“Yes: Heal on the Sabbath, and Other Necessary Heretical Acts” Sermon from August 21, 2016 on Jesus' healing the woman on the sabbath

When religious rules interfere with acts of love and compassion, then defy them and put your trust in God's loving-kindness instead. What do you think? Please post below.

“Yes: Heal on the Sabbath”
Sermon, Year C, Proper 16, August 21, 2016
© Rev. David J. Huber 2016
Plymouth UCC, Eau Claire, WI
Focus Scripture: Luke 13:10-17






For the past two Sundays we have talked about faith. My sermons have been on the topic of “faith”, using a couple passages from the letter to the Hebrews out of the 11th chapter which talked about faith. The author of the letter was talking about keeping the faith to a community that was being persecuted and harassed for being followers of Jesus. To inspire his or her audience, the letter writer listed a number of people who had faith in God. With “faith” being, as I said the past couple weeks, I like to think of “faith” as meaning “trust.” What does it mean to have faith in God? It means to trust. To trust God’s promises, to trust in God’s love, to trust in God’s goodness. So the author listed some of the people who had gone before who followed and trusted God: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Miriam, Rahab, David, and more. People who trusted God, and trusted that God is honest and loving, that God will keep promises, that God will be also faithful to what God has said.

They trusted in God, even through times when they had their doubts that God was being faithful to them. When they had doubt about God and God’s promises, still, they were faithful. It’s okay, in faith, to have doubt, even as we trust. It’s okay to have some doubt. Doubt can be even helpful in matters of faith. It means that we’re being honest. It means that we’re being real. It means that we’re thinking about it. It means that we’re not just being blind in our faith or our beliefs, without thinking or pondering or meditating on it. I like to think it means that we have a more mature faith, if I may use that word. A more mature faith. A more adult-like faith to have that trust. But sometimes, maybe, with some doubt and wondering in there. Maybe I don’t have it quite right. Maybe I need to rethink this. Maybe it needs to change.

To have faith is to trust and to be faithful to trust. To be faithful to God is trust in God’s words. To be faithful is also to live up to the trust that others have put in us. To be faithful to others is to do what we have said that we will do. To be as trustworthy as they think that we are. To be true to one’s words and what one says and what one believes is also to be faithful. If a person says that they believe in God, the ten commandments, in Jesus, maybe they have all the right words about belief about love, grace, salvation, but at the same time they’re rude to people, they lie, the skim money off the corporate accounts, or doing some other unethical behavior, or they are greedy, or put in whatever vice you might think of… if their actions aren’t matching what they say they believe - but let us also be honest about ourselves that at some level we all fail at that and are prone to mistakes and our own levels of hypocrisy - that’s not being faithful. If the actions don’t match the words then it’s not really faith, it’s just a bunch of words that would appear to actually not have any meaning to the one saying them.

That is what Jesus is up against here in the synagogue: a set of beliefs without action with this leader of the synagogue. But, before we tear down this leader - we’ll get to this later - I want to lift him up and give him big props and kudos for being so protective of the sabbath. He is very protective of the sabbath here. That is one of his concerns. I want to lift him up for that because I think one of our big issues in modern day American culture and living is that we’ve gone the opposite direction, in that we don’t protect the sabbath, and have basically abandoned it and forgotten about it. We’ve moved to the other extreme of not ensuring we get or take a sabbath day every week. It is not a big part of our culture, and in fact in many ways the idea of a sabbath day is anathema to our culture.

I don’t mean just coming to church on Sundays, either. Nor am I lamenting that stores are open on Sundays or schools having activities on Sundays. Not just that, but the more direct disrespect of sabbath, which was a command from God. Out of every seven days of the week, one day - just one! - should be devoted to sabbath. To rest. We get one day of rest each week. One day each week that we do not have to be productive. One day that we do not have to make bricks for Pharaoh. One day to let go of the anxiety, and to not be busy but to just rest and relax and spend that day with God however that might look for you. Being outside, spending a day reading, being with your family, whatever a day of rest might be for you. But to have one day a week that we don’t have to be productive. Think of the gift that sabbath is! And think of the gift that sabbath was to the Hebrew people when God gives them the command. They have come out of hundreds of years of slavery, and God gives them a command right away to respect the sabbath day. “You have been slaves for so long, you get one day off every week that you don’t have to work. You don’t have to be productive.” This is not a burden, either. It’s not God saying, “I forbid you from working this day, and I will punish you for it” but it’s a gift saying, “You’ve worked so hard, you need some time for rest and time with me.” Sabbath is an important policy, and even a political statement, to say that we are not valued by what we produce but we are valued simply because we are God’s people. That’s where our value is. Not in what we make or produce.

So I want to give mudos to the leader of the synagogue here for being protective of the sabbath and remembering it and championing it.

But I’ll say also that I think his heart is in the wrong place. He’s more concerned with the letter of the law than in the meaning of the law. He is trying to protect the sabbath, yes, but he’s taken it from being one of God’s most important gifts and blessing to be enjoyed, and he’s turned it into a burden of the law. It is something to do out of obedience to the law. Perhaps done out of fear of punishment for not honoring the sabbath in the right way or the fullest extent. There is some irony in that position. God says, “Here is a day of rest to relax with me and be at peace… but don’t do it wrong!!” “Here is a day to let go of all your anxieties, but if you don’t do it in the right way, I’ll come down on you!”

That’s where the leader of the synagogue seems to be. It’s not about obeying the sabbath to avoid punishment. That’s not being faithful or trusting of God. That’s being a rules follower and that comes from an image of God as a punisher. An image of God as the one who must be appeased: “You have to do these things to make me happy. My default state is to be angry and wrathful so you have to do these things to make me like you or love you.”

But it’s the other way around! Trust in God’s love first. Trust in God’s compassion. Trust in God’s grace. Jesus says here, “Don’t look at sabbath this way! Have faith, my friends, trust in God’s love and compassion and forgiveness. Trust not in the letter of the law but in the meaning of the law. Trust that the needs of one of God’s people outweighs the requirement or the rules that we’ve set for ourselves. Trust that doing an act of love for a neighbor a far better thing to do than to ignore the neighbor simply because it might put you in violation of God’s law somehow or might somehow affect your standing with God.”

We see that in the story of the Good Samaritan. The priest and the Levite who pass the man battered on the side of the road. They are following the law. They shouldn’t be around the blood or the person who’s been attacked. But the Samaritan follows the greater law of love by going to help the man and showing compassion.

So healing this woman on the sabbath day is more faithful than keeping the sabbath restriction of doing no work. And maybe healing should not be considered work, anyway. Healing is more faithful. Just like one can untie a cow on the sabbath in order to water it, or one can rescue an animal that has fallen into a hole on the sabbath, compassion and love take precedence. We can do them trusting that whatever rules God has set up - and a lot of our rules are ones that we’ve made up anyway, that have been built up over time - that they can be broken for the sake of compassion or just doing what is right. That they are guidelines that they can and should be broken if they interfere with doing acts of love, or human dignity, or compassion.

We can have faith, we can have trust in God that no act of love will be held against just because, maybe, it breaks some rule or goes against some tradition. Rules that keep love from becoming incarnate in our lives ought to be broken and left behind. Let love be the number one rule. The number one command is “Love God and love your neighbor as yourself”.

That’s why, here at Plymouth, our communion table is open to everyone. It’s an act of love. We don’t turn anyone away from Jesus’ table. Now, might we be wrong about that? Possibly. Some churches would say that we are, and that the table is only for certain people. I don’t think we are wrong, but we could be. But I would rather err on the side of too much love and too much hospitality. Err on the side of inviting too many of God’s people to the table.

That is also why we are Open and Affirming here, open and welcoming to all of God’s people. Not just to the table, but to our fellowship, our worship, or church life. Might we be wrong about that? Possibly. Some would say that we are, and I occasionally get letters saying so, that letting lesbian and gay brothers and sisters into the community is wrong. But again, I would rather err on the side of hospitality and love. I would rather be too generous than not generous enough. I don’t want to meet my maker and hear the words, “You have kept all the rules and followed them really well, but I wish that you had trusted me more than the rules. I wish you had had more faith in me than in the law, because you let opportunities go by where you could have done a loving act but didn’t because you were worried or anxious that I might not like it.” I don’t want to hear that from my maker. I want to hear, if these are mistakes (which I don’t think they are, but in case), I want to hear God say, “Wow, you were too generous. You showed too much hospitality.” Because if that’s a mistake, I don’t care, and it’s one I’m willing to make. But I think that is not a mistake and is actually what God wants.

Be more generous than we think we ought to be, show more hospitality, be more inviting, be more welcoming than we may ever thought we should be. And do so because that is what God has asked us to do, and do so trusting in God’s love and forgiveness above all else. Trust in God’s goodness. Trust in God’s promise of new life, redemption, and grace shown in Jesus’ life, in his teachings, in his death on the cross, and in his resurrection. Have faith in that God. Have trust in that God, and like Jesus, break the rules when they interfere with doing acts of love. You can never go wrong by doing what is right.

Be like Jesus: heal on the sabbath. Or do whatever you need to do to be faithful to God’s word of love and Jesus’ example of loving-kindness and compassion.

Amen.