9/10/2012 – Monday of the 23rd week in ordinary time – Luke 6:6-11

          At issue in today's Gospel reading is whether it's lawful for Jesus to cure a man of a withered hand on the Sabbath.  As we reflect on all that has cluttered up the Sabbath and has filled our daily lives in our modern word, perhaps it is appropriate to recognize the need our community has to recover the meaning of Sabbath. 

         But what does the Sabbath really mean for us, and what did it mean in the context of the Ten Commandments that were received by the people of Israel?  When I was associate pastor at St Richard in Jackson, in our parish book club, we read a book by Benedictine sister Joan Chittister about the Ten Commandments.  Regarding the observance of the Sabbath, Sister Joan asserted that the rabbis of ancient Israel taught that the Sabbath has a threefold purpose. First, it is to free the poor, as well as the rich, for at least one day a week; this included the animals also. Nobody had to take an order from anyone on the Sabbath. Second, the Sabbath is to give people time to evaluate their work as God evaluated the work of creation, to see if their work is really life-giving. Finally, Sabbath leisure gives people space to contemplate the real meaning of life. Sister Joan asserts strongly: “If anything has brought the modern world to the brink of destruction, it must surely be the loss of Sabbath.”  

         Just as the scribes and Pharisees questioned the true meaning of the Sabbath, our challenge as a community is to hold the time and place of Sabbath sacred, despite all the forces that seek to envelope it.  We still need to take up our time together to celebrate what we have received from God.
         As our Gospel story illustrates today, the Sabbath, after all, is not ultimately about law, but it's about compassion.  It is about the compassion for the needs of our bodies and minds to rest. It is about compassion for the needs of our loved ones and our neighbors. It is about compassion for all of God's creation: also for the sea, the land, and the air, that they may also rest refresh. The Sabbath is about radical identification with and for the God of compassion, who revels in all that has been made & calls it good.