“Sunday, What’s With That?”

PENTECOST 13C, August 21 & 22, 2010

Have you ever wondered what’s with Sunday? I mean the gathering for worship; the singing, the reading, the preaching, the praying – why do we do it? I’m serious. Because sometimes I can get so caught up in preparing for Sunday that I lose sight of what Sunday is really about in the first place. Well, today’s gospel confronts this question head on.

I suppose on one level we could read this story about Jesus healing on the Sabbath as a basic clash between two understandings of this day of rest. On the one side there is the synagogue leader who takes very seriously and fairly literally all of the laws about keeping the Sabbath that are contained in the Scriptures. On the other side there is Jesus who suggests that beneath the surface of those laws lays a deeper purpose – that of caring for those in need. You don’t keep the laws simply for the sake of keeping the law, Jesus is suggesting, you keep the law to accomplish its designed intent; and when the law no longer serves the reason the law was established in the first place, then you break the law in order to fulfill it.

Actually, I think this story really goes a lot deeper than this; this is more than a quarrel between a conservative and liberal interpretation of the Law. Instead, I think this gets down to the very point of this day itself. As you may remember, there are two Old Testament traditions concerning the Sabbath. The first comes from Genesis and it links the Sabbath to the story of creation, where God rests after six days of labor. As God rested, so should we. That one day of rest at the end of a week of work is part of the natural order built into creation itself and we do well to keep that inborn tempo of work and rest as the rhythm for our lives. The second tradition, however, comes from Deuteronomy and links the Sabbath to the Exodus and the story of Israel’s liberation from slavery in Egypt. As you know, slaves don’t get days off, they work every day and so the Sabbath – a day off – is a reminder to the people of God that they aren’t slaves anymore; they are free. From this tradition the Sabbath isn’t as much about rest as it is about freedom.

Of course, it is from this perspective of freedom, that Christians moved the celebration of Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday; because it was on Sunday that Jesus rose from the dead, it was on Sunday that he freed us from our bondage to sin and death and the power of the devil. Every Sunday is Easter Sunday for us Christians and we know of no better day than Easter to celebrate the fact that in Christ we are free.

And this reality of freedom is exactly what Jesus is up to in our text for today. For over eighteen years a woman was crippled up and bent over by a spirit of bondage. Crippled and bent over for eighteen years; that’s a long time.

A women’s Bible study group was talking about this text. One of the questions was “What in your own experience might cause a woman to be bent over for eighteen years?” “Her kids,” answered one woman, “eighteen years is the minimum sentence for being a parent.” Another woman spoke up, “Don’t forget her husband. She was probably bent over from constantly picking up his dirty clothes all the years they were married.” Still another woman added, “Maybe she was bent over from working like a dog all of her life at some dead-end, low-paying job. Or maybe every time she held her head up and tried to be somebody, the people around her did all they could to keep her down.”

There are lots of reasons why this woman that may have caused her to be crippled and bent over all those years, things that made her a slave just like the Hebrew slaves in Egypt. But on this particular Sabbath at the synagogue were Jesus was teaching, she was set free from her slavery and free at last she praised and gave glorify to God.

So, the Sabbath – Sunday – is about freedom. How many of us really know that and understand that to be the case? I suspect that for many Sunday is seen merely as a day of religious obligation; it’s a day when we come to church to pay our respects to God. We do it for God and, if we’re lucky, we may get a little something out of it for ourselves.

But what if Sunday wasn’t so much about what we can do for God and more about what God can do and has done for us? And what if, recognizing that, we start to think about what we can do for others? Wouldn’t that be a reason to praise God?

And what if Sunday was a day to remember God’s mighty acts; all of those amazing and awesome things God has done in Christ? And what if, recognizing that, we started to think about how we could dare engaging in mighty acts ourselves? Wouldn’t that be a reason to give glory to God?

And what if Sunday was a day to remember how God has set us free; free from all of those things in our lives that enslaves us? And what if, recognizing that, we started to think about what we could do to free others who are crippled up and bent over by life? Wouldn’t that be a reason to give thanks to God?

And what if Sunday was a day to remember that because of Jesus, death is no longer a dark cloud hanging over our heads? And what if, recognizing that, we started to think about how we could boldly live knowing in our hearts that it’s true? Wouldn’t that be a reason to shout the Easter proclamation: "He is risen, He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Alleluia!”?

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