Sermon preached at 11am Coral Mattins at St Mary the Virgin, Lapworth on Sunday 10th October 2010. A shortened version was also preached at the 8.30am Eucharist.
Trinity 19, Proper 23 – Year C
Readings: Ps 111 2 Kings 5: 1-3 & 7-15c Luke 17: 11-19
On Fridays, which is my day off, I always try to get in a round of golf. And usually I have a shower immediately afterwards. I like the feeling of clean skin and clean clothes and I feel refreshed and renewed. And if for some reason I don’t have a shower I usually regret it. I feel sweaty or dirty and I worry that I smell. I worry that my skin is a mess. And I think these feelings are very common. I think many of us like the feeling of clean, fresh skin after a bath or shower.
So let’s spare a thought for people with leprosy. It is a terrible disease whereby the skin dries and cracks and nerve endings lose their feeling, such that it becomes all too easy to damage limbs, without even noticing. Leprosy causes a deterioration in the skin, such that even young people start to look very old. Nowadays there are excellent treatments available for leprosy and it need not be a problem. Sadly there are still places in the world where because of war, or poverty or organisational failures leprosy is still a problem, but in the time of Jesus it was a significant problem, with lepers often expected to live in isolated colonies outside the towns, where they would not infect anyone else.
Now our scripture readings today were about people who were healed of leprosy. Their skin and their flesh were made clean. The terrible disease was cleared away. And what an extraordinary joy that must have been. First of all, the joy of having a nice clean wholesome skin, the skin which I appreciate after a shower, but how much more so after recovering from leprosy! Secondly the end of isolation, the end to the fear of infecting anyone with whom the leper interacts, restoration to a normal life with family and friends in society. Thirdly the knowledge that the disease has gone, a sudden and new expectation of a healthy future; deliverance from a slow and isolated decline towards death. What a joy for the healed leper! What a joy!
Now let’s think about Naaman, and how he came to be cured of his leprosy. I always love the image of Naaman arriving with his horses and chariots and all his servants and attendants, and his letter from the king and all his gold and silver. And all this huge and glorious entourage draws up outside Elijah’s house, which was no doubt a very small and simple shack. The contrasts are stark. Naaman and Elijah live by very different values. Naaman no has to go through quite a process and has to learn many things before he can be healed.
First of all he has to learn something about not putting too much trust in earthly resources. All those horses and chariots and attendants and gold count for very little in front of Elijah, the simple man of God. God is not going to heal Naaman because he is “impressed”. God’s healing is a simple gift to the person who asks consistently and waits patiently.
Then there is a lesson in humility. Elijah does not even come out to greet this great man, this commander of armies. Naaman receives a simple message through a servant. Even the greatest of men are not great in front of God, their creator, redeemer and sustainer.
There is a lesson about simplicity. Naaman expected great theatricals. He expected the prophet to call upon the name of God, and wave his hands over the infected skin. But God’s healing is not about signs of outward show. Usually it is quiet, natural and unassuming. It does not make great TV. It is often overlooked by newspaper.
Then there is a lesson about not trusting in our strength. “If the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it?” How much more should you do something simple? In a way God’s healing would be easier to accept if we somehow earned it through hard work, or bravery or skill. We might feel we had some entitlement to it if we did this. But God’s healing is not like that. It is a simple gift. We cannot earn God’s favour through our own efforts, rather our own efforts must work in harmony with the grace that we have received from God.
And closely linked to this, there is a lesson about obedience. Washing in the Jordon might seem rather irrelevant to the problem in human eyes, but this is what God asked for, and this is what made Naaman clean. We need to trust in God and walk in the ways that he suggests if we are to be made clean.
Then there is a lesson about the greatness and oneness of the God of Israel. “Are not the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” Well no, in this case we are talking about the God of Israel, and Naaman was asked to wash in the Jordon, the river of Israel.
So by the time that Naaman got down to the river Jordon and washed he had already been through quite a process. Much healing of his attitudes had already taken place. Pride was overcome by humility, outward show by simplicity. Trust in earthly resources or his own human strength was replaced by trust in God. Following human reasoning was replaced by obedience to God. Belief in a vague notion of God was replaced by trust in a specific and personal God; the God of Israel. With all this healing already completed it was probably a very small thing for God to add the healing of the leprosy.
Then if we think about the ten lepers and Jesus, what did they have to do. Well quite simply they placed themselves in front of Jesus, in front of God, and asked for him to mercy on them. They respected the limits of their condition by keeping their distance. leprosy was very infectious. They were obedient to what Jesus suggested. And one of them came to give thanks afterwards. Actually it is probably a bit hard to blame the other nine for not giving thanks. To show yourself to the priest was the standard procedure after recovering from leprosy. The priest would declare you clean, and you could re-enter society. But the one who came back was a Samaritan. Because he was not a Jew he would not have access to a Jewish priest. Therefore he came back to Jesus, who perhaps he recognised as the great high priest, and said thank you. I suspect that the other nine were still trying to find a priest who would see them!
So what about us? What should we do when we come to God for healing, when we come to be made clean. And I am not thinking only of physical illnesses, but also of our spiritual failures, our sins, the disorders in our lifestyles, the hurts and resentments that we carry, the baggage of our past which constrains us. All these things are things which we can and should bring to God for healing. Like the ten lepers we must present ourselves in front of God, humbly acknowledging our condition and asking for mercy. Let’s not put our trust in our own strength, or in earthly resources, but rather put our trust in God who made us and loves us and who has great future envisaged for us. Let’s hold our problems before him in trust. Let’s be obedient to his suggestions, and let’s be confident in the wholeness and healing he wants to share with us.
Showing posts with label healing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healing. Show all posts
10 October 2010
10 January 2010
Baptism and the healing cycle
Sermon for wholeness and healing service at St Helen’s Church
6.30pm - Sunday 10th January 2010 – Baptism of Christ
Rdngs: Isaiah 55: 1-11, Romans 6: 1-11, Mark 1: 4-11, Dismissal Gospel Luke 5: 12-14
At the age of 21, in my last year as an undergraduate, I had a crisis. I didn’t realise it was a crisis at the time; I just thought I was ill. I had a problem with itchy skin. If I got embarrassed, or laughed, or put under pressure or just spent too long in a hot room then my skin would start to itch. It would itch all over. There would be nothing that you could see but for me it was completely unbearable. All I could do was go outside in the cold and take my coat off. My skin would cool down and I would be fine…until I the next time. This started as a minor irritation in about November time, but by Christmas it was a major problem. In fact I really struggled to do my Christmas shopping. I find shopping pretty stressful at the best of times, and perhaps because of that I found I was especially likely to start itching in the shops, which were also very warm. I found that I could not stay in the shops long enough to get to the front of the queue to pay for the things I wanted to buy. It was very frustrating and difficult.
Anyway, I went to the doctors. The first doctor I went to realised that something psychosomatic was going on and suggested that I do some yoga. I was reluctant to do this; I was very suspicious of yoga. The second doctor I went to gave me an assortment of pills and creams and lotions. I discovered that with antihistamine tablets I could control the itching, such that I still knew when it was happening, but it was not painful and I could just about get by in my day to day life. However I knew that this was not the same as being healthy, and I did want to get better so I started looking around for ways to get better. I started going to yoga classes.
In about February a Catholic friend of mine, who with hindsight obviously had a gift for dealing with young men, started to take an interest my difficulties. He wanted me to go a see a Catholic counselling woman at the school he worked in. I was reluctant to go. I was a bit suspicious of Catholicism and profoundly suspicious of counselling. However, this man Tony, said one or two things and asked me one or two questions that made me realise that he understood far more about what was wrong with me that I did. I realised that I had to trust him and go and meet this counselling woman. Tony said to me, “Right now you are in crisis, and things are very rough for you, but one day you will look back at this and think it was the best thing that every happened to you!” Of course he was absolutely right, but I hesitated to believe it at the time.
Anyway, once I started seeing the counselling lady, she started asking me questions and very quickly she started to draw to my attention all kinds of contradictions and inconsistencies in my attitudes to life. Slowly I learned to trust her. I started to make new choices which reflected my own choices rather than what I had been taught to think of as “good”. I started to dress more expressively, to spend more money, to drink more beer, to be more independent of my parents and in many ways to behave more like a normal student. Really it was about growing up and having the courage to make my own choices. Also, through the yoga, I became more aware of my inner feelings and needs and became more able to address them. It was a very difficult process, and some of my experiments turned out to be very unhelpful, but slowly I did begin to improve. After my final exams in June I was able to rest more and this really helped. By September I had stopped itching. A year later I was well enough to get a job. A year after that I met Elaine, and a year after that we got married. I carried on seeing, Sr Clare, the counselling woman on and off for many years. I was in my late thirties before I really felt I had full recovered.
As I look back on that experience now I think of it in a way very different from how I thought about it at the time. At the time I just thought I was ill, which was true. Then later I started to think of it as a psychological crisis to do with growing up, which was also true. However more recently as I look back I start to notice the spiritual aspects of the experience. A huge part of it was about being ready to let go of attitudes and beliefs that had stood me in good stead as I grew up. For example, I had to let go of my prejudices about yoga and Catholics and counselling. I had to let go of my rather cerebral Christian faith beliefs and more ridged religious practices. I had to let go of any sense that I was a “good” Christian, or better than other people, or that I could do things in my own strength or that I could be independent, or that I could serve others without being served myself. This letting go was an experience of loss. In some ways it was like dying lots of small deaths. Then there was another part of the experience which was all to do with acceptance. I had to accept my human limitations. I had to accept my inner needs. I had to accept the inner pain that I carried and I was carrying a lot. I had to accept my need for love and my dependence on other people. I had to accept that I was a sinner in need of God’s mercy. And this process of acceptance was profoundly linked to healing, and it took a long time.
And then there was the surprise of new life and new hope which I had not been expecting. I discovered that I had a Christian faith that was deeper and more profound and more real than my earlier more cerebral faith had been. I discovered that through my prayers and my sufferings I could grow in faith and contribute to the life of the Church, even if I was not well enough to do very much. I discovered that God really did love me, and that I was much more loveable than I could ever have imagined. I discovered that I was much closer to other people, in their joys and sorrows, in their hopes and fears than I would ever have considered possible. I found healing and renewal and the ability to build a new life.
But the interesting thing is that this experience of losing and dying, leading to acceptance and healing, leading to new life and new possibilities is very like the experience of Baptism that our reading today have meditated upon.
Our OT reading was written for the Jews in the sixth century BC, at a real low point in their history. They had been conquered by the Babylonians and taken away into exile. Many of them had been killed in battle. They had lost the Promised Land, they had lost Jerusalem. The temple had been destroyed. They had lost their livelihoods and their freedom. Everything spoke of death and loss. Yet into this bitter, bitter suffering the second Isaiah proclaims a message of hope and new life. “You that have no money, come buy and eat, buy wine and milk without money and without price,” “Return to the Lord, that he may have mercy…to our God for he will abundantly pardon”.
Then we heard St Paul teaching that we must die to sin. We were baptised with Christ, baptised into his death. Our old self was crucified with Christ so that the body of sin might be destroyed and we might longer be enslaved to sin. But, having been united to Christ in his death, so we will be united with him in a resurrection like his. We are called to walk in newness of life. We are dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
And then we heard Marks account of the baptism of Christ. There is a losing; the Son of God submits to a moral man for baptism. There is a going down into the water, there is a moment under the water, a moment of being overwhelmed, a moment like death. Then there is a coming up out of the water, new life, an anointing with the Spirit and affirmation from the voice of the Father himself. This is indeed new life, with new possibilities.
So I hope that as we think about sickness and illness and wholeness and healing, so we will experience something of this Baptism cycle, this death of the old and the rising up of something new. I hope we shall have the courage to let go, to lose, to go through the process like death. I hope that we shall have the grace of acceptance, accepting the truth, accepting the pain, accepting reality of the situation. Then, from God, not from us, I hope we will find new things start to emerge; new life, new possibilities, new hope, new way of serving others.
And I hope that if we can practice this through the crisis of illness, so it will stand us in good stead when we come to the great crisis of death. May we accept the loss our mortal bodies and our earthly life, but may we come to rejoice in the resurrection life of Christ, the eternal life, the life free from sin and death. Amen.
6.30pm - Sunday 10th January 2010 – Baptism of Christ
Rdngs: Isaiah 55: 1-11, Romans 6: 1-11, Mark 1: 4-11, Dismissal Gospel Luke 5: 12-14
At the age of 21, in my last year as an undergraduate, I had a crisis. I didn’t realise it was a crisis at the time; I just thought I was ill. I had a problem with itchy skin. If I got embarrassed, or laughed, or put under pressure or just spent too long in a hot room then my skin would start to itch. It would itch all over. There would be nothing that you could see but for me it was completely unbearable. All I could do was go outside in the cold and take my coat off. My skin would cool down and I would be fine…until I the next time. This started as a minor irritation in about November time, but by Christmas it was a major problem. In fact I really struggled to do my Christmas shopping. I find shopping pretty stressful at the best of times, and perhaps because of that I found I was especially likely to start itching in the shops, which were also very warm. I found that I could not stay in the shops long enough to get to the front of the queue to pay for the things I wanted to buy. It was very frustrating and difficult.
Anyway, I went to the doctors. The first doctor I went to realised that something psychosomatic was going on and suggested that I do some yoga. I was reluctant to do this; I was very suspicious of yoga. The second doctor I went to gave me an assortment of pills and creams and lotions. I discovered that with antihistamine tablets I could control the itching, such that I still knew when it was happening, but it was not painful and I could just about get by in my day to day life. However I knew that this was not the same as being healthy, and I did want to get better so I started looking around for ways to get better. I started going to yoga classes.
In about February a Catholic friend of mine, who with hindsight obviously had a gift for dealing with young men, started to take an interest my difficulties. He wanted me to go a see a Catholic counselling woman at the school he worked in. I was reluctant to go. I was a bit suspicious of Catholicism and profoundly suspicious of counselling. However, this man Tony, said one or two things and asked me one or two questions that made me realise that he understood far more about what was wrong with me that I did. I realised that I had to trust him and go and meet this counselling woman. Tony said to me, “Right now you are in crisis, and things are very rough for you, but one day you will look back at this and think it was the best thing that every happened to you!” Of course he was absolutely right, but I hesitated to believe it at the time.
Anyway, once I started seeing the counselling lady, she started asking me questions and very quickly she started to draw to my attention all kinds of contradictions and inconsistencies in my attitudes to life. Slowly I learned to trust her. I started to make new choices which reflected my own choices rather than what I had been taught to think of as “good”. I started to dress more expressively, to spend more money, to drink more beer, to be more independent of my parents and in many ways to behave more like a normal student. Really it was about growing up and having the courage to make my own choices. Also, through the yoga, I became more aware of my inner feelings and needs and became more able to address them. It was a very difficult process, and some of my experiments turned out to be very unhelpful, but slowly I did begin to improve. After my final exams in June I was able to rest more and this really helped. By September I had stopped itching. A year later I was well enough to get a job. A year after that I met Elaine, and a year after that we got married. I carried on seeing, Sr Clare, the counselling woman on and off for many years. I was in my late thirties before I really felt I had full recovered.
As I look back on that experience now I think of it in a way very different from how I thought about it at the time. At the time I just thought I was ill, which was true. Then later I started to think of it as a psychological crisis to do with growing up, which was also true. However more recently as I look back I start to notice the spiritual aspects of the experience. A huge part of it was about being ready to let go of attitudes and beliefs that had stood me in good stead as I grew up. For example, I had to let go of my prejudices about yoga and Catholics and counselling. I had to let go of my rather cerebral Christian faith beliefs and more ridged religious practices. I had to let go of any sense that I was a “good” Christian, or better than other people, or that I could do things in my own strength or that I could be independent, or that I could serve others without being served myself. This letting go was an experience of loss. In some ways it was like dying lots of small deaths. Then there was another part of the experience which was all to do with acceptance. I had to accept my human limitations. I had to accept my inner needs. I had to accept the inner pain that I carried and I was carrying a lot. I had to accept my need for love and my dependence on other people. I had to accept that I was a sinner in need of God’s mercy. And this process of acceptance was profoundly linked to healing, and it took a long time.
And then there was the surprise of new life and new hope which I had not been expecting. I discovered that I had a Christian faith that was deeper and more profound and more real than my earlier more cerebral faith had been. I discovered that through my prayers and my sufferings I could grow in faith and contribute to the life of the Church, even if I was not well enough to do very much. I discovered that God really did love me, and that I was much more loveable than I could ever have imagined. I discovered that I was much closer to other people, in their joys and sorrows, in their hopes and fears than I would ever have considered possible. I found healing and renewal and the ability to build a new life.
But the interesting thing is that this experience of losing and dying, leading to acceptance and healing, leading to new life and new possibilities is very like the experience of Baptism that our reading today have meditated upon.
Our OT reading was written for the Jews in the sixth century BC, at a real low point in their history. They had been conquered by the Babylonians and taken away into exile. Many of them had been killed in battle. They had lost the Promised Land, they had lost Jerusalem. The temple had been destroyed. They had lost their livelihoods and their freedom. Everything spoke of death and loss. Yet into this bitter, bitter suffering the second Isaiah proclaims a message of hope and new life. “You that have no money, come buy and eat, buy wine and milk without money and without price,” “Return to the Lord, that he may have mercy…to our God for he will abundantly pardon”.
Then we heard St Paul teaching that we must die to sin. We were baptised with Christ, baptised into his death. Our old self was crucified with Christ so that the body of sin might be destroyed and we might longer be enslaved to sin. But, having been united to Christ in his death, so we will be united with him in a resurrection like his. We are called to walk in newness of life. We are dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
And then we heard Marks account of the baptism of Christ. There is a losing; the Son of God submits to a moral man for baptism. There is a going down into the water, there is a moment under the water, a moment of being overwhelmed, a moment like death. Then there is a coming up out of the water, new life, an anointing with the Spirit and affirmation from the voice of the Father himself. This is indeed new life, with new possibilities.
So I hope that as we think about sickness and illness and wholeness and healing, so we will experience something of this Baptism cycle, this death of the old and the rising up of something new. I hope we shall have the courage to let go, to lose, to go through the process like death. I hope that we shall have the grace of acceptance, accepting the truth, accepting the pain, accepting reality of the situation. Then, from God, not from us, I hope we will find new things start to emerge; new life, new possibilities, new hope, new way of serving others.
And I hope that if we can practice this through the crisis of illness, so it will stand us in good stead when we come to the great crisis of death. May we accept the loss our mortal bodies and our earthly life, but may we come to rejoice in the resurrection life of Christ, the eternal life, the life free from sin and death. Amen.
26 August 2007
The old covenant and the new covenant
Sermon - 26/08/07 – Trinity 12 (Proper 16) – Year C
Preached at St Alphege, Solihull 8.00am Eucharist on 26/08/07
Readings: Isaiah 58:9b-14 Hebrews 12:18-29 Luke 13:10-17
In the gospel reading that we have just heard, Jesus performs a healing miracle on the Sabbath. This is a great scandal to the leader of the synagogue because this appears to be working on the Sabbath and it is certainly not consistent with the Jewish Law as it was generally understood. The synagogue leader argues, “You have six days in a week for work; come and be healed on those six days, but keep the Sabbath day holy.” Jesus however is completely insistent. He appears to see the healing of the woman, bound by Satan for 18 long years, as something that just has to be done. He perhaps even suggests that the Sabbath Day is a particularly appropriate day to do it.
It seems that this was a popular move. The gospel reading tells us that the entire crowd rejoiced at the wonderful things that Jesus was doing. And yet for ordinary Jews who sought to live a good life this must have been a very confusing incident. For a Jew at that time, to live a good life meant, by and large, to follow the Law of Moses. It was the job of the Scribes and the Pharisees to explain to the people what the Law was. It was important to keep the Law. Through Moses, God had agreed a covenant with the people of Israel. They would keep God’s law and God would give them the Promised Land. Keeping the Law was doing you side of the bargain; it was honouring God and helping to secure the Promised Land.
But then Jesus comes along, who is clearly a man of God and a good man, and says don’t just focus on the detail of the Law, rather focus on doing good! Jesus was redefining the covenant of Moses and redefining the relationship between God and his people.
From the earliest times in the Church, we have always been very clear that Jesus was able to do this. Jesus was the Christ, the son of the living God, who could be worshipped as God. He was much more significant than Moses, and had every right to redefine the covenant.
Through his passion and death, Jesus mediated a new covenant between people and God. No longer should we be slaves to the details of the Law, but rather we are saved through faith in Christ and by following Christ, the way, the life and the truth. In the Eucharist we celebrate this new covenant, nurturing ourselves on Christ. We hold up the chalice and remember the words of Jesus, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.”
The difference between the old and new covenant is emphasised by our New Testament lesson. It is a difficult reading, and worth studying again when you get home. It says that we have not come to something tangible and rigid like the Law of Moses. It describes the scene from Exodus chapter 19 with the tempest, the trumpet and the terrifying voice when the Law was handed over to Moses. Rather, the reading emphasises, we have come to a new covenant, to the city of the living God, to innumerable angels, to the assembly of the first born enrolled in heaven, to God, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect and above all to Jesus.
Notice that the new covenant is expressed in terms of people and relationships, much more than it is expressed in terms of rules and regulations. Rules and regulations, like the 10 commandments, are still there to guide us, but our primary responsibility is to true to our heavenly relationships, especially to be true in our relationship with Christ.
So how do we do that? How are we true in our relationship with Christ. Well, in John chapter 14 Jesus says, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” In the same discourse he gives us the New Commandment – to love one another, as he has loved us. Love is indeed the fulfilment of the Law (Romans 13:10). It is by growing in love that we live out the new covenant, and grow in communion with all the citizens of heaven.
Preached at St Alphege, Solihull 8.00am Eucharist on 26/08/07
Readings: Isaiah 58:9b-14 Hebrews 12:18-29 Luke 13:10-17
In the gospel reading that we have just heard, Jesus performs a healing miracle on the Sabbath. This is a great scandal to the leader of the synagogue because this appears to be working on the Sabbath and it is certainly not consistent with the Jewish Law as it was generally understood. The synagogue leader argues, “You have six days in a week for work; come and be healed on those six days, but keep the Sabbath day holy.” Jesus however is completely insistent. He appears to see the healing of the woman, bound by Satan for 18 long years, as something that just has to be done. He perhaps even suggests that the Sabbath Day is a particularly appropriate day to do it.
It seems that this was a popular move. The gospel reading tells us that the entire crowd rejoiced at the wonderful things that Jesus was doing. And yet for ordinary Jews who sought to live a good life this must have been a very confusing incident. For a Jew at that time, to live a good life meant, by and large, to follow the Law of Moses. It was the job of the Scribes and the Pharisees to explain to the people what the Law was. It was important to keep the Law. Through Moses, God had agreed a covenant with the people of Israel. They would keep God’s law and God would give them the Promised Land. Keeping the Law was doing you side of the bargain; it was honouring God and helping to secure the Promised Land.
But then Jesus comes along, who is clearly a man of God and a good man, and says don’t just focus on the detail of the Law, rather focus on doing good! Jesus was redefining the covenant of Moses and redefining the relationship between God and his people.
From the earliest times in the Church, we have always been very clear that Jesus was able to do this. Jesus was the Christ, the son of the living God, who could be worshipped as God. He was much more significant than Moses, and had every right to redefine the covenant.
Through his passion and death, Jesus mediated a new covenant between people and God. No longer should we be slaves to the details of the Law, but rather we are saved through faith in Christ and by following Christ, the way, the life and the truth. In the Eucharist we celebrate this new covenant, nurturing ourselves on Christ. We hold up the chalice and remember the words of Jesus, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.”
The difference between the old and new covenant is emphasised by our New Testament lesson. It is a difficult reading, and worth studying again when you get home. It says that we have not come to something tangible and rigid like the Law of Moses. It describes the scene from Exodus chapter 19 with the tempest, the trumpet and the terrifying voice when the Law was handed over to Moses. Rather, the reading emphasises, we have come to a new covenant, to the city of the living God, to innumerable angels, to the assembly of the first born enrolled in heaven, to God, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect and above all to Jesus.
Notice that the new covenant is expressed in terms of people and relationships, much more than it is expressed in terms of rules and regulations. Rules and regulations, like the 10 commandments, are still there to guide us, but our primary responsibility is to true to our heavenly relationships, especially to be true in our relationship with Christ.
So how do we do that? How are we true in our relationship with Christ. Well, in John chapter 14 Jesus says, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” In the same discourse he gives us the New Commandment – to love one another, as he has loved us. Love is indeed the fulfilment of the Law (Romans 13:10). It is by growing in love that we live out the new covenant, and grow in communion with all the citizens of heaven.
Keeping the Sabbath
Thought for parish pew slip – 26th August 2007 - Trinity 12 (Proper 16) Year C
Readings Isaiah 58:9b-14 Hebrews 12:18-29 Luke 13: 10-17
Our readings today challenge us to think about the Sabbath.
In our reading from Isaiah, the prophet asks us not to go our own way, serve our own interests or pursue our own affairs on the Sabbath, but rather to honour the Sabbath and to think of it as a delight.
In our gospel reading Jesus performs a healing miracle on the Sabbath. This is one of several gospel stories where Jesus heals on the Sabbath, and it is always a challenge to the Scribes and Pharisees because it goes against the detailed regulations of the Law. Jesus however is insistent. In Luke 6:9 he asks, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil”.
Nowadays we live very busy lives and it is hard to live the Sabbath well. And yet the busyness of our lives makes it all the more important to set aside time for rest, for the family and for worship. If we don’t do these things on a Sunday, then when do we do them? Trying to observe the Sabbath is a good way of ensuring that rest, family and worship do not get crowded out of our lives. We need these things if we are to live fully human lives.
Readings Isaiah 58:9b-14 Hebrews 12:18-29 Luke 13: 10-17
Our readings today challenge us to think about the Sabbath.
In our reading from Isaiah, the prophet asks us not to go our own way, serve our own interests or pursue our own affairs on the Sabbath, but rather to honour the Sabbath and to think of it as a delight.
In our gospel reading Jesus performs a healing miracle on the Sabbath. This is one of several gospel stories where Jesus heals on the Sabbath, and it is always a challenge to the Scribes and Pharisees because it goes against the detailed regulations of the Law. Jesus however is insistent. In Luke 6:9 he asks, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil”.
Nowadays we live very busy lives and it is hard to live the Sabbath well. And yet the busyness of our lives makes it all the more important to set aside time for rest, for the family and for worship. If we don’t do these things on a Sunday, then when do we do them? Trying to observe the Sabbath is a good way of ensuring that rest, family and worship do not get crowded out of our lives. We need these things if we are to live fully human lives.
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