Sermon for Ordinary 9, Sunday, 2nd June 2024

MAY the words of my mouth and the meditations in our hearts be acceptable in your sight O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. <Amen>

Let me begin, today, with an admission - as a schoolboy, I was a real handful. If there was mischief going on, I was probably somewhere near the heart of it. It seemed that I wanted to break every rule! Yes, it seems that the things I chose to do almost always got me into trouble. Some of the things I chose to do, to this very day, also seem to get me into trouble with some people!

Spanning the end of chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter 3 of Mark’s gospel we discover that the things Jesus chose to do almost always got him into trouble too, and that trouble led to his death. The things Jesus chose to do were often against the law, or at least against the prescribed norms of the day, and His disciples were often confused or hesitant to follow along.

The world doesn’t make it easy to choose what Jesus chooses.

Though Sabbath was a requirement for Jesus and his disciples, for us Sabbath\Sunday is a conscious choice, one that our modern culture would tell us is not a priority. We have to CHOOSE to do something with our time that will be life giving for ourselves, for our families, for our friends, for others.

The Pharisees had set some rules, regulations, restrictions around the practices of life, worship, the Sabbath; things people could and could not do, and to alleviate pain and hunger, Jesus chose to break those rules, saying “So the Son of Man is lord even over the Sabbath.” Jesus is saying that the human rules are not God, only God is God!

Sometimes following God’s call means breaking with the norms that we humans have set for ourselves.

As we delve into this passage today, we highlight that the problem is NOT the Sabbath laws, the goal of the Pharisees is to put a stop to Jesus, who is upending the status quo and systems that keep the powerful in their place.

The Pharisees and the Herodians, the ones who conspire against Jesus at the end of this passage, do not care about keeping the Sabbath, they care about keeping their privilege. They do not care about the man with the withered hand, what he has suffered and how healing might change his life. They chose death instead. <PAUSE>

NOW - what about me\us? Am I\Are we choosing the things that do good or the things that do harm?It’s easy for me, for us, to point fingers at the Pharisees and say what they are doing is definitively wrong (oh - the wonder of hindsight) but how many of us can look back and say that we have always made the choices? Or that I\we are even doing so right now?

I, for one, would admit that sometimes I have chosen breaking the rules over following them when following them was easier. It’s hard to imagine that I would choose adhering to the rules over relieving someone’s suffering if I had the choice to make.

However, rarely is the choice as dark and sinister as it is presented in Mark.

Choosing death over life and goodness and wholeness is much less noticeable most of the time. Often failing to follow Jesus comes in the form of inertia, inaction, maintaining the status quo rather than getting up and doing something new. <PAUSE>. Every day we have to make choices that reveal whom we are serving.

Even in the context of commandments, ultimately we get a choice. The command in Deuteronomy makes it clear what the choice is: observe the Sabbath, or don’t. Our definitions of what that means may vary (for example, it might not always fall on a Sunday if you work on Sunday’s, and certainly the way we define “work” has changed over many years), but the command remains: Keep the Sabbath, and remember why.

One big problem the Pharisees had with Jesus was that he was constantly interpreting and reimagining the meaning of the law.

Jesus is asking us to consider, the purpose of the Sabbath! Why do we observe the Sabbath?

The purpose of the Sabbath is to remember that God gives us life and that we are to honour that life with actions that are also life-giving.

Jesus is returning to what He believes is the original purpose of the Sabbath law: to promote life, to promote healing, to remove those circumstances that do harm or evil.

Jesus’ response to the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” indicates that He disagrees with the premise of their human rules and regulations. By healing the man with the withered hand, He does not break God’s law in any way. Rather, Mark casts Jesus as honouring the purpose of the sabbath commandment.

Jesus is saying that the chief objective of the law, in general, is to save, preserve, and spread life as far and wide as it is possible to do so. <PAUSE>Jesus chose to restore a man’s malformed hand? Jesus chooses healing, life, and the spreading of the Good News. How can we do the same?

Where are the places in our own lives, in our communities and in the world where we can do the same? Where are we letting a strict adherence to some sort of code (whether it’s the law or something we’ve invented in our own minds) rule over our lives?

Every day we have so many choices that we can make. Usually we are blessed that those choices are not between life and death, but when we take a step back and evaluate the things we are choosing, we can see that often there is one option that is more life-giving than another.

The choice to slow down, to say yes to some things and no to others, to laugh more or to pause with a friend, to offer a helping hand or walk on by.

Jesus offered the Pharisees a choice, break the norms and follow Him, to give life, to do good, to spread the word of God or not. What did they choose. What will I/you choose?

I runga e te Ingoa o te Atua, te Matua, te Tama me te Wairua Tapu.
In the name of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit <AMINE>