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The fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, 08/21/2016
Sermon on Luke 13:10-17, by Beth A. Schlegel
Isaiah 58:9-14; Luke 13:10-17
If you take away the yoke from your midst,
the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
10 if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.
11 And the Lord will guide you continually
and satisfy your desire in scorched places
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters do not fail.
12 And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to dwell in.
13 “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,
from doing your pleasure on my holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight
and the holy day of the Lord honorable;
if you honor it, not going your own ways,
or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;
14 then you shall take delight in the Lord,
and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
10 Now [Jesus] was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” 13 And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God.14 But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” 15 Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” 17 As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.
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Vacation requires faith.
To go on vacation is to stop doing the ordinary work of making a living and enjoy the fruits of labor.
To fully enjoy vacation, we disengage from our regular work – we trust that the business, or chores, or church will survive without us for a time.
We trust our petsitters to care for our animals.
We trust neighbors to bring in mail and newspapers, to keep an eye on things.
We trust in God to provide for us and protect us.
Faith is utter trust in God.
Such trust is grounded in God’s faithfulness to his Word.
God fulfills his promises and keeps his Word.
We can stop working for a time and trust God for what we need.
A vacation happens occasionally – but there is a regular stopping of work that is important.
It is called Sabbath. Literally, it means to stop.
On the 7th day of creation, God stopped. God rested. This was the beginning of Sabbath.
3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
At the end of a Friday evening synagogue service, the rabbi will often say, “We invite our visitors to join us for an Oneg Shabbat after the service in the community room.”
An Oneg Shabbat is an after worship social hour where there is good food, good wine, good conversation, maybe even some good music.
The whole experience of worship and fellowship is a Sabbath delight.
The Hebrew text in our Isaiah reading today says, “if you call the Sabbath (shabbat) a delight (oneg) ... ” then you shall take delight in the Lord.
Keeping Sabbath is an act of faith each week and a delight from God.
In our catechism, the 3rd Commandment is “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy”.
We are to fear and love God that we do not despise preaching and God’s word, but gladly hear and learn it.
I will let Martin Luther preach a little here, from the Large Catechism:
Accordingly, when asked, What is meant by the commandment: You shall sanctify the Sabbath? answer: To sanctify the Sabbath is the same as to keep it holy. But what is meant by keeping it holy? Nothing else than to be occupied in holy words, works, and life.
At whatever hour, then, God's Word is taught, preached, heard, read or meditated upon, there the person, day, and work are sanctified, not because of the external work, but because of the Word, which makes saints of us all.
Therefore not only those sin against this commandment who grossly misuse and desecrate the holy day, as those who on account of their greed or frivolity neglect to hear God's Word or lie in taverns and are dead drunk like swine; but also that other crowd, who listen to God's Word as to any other trifle, and only by habit come to preaching, and go away again, and at the end of the year know as little of it as at the beginning. For up to now, the opinion prevailed that you had properly hallowed Sunday when you had heard a mass or the Gospel read; but no one cared for God's Word, as also no one taught it. Now, while we have God's Word, we nevertheless do not correct the abuse; we allow ourselves to be preached to and admonished, but we listen without seriousness and care.
Know, therefore, that you must be concerned not only about hearing, but also about learning and retaining it in memory, and do not think that it is optional with you or of no great importance, but that it is God's commandment, who will require of you how you have heard, learned, and honored His Word.
Thank you Pastor Luther.
Luther has challenged us to delight in taking time away from our work to receive from God the riches of his Word.
For it is God’s Word that the Holy Spirit uses to give us faith,
to refresh our souls, and to restore our relationship with God.
It is God’s Word that gives us life, as Jesus demonstrates by the healing of the crippled woman.
In God’s Word, we find the stories of God’s mighty acts – Noah and the ark, David and Goliath, Samson and Delilah, Esther, and the Exodus – to name a few.
These stories demonstrate the power of God and his faithfulness to his own promises.
In God’s Word we find wisdom for daily living, as in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.
We find the voices of the ages in prayer, praise, lamentation and thanksgiving in the Psalms.
In God’s Word, we discover Jesus as the living Word of God, Son of the Father and giver of the Spirit.
We hear Jesus’ declarations of love for us and challenge to live as those who inherit his heavenly wealth.
In God’s Word, we have the preaching of the prophets and the apostles, the teaching of the Holy Spirit.
In God’s Word, we receive our commission as the church – to go and make disciples of all nations.
There is so much in God’s Word, written and preached, that we cannot learn it all at once.
Nor can we rely on our memory of what we learned when we were 6 or 10 or 15.
God’s Word is a living word –a dynamic conversation – in which the Holy Spirit is constantly drawing us into closer relationship with our Lord and Savior.
God’s Word is also sacramental – presented with water and oil, bread and wine, the laying on of hands and prayer – that we might know and trust the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ.
What we receive when we sanctify the Sabbath is the delight of God’s love for us. The delight of abundant life in Jesus. The delight of sharing the marriage feast of the Lamb of God.
To neglect God’s Word then, is like starving our souls, or filling up on candy and cookies with no nutrition.
Our faith withers and falters and we have no foundation to stand on when Satan comes to test us.
So Keeping Sabbath is important for our sake – not only to rest from work, but to engage with God.
There is also another dimension to the Sabbath delight – and that is giving rest to others.
This is a matter of justice for those who work to serve us.
They, too, need an opportunity to rest and worship the Lord.
It is oppressive to expect workers to labor every day, all the time.
Just as the Lord delivered his people from oppression in Egypt, so the Sabbath is deliverance from the exertions of work.
And just as we have faith that our work can do without us for a time, so we trust that it can do without others.
God himself has made the Sabbath a delight for the sake of our faith.
Let us be sure not to squander it.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen