{"id":1430,"date":"2019-09-09T10:39:06","date_gmt":"2019-09-08T22:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.parklands.org.nz\/?p=1430"},"modified":"2019-09-09T10:39:06","modified_gmt":"2019-09-08T22:39:06","slug":"sabbath-in-a-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.parklands.org.nz\/2019\/09\/09\/sabbath-in-a-box\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabbath in a box"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Sermon Notes: Sabbath in a Box<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have heard a lot about the Pharisees in our journey through Luke\u2026And here they are again in todays passage.<\/p>\n

The Pharisees were all about keeping Judaism unpolluted- and all credit to them- they did not run off into the wilds to live as separated comunities like the Essenes but they stayed within society at large and attempted to keep the purity of the faith.<\/p>\n

And when it came to the Sabbath, they had it sorted. There had been years and years perfecting their model. God had said \u201cObserve the Sabbath day by keeping it holy,\u201d and, \u201cOn it you shall not do any work\u201d. And they had run with that. The commandment from God said not to work but it didn\u2019t define what work was.<\/p>\n

But it was a bit like how in NZ we can be charged with reckless driving. For reckless driving you can get 3 months imprisonment or a fine of$4,500.00, and be disqualified from driving. But what is reckless driving well we have a whole lot of laws and rules that try to make that clearer- need a licence, drive on the left, within the speed limit, following distances etc etc<\/p>\n

There was a body of rules and regulations around the sabbath that defined what work was.<\/p>\n

The Sabbath was a defining marker as to who was a good Jew and who wasn\u2019t in a world that was ruled by the Romans. For Jesus\u2019 contemporaries, it was one of the chief badges of their identity in a hostile world, a sign to them and their neighbors that they were God\u2019s special people.
\nThe Pharisees thought that they had the Sabbath all tied up\u2026 they knew how it should look.
\nLet\u2019s have a look at the first of the two sabbath stories in today\u2019s bible passage\u2026<\/p>\n

Read Luke 6:1-5
\nIn response to the Pharisee\u2019s query, Jesus points to David.<\/p>\n

1 Sam 21:1-9 tells the story\u2026
\nDavid was in need- he asked for food for himself and those with him. But the only food present in the tabernacle was the bread of the Presence, which was reserved only for the priests (21:3\u20134; see Lev. 24:5\u20139). New loaves of bread were placed on a table of pure gold every Sabbath. They symbolized God\u2019s presence. There was nothing in the letter of the Law that allowed the bread to be given to anyone else, but Ahimelech knew the Law was given to further life and that the spirit of the Law\/ the underlying meaning of the law, demanded that feeding the needy must be put ahead of ritual if the two ever seem to conflict (Deut. 15:7\u20138).<\/p>\n

Secondly there are parallels between David and Jesus. David was not yet king, but yet Samuel had already anointed him as king. Luke highlights Jesus\u2019 regal authority at the announcement of his birth (see Luke 1:32-3). He will be the long awaited son of David.
\nNormally only priests in the sanctuary ate the \u2018bread of the Presence\u2019; but David claimed the right to do so. Why? Presumably, because he was the rightful king of Israel. Samuel had anointed him when he was only a boy, and had proclaimed him king; but Saul was still on the throne. At the time of the story, David was leading a rag-tag group of followers, keeping away from Saul, waiting for the time when his kingship would come true.<\/p>\n

This speaks volumes about Jesus. He, too, as Luke has been telling us, has been anointed as Israel\u2019s king. He, too, is waiting for the time when this kingship will come true. He, too, is on the move with his odd little group of followers. Jesus has the authority to remind them what the meaning of the Sabbath was. He has the authority to say, \u201c the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath\u201d.<\/p>\n

Then Luke follows with a second Sabbath story immediately after\u2026 read Luke 6:6-11
\nJesus answers the Pharisees search for accusation with a question, which he puts it in terms they understand- doing words because they were all about doing- or rather not doing- but the point is inaction is not acceptable. He is asking what is the Sabbath all about. His focus is on the meaning rather than the form of the Sabbath. (see also Luke 13:10-17, crippled woman, & Luke 14: 1-6, man with dropsy).<\/p>\n

The underlying meaning of the law\/ the intent of the law was not a mystery to the Pharisees or teachers of the law. They knew it, although they often seem to ignore it when it comes to the people.
\nFor example we see Luke 10:25-8 and Luke 16:27-31
\nThe Pharisees had forgotten what was important. Jesus is expanding their idea of what they thought the Sabbath was about, blowing the lid off their box and reminding them what was important. He is not dismissing what they know. He does not break Sabbath rules himself; neither holding out a hand nor speaking is forbidden. But he is questioning their limits.<\/p>\n

Also in Exodus 20:8-11 & Deuteronomy 5:12-15, the focus is on what they should do \u2013 observe the Sabbath- not on what they should not do. It is not the rules or the boundaries that make the Sabbath special it is the God who created it.<\/p>\n

Without knowing it the Pharisees and the teachers of the law had put chains on a beautiful thing. Set up boundaries. They had restrained the Sabbath.
\nWhat God intended for the good of the people and his honor had become trapped within their neat little box.<\/p>\n

We too need to be careful that we don\u2019t put limits on how we do church. It is not the form that we use that is important but the meaning that we convey. Is what works today going to be right for tomorrow? What worked in the yesteryear certainly wouldn\u2019t work today!
\nRemember the early church, the great church councils( like Nicaea), the Celtic church, the English push for justice & mission (Exeter Hall), and the moving of the Spirit in Africa. Each of these groups call themselves Christian and their model, their way of doing\/being Christian represents the concerns of their time and place. Each time and place is cloaked in the environment, in which they exist- and some may even look like a moth rather than a butterfly to us.
\nBut each of these groups was the Christian heartland at that time. Each of them had a significant part to play in passing the baton to those who followed.<\/p>\n

Andrew Walls points out that each were connected by-
\n\u2022 The significance of Jesus as Lord and Saviour, Jesus as the center of the gospel- the good news that God is in the business of redemption
\n\u2022 A significance in being part of the bigger story of history (a significant connection ancient Israel)
\n\u2022 Continuity in the use of the sacred Scriptures, and water, and wine & bread.
\nAnd we would hope that if he spent enough time in each place he would see\u2026
\n\u2022 Love for God & others as core features of their communities, which involved a tangible element of sacrifice, of carrying ones cross.<\/p>\n

As we more forward as a church, in our time and place\u2026in our environment- let us remember that it is not about preserving a particular form or way of doing things\u2026 but it is about \u2018being the way\u2019. It\u2019s not about preserving boundaries but preserving the core issues -that Jesus by his birth, life showed us how to love God & love others and by his death & resurrection saved us. Let\u2019s focus on the why we do things \/ the meaning of things<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sermon Notes: Sabbath in a Box We have heard a lot about the Pharisees in our journey through Luke\u2026And here they are again in todays passage. The Pharisees were all about keeping Judaism unpolluted- and all credit to them- they did not run off into the wilds to live as separated comunities like the Essenes but they stayed within society at large and attempted to keep the purity of the faith. And when it came to the Sabbath, they had it sorted. There had been years and years perfecting their model. God had said \u201cObserve the Sabbath day by keeping it holy,\u201d and, \u201cOn it you shall not do any work\u201d. And they had run with that. The commandment from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,3],"tags":[49,48],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.parklands.org.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.parklands.org.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.parklands.org.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.parklands.org.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.parklands.org.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1430"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.parklands.org.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1431,"href":"https:\/\/www.parklands.org.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430\/revisions\/1431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.parklands.org.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.parklands.org.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.parklands.org.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}