Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
August 21, 2016
16 Proper C
The television is rarely on in our house. For the most part, Don and I get our news
online. Other than Downton Abbey, which,
sadly, is no longer on, and the occasional Arkansas Razorback football game in
the fall, we rarely even think about turning the television on. The exception is the Olympics. The games are exciting to watch, but the part
of the Olympics I really love is hearing the stories of the athletes. So many of the people who make it to the
Olympics to run or swim, or play basketball or tennis, or do gravity defying
gymnastics have a story to tell. Those stories are of starting life in less
than desirable circumstances, or of injury or illness that made the Olympics
seem like an impossible dream, or of the Refugee Olympic Team whose stories of sheer
human survival are beyond anything most of us can imagine. These stories are
about obstacles overcome, sometimes with great help from family and friends,
other times on their own, as the athletes arrive on the world stage.
Both our reading from Jeremiah and our reading from Luke’s
gospel tell us stories of overcoming obstacles this morning. Jeremiah is called by God with these words
“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I
consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah is clearly overwhelmed by God’s
words and sees only the obstacles to serving God as a prophet. “Ah, Lord God!
Truly I do not know how to speak. For I
am only a boy!” How can a young boy
possibly be a prophet of the Lord? Who
will listen to him? How will he find the
correct words? What if the people don’t
like what he has to say? What will they
do to him? But God will hear nothing of
Jeremiah’s objections or the perceived obstacles in Jeremiah’s way. “Do not say ‘I am only a boy’; for you shall
go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak what I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am there to
deliver you.” Then God touches
Jeremiah’s mouth and gives him the words he is to say. God has torn down all the obstacles standing
in Jeremiah’s way and sent him off to do the work Jeremiah has been called to
do.
In the gospel reading, Jesus encounters a woman with a
spirit that has crippled her for 18 years. Most people would not even notice
the woman in a crowd, she was so bent over.
The woman’s infirmity is the obvious obstacle in the story, and just as
God removed the obstacles from Jeremiah’s journey, Jesus heals the woman who
can then stand up straight. She praises
God because the obstacle in her life has been removed and she has been
healed. She can now get on with the
business of living. However, there is
another obstacle in this story, and that obstacle is the synagogue leader’s
understanding of the 4th Commandment. The leader of the synagogue says to the
crowd, apparently multiple times “There are six days on which work ought to be
done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath.” The leader of the synagogue apparently blames
the woman for showing up in the synagogue where she happens to be seen by Jesus
and be healed. There is something quite
wrong with that logic, but perhaps the leader of the synagogue was afraid to openly
criticize the person capable of such powerful deeds. But had Jesus actually violated the Sabbath?
In the 20th chapter of the book of Exodus, the 4th
Commandment states “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your
work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath
to the Lord your God. You shall not do
any work-you, your son, your daughter, you male or female slave, your livestock
or the alien resident in your towns. For
in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them,
but rested on the 7th day; therefore the Lord blesses the day and
consecrated it.” This is the commandment
the leader of the synagogue refers to this morning. While Jesus is the guilty party, not the
woman, in some sense the 4th commandment has been broken even if for
a good and admirable reason.
However, the 10 commandments are also found in the book of
Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy, the 4th
commandment reads the same as the account in Exodus all the way through the
list of who shall have a day of rest on the Sabbath. But the reason given for
keeping the Sabbath is different in Deuteronomy. In Exodus, the reason given for keeping the
Sabbath holy is based on the story of Creation in the first chapter of
Genesis. Deuteronomy bases the 4th
commandment on the story of the Exodus from Egypt. “Remember that you were slaves in the land of
Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and
an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath
day.” According to Deuteronomy, the
Sabbath is a time, set aside each week, when the people are commanded to stop
everything and honor God who brought them out of bondage in Egypt, led them
through the wilderness and into the Promised Land.
On this view, Jesus has not broken the 4th
commandment by healing the woman of her infirmity. Jesus has done the work of the 4th
commandment by releasing her from the bondage of her ailment, just as the
Hebrew people were freed from their bondage in Egypt. Yes, we are commanded to keep holy the
Sabbath day to honor God by pausing from our work to worship, give thanks, and
pray. But the same commandment also calls
us to commit to living lives that tear down barriers rather than use the
commandments to create them. One of the
scripture passages that we read in Advent, as we wait the coming of the
Messiah, is from Isaiah 40: “Every valley shall be lifted up, and every
mountain and hill made low…then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and
all people shall see it together.” The
work of the Messiah is to remove obstacles so that all people can see the glory
of God together.
The church is the Body of Christ and as such, our work is
to remove obstacles so that all flesh can see the glory of God together. We are an obstacle to the glory of God if the
words we say and sing with our lips do not match the actions of our lives. We are
an obstacle if we preach inclusion and practice exclusion. We are an obstacle if we proclaim the Prince
of Peace, and the squabble among ourselves.
But when, like Jesus, our actions match our words of mercy, love, and
peace, the 4th Commandment in honored. Barriers fall and the glory of God is
revealed.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment