In God's Kingdom, We All Have the Capacity to Participate.

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
June 30, 2024
Proper 8, Year B
2 Corinthians 8:7-15
Psalm 30
Mark 5:21-43

Last week, we had a Bible study, and the question came up, “What is success?” There were a lot of answers that people gave, things like having love in your life; being at peace; having enough, not more than you need, just enough; seeking and living God’s will. All of the answers we came up with for what success is were right in line with Jesus’ way and teachings, and all of the answers we came up with were very different than what our fears, and advertisers, and big whigs in society may try to tell us success is.

To advertisers and companies selling products, success is having enough money to afford their products. Success is having a really big house or a really great car. Success is in riches. Even some preachers will tell you success is in riches…at least that’s what they’ll tell you God wants for you and how you can know that God has blessed you. All of those preachers are preaching against what Jesus taught. I’m also pretty sure all of those preachers tend to ask for a lot of money. They show their monetary success, tell others that such riches are what success looks like, and they sell that image, wrapped up in Jesus, which makes them more money.

Jesus didn’t teach that success was in riches. Jesus didn’t spend his ministry getting rich off of others. He certainly could have. We saw this in Jesus’ healing ministry. Let’s face it, he could have made a killing going from palace to palace, healing the infirmities of all sorts of rich folks, and charging as much as he wanted. They’d’ve even paid more just because he made his services exclusive to the rich, so they’d’ve known they had something special that no one else did.

Wealthy, powerful, Jesus could have had it made, and he certainly wouldn’t have been crucified, not with wealthy and powerful benefactors to keep him out of harm’s way.

Jesus could have done that, but of course he didn’t.

In the story we heard today, Jesus healed a woman who had a wound that wouldn’t heal for 12 years. She was a nobody, not wealthy, not powerful. She was just some random person who needed healing, and she received her healing from Jesus. Then, we saw him heal a little girl. Now, this little girl was someone kinda important. She was the daughter of a synagogue leader, an important person in their city. Jesus healed her as well and then, just as with the woman on the street, received no money or glory. He told them to keep quiet about the healing and to get their daughter a sandwich. 

God didn’t become human to be glorified and have his ego stroked by us. God didn’t become human to join just with the rich and powerful, and God didn’t become human to join just with those in poverty. God became human to join with all of us: rich and poor, powerful and powerless, all of humanity without exception. Jesus healed wealthy folks, and Jesus healed folks who were begging on the street.

That was success for Jesus. Not power, not accolades, not money, not glory. Nothing that people with something to sell want to call success, interested Jesus. The power, the money, nothing that much of our society wants to sell as success had any interest for Jesus. 

See, in God’s kingdom, all are important, not just a seemingly successful few. All are one with God. Those some want to exclude? God includes them. Those some find icky and objectionable? God finds holy and beloved. 

Success in God’s kingdom is how well we love one another, how we help one another heal, how we embrace all people: rich and poor, downtrodden and uplifted. As the church, that is the success that God calls us to, loving one another, embracing one another, helping one another heal. 

As the church, we all have a part to play in God’s kingdom. We all have something to offer. We all have the capacity to participate. That’s what we see in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. 

Paul was writing to the Corinthians, telling them about a church that had very little money and still shared what they had to assist others as there was need. Paul was then asking the Corinthian church to do the same.

Paul was making the point that the wealthy church wasn’t better off or more successful than the less wealthy church. Their success was in how they lived out their love and community in the kingdom of God.

Their success was not in how much money they could share. Their success was in how lovingly and freely they shared whatever they had. 

There’s a segment on National Public Radio called “Unsung Heroes.” On one of the shows, I heard the story of an unsung hero who simply sat with a woman while cried. He was a stranger to this woman, and he saw her crying on the sidewalk. So, he sat with her for a couple minutes and rested his hand on her shoulder. Then, as simply as he had come, he stood up and walked away. 

That small gesture of compassion and caring made a huge impact in this woman’s life. She knew she wasn’t alone in what she was going through. This stranger whom she never saw again, brought about great success in the Kingdom of God, simply sharing what he had, a bit of time, a hand on a shoulder, a gesture of support and caring. It didn’t take wealth, fame, or power to bring about the kingdom of God. When we offer whatever we have to others, that is success in the kingdom of God. 

So, I’m going to end with a song that I wrote about what success can look like. Spoiler alert, it ain’t about money and success in careers and what not. It’s about the people we love and support. Also, the line in the song, “All that is gold doesn’t glitter,” is quoted from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. This is called, On Solid Ground.


On Solid Ground
words* and music by Brad Sullivan
* “All this is gold doesn’t glitter” from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
His life was all laid out, before his family college line,
Fulfilling the hopes and dreams his parents had in mind,
With wealth and wisdom like many of his peers,
And yet he felt a stranger, alone in hopes and fears.

He grew into a young man, success the only road.
The sky was the limit, and a limitless load,
So when he quit school with his girlfriend, he threw it all away,
Or so his parents said, and so “they say.”

But all that is gold doesn’t glitter,
And not all heads were meant to wear a crown.
That tower he’d been sold was cold and bitter,
So he’s standing with his feet on solid ground.

A baby came along, sooner than they’d planned.
She was selling houses, he his music in his band.
They never had a pot of gold. Some months the ends just met,
But with their friends, they lean upon and haven’t failed each other yet.

‘Cause all that is gold doesn’t glitter,
And not all heads were meant to wear a crown.
That tower he’d been sold was cold and bitter,
So he’s standing with his feet on solid ground.

Cause life’s not a race full of wrangle and rancor, 
Climbing the bodies of those we would conquer.
The race for the top ends for most in a fall,
With all of the world or nothing at all.

His parents often visit and see the grandkids play.
They’ve even stopped their comments about the life he threw away.
They finally see his values, o’er the lavish lies.
Success is how they share their joys and soothe each other’s cries. 

‘Cause all that is gold doesn’t glitter,
And not all heads were meant to wear a crown.
That tower he’d been sold was cold and bitter,
So he’s standing with his feet on solid ground.

See the video of the song here:
https://youtu.be/F9DRn9IFEao

Trusting in God, Neither Tame Nor Tidy

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets

June 16, 2024

Proper 7, Year B

Job 38:1-11

Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32

Mark 4:35-41

“The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind: ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?’” (Job 38:1) Well, Job and Job’s friends were the ones who darkened counsel by words without knowledge. When things first went really badly for Job, his family had been killed, his land and livelihood destroyed, his friends sat quietly with him for days. At that point, they were being great friends. Then they stared opening their mouths, telling Job all the self-righteous platitudes that they knew. They kinda had to because without that, there wouldn’t have been a story. 

See, Job was written as a story meant to be told to give lessons. It’s probably not a true story. So, the story is set up with God and Satan, “The Adversary,” making a wager about whether or not Job, who was a righteous man, would curse God, if all he had was taken away. Satan figured he would, God figured he wouldn’t. This opening to the story shows right off the bat that the tragedy which happened to Job was not because he was sinful. He was absolutely righteous, and tragedy still struck him.

A prevailing thought among some religious folks is that if you’re bad, bad things are gonna happen to you, and if you’re good, good things are gonna happen to you. Right off the bat, the story of Job tells us that ain’t true. 

There was also the question of praising God, and why wouldn’t Job praise God? He’d been blessed beyond measure and never had the slightest reason not to praise God. In the end, with everything taken from him, Job didn’t curse God, but he did put God to the test. Job’s question was basically, “How could you possibly let this happen to me, God? Do you have any justice at all?”

With God’s reply, Job realized that his simplistic view of the world didn’t hold water. As Moshe Greenberg points out on the website, “MyJewishLearning.com,” Job had been so fortunate his whole life, he had never even considered why people who had suffered tragedy might praise God. Before tragedy struck him, Job had been right there with his friends claiming to understand God and God’s world. They all figured Job was blessed because he was righteous, and others who weren’t as blessed as Job were obviously less righteous than Job. Through Job’s experience of loss, Job, his friends, and we the readers see that the world is not so simple as good people are blessed and bad people are cursed. We are shown the fact that there are terrible things that happen to people, and it is not necessarily God’ will or the people’s fault that those tragedies happen. Bad things happen. Period. Through the story of Job, we’re able to face the reality that the world and God’s actions in the world are far more complex than we like to imagine. 

God’s favor is not always seen in life going well. Tragedy is not understood as God’s punishment for sin. We might shouldn’t boast too greatly about our knowledge of how exactly God works in this world, lest like Job and his friends, we darken counsel by words without knowledge. 

As I’ve said before, our brains crave certainty and for things to fit in nice, tidy categories, with everything making easy, understandable, rational sense. Unfortunately for our poor little brains, God doesn’t tend to fit into our comfortable little boxes of easy, understandable rationality. We want God tame and tidy, and God just isn’t tame and tidy.

So, here are some of the tame and tidy platitudes we like to use for God. “Something bad or good happened because God needed it to happen.” “They were bad, so God was judging them.” “God has a reason he put you through that tragedy.” “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle.” 

All of these platitudes point to some aspects of truth about God that we’re given in scripture, and all of these platitudes are darkening counsel by words without knowledge. These simple statements we use to define how God works in the world are ways we try to make sense of our world and try to make sense of God. Unfortunately, these platitudes are also ways we try to control God, to keep God tame and tidy so we can keep some feeling of control over a world we neither control nor understand.

Defining how exactly how God works in the world according to our understanding is ultimately a form of rebellion against God, because we aren’t admitting our lack of knowledge and our powerlessness. By claiming to know how the tame and tidy God works, we’re seeking power and knowledge over God which we do not possess. 

Then, as if that isn’t enough, we often claim to know how God’s judgment works not only on earth in this life, but into eternity as well. 

How often do we hear people talking about who will be going to Hell when they die? We’ve got whole doctrines in the church defining who goes to Heaven, who goes to Hell, and exactly how that all works. That work is darkening counsel by words without knowledge. Scripture specifically tells us not to ask such questions, Romans 10:6.

See, the thing is, we don’t know exactly how God’s judgment and mercy work, and we don’t need to. We aren’t taught to understand exactly how God works. We are taught to trust in Jesus and follow his ways. 

Why? Why are we taught to trust in Jesus? We see in today’s Gospel story and our story from Job, why we would trust in Jesus. At the end of Job, Job is reminded that he doesn’t really know what he’s talking about because he wasn’t there when God made the seas and determined just how far they would stretch, what their limits would be. The seas obeyed God’s voice in creation.

Then, in our story from Mark, we hear about the seas obeying the voice of Jesus. A windstorm arose as Jesus and his disciples were in a boat on the sea, and Jesus basically said to the seas, “Shut up! Quiet down. Be at peace,” and the seas obeyed Jesus’ voice.

“Were you there when I laid the foundations of the earth?” God asks Job. In our Gospel reading, we find that Jesus’ answer to that question is “yes.” “Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” Jesus’ disciples asked. He was the one who laid the foundations of the earth and told the seas, “Thus far shall you come, and no farther,

and here shall your proud waves be stopped.”

We’re taught to trust in Jesus because unlike all of our tame and tidy versions of God, Jesus actually is God and actually did lay the foundations of the earth. So, rather than try to keep God in our tame and tidy boxes of understanding like Job and his friends did, we are encouraged to marvel at God with awe and wonder, as Jesus’ disciples did. 

Rather than trusting our tame and tidy understandings of God, we are asked to trust in God, to trust in God’s goodness, as unfathomable as that sometimes is. We’re called to trust in God’s love which extends far beyond and is much wilder than we can conceive of. 

We are called to accept our limitations. We’re called to accept our lack of knowledge. Rather than put our trust in doctrine which is often used to explain why we are right and others are not, rather than put our trust in that tame and tidy doctrine, we are called to put our trust in God who is neither tame nor tidy. We are called to put our trust in God who is good and loving. 

Who is this Jesus, that even the winds and the seas obey him? I can’t tell you exactly, but I can tell you that I trust Jesus. I trust him for being there when the foundations of the world were laid, and I trust him for his goodness and his love. 

“Smells Like a Big Smile and a Lobotomy”

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
June 16, 2024
Proper 6, Year B
2 Corinthians 5:6-17
Psalm 92:1-4,11-14
Mark 4:26-34

 

I have a candle in a metal jar which I often light when writing sermons. The scent is soothing and helps me set aside that time and place for focusing on God’s Word and how the scriptures impact and lead our lives. So, I light this candle, and on the outside of the candle, it says, “Positivity Depresses Me.” (https://www.davproco.com/products/positivity-retro-stripe-funny-candles) 

Once I saw that written, I knew the candle was for me. That’s absolutely my sense of humor, and it hits home just a bit for me. Positivity depresses me.

Now, the truth is positivity doesn’t actually depress me. False positivity does. When people start spouting off little quips and sayings about how wonderful things are, totally divorced from the challenges of the world, yeah, that bothers me a bit. But, true positivity, a hopeful outlook even with the problems all around us, I love that kind of positivity.

It's the positivity of embracing the good in our lives and accepting that bad that we can’t change. Embracing the good while accepting the challenges of life, builds me up and tends to spread, kind of like the Kingdom of God.

Jesus compared the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed, a tiny little nothing of a seed, which grows into a large plant. The thing about mustard plants is, they can also be considered to be like weeds. They grow and spread pretty quickly, and once they are rooted, they are frightfully difficult to destroy. Mustard plants aren’t always welcome near other plants because they can quickly take over areas of soil and box out the other plants.  

The kingdom of God can be like that. Deeply rooted in God and hard to destroy. The kingdom of God can spread quickly and thrive in new areas. Like with mustard plants, the seeds of the kingdom spread, and when they take root in new areas, they thrive because of their deep grounding in God.

The kingdom of God also spreads and thrives because, unlike depressing false positivity which ignores the problems of the world, the kingdom of God plants itself in the midst of the challenges and problems in our world and it lives out the true positivity of hope, accepting that there is bad in the world, much of which we can’t change, while also embracing the good in our lives.

The kingdom of God also spreads and thrives because it doesn’t force others to change. A mustard plant doesn’t make everything around it become mustard. It lives with the other plants around it.

Now, some people might see the kingdom of God as a weed because people don’t always want the hope, faith, and love that come with God’s kingdom. That’s ok. The kingdom doesn’t force them to. When we chose to be planted as God’s kingdom in places and communities in our lives, we don’t need to force others to become as we are, and we don’t need to coerce them with fear and threats of Hell. That’s not love. That’s abuse, and when people are converted to Christianity out of fear of Hell, that’s coercion, and the kingdom of God may not be the result.

When we are deeply rooted in God and living our faith and the way of Jesus, then the kingdom of God spreads as people see the healing and peace within us and decide they want what we have.

So, what does kingdom living look like? A life deeply rooted in God, in faith, hope, and love looks like the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. When we plant ourselves and remain deeply rooted in God, then God gives the growth of those fruits. We plant ourselves in communities and with people, we remain deeply rooted in God, and God gives the growth of the kingdom.

Of course, one thing to consider is that in the places where we would plant ourselves to sow seeds of God’s kingdom, God is already there. So, if we plant ourselves as a mustard seed among any group of people or place in this world, our job is not to bring them Jesus. Jesus is already there, bidden or unbidden, known or unknown.

When we plant ourselves as a mustard seed, our job is to live the kingdom of God. We are to stay deeply rooted in Jesus. We are to stay deeply rooted in God’s Word, deeply rooted in prayer, deeply rooted in our faith, deeply rooted in one another.

Then, when darkness and sadness get us down, as they will, our way is to let others be light and joy for us. When we plant ourselves with others, to spread God’s kingdom, we are to be true to ourselves and live God’s kingdom, and we are to let God give the growth.

We don’t know how it’s gonna happen, or when, or even if. We let God give the growth, and we release the outcome to God.

In spreading seeds of the Kingdom of God, we don’t do coerced conversions. We don’t do forced conversions. We don’t even force everyone to come to church. We are the church. When we plant ourselves out in the world, staying rooted in God, we are the church out in the world as Jesus intended.

We don’t need to preach to be the church. No, to be the Church in the world, we need to actually live as the church. We need to live the gifts of the Spirit. We show people God’s kingdom by how we live, then we can talk about Jesus. We can let people know about the growth Jesus has given in our lives.

If we know the freedom of releasing our anger and our desire to force our way in the world by letting go and allowing God to give the growth, then we can let people know about that freedom. If we know the comfort and companionship of living the kingdom of God, kingdom of then we can let people know about that comfort and companionship. If we know the peace of being rooted in God, then we can let people know about that peace.

We don’t spread the kingdom of God just by talking about Jesus, especially if we’re not living as disciples of Jesus, deeply rooted in our faith. Talking at people about Jesus without showing them Jesus in our lives seems like false positivity, the kind of positivity that’s kinda depressing. The words are good, but possibly disconnected from our lives.

The kingdom of God spreads when we live deeply rooted in our faith and then spread the true positivity of hope amidst suffering, of accepting the challenges of life while embracing the blessings. Living the faith, hope, and love of the Kingdom of God and planting ourselves out in the world, God will give growth, and the peace of God’s kingdom will spread. 

Divided Houses, A Particularly Human Stupidity, and God’s Antidote

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets

June 9, 2024

Proper 5, Year B

Genesis 8:3-15

Psalm 130

Mark 3:20-35

When Adam and Eve were in the Garden, they heard God walking toward them in the cool of the evening breeze. That should have been a wonderful sound. Birds chirping, the rustling of leaves, God’s feet on the grass, the soft shifting of soil. Rather than a beautiful sound of the beloved in a beloved place, however, the sound of God walking toward them was an unwelcome and frightening sound, because they had just betrayed God. 

They had decided that they wanted to be more like God, that they wanted God’s power. They wanted to dominate creation as it’s rulers and masters, rather than be a part of creation, accepting that it was God’s, not theirs. This was a house divided against itself, Adam and Eve divided against themselves. They were one with God. So, when they decided they wanted to take God’s place and move God, a little to the side, they were also moving parts of themselves out of the way. Their war was not just with God but with themselves, and the house divided against itself fell.

So, when the scribes said Jesus had a demon and was casting out demons by the ruler of demons, Jesus pointed out that obviously that couldn’t be true because Satan wouldn’t be stupid enough to divide his house against itself. 

No, that stupidity of working against ourselves and casting down our own houses seems to be a particularly human kind of stupidity. 

Here’s a great idea, let’s betray one another. Let’s decide we want stuff and be willing to kill one another in order to get that stuff. Let’s decide that a desire for sex is worth assaulting another human and just using their body; who cares about the person? When we’re really frustrated, angry, and scared, let’s decide that it’ll be a really good idea to get a gun and shoot some people, rather than accepting the fact that things aren’t always going to go our way. 

Let’s also decide that since we want to make sure to keep the power and money we have, it’ll be a good idea to oppress others, keep wages down, lie, cheat, and steal, and pass laws to make what we do legal. 

In order to make sure the world continues to work in ways that make us comfortable, let’s make sure that people we find objectionable don’t have the same rights as we do. 

Because our religion is so messed up that we’ve taken the truth that God has redeemed us and that nothing can separate us from God, and we’ve replaced that truth with, if you don’t believe in Jesus in just the right way, God’s gonna torture you forever; since our religion is so messed up that fear of eternal torture by the God who is love has become the foundational understanding of our faith, let’s make sure to stir up enmity and strife and subjugate others to our will to make sure the angry torture-god-thing doesn’t get too torture happy with us.

Let’s blame this group for the world’s troubles and then expect someone else to fix it, and then blame that group for things not getting better. That sounds like a good idea. 

In all of these and so many other ways, we decide over and over that turning against one another sounds like a pretty neat idea. We decide over and over again that we’re going to further divide the house against itself and then rage against others when the house falls. 

Yup, as Jesus points out, that’s a particularly human kind of stupidity. Satan ain’t near dumb enough for that. Only we are. 

So again, when the scribes, heard about Jesus casting out demons, they decided to use that as an opportunity for division. Rather than join together in joy and peace because demons were being cast out and people were being healed, uniting the house of God, they decided it would be a good idea to divide the house of God, claiming that healing and love were coming from a place of evil.

They wanted not to lose their power. They wanted not to lose their understanding of how God worked within their religion. So, when they heard God walking toward them in the cool of the evening breeze, it was a threatening sound, rather than a beloved sound of the beloved coming near.

Unfortunately, that’s pretty typical of humanity, that kind of human stupidity, but fortunately, God knows about our particularly human stupidity. Jesus knows precisely about how we divide against one another, and Jesus still thought it was a pretty neat idea to join with us in every aspect of our lives so that not even our house dividing dummy-headedness can separate us from God. 

So, what did Jesus do? Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to dwell among us and within us so that as much as we may work to divide ourselves against ourselves, the Holy Spirit is striving with us and inviting us to be united and live together as one. That’s the invitation and the way of the Church.

As the church, our invitation is to stand for each other. We strive for peace among one another, and we each do everything in our power to keep that peace. Then, realizing we don’t have enough power to keep peace among ourselves, we constantly seek God’s help to unify us and restore peace when our reactions would divide us and break peace.

So, when we’re bothered by someone, we work not to react, and we ask for God’s help. When we do react, and they react back, we let others help calm the situation, and we ask for God’s help. Rather than shouting, we quiet down and allow peace to reign. 

When we’ve broken the peace, we recognize that we may have to step back and be away from a community or be away from some people for a little while, and we ask for God’s help. We choose to be ok with stepping away for a time, letting things cool down, rather than insisting on our own way and turning the house against itself. 

As Jesus’ church, healed and seeking to make peace among one another, we also seek to soothe the sufferings of the world around us, with one another as members of the church. When we see problems in the world, it’s easy to rage against and blame others, and sometimes we’re even right. Rather than rage against the ones we blame for the problem, however, as the church we ask what we can do to help. 

When people brought folks to Jesus who were possessed by demons, Jesus didn’t start a preaching campaign against Satan for putting demons in people. He didn’t start blaming people for allowing the demon in. Jesus cast out the demons. When confronted with things as terrible as demons, Jesus didn’t stir up hatred and strife. Jesus healed people. Rather than divide the house even further, Jesus united the house. 

We are the church, called and empowered by God to be a house united. 

There are so many problems and divisions in the world, and we’re not going to fix all of them. We can’t end that particularly human stupidity of being divided against ourselves, meaning we’re not going to end all human division. As the Talmud states, “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly now, love mercy now, walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”

We cannot end all human division. We can, however, seek God’s help to remain united as a church, here among each other, united in this time and in this place. We can then take that unity with us into the world, and, with God’s help, we can bring some of that unity and healing to others as we go. That is who we are as God’s church. Then, when we hear the sound of God walking towards us in the cool of the evening breeze, we can welcome it as a beloved sound of the beloved coming near.

May God Keep for Us that which We Do Not Need.

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
June 2, 2024
Proper 4, Year B
Deuteronomy 5:12-15
Psalm 81:1-10
Mark 2:23-3:6

Creator of the planets and their courses, you created the Sabbath as one day in seven for all. Having invited us to rest, to breath, to pause; now, encourage us to rest our demands on others, listen in the place of speaking, and pause our impact upon the cosmos. You make the sabbath to universally benefit humanity and all creation. We give thanks for this benevolent provision that enables us to experience a life with you that is well lived in the shadow of your wing. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

That’s a prayer from our bishop, Andy Doyle. “God makes the sabbath to universally benefit humanity and all creation.” We are invited to rest, to give rest to others, and to give rest to creation itself. 

We need rest, and yet in today’s world, we seem to pride ourselves on how much we work and how little we rest. New York is called “the city that never sleeps.” The same could be said for Houston. In fact, you could say we live in a world that never sleeps.” Businesses are interconnected across the globe, so while some sleep, others in the same company are busy at work. The company itself, the business itself, never stops. The work never stops. 

Even in the same city, some work while other sleep. We’re grateful for this when hospitals are open in the middle of the night, and we also notice that when we are trying to sleep, there are always cars going by, planes overhead. Our society doesn’t rest. 

Nature, our nature, our bodies, the world itself needs rest. We need sabbath, a true letting go of all of our work, laying down our burdens and truly resting in God’s embrace. 

God’s commandment that we keep the sabbath is given for our healing. Isaiah 30:15 tells us, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”

In Deuteronomy 5:15 God told the people of Israel, “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.” “Keep the sabbath,” God commands, because we are not meant to work constantly to amass great wealth for our overlords, like Israel did as slaves in Egypt. We are meant to work, and to rest. We are meant to work for all of our benefit, not just for some, and we are meant to rest for all of our benefit, to live together in unity and love.

Sabbath is more than a rule to be followed. Sabbath is a way of life. Rather than the way of death, the way of constant work and business, sabbath is a way of life, a way of healing. So, it makes sense that Jesus healed on the sabbath. 

When Jesus and his disciples were making their way through the grain fields, they ate some of the grain, and the religious leaders cautioned that they were breaking the sabbath. There were very specific rules about how the sabbath was to be observed, rules about what constituted work and what didn’t, rules about how far from home one could walk. Rules, to make sure people kept the sabbath appropriately. 

Jesus’ basic response to the religious leaders was, “Guys, y’all are missing the point.” See, sabbath rest can’t be lived out the exact same way for all people at all times. Situations come up in life where the sabbath must be broken in order to fulfill the purpose of the sabbath, healing and rest. The sabbath is a blessing given to humanity, not just one more rule that we have to follow.

So, when a man needing healing on the sabbath, Jesus didn’t turn him away. He healed the man, which is the point of the sabbath. Jesus broke the religious leaders’ rules of the sabbath, and yet he was keeping the sabbath. Holy rest for healing. Allowing others to rest and be healed. Allowing creation itself to rest and be healed.

In our world today, many of us simply can’t take one whole day as a sabbath rest, much less can we all take the same sabbath day. Our society simply doesn’t work that way anymore. We give thanks for those who work while others sleep, and we pray that they may find sabbath rest as well.

See, Jesus didn’t make his church so that we each follow all the right rules all the time. Founding the perfect community with the perfect system of rules has never worked in the history of the world. Jesus wasn’t silly enough to think it was going to work just because he said so. No, the church isn’t a bunch of people meant to follow all the right rules to constantly stay on God’s and each other’s good sides. 

The church is a people trusting in Jesus, following in his way as best and imperfectly as we can. The church is a people trusting in Jesus’ grace and forgiveness for all the times when we don’t. The church is a people who offer that same grace and forgiveness to one another. The church is a people of healing, a people who seek and offer sabbath rest.

The church is a people who have decided to lay our burdens down weekly, daily, so that our bodies, our minds, our souls can receive the rest we need. In our sabbath rest, we lay our burdens down, not just anywhere. We lay our burdens down into God’s hands so that God can carry our burdens for us while we rest in God’s healing love. 

Then, when we take our burdens back up, some we might just leave with God entirely, because some burdens aren’t truly ours to bear. There’s a prayer I pray some nights in which I thank God for the day that is past and then offer to God all of the day that is past. The good and the bad, my successes and failures, I offer to God that I may rest that night in peace. Then, I pray that when morning comes, God will give back to me that which I need and hold on for me that which I do not. 

For our strength and salvation is not given through our own might and power, nor for ourselves alone. We are granted sabbath rest as a gift both to receive and as a gift to grant to others. We are granted sabbath rest as a gift for creation itself for we are all united together, and as each of us rests, so does creation rest as well. “In returning and rest we shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be our strength.”

So, I offer to us all the sabbath prayer that I pray some nights as a prayer that can be prayed not only at night, but at any time. Any time we need to rest from our burdens, we can offer all of our lives to God, for God to hold them for a time, and then when that time of sabbath rest has ended, we can ask God to give back to us that which we need and hold on for us that which we do not.