came with us on those Sabbath Sundays. Years later, when he did decide to be a Catholic, I learned that his agreement to raise us Catholic was to stay home with the very youngest ones so that my mom could get the rest of us to church. The Sabbath Sunday wasn’t necessarily relaxing, but it was part of church and family that was joyful and broken and messy.

And, the culture of the time supported this. There was no shopping on Sabbath Sundays, because there were no stores open, because the law wouldn’t allow it.

This is a rather nostalgic story, but I do think there is something to it. The human body and psyche need regular times of rest for rejuvenation, and for getting put back together. And it’s not just about the law even though Jesus challenges every form of legalism that reduces religion to the keeping of rules. It’s also about all the stuff that fragments us.

Sometimes, family and friends disappoint, maybe even break our hearts. Sometimes, work is impossible, maybe even breaks our spirit. Sometimes, the violence perpetrated in our schools makes us fearful, we may even despair. And even with our broken hears, our broken spirits and our despair, Jesus makes us whole.

The good news is that this passage from Mark isn’t all about making you feel guilty about church attendance; actually, it’s not about guilt at all. It’s about what God does in and through Jesus. It’s about God’s gift of wholeness, of healing, and of love. The good news is that Jesus makes us whole.

Within this story is Jesus’ story about David. The point of Jesus’ story about David is that scripture itself admits of exceptions to the law. The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath. This grounds Sabbath law in the welfare of humankind. It challenges every legalism that makes of the Sabbath a burden to bear rather healing, wholeness, and love.

Jesus is lord even of the Sabbath – this not only affirms the authority of Jesus, the son of man, to reinterpret Sabbath law, but asserts also that the Sabbath remains God’s day. Jesus determines the proper use of the Sabbath. Jesus best knows human needs; as God, Jesus has the authority to say how the Lord’s Day should be used. Jesus shows us that the Sabbath is created for healing, for wholeness, for love.

Risen lord, be known to us in the breaking of the bread. You see, what we do when we gather in this place, and in places around the world, has everything to do with the lord of the Sabbath, the Lord who heals, the Lord who makes us whole, and it’s not so much about law as it is about love. We come, we make room, space is opened in our hearts, sometimes by choice, often because our hearts are broken. The ways of the world have left us broken, pulled apart, isolated, and love seeps in. It seeps in with bread and wine. Love seeps in through song and prayer and hugs and handshakes. We come with broken hearts, we come with streaming tears, and those tears remind us that in the waters of baptism we die and are raised with Jesus. Jesus makes us whole, Jesus actually makes us new on this Sabbath.

You who are broken by the ways and wills of the world, Jesus makes you whole.

You who are broken by the cares and concerns of this community, Jesus makes you whole.

You who are broken by the extremes and excesses of economy, Jesus makes you whole.

Take the Sabbath story out with you. God shows up in this place, and for a time we rest in these pews, and then we are sent out. We bring our new selves, our selves that Jesus has put back together, out into our work, our schools, our neighborhood. We bring our newly constituted selves, put back together in the bread and the wine, the body and the blood, our holy selves, made so by the one who is risen. Thanks be to God.

Following is the original.

Here we are, on a Sunday, on the Sabbath day, and here we have this passage from the gospel of Mark, about the Sabbath. Seems like it may very well be the proverbial preaching to the choir, you’re all here, observing the Sabbath, what more is there to say?

Jesus was taking a big risk, a huge chance in this Sabbath story. One Sabbath Jesus and his disciples were walking through the grain fields, and his disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. No big deal you and I think, we do it all the time. At least I do, on a Sunday afternoon, walk around my yard and my garden and pluck the weeds right outa there. But the Pharisees are watching Jesus so carefully. In fact, they seem to be doing an awful lot of hanging around just to catch him in the act.

You see, Sabbath observance was one of the fundamental characteristics of the Jewish people, marking them off from other groups of the day. So a challenge at this point is no small matter. And that’s essentially what Jesus is doing here, intentionally or not; Jesus and his followers are challenging the Pharisees. It seems that the Pharisees care more about their custom than they do about their brother: they are more eager to bring Jesus down than to restore this man’s useless hand.

In Mark’s gospel, argument about the Sabbath played a critical role in the life of Jesus; indeed, it was one of the factors that led to his death. And, Sabbath observation was a burning question at the time the gospel was written, when the Christian movement was still separating from the synagogue.

So these questions about what is lawful on the Sabbath at the time were legitimate questions. Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good, to save life? Or, by ignoring the need for healing, to harm life? This drove Jesus to anger. Jesus regards the Pharisees attitude as hardness of heart, they were stubborn, closed minded. They placed religious scrupulosity above concern for human need.

So what does this Sabbath story have to do with us?

I remember the days, I don’t think they are so very far in the past, when Sundays, were for church and for Sunday dinner. I’m from a mixed marriage. Some of you remember the days when mixed marriage, that meant marriage between a Lutheran and a Catholic, meant that the Lutheran signed a promise to raise the children in the Catholic church. Now I come from a large family, you all know that, I’m five of eight. My mom would pile us all in the station wagon, and we were putting on our shoes and our hats and probably our gloves, as she was yelling at us to get in the car. We’d get to church; we’d empty the car like the Shriners at a parade, file into the church and take up a whole pew, just like all the other families. After church we’d all pile back into the car for the very short ride home. My dad never came with us. Years later, when he did decide to be a Catholic, I learned that his agreement to raise us Catholic was to stay home with the very youngest ones so that my mom could get the rest of us to church. The day wasn’t necessarily relaxing, but it was all part of this messiness that was church and family.

And, the culture of the time supported this. There was no shopping on Sundays, because there were no stores open, because the law wouldn’t allow it.

I don’t think this is all about nostalgia, but I do think there is something to it. The human body and psyche need regular times of rest. It’s not just about the law even though Jesus challenges every form of legalism that reduces religion to the keeping of rules.

We are so busy, and so much calls our attention away from rest and listening. You all know this; in fact, I’ve heard many of you speak of it recently. The 24-hour news cycle that is driving us all crazy. Your phone pings every time a news report comes in. You are updated every time one of your friends posts a picture, or eats at a new restaurant. We have to remember to turn our phones off when we come to church, or go to a concert. And it is increasingly difficult to discern the real from the fake.

Our electronic lives tend to pull us apart, we are pulled apart from one another, and we are fragmented and isolated.

The good news is that this passage isn’t all about making you feel guilty about church attendance; it’s not about guilt at all.

Within this story is Jesus’ story about David. The point of Jesus’ story about David is that scripture itself admits of exceptions to the law. The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath. This grounds Sabbath law in the welfare of humankind. It challenges every legalism that makes of the Sabbath a burden to bear rather than renewal for the road.

Jesus is lord even of the Sabbath – this not only affirms the authority of Jesus, the son of man, to reinterpret Sabbath law, but asserts also that the Sabbath remains God’s day. Jesus determines the proper use of the Sabbath. Jesus best knows human needs; as God, Jesus has the authority to say how the Lord’s Day should be used.

So to rightly observe the Sabbath is not only to rest and worship but also to do good, to save life, to make life whole, both our own and that of our neighbor. The principle suggests to followers of Jesus that Sundays be spent not in self-indulgence nor in self-denial, but in renewal and in service, in healing, as Jesus did on the Sabbath.

Risen lord, be known to us in the breaking of the bread. You see, what we do when we gather in this place, and in places around the world, has everything to do with the lord of the Sabbath, and it’s not so much about law as it is about love. We come, we make room, we open space in our hearts, sometimes by choice, often because we have been broken, and love seeps in. It seeps in bread and in wine. Love seeps in through song and prayer and hugs and handshakes. We come with broken hearts, we come with streaming tears, and we are reminded that it is in the waters of baptism that we are risen with Jesus.

And we are healed, we are actually made new on this Sabbath.

And we take the Sabbath out with us. God shows up in this place, and for a time we rest in these pews, and then we are sent out. We bring bread and wine to those who cannot leave their homes to come here. We bring our new selves, our selves that have been put back together, out in the world in service to others. Our newly constituted selves, put back together in the bread and the wine, the body and the blood, our healed selves, made whole by the broken body of Jesus, our holy selves, made so by the one who is risen, go out into the world to stand with those whose healing is not yet. We stand with those who have been held hostage by the letter of the law, waiting to be freed by the love that wins.

We, are not perfect, sometimes we want the letter of the law, because love is so messy and hard. But we are perfectly loved, perfectly forgiven. Go out, on this Sabbath Sunday, carrying your healed broken heart, your healed brokenness, to love God, love others, and show it. Amen.