“Sabbath”

A Sermon by Rev. Patrice Ficken

Luke 13:10-17

Sanbornton Congregational Church, UCC

August 26, 2007

(Please do not re-print or re-use without permission of the author) 

Abraham Heschel in his beautiful book, The Sabbath tells us that “When the Romans met the Jews and noticed their strict adherence to the law of abstaining from labor on the Sabbath, their only reaction was contempt.”  Romans viewed the Jewish observance of the Sabbath as a sign of their laziness; an excuse to goof off.

The Roman misunderstanding of the Sabbath put Jewish people on the defensive and we can also imagine led to further oppression. 

How many times have we seen throughout history how misunderstandings of other cultures, peoples, religions leads to stereotyping, leads to prejudice, leads to untruths – which then provide the justification for violence?

Our scripture passage invites us to consider – what are the lies, the untruths that are perpetuated – by our culture, by our government, by our media, by the “powers that be?”

Or put another way – what are the assumptions we carry about how things should be, or about people?  And what are the assumptions others make about us – that are oppressive and crippling?

Jesus meets an ailing woman, a woman who “appeared with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years.”

We’re not talking about a physical ailment here, but something that has demoralized her, kept her down for a long, long time.  We can bet that the view of women at that time did not help – women treated as property, as less-than.  Maybe the woman lived within a particularly oppressive or abusive family.  Or maybe she was a slave – who had simply been whipped too many times. 

Oh how it frustrates me that we have to guess and fill-in the blanks so many times with women in the Bible.  We often do not even know their names. 

Jesus clearly shared frustration at this woman’s station in life.  When he witnessed her suffering he healed her right there on the spot.  The leader of the synagogue was indignant:  to him, Jesus broke the rules of the Sabbath.  Jesus counters with the argument that when it comes to compassion and God’s love – this is not separate from, or in conflict with, the Sabbath.  If we don’t let a donkey, dying of thirst go without a drink, why allow a woman, so clearly in pain to suffer one minute longer?  Jesus says, enough is enough.  And the crowds cheer and celebrate him.

Jesus provides a corrective to the synagogue leader’s misunderstanding of the Sabbath and what it’s for.  The Sabbath is meant to be life-giving.

We remember that the Sabbath is observed to remember that in the Creation story, when God rested on the seventh day – God called the day, “holy.” 

In a certain way, God also said, “enough is enough.”  There is a time for creating, for action, for work.  And there is a time for rest; a time to simply be.

Physically and practically speaking we can certainly easily grasp why we need rest, why we need vacation time, break time.

But the Sabbath is really meant to be much more than that – and we have to go back to the tense and oppressive relationship between the Jews and the Romans to understand.

While the Romans tolerated Jewish religious practices (and those of other cultures they conquered); the Romans still wished to extract from all the peoples they dominated their lump of flesh – whether through taxes or labor or goods.  A day of rest came directly out of their pockets, so it is no wonder they created this myth that Jews were lazy.  Perhaps it was a way to shame them into doing something they did not want to do.

The Jewish observance of Sabbath was an act of rebellion; it represented the only power they had in an otherwise subservient relationship. 

For Jewish people, their observance of the Sabbath was the portal by which to know the truth about themselves; that they were not a subservient people, less-than, lazy.  When they observed the Sabbath, they knew, at least one day a week who they truly were – God’s people.  God’s beloved people.

It is sad to me that Sundays have become in our culture just another day in the week.  For many people, (other than clergy) it is a work day.  Many schools now schedule sports activities on Sundays.  I remember, maybe you do too, when Sundays were special.  It was a time of worship, of family, of rest; time out of time from the rest of the week.

Because the Sabbath has been eroded; we need to find ways of creating Sabbath time for ourselves; as a way to reclaim what is life-giving, as a way to remember who we are, as a way to know our own truth.

We need to reclaim our Sabbath because it is essential to our spiritual, physical and emotional health.

How?

We can avoid shopping on Sundays.

If we have to work on Sundays, then carve out another day of the week for our Sabbath day.

We can make our own Sabbath traditions – traditions that nurture our souls and the well-being of our families.

We can challenge school officials on the wisdom of scheduling school-related activities on Sundays.

We can make each day a Sabbath Day by making sure that we tend to at least one thing that is life-giving to us – whether it is praying, walking, working in the garden, reading…whatever it may be.

Consider it an act of rebellion.  Consider it as a way of reclaiming the freedom God wants us to have in our lives. Consider it as a way of saying “enough” to a culture that demands us to work harder for less, to reverse the ravages of consumption that are ruining our planet.  Consider it a way of claiming our own wholeness and healing.

The thing is, once we know our truth – we can’t deny it anymore.  And this is probably what made the Romans so nervous about the Jewish people.  Get a steady dose of knowing that you’re beloved, and a person of God – and it is hard not to carry that into other parts of your life.  Feel empowered one place and you’ll never want to go back to being disempowered some place else.

May it be so!  Amen.