St. Matthew’s Sermon 08-21-2016

Let’s be Reasonable

Isaiah 58:9b-14, Hebrews 12:18-29, Luke 13:10-17

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God. Amen

I’ve said it before many times; and I’ve said it before here at St. Matthew’s in both my sermons and in our Bible Study class. And, today, I’ll say it again. The statement is this, “I believe the truth of the Bible; but I often doubt our interpretation of that truth”. Let me repeat that just to be sure what I am saying is clear, “I believe the truth of the Bible; but I often doubt our interpretation of that truth”.

In that statement I carefully, and intentionally use the inclusive plural “our”, including myself, I am not, by any means the final word in Biblical interpretation. In fact, as an educated Bible scholar, I am oh so aware of how difficult it is for any human (except for Jesus of Nazareth) to get it all perfectly right. And, with today’s readings in hand, I’ll take it one step further and say that, with the strictest interpretation, it is impossible to live perfectly according to the Bible. Let me repeat that also, “with the strictest interpretation, it is impossible to live perfectly according to the Bible”; and by the “strictest”, I mean word-for-word.

But God does not set impossible tasks before us. So the problem isn’t wholly in interpretation, rather in our application of what we interpret. As Jesus said earlier in Luke’s account, at 11:46 “Woe also to you lawyers! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them”.

The Lawyers, of course, were official interpreters of the Law and the statement isn’t only about their lack of aid to “the people” but the burdening of the people with their application of the Law.

Today’s readings from Isaiah and Luke are a perfect set-up for my argument.

By now, I think we’re all familiar with the conflicts between Jesus and the religious leaders of his day. So often we hear of them butting heads; Pharisees opposing something Jesus says or does and Jesus trying to set them straight. The Pharisees, among others, were strict adherents to the Law of God. It was their belief that the situation of their nation in the time was God’s punishment for disobedience and, therefore, the way to get out of their oppressive occupation, at the hands of the Romans, was to get-right with God again. Then, God would intervene, as he did in the past, and liberate them from their oppression.

Living in strict adherence to the Law was the way to get-right with God. And by strict interpretation of Scripture, that would include doing absolutely no work on the Sabbath.

Today’s reading form Isaiah isn’t a part of the books of the Law, but it does speak of a time when God was offering a second chance, giving instructions for getting-right again, and making promises of reward. Thus, it is easy to see where the likes of the Pharisees get their ideas about salvation through obedience. The very words we read today are most likely a part of their reasoning…

“If you refrain from trampling the Sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; then you shall take delight in the LORD…”

Right there is the reason for the leader of the Synagogue to object to Jesus’ healing of the woman on the Sabbath as found in Luke’s Gospel. Healing was work and work was forbidden on the Sabbath [period]. In essence, he was saying “the Scripture says it; I believe it; that ends it!

Jesus, then, doesn’t argue that point. He doesn’t say anything about the leader’s interpretation of the Law, but he does argue his application of that Law and he does so by calling for reason. When he says, “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?” he’s not accusing them of breaking the Sabbath rules, he is pointing out that there are some things that need to be done; Sabbath or not.

Yes, an ox or a donkey could last a day without food or water, but not comfortably; not without some degree of suffering. And if the animals deserve such care then, even more so, the same should be granted for the bent-over woman; she has suffered enough; she should not be forced to endure one more day of suffering just because it is the Sabbath! That is, as Jesus argues, over application of the Law.

God’s Law calls us to love and honor him. And one of the ways of doing so is to honor the Sabbath. But His Law also calls us to love our neighbor. Jesus did not have to decide which should have to trump the other in today’s story; he didn’t break the Sabbath to heal and he didn’t refrain from healing on the Sabbath. He used reasonable application of the Law to do both; honoring the Sabbath and healing a woman whose suffering had already gone on for far too long.

I know we all want to get it right; to live according to God’s Law and to encourage others to do likewise. And, as I mentioned near the beginning of this sermon, it is so difficult for us humans to interpret and apply the Law in perfection. But today’s Gospel reading gives us another guideline for accomplishing that complicated task.

If we disregard any part of the Law we are not getting it right. On the other hand, if our adhesion to the Law, or our expectations of others to do so on our terms, causes anyone to suffer in any way, or prolongs the suffering of anyone already afflicted, we’re not getting it right. But when we understand and apply the Law in a way that that shows honor to God and love to our neighbor, then we are assured that we are getting it right.

Take notice, again in the reading from Isaiah, the instructions that immediately precede the talk about the Sabbath where it is written…

“If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday”.

It is no coincidence that these two themes are placed so close together and it is no coincidence that they so closely parallel Jesus’ actions and words in today’s Gospel reading. They are put together; tied together; in order to demonstrate the point that it’s not strict adhesion to the Law that makes us righteous. And it’s not what we do for others, our neighbors, that makes us righteous. But if we use our God-given ability to reason, to think things through, and find the place where these two intersect; where honoring God includes loving our neighbor and where lifting up our neighbor is done so to honor God, that makes for righteousness.

When we accomplish this, and we see “the entire crowd rejoicing at all the wonderful things that [Christ] is doing”, then we know we are getting it right!

Amen.

Isaiah 58:9b-14
58:9b If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
58:10 if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.
58:11 The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.
58:12 Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.
58:13 If you refrain from trampling the Sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs;
58:14 then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Hebrews 12:18-29
12:18 You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest,
12:19 and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them.
12:20 (For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death.”
12:21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”)
12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,
12:23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,
12:24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
12:25 See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking; for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven!
12:26 At that time his voice shook the earth; but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.”
12:27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of what is shaken–that is, created things–so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
12:28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe;
12:29 for indeed our God is a consuming fire.
Luke 13:10-17
13:10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.
13:11 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.
13:12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.”
13:13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.
13:14 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.”
13:15 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?
13:16 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?”
13:17 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.