8/21
It’s the waning
days of August. The last part of vacation. Last week was my annual beach time
with my clergy colleagues. I love beach time, the rhythm of the days. I wish I
could take a whole week. Or more. So I’m thinking about rest.
What do you think of
when you think of sabbath? It’s clearly
important. In Abraham Joshua Heschel’s classic, it’s built into the framework of the
universe. It breaks the relentless march of time. We need time to remember: i.e., put ourselves back together. Like when a
painter steps back from their work to review the canvas.
For Walter Breuggeman, sabbath is resistance. A protest
against the commodification of everything. It’s also about equality. All
people, including servants, and animals, get a sabbath. (Although there was a
tradition, not Biblical, of hiring a Sabbath goy).
NO business is to be
done. (That would mean NO meetings….they
break the spirit of Sabbath…and no L’shan hara…NO
speaking ill of another, that too, breaks the spirit…
Rest. Clergy need another day for our sabbath. But…there’s a
problem. Part of the concept of sabbath
is it’s communal in nature.
What do you remember
as a child? “Blue laws”…all the businesses closed. A big dinner after church. Then quiet time. Until
supper. I could feel that rhythm of quiet all around me.
Being in Israel on Sabbath, you can feel it.(Conversely it’s
strange waking up on a Sunday and finding rush hour traffic and the beginning
of the work week..)
It’s a struggle to
preserve even Sunday morning in a multicultural world. (For my kids in this
neighborhood, soccer and little league baseball took place on alternating
days. I was lucky in my 15 years as coach…got lots of “favors” to keep church
time free for my games. (When I was in Oklahoma, I played FIFA soccer. We won
division 4. Then 3. BUT…Division 2 played at 11 AM on Sundays. I was moved when
my team voted to stay in Division 3 so I could still play.
Obviously the Bible
takes it seriously. For Breuggeman.it’s the
center of the commandments. A
bridge between those before,which relate to God, and those after, which relate
to to neighbors. In our Bible Study, breaking the Sabbath demanded capital
punishment.
That’s why the
people are so upset with Jesus. But then he uses the traditions around animals
to make a point. It’s about Settingfree…unbinding…not healing or curing but setting free…Sabbath as
liberation….
What in our life
needs to be set free? (Last week Jesus was in a straight place, stressed…)
His response’ like a Pittsburgh parishioner once told me, was to Set
principle aside and do what’s right…
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| Thanks Leila! |
So what is sabbath
to you?
We spoke of our
memories, of quiet times, family times. And how hard it is for us now…the
bigger issue of course, is Jesus call to be set free from the world of
commodification, set free to live….
Luke 13:10-17
10Now he was teaching
in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 11And 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. 12When Jesus saw her,
he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set
free from your ailment.” 13When he laid his
hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 14But 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.” 15But 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? 16And 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?” 17When 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.
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