The Shepherd’s Voice

Readings for Sunday, August 22^nd
Isa 58:9b-14
Psalm 103:1-8
Heb 12:18-29
Lk 13:10-17

Sabbath Work from Good Shepherd Lutheran Church on Vimeo. Download this sermon.

Our gospel lesson today is about law and the gospel, about being crippled by pain versus standing up straight with joy, it’s about being bound by the past difficulties of life versus being freed or released by a new song of God’s grace in our lives.

When we think about Sunday, now I’m using our idea of Sunday interchangeably with the idea of Sabbath so keep that in mind, when we think about Sunday or Sabbath what pictures come to mind. Do we think about the old grind? Do we drag ourselves out of bed, fight with the kids to get them ready, and become frustrated in needing to find clothes appropriate for Sunday service. Is the Sabbath just a lot of work for you?

Is the Sabbath/Sunday about the singing, the preaching, the listening to God’s Word, the prayers, the socializing, the chatting with friends who you only see on Sundays?

The idea of Sabbath comes from two areas or traditions mentioned in the Old Testament. In Exodus 20 we see Sabbath linked to the first creation story in Genesis. God created the world in six days and on the seventh day he rested from his labor. God provided us with an example; a pattern to follow that could provide rest not only for humans, but also for animals.

Now, mind you I haven’t talked to any animals lately so I don’t know if animals actually keep a Sabbath, however animals do have a rhythm they follow that provides them with rest.

In Deuteronomy 5 we see another pattern for the Sabbath being developed. This time it relates to the exodus out of Egypt, it is related to liberty, to freedom, to a release from bondage or a deliverance from captivity. In both instances God says, “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.”

Jesus in our gospel lesson today seems to be relating more to this second idea of Sabbath than to the exodus tradition. This woman who had been bound for 18 years was released from captivity, being freed from a debilitating condition.

Jesus asks the hypothetical question, shouldn’t this woman who was “Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?”

However, the leader of the synagogue had another agenda, another idea because he was operating from a different perspective a different view of life. He was concerned about keeping the rules or the law in this case as if the law saves. It does NOT!

Laws can be good things, but sometimes after we’ve created a law or a rule we have a hard time remembering back to why it was so important to make that rule or law at that time.

Most of you know I was born and raised in Minnesota. There are some laws on the books back home that I sometimes wonder about. Next time you are in Minnesota remember, it is illegal for you/someone to cross state lines with a duck on your/their head. Also be aware that there is law that declares their state bird, the mosquito is a nuisance. Duh…. Just kidding about the state bird.

I’m sure there was good intention behind these laws; however is it important that they be observed? Now I’m not making fun of law, Jesus came to fulfill the law not abolish it. (Mt 5:17)
In Lutheran theology we see three uses of the law from scripture as we understand it.

• 1st use – Curb – the law restrains, it forces discipline, most law is created for civil order.
• 2nd use – Mirror – the law also informs of or acts a mirror and shows us that we are not perfect.
• 3rd use – Rule – once we are regenerate the law brings greater truth into our lives, it helps us know and keep the will of God. The law provides truth in our lives.

There will be a quiz latter so I hope you are taking good notes.

Anyway we see this constant tension throughout scripture between the law and the gospel and our text today is a good example of seeing how these two juxtaposed ideas can exist. Just because some laws are bad does not mean that the law does not have a purpose. If there were no law how would we know that we have sinned. Law can be a civil rule or a natural principle.

Some areas of natural law are easy to spot. We don’t cut in lines. We don’t take another persons spouse. We don’t kill. Etc. the law does have a purpose.

Now for the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say, there is a lot more going on here.

Walter Wink, in his book Engaging the Powers, talks about Jesus’ action as more of a revolution than a rebellion. Here Jesus tries to wake people up, to jolt them into understanding the kind of life God wants for them. Jesus healing was shocking. Jesus often talked about a Kingdom of God where people were valued equally and everyone had dignity in their being.

In this surprising story Jesus breaks at least six strict cultural rules. Remember in the context of the day, society was patriarchal and women were not honored as they are today.

1. In civilized society, Jewish men did not speak to women. Remember the story in John 4 where Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well. She was shocked because a Jew would speak to a Samaritan. But when the disciples returned, the Scripture records, “They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman?” In speaking to this women in the Synagogue, v12 Jesus jettisons the male restraints on women’s freedom. He liberates! This is Sabbath work.
2. In our story Jesus calls this woman to the center of the synagogue. v12 By placing her in the geographic middle, he challenges the notion of a male monopoly on access to knowledge and to God. He is inclusive and he frees all of us. This is Sabbath work.
3. Jesus touches her, v 13 which revokes the holiness code. That is the code which protected men from a woman’s uncleanness and from her sinful seductiveness. Jesus raises the level of a crippled woman to equality with everyone else there. Jesus makes us all equal. This is Sabbath work.
4. Jesus calls her “daughter of Abraham,” v16, a term not found in any of the prior Jewish literature. This is revolutionary because it was believed that women were saved through their men. To call her a daughter of Abraham is to make her a full-fledged member of the nation of Israel with equal standing before God. Jesus gives us standing in the world. This is Sabbath work.
5. Jesus heals on the Sabbath, the holy day. In doing this Jesus demonstrates God’s compassion for people over ceremony, and he reclaims the Sabbath for the celebration of God’s astounding goodness. Jesus elevates mercy over law. This is Sabbath work.
6. Lastly, Jesus challenges the ancient belief that her illness is a direct punishment from God for sin. He asserts that she is ill, not because God willed it, but because there is evil in the world. (In other words, bad things happen to good people.) And Jesus did all this in a few seconds. Jesus acknowledges evils exists. This is Sabbath work.

Whether we come together for rest or for Sabbath celebration, Sabbath work is about liberation, about freedom, about being set free from sin death and the power of evil in this world.

So I ask you, what might be crippling you today? What is keeping you from breathing in that sweet, fresh goodness of God that’s available at the altar of God’s forgiveness?

Did you know that liturgy is called the work of the people? Liturgy, speaking God’s name, calling on God for forgiveness is Sabbath work. God makes us free through Sabbath work. God transforms us through Sabbath work. Be transformed today through this Sabbath workout.

Sabbath/Sunday is about freedom to breathe, freedom to taste and see that God is good. If Sunday has become a day of obligation, a day of stress, a day of resignation, than you need to recalibrate.

At one point in my earlier life I worked as a Quality Control Manager for Varco Oil tools. The manufacturing facility is not far from here in Orange. They make tools for drilling the deepest of wells, sometimes 2 – 3 – 4 miles below the surface. When you are drilling you use drill pipe to bore the hole and there is a drill bit at the head of the drill string. When you put miles of drill string together it is very heavy, 100’s of tons in fact.

One of my duties was to oversee the testing of some of the drill string tools. We would setup mock conditions where we would put the unit under extreme pressure and we would use strain gages on the equipment to see if the metal would fail. Every time we’d do a test we would have to recalibrate the equipment. Recalibration was essential to everything we did in QC.

So, as your spiritual QC manager, do you need to recalibrate, how do you understand Sabbath work? God frees us through acts of worship and confession. Our lives become recalibrated each week through acts of worship and confession. Without it, we may fail the test, the pressure that we are put under each week is very tough and the world very much tests each of us.

1 Peter 5:8 – says be sober, be watchful the adversary prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Remember Sabbath work, get recalibrated so you can survive, be renewed.

Look at the impact Jesus had on the life of this woman who was crippled. It was a mighty act of God that gave her freedom, it liberated her, this daughter of Abraham.

Our God, the Lord of sea and sky is calling you once again, how will you respond?

Amen

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