Sabbath Sunday

Let us pray

Heavenly Father,

Take my words and speak through them, take our minds and think through them, take our hearts and set them on fire with love for you. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Recently a christian organisation conducted a vox pop – short video interviews with random people asking them what they thought of the idea of one day off, keeping Sunday as a special day. There were a range of answers which were given.
Some confessed that they had to work on a sunday, so they saw it as irrelevant to have a special day off
Some had grown up in times when shops had shut, when leisure centres were closed and TV's were outlawed
Others saw benefits in time spent differently, time for Christians to meet together for worship, visiting family and friends
I am sure this range of things would be represented in this parish today.

This evening's Gospel reading combines two types of incidents which are commonly found in the gospel, into one event. The first – a healing miracle, where Jesus is able to cure a woman from the pain and the stigma of being cripled, the second – the controversy of the event which leads jesus into conflict with the Jewish authorities who were more concerned with adherence
to the letter of the law. Rather than the grace and mercy of the healing which Jesus Displayed.

The Setting for this event is the synagogue, the local jewish place of worship, Jesus is giving the sermon there. The woman was there in the congregation. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and with very simple words he said “woman you are set free from your infirmity”. Imagine the delight, the sheer happiness which she must have felt” she had been suffering for 18 years with this problem. What a great thing to do in the midst of worship – God healing this individual.

However, that wasn't the end of the story - there are problems on the horizon, an increased opposition to what Jesus was doing - the ruler of the synagogue was not happy, he did not rejoice, but rather when he looked at this scene he saw Jesus breaking the sabbath rules, he was working on the sabbath, he healed. This was not on, this was (in his opinion) against what was permitted in the scriptures

Let us take a moment to be fair to this synagogue ruler

He was earnest about the word of God, he was trying his best to stick by the law of Moses, we all know that it clearly states in the 10 commandments that you shall not work on the sabbath – its a day of rest.
In Exodus we get right to the heart of the law – Not just for humans was the sabbath created – Ex 23:10 For six years you are to sow your field and harvest crops but during the seventh year let your land lie unploughed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what you leave.
Six days do your work but on the seventh day do not work – why? So that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household , and the alien as well may be refreshed.
Sabbath, where it is included in the Bible speak of refreshment, of re-creation, of rest, of renewing of creation. It is a gift from God.
That's what that the ruler was standing up for – was he right … well yes and no!

Yes, in terms of being jealous for God's Law, but the bigger picture is that that woman had a need which Jesus could meet then and there, the compassion of Jesus and his heart of love for that woman was such that he was prepared to risk the contempt of the synagogue and heal her.

Elsewhere in Lukes Gospel, in Chapter 6 Jesus does declare himself Lord of the Sabbath, that it is lawful – and asks them question is it lawful on the sabbath to do good or to do evil.

Jesus of course is not, in these passages saying everything goes, that we can do whatever we like on the sabbath, and open ticket and ignore sabbath observance. We need to carefully understand Jesus' guiding principles when it comes to dealing with people. He turns no-one away, He has compassion on them and he heals completely. Whether on the sabbath or not.
Elsewhere in the Gospels we are reminded that Jesus came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it.


What then does this mean for us?

What we need to get to grips with in our own life is what sabbath should mean to us here.

If sabbath, that particular rest which God commands each of us to observe is a gift, it is one which has layers and layers of wrapping on it some of which I would suggest turns people off even thinking about it today.

Christians have, since early church time moved sabbath, their day of rest from the 7th day of the week – the Jewish Sabbath to the 1st day of the week in memorial of the resurrection and have marked it as a special day for their services and rest.

When Constantine brought Christainity as the religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th Century the machinery of empire shut down on the Sunday and this was replicated throughtout successive generations.

But what of today? In this 24 hr economy with shops, restaurants etc. We do live in a complex era – what are the underlying principles which we can take from the gospel understanding of sabbath

In the past, in living memory – 15 /20 yrs ago everything was outlawed on sunday, all shops shut, no television, swings locked up, stayed at home. Is that what sabbath is about?

There is problems with this – if we go down this route, of legalism, of imposed sanctions, are we imposing on people who do not share our respect for the word of God?

On the other hand, if we see sunday as being simply another day in the week, we are at serious risk losing the special time we have been given.

We do have the gift of the first day of the week as being set aside for things of God, of re-creation, of doing something different. We do need to, as christians hold on to this gift, to use it to its full potential. To use it to cultivate our relationship with God, to grow, to meet as community of believers to use it to build up, to liberate, to feed on God.

Jesus did not come to abolish the sabbath, as he did not come to abolish the law, but rather to fulfil and un-wrap it from the legalism which surrounded it in his day.

As far as working on the sabbath, on sunday, I find it very difficult to preach that you should not work on a sunday, considering my position of being up here in front of you today! And also knowing the amount of essential work that is going on in our communities as we speak, police, taxi drivers, doctors, bus drivers, newspaper shops but what we need to get to grips with is taking that sabbath time, that time out to rest and re-couperate.

It is an amazing witness to Christ if we can keep the sunday as a holy day, and those who do, know it is a powerful statement of their discipleship – We know of Eric Lidell (chariots of fire) who refused to run on a sunday, Just last week there was an article in the Sun newspaper
Dan Walker fronting football focus - insists on observing the Lord's Day even though there are top-flight matches almost every Sunday this season.

Jesus healed a woman crippled at the synagogue that sabbath, and got into some serious hot water for it. As we look at the gift of sabbath, can we say that we have used the sabbath, the day set aside for relationship to feed upon the bread of life, to ask for healing, to be healed, to do good.

It is crucial that we do take rest, that we do use a day set aside from whatever we are doing to focus on other things, to focus our minds on important priorities which wouldn't otherwise get covered during the week. Sabbath has always been a time for rest and recouperation – in nature a field set aside for one year in seven fallow allows for nutrients to replenish, as humans one day in seven allows us to relax, to replenish for what lies ahead the next 6 days.

It is not a day for lying idly by watching the world go by, but a gift from God to focus our attention on relationships, for doing good and focusing our attention on him. Could we do our shopping on another day – the simple answer is probably yes!

When we think about sabbath / Sunday – the Lord's day let us use it to its full potential - not legalistically but as a gift from God to focus on him, on his word and his priorities of Loving God and loving our neigbour.