Monday, August 12, 2013

Towards Sunday August 18, 2013

Scripture:       Mark 2:23 - 3:6
Sermon:          Sabbath - Sharing (in) wholeness

There is more going on in these two stories than just a few Sabbath rules being broken.

In the story of healing (Mark 3:1-6) Jesus actually doesn't break any rules, because he doesn't do any work.  In fact, specifically to accommodate the Pharisees' hard-hearted insistence that no work be done (see v. 5), instead of doing what he normally does in healing (e.g laying his hands on the person, raising the sick one up, etc.) quite literally Jesus does nothing.  He simply speaks two orders (for the man to stand up, and to stretch out his hand) and on doing that the man finds his hand healed.

So if it's not about Sabbath rules being broken, what is it that so bothers the Pharisees that they want to do away with Jesus (and so desperately, that they themselves break the Sabbath command not to undertake plans or business, just to get things underway)?

In the first story (plucking heads of grain on a Sabbath) commentators point out that "having Pharisees suddenly pop up in the middle of a grainfield on the Sabbath to object to the disciples' activity strains credibility.  It almost looks like something out of a Broadway musical."  And they suggest this story is exactly that contrived -- that it's a story created within the early church to say something about the meaning of Jesus, that is more than just whether he and his disciples are allowed to pluck grain on a Sabbath or not.

So what's the point of the story? 

Maybe it's the way it likens Jesus to King David, and Jesus's disciples (the first disciples as well as all others after them) to the members of David's company?  Maybe the message is that in the same way as God raised up David (an unlikely poor shepherd) to replace a king (Saul) who proved to be not a good king, God has now raised up Jesus (an equally unlikely candidate) to replace all other rulers (past, present and future) who don't rule well?  (And now that would be a threat to the Pharisees and others in power, worthy of their attention!)

And maybe the issue in the healing story is not so much what Jesus did (or, said), but the spirit in which he did it (or, said it).  It's the spirit of fulfilment ... of the power of God being present ... of the kingdom of God being here.  It's like in Luke 4:16-30 (a shorter version of which appears in Mark 6:1-6) where on a Sabbath in the synagogue of Nazareth, Jesus reads a passage from the prophet Isaiah about the Spirit of God's kingdom being poured out upon a messiah and upon the people, and he says, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

As long as worship of God is focused on past (what God did in the past, and how we can understand our tradition) and on future (what hope our Scriptures teach us to have), the Pharisees (both then and now) are pretty much in control, because they're the ones educated in the tradition and in Scripture, who the people have to listen to.

But when worship becomes focused on the present (what God is doing now, how Jesus is present today, how holy Spirit is alive among us all, how the kingdom of God is here), the Pharisees (both then and now) lose control.  Worship becomes a matter of God and the people celebrating their present relationship.

QUESTION:  which kind of worship do we experience at Fifty on a Sunday?

As a Pharisee-ish scholar of Scripture and tradition, I wonder what I will be led to say about this, and what kind of worship I will be led to lead, this Sunday?

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