Brad Sullivan
Fourth Sunday in Lent, Year A
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Emmanuel, Houston
Exodus 3:1-15 (not read)
Psalm 23
Ephesians 5:5-14
John 9:1-41
In the Gospel story today, we heard of Jesus giving sight to a man who was born blind, and we heard of people’s unbelief that Jesus had healed him. “This man is not from God,” some Pharisees said, “for he does not observe the sabbath.” The Pharisees refused to believe that Jesus could be a man of God. They refused to believe that Jesus could heal, because he healed on the sabbath, thereby breaking one of the ten laws of Moses, one of the Ten Commandments, you’re not supposed to work on the sabbath.
Healing someone was considered work, and so by healing the blind man on the sabbath, Jesus had broken God’s commandment not to work on the sabbath. By healing the blind man on the sabbath, Jesus had rebelled against God, in the eyes of the Pharisees, and by a strict understanding of the Jewish religion, Jesus had broken God’s commandment. Healing could be considered work.
The blind man, after all, could have just as easily received his sight the day after the sabbath. Jesus could have obeyed God’s commandment and still given sight to the blind man, because as much as giving sight to the blind man was a good thing, there is no greater task, aim, or goal in our lives than to honor and obey God. One cannot be said to obey God if one disobeys God’s basic commandments. What was more important for Jesus to do, heal a man, or obey God? Clearly obedience to God should take priority, and yet there Jesus was, healing the man on the sabbath.
Jesus would not have disobeyed God even in order to heal, and I don’t think God said, “Ok Jesus, you’ve got a lot to do, so the ten commandments are optional for you.” Rather, today’s Gospel story shows that Jesus healing on the sabbath was not contrary to God’s Commandment not to work on the sabbath. So, healing doesn’t equal work. Lesson learned. End of sermon. Thank you much. There are a few slightly more enlightening lessons, however, which can be learned from Jesus’ healing of the blind man than simply healing isn’t work. I’m not even sure “healing isn’t work” is an accurate statement.
Remember what the commandment about the sabbath actually said?
“Remember the sabbath, day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work…for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.” (Exodus 20:8-10a, 11)
The commandment concerning the sabbath day was more than a proscription against work. The sabbath was a day to remember God, a day of rest dedicated to God. The sabbath was to be a holy day, a day set aside from the rest of the week, intentionally different, a day in which work was not done so people could rest and in resting, remember God. Isaiah speaks of this idea of rest and remembrance in the (hopefully) familiar words of our evening devotional, “O God, you will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are fixed on you; for in returning and rest we shall be saved; in quietness and trust shall be our strength.” (BCP 138; Isaiah 26:3, 30:15)
Thinking about the sabbath in terms of quietness and trust of God, finding peace by fixing our minds on God, we can see that merely doing no work will not necessarily fulfill God’s commandment concerning the sabbath. One could do no technical work while also not fixing one’s mind on God. One could abstain from any labor while not returning to God for rest. Such a person would seem, by all outward appearances, to be observing the sabbath; the person is doing no work, but again, at the heart of the sabbath is rest, returning to God, and finding our true rest in him.
When the sabbath becomes simply another rule we must follow, then we have stripped the sabbath of its purpose. God didn’t just think, “here’s something bothersome I’ll make people do; I’ll forbid them to work one day a week.” God did not give the law for the law’s sake, but for our sake. God knows we need rest, and God knows we will find our true rest in him. The Pharisees seem to have forgotten that part of the law. Following the rules seems to have become the means and the end to the Pharisees. Work on the sabbath, and you commit sin. Sin, and you are not from God. The Pharisees kept the rules, but by holding the rules for the rules’ sake, they had missed the presence of God. By holding on to the rules too tightly, they seem to have put their faith and trust in the rules rather than in God.
By their rules, the Pharisees knew God and knew how God worked among them. They knew the correct ways to worship God and to live as God had commanded. They lived an ordered, disciplined life according to rules given by God, but unfortunately, they seem to have bound God (or bound their understanding of God) by the rules given by God.
Now, living a life of discipline according to a set of rules can be a good thing. All this Lent, we have been encouraging lives of discipline in order to know God more, continually returning to God to find rest and peace in him. We have not, however, attempted to bind God’s presence or activity in our lives by the order and discipline we have established. The purpose of rules, of order and discipline is not to bind God’s presence and activity in our lives. Rather, the purpose of rules, the purpose of order and discipline is to free us to be able to encounter and experience the presence of God in unexpected ways. We don’t pray four times a day so that God will have four opportunities to talk with us. We pray four times a day to open ourselves to God’s presence in our lives, to open our eyes and hearts to God’s presence in the world. We follow rules and order our lives so that when God does act or reveal himself, we might witness the revelation.
The Pharisees followed the rules, but then blinded themselves to the revelation and presence of God in Jesus and in the healing of the blind man. They were so convinced they were doing everything right, so convinced they could see, that they were blinded to their own blindness. The pride they felt towards their discipline and devotion blinded them to God and stripped the Pharisees’ devotion and rules of their purpose.
There is a multitude of ways in which we too can follow rules and yet be blinded to God’s presence, ways in which pride for living religiously can turn to sin and blindness. Religion itself, if it becomes an end in and of itself, can become a barrier to God. If the rules and structure of our faith life become things we have to do in order to be righteous or to be appropriately religious, then the rules and structure of our faith lose a lot of their meaning. If we begin to feel other forms of worship or ways of practicing Christianity are wrong simply because they are different from how we practice Christianity, then we run into the same problem the Pharisees had, religion for religion’s sake.
There are many practices and ways of life which we can hold on to so tightly that they become impediments in our walks with God. Our prayer life, our morality, even our worship can become rules which limit our ability to experience God’s presence. What are some rules or practices which might have become ends rather than means in your life? We’re going to address our worship during our 10:15 class today, looking at the symbols we use and the words we pray, seeking a deeper understanding of our worship. Whether you can come to this class or not, however, think about how we worship, what we do and why. Realize our way of worshipping is only one way of worshipping. With your spiritual practices, with your prayer life, even with your morality, with your ethical code for Christian living, take care not to substitute rules and practices for faith in God. Rather, allow the rules of your life and the practices of your life to open your eyes and your hearts to God’s presence.
Practice your faith and follow God’s commandments not in order to be righteous, but because doing so will help you find God in the unexpected places of your life. Practicing your faith and following God’s commandments will help you rest in God and find true peace in his presence. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment