Proper 4 - Year B: June 3, 2018

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Josép R. Martínez-Cubero, OHC
Proper 4 Year B- Sunday, June 3, 2018

To hear the sermon in its fullness click here.

I wonder what Jesus must have said to the disciples after the encounter with the Pharisees at the grainfields? I’m thinking it may have been something like: “thanks a lot for getting me in trouble with the darn Pharisees.” You see, in my former life, I was, among other things, the director of a youth theatre. I worked with youth of all ages, including teenagers. I directed teenagers in theatrical productions- fun! I ran summer camps for teenagers- fun! I took teenagers on outings- fun! I took teenagers on hiking trips- fun! And I have been with teenagers when they are hungry- not fun! Quite a bit of whining can ensue.

It’s easy to forget that many of Jesus’ followers were very young people. It is very likely that his disciples were mostly teenagers. Who knows why they were walking on the grainfields on the Sabbath? I have read many scholarly commentaries and opinions about this Gospel lesson and have to conclude that no one really knows. But as a theatre director, when I read this Gospel lesson I fill in the blanks with a theatrical dialogue that goes sort of like this:

-“Man, I’m hungry!”-“Me too, I’m starving.”-“Hey, teacher, is it OK if we pluck some heads of grain?”-“No”, says Jesus, “It’s the Sabbath.”-“But we are starving!”-“You babies”, says one of the women.-“Are we there yet?”-“When are we going to get to eat?”-“Are you sure we can’t pluck some heads of grain?”-“Fine!” Says Jesus “Go ahead.” They begin to pluck heads of grain, and USL enter the Pharisees:-“They should have stayed home on the Sabbath.”-“Or they should have prepared their snacks yesterday.”

Our Gospel lesson this morning points to the difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. To the Pharisees, the actions of the disciples on the grainfields, and of Jesus at the synagogue appear to deliberately disobey the commandment to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy (Exodus 20:8; Deuteronomy 5:12). But Jesus sees the Sabbath in a different light. He reminds the Pharisees of the story about David taking consecrated bread that was supposed to be reserved for priests (Leviticus 24:5-9). 

David was a refugee fleeing from Saul, who had clearly declared his intentions to kill him. Jesus implies that the priest broke the letter of the law concerning the bread in order to relieve David’s hunger. The priest not only sustained the life of a weary traveler, but also contributed to David living into his calling as the king anointed to replace Saul (1 Samuel 16:1-13). Jesus insists that sometimes demands of the law must be set aside in favor of meeting greater needs, especially when those greater needs promote a person’s well-being and facilitate the coming of blessings.


In the scene at the synagogue Jesus is honoring the chief objective of the mandate to preserve life, as read in the book of Deuteronomy: “ I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying and holding fast to God; for that means life to you and length of days” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20). What better day than the Sabbath, a day meant to promote God’s commitment to humanity’s wellbeing, to heal a man’s damaged hand? With the healing of his hand, the man may have received back his ability to work, and to provide for his family. The event represents more than just fixing something that has gone wrong. It represents the restoration to wholeness and dignity, the promotion of life and human prosperity.

It was when those who claimed to speak for God used their position to draw rigid boundary lines of inclusion and exclusion that Jesus looked around at them with anger. The next time someone tries to tell you that a good Christian should show no anger, remind him or her of this passage. Sometimes Christians may need to get angry, when religious values become oppressive in the hands of careless stewards. Sometimes Christians may need to get angry, when what begins as a noble motive becomes perverted.

Sometimes Christians may need to get angry, when those who live in privilege turn into insensitive leaders, out of touch with, and indifferent of the needs of the vulnerable. That's the hardness of heart that moves Jesus to grief in the synagogue, and it is the hardness of heart described in the book of the prophet Isaiah: “.... these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote”. (Isaiah 29:13) In the end, on that Sabbath, the Pharisees went out and plotted how to destroy Jesus. Amazing! One must wonder how on earth they didn’t question whether that was a holy thing to do on the Sabbath?

This is not a Gospel lesson about Jesus rejecting the law, or rendering the Sabbath as unimportant. But keeping the Sabbath must always reflect God’s reign of love being worked out in the world. For Jesus love was the ground of religious and moral law. And for us, followers of Jesus, love of God and love of neighbor must always define the law. And why? Because only love can expose religious hypocrisy, only love can expose the oppressive tyrannies of fear. After all, as our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry reminded the entire world a few weeks ago, “If it’s not about love, it’s not about God.” ~¡Que así sea! En el nombre del Padre, del Hijo y del Espíritu Santo, Amen+

 
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References:
1.   Donald H. Juel, Shaping the Scriptural Imagination: Truth, Meaning, and the Theological Interpretation of the Bible (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2011)
2.   Thomas Jay Ord, The Uncontrolling Love of God: An Open and Relational Account of Providence (AVP Academic, 2015)