Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost

The scripture reading today is from Matthew chapter 11 verse 28 through chapter 12 verse 14.

Matthew 11:28

Jesus said to me, Come to me, all you ye who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath.

His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.

When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.

He said to them, Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?

How he entered the house of God and they ate the bread of the presence, which it was not law for for them or his companions to eat, but only for priest.

Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priest in the temple break the Sabbath, and yet they're guiltless.

But if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless, for the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath.

He left that place and entered their synagogue.

A man was there with a withered hand, and they asked him, Is it lawful to cure on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him?

He said to them, Suppose one of you has only one sheep, and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not lay hold of it and lift it out?

How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep?

So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.

Then they said to the man, Stretch out your hand.

He stretched it out, and it was restored and sound as the other.

But the Pharisees went out and conspient how to destroy him.

May we hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.

Now, during this sermon series, we've been taking a look at the ideas of the Sabbath within the biblical tradition, the way that in the rhythms of creation, rest is built in, and yet how hard that is to come by so often in our world today.

The opportunity just to rest and relax in the midst of so much struggle and so much exhaustion.

And so Jesus is with his friends and followers, and it's the Sabbath, and so the tradition is that you're not supposed to do any work on the Sabbath, but Jesus' friends and followers, they're they're hungry.

And so they just take some grain and they eat, and that is viewed as work.

And so Jesus gets into this kind of altercation and he you know defends his disciples.

He harkens back to a story about David where like they ate kind of like the special bread, which always reminds me of when I was a youth pastor, and I walked into the church kitchen one time, it was at Central Christian Church, and there was one of the youth kids eating the communion wafers out of the big jar.

And it turns to Phil turns to Phil, I won't go to hell for eating the communion wafers, will I?

And um uh so I cannot read that passage without thinking back to that to that story.

Um but then you also have uh someone uh who is healed on the Sabbath, and is that work?

And and and Jesus' altercation with the religious authorities, it's it's it's like the Sabbath, it is built for restoration.

It's built for wholeness.

If people are feeling exhausted or famished, we should do good on the Sabbath for the restoration.

Um, one of my favorite theologians, as many of you know, is John Caputo, and he wrote a book I love.

By the way, he was the professor to the current Pope, whenever the Pope attended Villanova before he was known as the Pope.

Um Jack Caputo wrote a book called What Would Jesus Deconstruct?

This is one of the most influential books I've ever read.

Um, he looks at a bunch of religious traditions, practices, beliefs, Bible verses, and he invites us to consider how Jesus deconstructed a lot of beliefs, practices, Bible verses.

And one of the key takeaways for Caputo that really defines much of his work, and he locates this within the tradition of Jesus, within the idea of the kingdom of God, is the way that deconstruction is an act of love.

He talks about how whenever there's a religious tradition or a belief and you question it, you know, a lot of times it's like people, you know, when they're going through like different stages uh along the way of their faith journey, a lot of times people talk about, you know, deconstructing.

And that's a lot of times related to like you know, re-examining, question, some questioning some beliefs that that maybe you've held dear, uh, or or maybe you were taught growing up and and you aren't sure if you believe them.

Uh there they're the kinds of things that that often make you make you wonder.

We have a whole group here at Brentwood Christian Church.

Uh on the first Wednesday of each month, those who want to gather, we have a group called Reconstruct, and it's for a lot of us who have asked a lot of questions along the way, as like our path of deconstruction, and we're trying to figure out how to put the pieces back together, things like that.

Um, Caputo talks about the way that we deconstruct not because we believe so little in love, but because we love so much.

And anytime there's a tradition or a belief that falls short of love, then the act of deconstruction helps it try to live up to its promise.

And so if there's a religious practice and it's falling short of love, it's falling short of its promise of what it's supposed to live up to, the act of deconstruction helps it try to live up to what it's supposed to be for.

And so, for example, with the Sabbath, if you've got this idea of a practice that is supposed to be about healing and restoration, yet it's falling short of that promise.

If it's fallen short of that intent, the idea of deconstructing that, you don't do it because you don't believe in love, you do it because you believe in love so much.

A lot of times, like the word deconstruction gets associated with the word destruction.

So, like when you question a belief, you're trying to destroy somebody's beliefs, you're trying to destroy your own beliefs.

But but most people who deconstruct, they don't go into it because they're seeking less love.

They ask these questions because they feel like more love should be part of the practice, should be part of the tradition.

Uh I remember for me, you know, growing up in a church where LGBTQ folk were condemned as being sinful.

And and for me, part of that path of deconstruction had me recognize that that church teaching was falling short of the way of love.

It was falling short of the call of love.

So asking those questions about various beliefs, various religious traditions, various practices, you don't tend to do those because you don't believe in love.

It's because you believe in love so much and you want to see love, you know, come forth.

Um St.

Augustine talked about, and this is one of my favorite quotes in the history of Christianity.

He said that if love is the only measure, then the only measure of love is love without measure.

So anytime a religious belief, anytime a religious practice or the way a text is being interpreted, anytime it falls short of love, deconstruction proceeds in the name of love, so it can live up to its promise, to what it's supposed to usher forth.

And the exchange with Jesus kind of like shows an example of that.

You have a practice of honoring the Sabbath, yet it's not living up to the kind of restoration and healing that the practice is supposed to be about.

So you deconstruct it because you want to see it live up to what it's supposed to be about.

James Baldwin has another great quote.

He says that if the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving.

The whole idea of God, the whole idea of what it means to be a believer in the God of love is to see love unfold in our world all the more.

Not to diminish it, not to lessen it, but to let it be unleashed in our world in a way that brings life and liberation, healing and restoration.

A really good contemporary example for these kinds of things is the Reverend Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Okay, he would talk about this like in terms of the country, um, like not living up to its promise.

He would also talk about it in terms of religion or Christianity.

And so, you know, we are in a country where you have founding documents about all being created equal.

Yet Martin Luther King Jr.

would call that out.

Not because he didn't believe in equality, but because he believed in it so much.

And so if you've got a nation that's founded on equality for all, but it's not living up to that promise, you call it out, you deconstruct it.

Not because you want to destroy it, but because you want to see it live up to all that it's supposed to be.

You don't do it because you don't believe in love, you do it because you believe in love so much.

Um Dr.

King is his interpretation of the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Now, this is one of the most famous parables that Jesus told.

Um, you've got uh someone who's going up on the road to Jericho, and he's beaten and robbed, and he's left for dead on the side of the road.

And you have some religious authorities who see him, and they pass by on the other side.

They don't help.

But then there's a good Samaritan.

And in Jesus' original context, this would have been a really controversial, kind of radical teaching because the Samaritan was viewed as like the enemy.

It would be like, you know, today, the Israeli helping the Palestinian or the Palestinian helping the Israeli, the person you don't expect, you know, to be helping the other, being there for the other, because the idea of love is that it transcends all boundaries, all divides.

And so the Samaritan is the one who does the right thing, even though he's viewed as the despised enemy.

And the takeaway, you know, Jesus says is, you know, go and do likewise.

Uh the good Samaritan cares for this man, uh, makes sure he can get some help uh for his healing, even helps pay for his care.

And Jesus is like, go and do likewise.

And Dr.

King talks a lot about this parable, and and he talks about the importance of helping folks out whenever they are struggling in life, like when someone's being left beaten and robbed along the side of the road, the importance of helping them out.

But Dr.

King does not stop there with his interpretation of this parable.

Uh he he he views the way that it continues to impact our world today in different ways that that are not limited just to helping somebody out along the side of the road.

Dr.

King goes on to say that, like, say you've got a Jericho road, and there are people who are frequently beaten and robbed and left for dead along that road.

There comes a time when at some point, you know, all the help that a person might offer, like with charity, you might say, is not enough.

At some point, Dr.

King says, you've got to, you know, fix the Jericho Road so people are not beaten and robbed along its way.

This kind of like the idea you you maybe heard about, like if they're there, people are being thrown into a river and they're drowning, it's important to try to save those people from drowning.

You know, and there are people that like go in and try to save folk from drowning, as this analogy goes.

But at some point, what's the obvious question?

Why are people being thrown into the river in the first place?

It is important to try to help people out who are struggling, but at some point it's better to create a world, a society in which folks aren't being thrown into the river in the first place.

And that's kind of the distinction between like the idea of charity and justice, justice being the idea of the world being set up as it should be set up, with things being set in place the right way, not in an unjust way or an unfair way.

And so for King in the parable of the Good Samaritan, he's like, it's important to help folks out along life's roadside, but at some point you got to reform the conditions in society that lead people to be facing such hardship in the first place.

And so charity is helping folks out, it's pulling folks out of the river, and that's important.

But trying to get the make the world just, have things set up as they should be, so people aren't put in harm's way in the first place.

That's part of the goal.

Um, so why in the world would I talk about that in relationship to a sermon series on Sabbath and rest?

Um, I I hope we can connect this together.

One of the things we've talked a lot about in this sermon series is the importance of finding time to rest, to find opportunities to get away in the midst of the struggle that often defines our lives.

But one of the realities in our society today is that it's often incredibly difficult to be able to rest because of the way that society is set up.

And so as we seek rest, as we wish to practice the Sabbath, to rest as part of the rhythm of creation, we also have to recognize how in many ways it's hard for people to find the opportunity to be able to rest.

Sometimes rest is a luxury.

Sometimes there's a in in society, if like folks are just constantly being crushed, if folks are constantly feeling exhausted and overwhelmed, at some point, you know, it's not about just folks trying to rest from that, but it's trying to kind of help folks from feeling so exhausted and overwhelmed in the first place.

Um I've been paying um a lot of attention over the last few years to uh scholarship related to resiliency.

Okay, if you hear the term resilient, what comes to mind?

Bouncing back, bend but don't break.

I've said that a lot about the Kansas City Chiefs defense over the years.

Resiliency, like, you know, imagine like, you know, life, you know, handing you a lot of of lemons and you're trying to make lemonade, but sometimes you feel overwhelmed by all the lemons that are just like crushing you.

Um being resilient is oftentimes tied to the to what you all are describing.

There are struggles, there are hardships, and you try to overcome them, you try to be strong, you try to try for those to not get the best of you.

And sometimes we gotta be resilient.

But there's another level to this as well.

Um, Zondasha Brown, she says, I dream of never being called resilient again in my life.

I am exhausted by strength.

I want support.

I want softness, I want ease, I want to be amongst kin, not patted on the back for how well I take a hit or for how many.

At some point, the idea of being in a society where we aren't constantly having to be resilient, but where rest can be part of it.

Where people are not constantly feeling like they're on the brink.

Dr.

Tracy Edwards, she talks about this within the context of being an educator.

She says, I sat through a webinar on teacher resilience and was asked to share my thoughts.

It's always fun you get asked to share your thoughts, not for sermons.

Now, actually, if they're good thoughts, yes.

She says, My answer.

I don't want to be resilient.

I want school systems designed with humans in mind that don't demand my resilience.

I want educators to experience community care, support, compensation.

And this is an example within education, but the idea, the kernel of truth, is not limited to the vocation of education or to or to school systems.

I mean, I think about a person who gets sick and they're terrified that if they they lose a paycheck or or or have to go to the hospital, they might go bankrupt.

They might not be able to pay for their bills.

I think about a single parent who works two or three jobs, yet struggles just to afford decent housing, childcare, groceries, health care.

A senior citizen who is choosing sometimes between medicine and food, because living on a fixed income is not easy.

A person with a disability who wants to work, but finds inaccessible workplaces or transportation systems that make it almost impossible for them to get to their place of employment.

They can make ordinary life just exhausting.

Think about a young person who graduates from college and they feel buried in debt when they're just starting.

They've checked all the boxes on the things they're supposed to do.

And yet they get out of college and they can't find the wage to match what they need, to put the down payment on the house, to pay down the college loans.

There are those who work constantly just to stay afloat.

Afraid if they slow down for just a day, they will fall behind.

This kind of grind in our society is exhausting.

And all of the personal best efforts that anyone might have to try to rest is sometimes beyond what this society allows them to do.

So part of honoring the Sabbath is trying to work toward a society, a community in which people are just not constantly feeling crushed and trapped by the systems that are so difficult to dismantle.

Corey Robin is a professor uh in New York.

That's very vague.

There are lots of schools in New York, and I'm sorry, I don't know which school it is.

And I'm gonna read an extended quote here.

He he says, like, the truth of the matter to all this.

This is from an article uh that he wrote um about the struggle between so many of the things we face in society that are that are beyond a lot of personal best efforts, and so we We need societal reform, reconfiguration, to make things just.

As Dr.

King talked about the beloved community.

The short quote here the truth of the matter is that we are just not designed as individuals to bear this existential load.

As individuals, it's too much.

We need a society that supports us, that doesn't destroy us.

His longer quote, he says, it doesn't matter whether the issue is race, inequality, schools, healthcare, the mental health crisis.

We constantly leave it to individuals to resolve those issues alone.

But that's too much for any of us to bear alone, this quote.

And to think that individuals could negotiate and manage all of that by themselves, it's to relegate them to frustration to bear the burdens of Job, the man in the Bible who suffered unfairly.

Dr.

Robin says, I'm not Job, I'm not superhuman.

I don't want to be, and none of us should have to be.

And you probably get the idea of what I'm trying to express in today's sermon.

Rest and honoring the Sabbath is essential for our care and well-being.

But if we have a society that makes it impossible, we need to reform and reconfigure that society so people can find health and restoration along life's way.

I want to end this sermon series close to where we began it.

In Jesus' very first sermon, we read about this in the Gospel of Luke.

Jesus highlights the practice of Jubilee.

This is a deeply Jewish practice.

It's the idea of Sabbath being extended to the systems and the structures that mark our world.

Not just individuals who take time for rest, but the ideas of Sabbath being extended to the systems and structures that mark our world.

The sick are made well.

The land, as well as all of the inhabitants of the land, are able to rest, to be healed, to be mended, to be repaired.

Jesus invites us to dream of a different world being born so people are not crushed by the systems that trap them.

And so in the same spirit today, we can dream of a world where sickness does not mean bankruptcy, where hard work does not mean poverty, where aging does not mean choosing between medicine and food, where disability does not mean exclusion, where rest can be built into the very rhythms of creation.

We can dream of a world where the systems we build serve human beings rather than crush them.

And in the spirit of Jesus, we can move boldly.

We can move forward into where this leads.

Thanks be to God who gives us the practice of Sabbath.