Neill Morgan
Sermon Delivered August 26, 2007
10Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 11And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. 12When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” 13When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 14But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” 15But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? 16And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” 17When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.
Sabbath Bondage
A minister friend’s husband was taking one of those magazine quizzes, this one on biblical literacy, and he said, “Here’s a question for you, Ms. Minister of Word and Sacrament: Name the ten commandments.”
“Easy,” she said, “the Exodus version or the Deuteronomy version?”
“Exodus,” he said. “Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish version?”
“Protestant,” he said.
And she began to recite.
“You shall have no gods other than God. No graven images. Do not take God’s name in vain. Honor your father and mother. Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not covet your neighbor’s belongings.”
“That’s nine,” he said.
She counted again, she racked her brain, but she couldn’t come up with it.
“The Sabbath,” he said. “Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy.”
It was one of those smack on the forehead moments. She had gone so long not remembering the Sabbath, not keeping it holy, working right through every day of the week that by this time she couldn’t even remember the commandment to remember the sabbath.
We Christians, and perhaps especially the clergy, have taken passages such as today’s from Luke, and used them to minimize the importance of the Sabbath. “It’s just a silly outdated rule. When Jesus saw something that needed doing on the Sabbath, he didn’t wait, he got up and did it. He healed this bent-over woman, that is, he set her free from her bondage on the Sabbath, and he set us free from having to follow such silly rules.”
Of course, that’s not what Jesus said. Jesus said, “I come not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.”
The controversy in this passage is not whether or not to observe the Sabbath, but how to observe the sabbath.
The whole notion of sabbath sounds quaint in contemporary culture. We have a 24 hour, seven-day-a-week news cycle, most stores and restaurants are open seven days a week, especially in big cities, and the generation that is in their young adulthood now has never heard of blue laws.
Those who are most observant of the sabbath now are orthodox Jews. Perhaps you saw in yesterday’s Dallas Morning News the story of the rabbi who keeps the eruv in good repair. An eruv, in case you missed it, is the boundary that marks an area in which it is permissible to carry something from one place to another on the sabbath. This boundary, made of existing buildings, fences, wires between utility poles, and here and there an almost invisible fishing line, recreates the idea of the city walls in which a community lived. While sabbath law prevents the observant orthodox Jew from carrying anything on the sabbath, even an umbrella or an infant, or pushing a stroller, the eruv marks the area in which the community lives; therefore, within this area, it is permissible to carry an umbrella or push a stroller to synagogue on the sabbath.
Sabbath-keeping at this level is so counter-cultural that it warrants an article on the front page of the religion section.
It may seem arcane to us, but it is very important to those who live out the law in this way. Each sabbath day is a reminder of the story of creation, when God rested on the seventh day, and a reminder to the faithful who seek to live out our calling as made in the image of God. For those who live within the eruv, the boundary acts as a kind of embrace, a reminder that on the sabbath this community is all one. No matter what kind of house one may live in, what kind of car one may drive during the week, on the sabbath, everyone is afoot and everyone spends a good portion of the day at worship together in the synagogue.
In this passage in Luke, Jesus confronts the synagogue leader, not to forget the sabbath rules, but to remember the purpose of the sabbath – it is a day of healing and rest. It is a day of liberation from the feeling one may have during the week that the world will stop turning if I stop pushing. So, when a woman who is bent over, bound up without any rest from her infirmity appears in the synagogue, every step a terrible painful effort, Jesus steps forward to set her free, to make a sabbath observance available to her.
And, sure enough, Luke tells us, when Jesus sets her free, the first thing she does is stand up straight and praise God.
Sometimes, the whole idea of Sabbath observance gets narrowed down to the practice of weekly worship. But Jesus opens up the idea of Sabbath way beyond our habits of worship. Sabbath, for Jesus, is about the stewardship of time, all our days and hours, throughout the week.
The gospel’s question to us, then, is this: “What’s got you all tied up?” What keeps you from setting aside a day each week, or a few minutes each day for the sole purpose of nurturing your relationship with God?
Is it your work? Is it all-consuming to the point of squeezing out regular sabbath rest?
Is it your obligations to other people? Have you said “Yes” to so many little things that your life is too crowded with things that must be done for others to find sabbath rest for yourself?
Is it a fear of standing still, a fear of silence, or a fear of boredom?
This gospel story is the story of a disrupted Sabbath day. It may sound strange, and paradoxical, but the promise of the gospel is that if we do our job to remember the sabbath and keep it holy, Jesus will do his job of disrupting our sabbath.
The promise of the gospel is that the God who comes to us in sabbath rest, in that set aside time for spiritual renewal, is a transforming God. Like the woman set free from her bondage, we are set free for lives of joy and wholeness when Jesus comes to disrupt our sabbath rest.
Thanks be to God. Amen.