Sabbath Manifesto
Scripture Text:
Luke 13:10-17 Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And 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. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are set free from your ailment.’ When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But 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.’ But 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? And 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?’ When 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.
Sermon:
When was the last time you observed the Sabbath? When you first hear the gospel from Luke today, you may hear a story about healing, but I think what Jesus wants to do is to teach us about the Sabbath. Jews have observed a Sabbath for thousands of years, from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. Sabbath for practicing Jews means that at sundown on Friday, the woman of the house lights and blesses two candles, blesses a cup of wine and two loaves of bread, and then the family has special prayers and a special meal. And, as you probably know, Jews are not to do any work on the Sabbath.
There are two primary places in the bible where God teaches us about the Sabbath. The first is in the Creation story: God spends six days creating the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day, God rests. And so, observing the Sabbath is about being created in the image of God.
The second place God teachers us about the Sabbath is after the Israelites have been freed from slavery in Egypt and are in the desert, where God is teaching them about what it means to be free and what it means to be people of God. God gives Moses the Law, including the Ten Commandments, one of which is: Remember the Sabbath, and keep it holy.
So, observing the Sabbath is about freedom from slavery and about belonging to God and not to anyone or anything else.
Puritan Christians starting observing a Sunday Sabbath about 500 years ago, and that practice lived on in many kinds of Protestant Christianity. But very few Christians practice it anymore. I first learned what a Sunday Sabbath was from a chapter in the children’s book, Little House in the Big Woods (which is set in the 1870s). Sunday was truly “a day of rest” and you weren’t to do any work aside from feeding and watering your animals, as Jesus points out in the gospel today. And children couldn’t play – they could only look at their dolls or at books.
And the little girl, Laura, who wasn’t old enough to read yet, would just be beside herself with boredom and frustration. So, Sabbath-keeping sounded pretty awful to me.
And yet, is that the meaning of Sabbath the way God teaches us about it in the Bible? Jesus had something to say about it in Luke. He’s teaching in a synagogue on a Sabbath, which is allowed under the laws of the Torah. But he crosses a line when he does what the Torah considers “work.”
He heals a woman with a bent back. Now, to be fair, if the woman had a life-threatening illness, the Torah would have allowed her to be healed on the Sabbath – the law isn’t unreasonable about things like that. And the leader of the synagogue is doing what he’s supposed to and reminding the crowd and Jesus that this is the Sabbath.
But Jesus reminds the people that the Sabbath isn’t so simple. It’s not so cut and dry.People are allowed to feed and water their animals on the Sabbath. Isn’t a human being more important than a donkey or an ox? But he’s also pointing to the real meaning of the Sabbath. Sabbath isn’t just about not working. God created all those laws not for their own sake, but to teach us how to live good, rich lives. Sabbath is supposed to teach us about being created in God’s image, to teach us about freedom, and to teach us about belonging to God. With that in mind, listen to how Jesus speaks. He says, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment” and “ought not this woman … be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?” Now, this kind of freedom is not the freedom to do whatever you want. (Freedom from bondage is life-giving, but freedom to do anything is just chaos.) God gave us the Sabbath to set us free from the things that keep us bent-over. From the bad spirits who cripple us. Crippled, perhaps, in a way that keeps us from seeing what it means to live as part of the kingdom of God – a place of hope, a place where love is so strong that it governs everything we do and feel, a place where justice and mercy are perfect partners, a place where God is in charge instead of us crippled folks. Because: the very next thing that Jesus teaches about in the Gospel of Luke is that “the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.” “The kingdom of God is like yeast.” The kingdom of God is something that starts small and grows and grows! It doesn’t take work, exactly, but like a seed and like yeast, it takes hope and humility. It takes faith.
Barbara Brown Taylor is an Episcopal priest from Georgia, and she writes wonderful books and sermons. There’s a quote of hers that I like about how hard we work and what God’s already given us. She says: we can decide to stop rubbing two sticks together, trying to make our life worth living, and we can decide instead to live on the fire that God has already kindled inside us.
That is a perfect description of what I’ve come to believe the kingdom of God is about. It’s not about work in the way that we usually think about it. It’s about discovering what God’s already doing inside us and in the world around us. God has already given us everything we need. Jesus has already shown us the kingdom of God. It’s buried in a field, right over there. It’s in a mustard seed, this big. It’s among us, Jesus says.
But how are we supposed to remember that and hold it in our daily lives? Maybe, because we’re human, we can only be expected to remember about once a week. What if you tried observing a Sabbath? I’ve been meaning to. I’ve been inspired by a few friends who quietly have made certain Sunday habits for themselves. No shopping. A special meal. No email or internet. A friend of mine who is a PhD student does not do any schoolwork on Sundays so that she can spend time with God and her family. She can’t always abide by that, but she tries to.
What are some things that keep you bent-over? What are some things it might be good for you to be free of for one day a week? What would be some special things to add to your day to remind you that you belong to God?
There’s a secular group out there that’s been asking questions about Sabbath, too. (Aren’t we blessed and kept humble by God who creates these non-religious people who can teach us things?!?) A group of non-practicing Jews have written something they call “The Sabbath Manifesto,” a list of 10 ways to keep a contemporary Sabbath, inspired by the traditional Jewish Sabbath. And I give you a copy of them because I think they can be as useful for Christian folks as they are for secular folks.
You’ll see Christian practices and values in them, too. They’re guideposts — not rules to give you more to do, but ideas to help you practice rest and love and freedom and even worship. To them, as a Christian, I might add “read the bible” and “attend church.” You can, if you like. But ahem, Christians should be reading the Bible more than just one day a week and most Christians don’t need a list to remind them to go worship on Sundays. So, I will give you this list “as is.”
The Sabbath for Christians is a day to focus on the kingdom of God. The Sabbath is a day to sit by the fire God has already kindled inside us. The Sabbath is a day to remember that we are set free from the ways we are bent over. A day to discover that we’re already healed.
Give it a try sometime.
Amen.
(Cut out and put somewhere where you’ll see it!)
Sabbath Manifesto See also Luke 13:10-17 – get set free from the ways we get bent over:
1. Avoid technology.
2. Connect with loved ones.
3. Nurture your health.
4. Get outside.
5. Avoid commerce.
6. Light candles.
7. Drink wine.
8. Eat bread.
9. Find silence.
10.Give back.
www.sabbathmanifesto.org
