First United Methodist Church
June 2nd, 2024
Rev. Lauren Hall
Living the Trinity: Lord of the Sabbath, Lord of Compassion
Think about the times in your life that you have taken a risk. Maybe you were young, and you decided to try out for a play or a sport or a spelling bee. Or perhaps you took a risk when you asked your current spouse to marry you. Or maybe it was purchasing your first car, or house, or business. When our founders decided to establish our church, they took a risk. A few weeks ago, we celebrated our homecoming after several years of decision-making regarding the repairs of this building – each time the Trustees made a decision, they took a risk.
Although each one of these scenarios offers a different level of risk, they all have one thing in common – people enter into them because they have confidence that they are doing the right thing.
While the world is far from perfect, there has been enormous positive change brought about by many people who were willing to take a risk.
Ruby Bridges, at age six, was one of the first African-American students to attend an all-white school in the racially segregated South during the 1960s. She faced daily threats, harassment, and discrimination from angry segregationists, yet she continued to walk through the doors of William Frantz Elementary School with unwavering determination.
Only one teacher was willing to instruct her. Mrs. Barbara Henry also experienced immense hostility and threats from the segregationists. Despite the dangers and societal backlash, she remained committed to her principles and believed every child deserved an equal education. Mrs. Henry not only helped Ruby integrate William Frantz Elementary School but also played a pivotal role in the larger civil rights movement, demonstrating exceptional bravery and unwavering dedication to equality and justice. Ruby said of her teacher, “I had never seen a white teacher before, but Mrs. Henry was the nicest teacher I ever had. She tried very hard to keep my mind off what was going on outside."
Today’s scripture shows Jesus and his followers taking a risk as they walk through some grain fields and decide to break off the heads of the wheat in order to get something to eat. This occurs on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees are appalled that they would even travel to the grainfields, let alone actually harvest it for a meal.
The problem that is addressed, however, is greater than the issue about Sabbath observance. It goes to a basic understanding of God’s instructions to the people. Although the word Torah, which refers in general to all God’s instructions and particularly to the first five books of the Bible, is often translated as “law,” it is not law in the strict legal sense that we use in our everyday lives. It is more in the sense of instruction or guidance. The Torah, the law, the instructions of God, are given for our good. In the long discourse of Moses in sharing with them the law of God, he tells them that it is given “for your own well-being.”
The instructions of God are not given on a whim. God did not simply make up a set of rules to see if people would follow them. The law is the loving guidance of a caring, personal God. This is a loving parent sharing with beloved children the wisdom they need to live full and joyful lives. This is not a set of regulations that God has established in order to have an excuse for exiling us from God’s presence and it certainly is not a means of excluding people from the love and grace of God, which is exactly what was happening in 1st Century Jerusalem.
When we hear this story, we shouldn’t think that the religious leaders Jesus was dealing with were evil. For the most part we can assume they were doing the best they could to try to follow the way of life God had laid out for them.
They were occupied by Rome and their religious freedom, although not completely taken away, was very restricted. Although they did not offer allegiance to Caesar as a god, they were forced to pay him tribute in the form of money or crops. Many of their customs and ways of life were put on hold during the occupation. Therefore, the laws that could be followed became more important to them.
This would not have been so much of a problem if they had not taken the next step. Those who had the means and were able to follow the laws of the temple and the laws of Rome saw those who could not do so as being unfaithful. Those who could afford to pay the tithe to the temple along with the Roman taxes thought themselves more holy than those who were forced to pay the Roman tax under pain of death only to find they had not even enough left to feed themselves and their families. Instead of looking on these people as oppressed and abused, people viewed them as sinners.
Into this scenario steps Jesus with the message that God was not to be understood so much in terms of being a demanding judge, but instead as being a compassionate Father. It is not obedience to the law that lies at the heart of the matter but rather being a faithful reflection of the God who created us in the divine image. God is best understood not in terms of the stern taskmaster who demands obedience above all, but as the wise teacher who lovingly shows us the way to live.
Jesus understood that while the law was created to point us to God it could also, sometimes, get in the way. When he saw the man with the withered hand on a Sabbath day, he understood the true nature of God was to have compassion on him in his affliction and not to honor the understood laws of the Sabbath. He did not teach people to ignore the Sabbath but rather to receive it as a gift, not a burden. It is part of God’s compassionate gift of inviting us to rest – in trust that God will take care of us rather than a cold, unbending law about what we can or cannot do.
The story that we read today is powerful not simply because Jesus offers a corrective to the religious authorities that we should not achieve our piety at our neighbors’ expense, but rather because he demonstrates how powerfully attached we are to the notions of law and order at any expense. God created us to love and support each other. God gave us the law to help us to do that. Out of our insecurity, we think if we hold the law close, even to the point of ignoring or abandoning the need of our neighbor, we’ll be okay, or even demonstrate our fidelity. But the fact is that it’s only when we abandon our own claims to righteousness and are willing to risk putting our neighbors needs above our own that we live into God’s dream and desire that all of God’s children will flourish.
But not only does Jesus talk about this truth or even enact God’s love of neighbor, he also takes on the scorn and resentment of insecure and established religious folk – then and now – and overcomes it in love. The opposition Jesus faces in these scenes is the opposition he always faces: the contempt and fear of those who realize Jesus is calling them out, calling them away from the safety of justifying themselves and into the vulnerable and even risking world of just loving each other. We, perhaps understandably, prefer safety. Jesus calls us to vulnerability. But he doesn’t just call, he goes to the most vulnerable of places, continuing to love, embrace, and help all those he encounters even when it leads to his capture and crucifixion. Jesus goes to the cross because he will not deviate from his commitment to love everyone, even those who accuse him falsely.
And so, if we are to hear this story as a challenge to love, a challenge to put the law to use for our neighbors, then what is Jesus calling us to do?
Even if we aren’t activists or inventors trying to save the world, we can display courage in our daily lives. We can take the caring instructions of God and turn them into hurdles for people to jump in order to get to God, or we can use the law to create clear paths that lead them to God. We can take upon ourselves the work of enforcing God’s Law or we can share the love and compassion of God with others so that they, too, can find in God’s good instructions a way that leads to a full, joy-filled life. Through the resurrection, God promises that those who love will triumph. And in the end, love is stronger than fear, hate and death. Amen.
