2nd Sunday after Pentecost, June 2, 2024

Sermon: 2nd Sunday after Pentecost, June 2, 2024, House of Prayer, Hingham, MA
Text: Mark 2:23-3:6, Deuteronomy 5: 12-15
Grace, Peace, and Mercy from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Busyness affects every one of us. Our time is consumed in the doing of a lot of things which weigh us down in regards to the important and essential things in life. And there is no shortage of busyness, there will always be something to do or get that accumulates in our lives. Often, work can be the main source of busyness. We are always working, working towards the next promotion, or the next salary increase, or the best school or university, the best curriculum vitae, simply, work becomes life. If success in work, if being the top dog is the main objective of life, then work definitely becomes the way to achieve that goal. Be as busy as you want to be. Yet, we are witnessing the effects of a society that overworks. When work is the main driving force of life, then human beings begin to burnout like matches, because we are not created to work all the time. The Korean philosopher, Byung Chul Han called this busyness phenomenon the Burnout Society, a society that is perpetually tired and spent by it’s own obsession with capital.

Life itself negates the ultimate quality we give to work and busyness. If busyness is stopping you from being with your family, our bodies and our loved ones will naturally tell you how that is negatively affecting you. If busyness is stopping you from smelling the roses, you will start to forget the need to be in contact with the world around you. If busyness stops you from assessing your life and your death, if it stops you from contemplating and developing a relationship with God, your life will let you know, something is missing. We were created for a loving purpose, you are not a means to an end. Your life is not meant to be hauled by the expectations of a society obsessed with ambitions of wealth and power. Your life was not created for you to be overwhelmed by all the whims of the things that surround us. Your life has meaning, it has inherent purpose within the web of relationships you are born to, beginning with the love of God that makes you possible, and the love of people that naturally binds us together. And let me tell you, pastors are not immune to busyness. We are some of the most susceptible. We can often stray away from the essentials of our calling, or even misplace our priorities by sidelining our families or sacrificing the essentials of pastoral care, preaching and giving the sacraments for the more entrepreneurial aspects of ministry or trying to achieve “success” in ministry. We are all called to a definition of priorities, we are all called to view our lives rightly and humbly.

And thus, it is for our benefit that our readings today, speak about the Sabbath, the day of rest. We share with our Jewish siblings the commandment to uphold the sabbath. Yet we often miss out on the beauty of the day of rest because we see the sabbath as another obligation, the duty we must perform. Beloved, the Sabbath is God’s grace for us. To have this moment together where we can worship, share a meal together, have our needs lifted up, and to enjoy God’s presence in our midst is a gift where the anxiety and pressure to be busy is held back, allowing you to breathe again and be yourself among your loved ones. Truly, as Jesus says, the sabbath was made for human beings. It is salutary for us to rest, to just be with each other and God. The sabbath is the bedrock of relationship, only in the rest that God made for us are we able to meet each other and listen to each other. If busyness creeped its head on this day of rest, what would be the result? One more worry to add, another task to perform, a lengthening of the work we can’t let go of. Such a day of rest even, is not meant for more work the next day. To rest and just be is the ultimate goal. If we rested, we can allow others to enter into our lives, we become open to the world, we can be inviting and be invited. The Sabbath also has another benefit for us: remembrance of God’s liberation of His people from slavery. And not only to be mindful of this liberation, but to remember also others in similar oppression, conferring to others the same benefits of God’s salvation. We remember what we were and what we are, that by God’s grace we have been brought to a liberated existence where the world’s cares are lifted up, and we can live to what we were made for: Love and Community. We were made to share in God’s goodness, to feed each other and pray for each other. So the sabbath is meant to offer us our true life, to be fully ourselves in God’s sight.

The Jewish philosopher and theologian, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, wrote one of the most beautiful meditations on the Sabbath, a short and profound work I invite anybody to read, and whose thoughts permeate my reflection on this reading. Heschel described two realms in which human beings exist, that of space and time. In our society, human beings are very concerned with space, with trying to fill up and conquer spaces and prop themselves up by amassing the most of it. But the conquest of space often comes with the sacrifice of time. Heschel wrote: “The power we attain in the world of space terminates abruptly at the borderline of time. But time is the heart of existence.” What is sacred, especially the sabbath, belongs to the realm of time. Heschel rightly says that spiritually we are not meant to accumulate stuff, for those things, in time, will pass away. But the spiritual life can be perceived in our experience of sacred moments. Heschel remarks how the Bible emphasizes the importance of time over space. The faith of our biblical forefathers is not simply about the acquisition of something, but about the experience of a certain moment of God being with us. When we think about it, prayer is spending time with God. To go to church on Sunday is to inhabit a sacred moment together with God and your siblings in the faith. How we relate to time is the essential ingredient in our relationship to God and others, even to ourselves. If we do not rest, our bodies suffer. As Heschel wrote: “Labor without dignity is the cause of misery.” So the Sabbath is the pinnacle moment, given to us by God, to inhabit our true belovedness, our true selves, in body and spirit.

Now, what about what Jesus said? Our Gospel reading seems to suggest some very different thoughts about the Sabbath. Jesus “works” on the Sabbath by healing a man with a withered hand, and his disciples collect heads of grain. These activities were subject to debate in Jesus’ time, if they were appropriate during the Sabbath or not. For the most part, according to scholars, the Pharisees would have agreed that life-saving care has preeminence even during the rest. But they questioned the relevance of healing the man with the withered hand and getting grains for food especially, they questioned its relevance. Couldn’t that wait until tomorrow? But Jesus is not negating the necessity of the Sabbath rest. Jesus gets angry when certain deliberations regarding what is proper or not delay the needs of the neighbors. That the love the Sabbath overflows with must sometimes also move us into action in the name of God, like not waiting until the next day if we can help somebody. The sabbath should soften our hearts, not harden them, it should move us into more compassion, rather than mere rule-keeping. In the end, Jesus’ zeal in healing the man with the withered hand during the Sabbath results in a sacred moment for that man. Loving acts are thus moments of praise. Furthermore, Jesus is probably also making the point that the Kingdom of God can’t wait, it is here now knocking at our doors, finding out where does our love stand. God is doing something new, challenging the comforts and the patterns for the sake of His justice.

So in these readings we have a balance to consider. We are blessed with the gift of rest, but we are also tasked with a love that can’t wait and can’t be contained. Are we running around amassing busyness? Are our hearts ready to go where Jesus’ love leads us to, even if it interrupts our comforts? Today’s word convicts our proclivities from all sides. Both our overexertion and our stagnancy. Yet here we are given the good news. God has provided the means and the way. It is a grace we have the Sabbath rest, it is a grace we receive Jesus during the Sabbath, leading us always to His Will of justice and love.

Let us pray: Lord of the Sabbath, we give you thanks for your provision. We praise you and fill our hearts with the love that overflows from you in this time we share together. Keep us close to You, move us always into the freedom you desire for us. Above all, give us the rest we need, and the courage we need to follow you and bask in your Holy presence. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.