Sunday Stretch: Vol. 83

Start off your week with a grounded take on Bible, prayer, the world, and your life ...

Hi Readers,

It’s June and we finally have a “regular” Sunday. We’re into the long Season after Pentecost of the Church, which basically endures until the first Sunday of Advent, with a few “special” Sundays in between.

I don’t know about you, but in the frenzy of spring and work and kids’ activities and world politics and war - I think some grounding rituals and routines would do some good.

So … let’s get to the texts!

Photo illustration on Sabbath by Hokyoung Kim, for the New Yorker

Illustration accompanies an article from Casey Cep on Sabbath; it’s worth a quick read

Bible Stories

Deuteronomy 5:12-15

Deut. 5:12   Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. ¹³ Six days you shall labor and do all your work. ¹⁴ But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. ¹⁵ Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

Sabbath can be complicated for those of whose work in some way encompasses Sunday worship services. But I think our modern-day American Christian adaptation of the Church Growth model and corporatization of the Church has made this worse. What if we took a step back and thought about what it might mean for worship services to be a part of Sabbath, even and/or especially for those who lead those services? How can we find new ways to model keeping the Sabbath?

Questions to Ponder

God seems to envision rest and spiritual growth to coexist with one another. How might this work in your own life?

What does it mean to “keep” the Sabbath in a modern-day American or Western society?

How can we work to create rest not only for ourselves but for all people, especially for people living in poverty?

2 Corinthians 4:5-12

2Cor. 4:5 For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. ⁶ For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

2Cor. 4:7   But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. ⁸ We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰ always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. ¹¹ For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. ¹² So death is at work in us, but life in you.

This is one of my favorite and most-well-used passages in all of Scripture, especially when speaking of the state of the modern-day Church. So much treasure is held in these clay jars. Paul’s words fall like rain on parched land when I read them in times of doubt or despair, or uncertainty about the ability of the Church to continue to bear witness to the Gospel. As a Lutheran pastor in particular, I often think this way about our Lutheran theological witness, and how the cracked clay jars we hold it in often taint its power.

Who do you think “us” and “you” are in this letter from Paul? Does it matter? Why or why not?

What are the persecutions and afflictions of which Paul writes?

What is a treasure that you hold in a clay jar?

Mark 2:23-3:6

Mark 2:23   One sabbath he was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. ²⁴ The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” ²⁵ And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? ²⁶ He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.” ²⁷ Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; ²⁸ so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”

Mark 3:1   Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. ² They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. ³ And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.” ⁴ Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. ⁵ He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ⁶ The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

Well-intentioned early American Christians (and many before them and in other places and times) thought the best way to “keep” the Sabbath would be through strict lures and laws. But