Christ Episcopal Church
August 25, 2013
16 Proper C
When I was a child, one of the best things about summer was the occurrence of approximately one holiday per month. Memorial Day followed by Independence Day followed by Labor Day seemed to be just about right. If the whole year could be like that, with parades, fireworks, and cook-outs about once a month, surely the world would be a better place. That was even before I realized that most stores and businesses actually closed on those days giving the grown ups a day off work. While the point of those holidays was a little lost on me as a 6 year old, the festivities were not. Now I realize, of course, that most of our national holidays are days to stop our work and honor the work and courage of people generations ago and the benefits we now enjoy from their efforts. We stop to honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to preserve our freedom, or those whose leadership created this nation, or those who continue to offer their lives on behalf of freedom and peace. While the parades, fireworks, cook-outs, and days off work are much enjoyed, the point of the holidays is to stop our work, recognize our dependence on the efforts of those who have gone before us, and give thanks.
Today we hear the rather peculiar story of the woman who was healed of a spirit that had crippled her for 18 years. The story does not tell us this, but I think we can assume that, for 18 years, the woman has come faithfully to the synagogue Sabbath after Sabbath. On this particular Sabbath, she arrives at the synagogue, and Jesus, who happens to be teaching there that day, takes notice of the bent over woman and calls to her. Jesus says "Woman you are set free from your ailment," and the woman is healed. And the woman, who did nothing other than show up for Sabbath worship, is nailed by the leader of the synagogue. "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day." What is wrong with this picture? If anything, the leader should be criticizing Jesus for violating the Sabbath, not the woman. And even if Jesus had cured her on the Sabbath, had he actually violated the Sabbath commandment?
In the Book of Exodus, the 4th Commandment says "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, your 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 blessed the day and consecrated it." Since God rested on the 7th day, we are called to do the same. On this view, Jesus is, in some sense, guilty of violating the Sabbath, even if for good and admirable reason.
However, we find a second rendering of the 10 commandments in the book of Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy, the 4th commandment reads exactly the same way, up through the list of all who shall have a day of rest on the Sabbath. But Deuteronomy gives a different reason for the Sabbath. Rather than basing the commandment in the creation story in the first chapter of Genesis, Deuteronomy bases the command 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 of from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day." In the book of Deuteronomy, the people are commanded to keep the Sabbath every week as a time to stop all that they are doing and remember that God brought them out of bondage in Egypt, led them through the wilderness and into the Promised Land.
In the gospel lesson, Jesus sets the woman free from bondage on the Sabbath day. Jesus has not broken the Sabbath, rather Jesus has lived into the Sabbath. If the Sabbath is the weekly ritual of stopping to honor the God who brought the people out of bondage, then the act of releasing the woman from her 18 year long bondage to a crippling bondage is an appropriate response to the Sabbath, entering into God’s liberating work of releasing captives from bondage.
As Christians, we keep holy the Sabbath in order to stop each week and worship the God who continued the work of liberation from bondage through the death and resurrection of Jesus. We stop to stand in awe of that which was done for us by Someone else and give thanks. The same Sabbath that calls us to stop also calls us to action-responding to the gift of liberation we honor on the Sabbath by working to end oppression or bondage in whatever form it occurs. This coming Wednesday is the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King, Jr’s "I have a dream" speech. King quoted the prophet Isaiah when he said "I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together." King’s dream, Isaiah’s dream, and God’s dream is that no one suffers from bondage or oppression for who they are or what resources they do or do not have. The Sabbath calls us to stop, remember and honor the liberating work of God, give thanks and then respond by making liberation a reality for all those who are crippled by bondage. That is what Jesus did in the synagogue on the Sabbath, and that is what Jesus calls us to do with our lives. Amen.
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