We Get To

CONTEXT

Option for Children’s Message: Ordinary Time. A time of growing. Green. Regularity. Repetitive. Plants us in our relationship with God. Use Psalm 1.

Theme this summer. Life of Faith. A life-long process with shared experiences. Check out the preaching plan on the web page for an overview of the entire summer...all the way to November.

First movement: Faith awakened.

Gospel of Mark. Beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Fame as a teacher, healer, exorcist and miracle worker is spreading. Also the subject of suspicion by the elders, the religious leadership. Jesus tendency to do what was “frowned upon”: associating with sinners (tax collector Matthew), touching and healing the unclean (like lepers), not observing set fasts, presuming divine prerogatives (like forgiving sins).

And in our lesson today, a tendency, to push the boundaries of Sabbath observance. Sabbath, of course, being the 7th day of the Jewish week. A day of rest and worship, abstinence from work. A very important weekly observance.

Deuteronomy 5:12–15 ESV

“ ‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

Mark 2:23–3:6 ESV

One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

INTRODUCTION

What sounds right to you?

I get to go to work/I have to go to work

I get to go to the dentist/I have to go to the dentist

I get to go to the beach/I have to go to the beach

I get to go to Disney/I have to go to Disney

Now at the beginning summer, when we may be eager for play, vacation...where does our relationship with God fit in? Are our spiritual practices (church, prayer, service) a “have to” or a “get to”?

ANCIENT PROBLEM - Have to Religion

Jesus and the Pharisees clashing on this issue of “Have to” religion.

Both stories occur on the Sabbath. The day of rest and worship.

Genesis - part of creation.

Deuteronomy - part of the Law (commandment #4)

Therefore, a defining aspect of being a Jew and ancient Jewish culture. Working on the Sabbath viewed as a serious breach between a person/community and God.

Still social penalties. Public rebuke, ostracizing, fine. One HAD TO observe the Sabbath.

To help, religious leaders put up traditions to serve as fences around the sabbath: Don’t do anything that even looks like work, and you’ll be keeping the Sabbath.

First story.

Jesus and disciples are walking through a grain field on the Sabbath. As the walk along they are rubbing the heads of grain in their hands and eating the fresh grain.

Technically, rubbing grain between your hands would not constitute the “work” of bringing in the harvest.

But Jesus is bumping up against the boundary.

it looks like work…and it might give others the wrong idea that Sabbath is optional.

The Pharisees attack Jesus: You have to observe the Sabbath! So you are hungry...you won’t die! Should have thought of food before the Sabbath.

You HAVE TO REST AND WORSHIP.

Second story.

Worship in a synagogue, again, on the Sabbath.

The Pharisees are in attendance.

Jesus is teaching.

There is a man with a withered hand. Deformity that made the hand useless.

Pharisees watching him to see if he is going to “work” a miracle on the Sabbath. Working - even a miracle - could be viewed as work. They want to accuse him for breaking the rules.

Pharisees: We HAVE TO REST AND WORSHIP. We have six other days, work on them…rest and worship today!

Sabbath an obligation, an imposition of God upon people.

PIETY BEFORE PEOPLE. YOU HAVE TO!

CURRENT PROBLEM - We Have To

Not in danger today of infraction against Sabbath. Some of you may remember when stores were closed. Or when you would get a condemning look for mowing your lawn on Sunday. Younger folks: stores were closed. Shopped ahead of time. No athletic competitions. Rest and worship.

The culture shifted away…most basically because we — Christians included— didn’t want to be told what we have to do. YOU HAVE TO REST.

I don’t have to rest, I don’t have to worship. No one can make me!

Inversion of Jesus’ day. But the same spirit — that obeying God’s commands is a matter of “have to”

As if our religion is about divine imposition. I’m going to put people, including me over piety!

Normally, I have to go to church, but it is summer, so now I don’t… church optional!

Daily Prayer…I should, but I don’t want to…I don’t have to!

Service and giving…I feel obligated. I “have to” but I don’t want to…and I don’t have to!

Billy Joel: I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints The sinners are much more fun, You know that only the good die young..

As if God has called us into a lifestyle that is undesirable, onerous, burdensome.

HINGE - Jesus’ Divine View

Jesus is saddened and angry about this view of religious practice.

As the Son of Man, he is also the Son of God, and sees religious commands for what they really are: pathways to connect God and people.

People see religion as “have to” because they are oriented away from God.

Jesus sees religion as “get to” because God’s reaches out in with love, healing, and life.

ANCIENT SOLUTION - Jesus shows Sabbath as life-giving opportunity.

First incident. Jesus recalls David and his men.

David was destined to be the king of Israel. He was being unjustly hunted by the current, but fallen king, Saul. David and his men were in flight from the murderous Saul. They were hungry. On the Sabbath, he and his men ate the very holy bread from the altar of the Lord’s tabernacle.

Neither priest nor God did not begrudge them. Why? Because David was fulfilling his mission for God...and in the course of obeying God there had not been time to eat and sustenance was needed.

So, on the Lord’s Day, God was pleased to give David and his mean his very own bread.

In a similar way, Jesus and his disciples had been doing so much ministry that they did not have time to eat previously or to draw up plans for their own needs, and they were on their way to the next town to preach and minister there.

Jesus authorizes them to pick and eat.

The Sabbath bread like a special reserve.

I am the New David, the Son of David, the Son of God, the Son of Man.

I am the New King, Lord of the Sabbath. These are my mighty men

I want my people to be strong to serve. Later, Eat of Me! I am the Bread of Heaven!

Shows his kingship in the second episode.

Jesus calls the man with the withered hand forward. He poses the question exactly: is it lawful (right) to save a life on the Sabbath or to kill? With kingly authority, he commands the healing.

Sabbath is a rule, but Jesus the Son of Man is the ruler. Sabbath is the day to encounter him. Kingdom of God is at hand. Jesus is the one who is God among his people.

Sabbath to bring God and people together:I GET TO BE WITH THEM AND THEY GET TO BE WITH ME!

He concludes: The sabbath is for humankind, not humankind for the sabbath.

Because God is for humankind.

They plot to destroy him.

Ironically, he is destroyed by the advocates of “have to” religion, but with is resurrection brings full life and healing — so that all can see that religion is “get to”! We get to be with God.

CURRENT SOLUTION - What is most life-giving to you this summer? How is that part of life with Christ.

Over the year, God has given so much. Christ into the world. Forgiveness of sins, promise of eternal life. The Holy Spirit to fill us. The triune God who creates, redeems, sustains.

Now the summer...how will we respond?

ONE RESPONSE:

Not, aww…I have to go to church, pray, read my Bible…or I don’t have to go…

THE OTHER RESPONSE: open our hearts to God they way his is open to us.

Desire to be with God, the way he desires to be with us, as shown in Christ.

Jesus makes that possible he has healed and given new life.

Imagine if we could not do it: the lame child getting on the bus… but I get to get right on!

Someone who doesn’t have a job, I get to

Someone who does not know GOD, but I GET TO KNOW GOD!

Decide now to see practice of faith as a life-giving, life shaping, healing, gift from God.

CONCLUSION

Our relationship with God is the greatest blessing of all.

Embrace Ordinary Time, as an opportunity to grow in Christ...to ‘get to” be Christian. WE GET TO BE CONNECTED TO GOD.

PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION

[A time of silence follows each petition.]

God, we humbly ask that you hear us as we lift up our prayers as a community of faith. God of the Sabbath, we rest in you.

God, who desires to give us rest: hear the groaning of those to whom rest is unimaginable because their safety is constantly threatened and they are impoverished of their basic needs. God of the Sabbath, we rest in you.

Hear the sound of those to whom rest is a reality far away because their hearts are broken with loss, grief, and pain and their minds and body have grown weary with illness and heavy burdens. God of the Sabbath, we rest in you.

Stir us to heed your call as a church and as leaders, as individuals, and as those who are in authority. God of the Sabbath, we rest in you.

May we not be troubled by the mountains and the waves of the struggles before us, but may we trust in your extraordinary power. God of the Sabbath, we rest in you.

As we wait and press forward for the day when rest is assured with justice, healing, and love, grant us a peace that this world cannot give but can be found only through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.