Sermon
3rd June 2018
Year
B – 2nd Sunday after Pentecost
Text:
Mark 2:23-3:6 – The Sabbath – work, rest and play
One
of my favourite chocolate bars is the Mars Bar.
When
I was growing up their slogan was “A Mars a day helps you work rest and play”.
I
found that more enticing to having an apple that had the slogan “An apple a day
keeps the doctor away”.
Regardless
of the health differences, the Mars slogan seemed to understand the life
balance:
Work,
rest and play.
God
also understands the importance of life balance – work, rest and play.
If
it were not that important to have a life balance then God himself would not
have rested:
On
the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all
his work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was
the day when he rested from all his work of creation.
But
God also knew that our human nature would forget about God’s blessings and seek
to create our own blessings in much the same way Adam and Eve forgot about
God’s blessings and sought to be like God rather than living under God’s
blessings.
And
so God enshrined our Sabbath rest into the Commandments: Remember the Sabbath
and keep it Holy.
But
still, because of human nature, we did not trust God to bless us.
When
God was leading Israel to the Promised Land he provided for them manna from
heaven to feed them along the journey.
God
would provide it – they just had to go out in the morning and collect it.
But
in keeping with the Sabbath Moses told Israel:
On
the sixth day you are to prepare what you bring in, and that is to be twice as
much as you gather on the other days (so they could keep the Sabbath free from
work).
On
other days they were to collect only what they needed so they could learn that
God would give them “their daily bread”.
But
sure enough: some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it
until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell.
God
promised that on the 6th day when they collected double that what they kept for
tomorrow, the Sabbath, would not spoil as it would on other days.
But,
sure enough, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but
they found none.
What
we learn from all of this is that despite our disobedience, God still desires
to bless us.
The
Sabbath rest is God’s blessing to us – the Lord blessed the Sabbath and made it
holy.
But
we also learn that the Commandments are also God’s blessing to us and not a way
that God restricts or modifies our behaviour.
Since
we are created in God’s image, just as it was important for God to rest in the
blessing of Sabbath so too our source of blessing comes through the Sabbath
rest.
This
has been a source of controversy as there are some groups that insist that to
receive the Sabbath blessing we must strictly adhere to the Sabbath
commandment.
In
particular that it can only be on the original day of Sabbath – the 7th Day –
that is Saturday.
It
is this sort of approach that caused the Pharisees in our Gospel reading to
lose the understanding of God’s blessings and again turned things around and
got the life balance out of kilter.
What
the Pharisees and teachers of the law introduced into the Commandments is what
we call “legalism”.
Instead
of seeing the commandments as God’s gift of blessing to us they saw them as a
strict code of conduct that prevented God’s punishment.
Legalism
is where the letter of the law is applied without any other considerations.
God
was not being legalistic when dealing with the Israelites but teaching them to
trust that he was going to provide for them.
That’s
not what we see here with the Pharisees and legalism.
Legalism
places the law above the good of people and instead of it being a source of
blessing it becomes a source of punishment for when it is broken.
That’s
not the intention of the commandments or the Sabbath.
In
fact I find it interesting that the 4th and 5th commandments are structured
differently.
The
other commandments all have “you shall” or “you shall not”.
The
Sabbath commandment is “Remember the Sabbath”.
The
5th Commandment “Honour your father and mother”.
So
these are not so much a behaviour directive or prohibition but an invitation to
enter a special blessing through relationship.
As
Jesus said: The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the
Sabbath;
For
the Pharisees, the Sabbath had simply become another part of the work cycle rather
than the work and rest cycle.
It
meant that the Sabbath ignored the needs of the people as we see in our Gospel.
Firstly,
Jesus and his disciples were hungry so they picked some grain to eat which was
deemed as working on the Sabbath.
That
is different to what Israel did on their journey.
Their
picking of manna on the Sabbath was a lack of trust in God providing for them.
And
then Jesus is faced with the moral dilemma.
Is
it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?
A
man living in suffering is seen by Jesus.
To
this Jesus asked - Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to
save life or to kill?
And
that’s where the balance comes in and the wisdom of Solomon is needed.
The
wisdom to discern between right and wrong.
When
Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment he said:
Love
the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
But
then he said: the second is like it:
Love
your neighbour as yourself.
All
the law and prophets hang on these TWO commandments.
We
might call Jesus’ decision to heal on the Sabbaths the lesser of 2 evils – the
seemingly disobedience of the commandment or to do harm by keeping the
commandment.
The
commandments are still valid but Jesus has reminded us that they are properly
defined by the Love of God and Neighbour.
For
example, Jesus said – You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and
hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who
persecute you,
If
I love God with all my heart then I won’t have any other gods or use his name
in vain.
If
I love God then I will love my neighbour who has been created in God’s image.
So
I won’t murder or hurt them in any way.
I
won’t commit adultery or steal or lie or desire what my neighbour has that I
haven’t.
In
his Catechism Luther always saw 2 sides to the commandments.
The
need to refrain from certain behaviours to show my love for God but also to act
in certain way so I wasn’t hurting my neighbour.
If
we become legalistic then we’ll be like the priest and Levite who ignored their
hurt neighbour because they didn’t want to defile themselves and become
ineligible to serve in the temple.
But
the Good Samaritan stopped and helped his enemy and Jesus said “go and do
likewise”.
Jesus
is putting the Law back where God intended it.
As
a blessing to guide us and to be a way that we show our love to God and
neighbour.
It
was never intended as an electric fence to zap us if we touched it ever so
slightly.
That’s
why King David was able to say in Psalm 119:
Oh,
how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands are always
with me and make me wiser than my enemies. I have more insight than all my
teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the
elders, for I obey your precepts.
What
Jesus corrects here is a misunderstanding of the commandments and uses the
Sabbath as an example when he says – the Sabbath was made for humankind – not
humankind for the Sabbath.
In
the same way we teach our children about the right ways to live not so we can
punish them when they mess up but so they can get the best out of life.
God
loves humanity but he knows that because of sin we can easily fall into the
wrong ways.
And
the Sabbath was a gift from God as a way of resetting our lives each week.
As
we come before God we take time out from the world and its ways and hear again
the ways of God.
God’s
ways are in our interests to protect us from spiralling out of control.
And
just like we need our physical rest to rejuvenate our bodies so too we need our
spiritual rest to rejuvenate our souls.
As
human beings we don’t always like rules but the commandments aren’t rules they
are the path on which God leads us to a fuller life.
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