Readings:
Sermon:
When did you last do nothing? And I mean really nothing - no book, no music, no crafts, definitely no screens or phone Truly nothing. Most of us find it very hard to manage it for more than a few minutes. And you might ask, what is the point?
The point is of course, sabbath. 'Six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God.
In today’s gospel Jesus is going head-to-head with the Pharisees on the matter of sabbath. The rules around what should and should not be allowed on the sabbath day had become complex and restrictive, as they still are for modern orthodox Jews. It seems that the Pharisees were doing their best to catch Jesus and his disciples out breaking the law. Wandering through the cornfield the disciples have plucked a few heads of grain. Hardly serious work but the Pharisees challenge them on what they were doing in a way that clearly wound Jesus up! Sabbath rules were not intended to be there to catch people out but to draw people in.
The provocation continues when Jesus goes into the temple. There is a man in need of healing. Would Jesus break the rules in order to meet the needs of this man? Jesus’ choice was compassion; the Pharisees interpretation was that this broke the law. The teaching point is in the words ‘The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath’.
What are we to learn today?
The first thing is to recognise that we are starting from such a different place. Far from sabbath being too strictly observed, the rules being inflexibly applied, we have lost all sense of sabbath in our culture, even in our church culture. We are busy and distracted and overstimulated. We have a low tolerance for silence and inactivity. We expect stimulation and rewards, more and bigger.
Now there are some sweeping statements in there, and of course there will be exceptions, but I offer you again the challenge, when did you last do truly nothing?
Sabbath is about much more that just rest. It is not just an early night or a quiet day. It is intentionally setting time aside to the glory of God. Time for worship and thanksgiving. Time without competition from worldly demands, to be aware of creation and our place in it. Time for prayer and contemplation and refreshment of a sense of who we are before God and to what we are called.
Our personal life needs sabbath. Our church life needs sabbath and creation needs sabbath. There is a passage in Leviticus that speaks of sabbath for the land ever seventh year. As we struggle with issues of climate change it will be important to renew our commitment to sabbath.
Stop. Breathe. Give thanks and be. Be with God, be with what’s important, acknowledge your fear, repent of your wrongs and know the loving, healing presence of the Holy Spirit, the wellspring of hope. And then and only then, consider to what you are called in the next week and the next season.
Sabbath is God’s gift to us. It is not a set of rules, but it is a discipline. It takes practice and rewards richly. When did you last do nothing for God’s sake?
Questions:
- When did you last do nothing, for God’s sake?
- What would help you to renew your sense of sabbath?
- Is your church good at sabbath?
- For the sake of creation, has your church considered becoming an Ecochurch?