The Subplot: How to Keep the Sabbath Holy—
Isaiah 58: 9-14; Luke 13: 10-17
Growing up, my dad’s mother, Granny Bert, as we called her, made this candy which I can only describe as having enough sugar to show up on a drug screen. It was peanut butter divinity roll and contained 2.5 cups of granulated sugar, 2/3 cup corn syrup, and nearly a 1/3 of a bag of confectioner’s sugar. The recipe is incredibly difficult and requires extreme precision. Consequently, no one in the family has really been able to make it since she died several years ago. I had assumed the knowledge was lost as she never kept good recipe notes.
And yet, when I was home in Kentucky in June, I found that recipe jotted down in an old cookbook. With a candy thermometer and enough sugar to start my own confection shop, I made the elusive and incredibly difficult candy this past weekend, and it actually turned out the way it was supposed to be. It was one of those moments of life to cherish. I figured she was up in Heaven feeling pretty proud, and I was able to have a mini-celebration from having accomplished it. It felt somewhat like a holy moment in life, like God helped me find a bit of family, connectedness, and the continuing of traditions in this little recipe.
It’s hard to explain those moments—what we can call “holy (or sacred) moments—” in life. They come and make us feel somehow made whole, or at peace, or wrapped up in love in some way, and in each of those moments we find a space for gratefulness and thanks to God.
Without a doubt the main point of our Gospel story for today is the healing of this woman who was bent over and living with a physical deformity. Nothing I say should take away from the power of her healing and restoration as well as her thanks and praise to God. But, there are three more paragraphs detailing a subplot to this story. The leader of the synagogue was mad that Jesus did the work of healing on the Sabbath. There were very strict rules in those days that absolutely no work could be done on the Sabbath. Healing was considered work.
Here, the leader rightfully criticized Jesus for breaking the religious rules of the Sabbath. His critique is that Jesus violated the command to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy by doing no work. Jesus, however, shoots back with a completely different idea. What if, this work of healing, restoration, and redemption was exactly what made the Sabbath holy? What if the Sabbath was made for this very moment of healing a daughter of Abraham who had prayed for years to be delivered of her suffering? What if allowing her to suffer simply to keep this rule of not working on a certain day was actually the very definition of unholy or sinful?
That is exactly what Jesus says. She has suffered miserably for 18 years, and isn’t it right…isn’t it holy…to set her free to be restored and healed? For her, this healing and deliverance was probably the holiest and most sacred moment of her life. Isaiah’s words support Jesus’s actions: “Remove the heavy yoke of oppression, feed the hungry, help those in trouble.” It goes on in Isaiah to say the Sabbath must be kept holy, and everything done on that day must honor the Sabbath. We come on Sundays to keep the Sabbath and to offer our praise and worship to God.
Yet, where do we find these holy or sacred moments which draw us closer to God in our daily lives? I have a friend who loves to cook, and cooking draws her closer to God. She talks about smelling the herbs and being reminded of God’s creation. When the food is cooked, she thinks of God’s refining fire for us as we grow in faith. When she plates the food up, it reminds her that one day God will make all things new in perfection, redeemed, and complete.
I have another friend who finds his holy moments while hiking. As he gets to the top of the mountain, covered by the trees, and looking over the clearing, he feels like he’s in a place where can be still and silent enough to hear God speak. And I have a friend who finds holy moments while looking into the face of her newborn baby. In seeing this beautiful new life, she is reminded that God watches over us and is with us till we take our final breath.
Where do you find these places in life of Sabbath, these holy or sacred moments, which draw you closer to God? Is it in prayer, service to others, gardening, music, books and stories? We can come here every Sunday to worship and grow in faith, but the truth is once per week is really not enough.
I wonder about the woman in our gospel lesson. We are told about how strongly she praised God for the miracle of her healing. I wonder if, every morning when she got out of bed and stood up straight, she relived that holy moment in her life when Jesus healed and restored her from her suffering? Each new day was an opportunity for her to praise God again for the wondrous things Jesus had done for her in that synagogue while breaking the rules.
It is far too easy in our lives to get bogged down in the routine: work, cleaning, a couple of hobbies, doctor visits, keeping up with all the things. Some days it feels like we are working on all the things, all at once. If we begin to neglect our own Sabbath, and if we fail to seek out those holy moments with God each day and each week, we too will become bent over with struggles and suffering. If we don’t make room for what is holy, everything else will take over. We will become like the synagogue—a place filled with hateful, rigid rules—where helping this poor, suffering woman was considered wrong. The synagogue leader’s response to Jesus’s healing put his and the synagogue’s coldness and emptiness on full display.
Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy. Where do you find the moments of holiness in life when you feel connected to God and know that warm presence in your life most clearly and distinctly? After making the candy and going through every pot, pan, and plate I own in the house, one could say, “How I praised God!” when the stuff actually turned out right.
The hymn, “Be Still My Soul,” has the phrase, “Be still my soul, when change and tears are past, all safe and blessed we shall meet at last.” It only took the woman in the Gospel lesson one simple moment with Jesus to be healed, restored, and given a lasting and powerful testimony of God’s goodness. Where do we find our times of holiness and Sabbath in our lives? When do we make time to be present with God and listen for God’s guidance? I pray we find time to quiet our minds and still our souls, so we can find those holy moments with God.
Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/542072171003789