Sermon on Mark 2:23-3:6

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

At this point in our yearlong Sabbath theme, hopefully, you’re getting an idea of what Sabbath is for:

1.    It’s to delight in God’s creation, as God did on the seventh day at the beginning of time.

2.    It’s to care for creation—the land, the animals, and the people—by letting everything and everyone rest and renew.

3.    It’s for God’s people to remember that they are no longer enslaved in Egypt and to remember that it was God who liberated them.

4.    It’s to give us a glimpse of what the completed Beloved Community will be like someday.

Sabbath is about delight, renewal, liberation, and hope. It’s meant to be life-giving and worship-filled.

The Pharisees in our stories today were observing the letter of, but not the spirit of, the Sabbath laws.

It’s important, though, that we don’t make the Pharisees into evil, mustache-twirling villain caricatures, despite the violent choice they make at the end of our reading.

The Pharisees were a well-respected branch of Judaism. It’s even possible that Jesus was a Pharisee. When he criticized and butted heads with Pharisees in the Gospels, he was calling for reform from within not just the Jewish tradition but maybe even the school of thought from which he came.

The Pharisees were striving to live out the Law given to God’s people after they were freed from Egypt.

They were religious authority figures who were trying to honor God.

They were humans who were defending their understanding and the status quo.

As Lutherans, we can say they were simultaneously saints and sinners, just like the rest of us.

And, in these stories, they were definitely trying to control Jesus and catch him breaking the rules.

They were calling Jesus out for not staying within the lines of their understanding of how Sabbath should be observed.

·       They thought no work should be done on the Sabbath, even if that caused Jesus’ disciples’ stomachs to growl.

·       They thought no work should be done on the Sabbath even if it meant that someone would go without healing. After all, the man with the withered hand wasn’t bleeding to death. Surely healing him could wait until tomorrow.

But they were misapplying the Sabbath laws.

Before we pat ourselves on the back for not being like those Pharisees, let’s look at ourselves in the mirror and examine our own Sabbath practices or lack thereof.

How often do we really unplug—both literally our devices and figuratively ourselves?

What is our rhythm of rest and is it enough for true well-being?

Do we give ourselves enough space to pay deep attention to the Holy Spirit?

When was the last time we had fun? Is it something we prioritize or just hope for? Or maybe not even think about at all?

Far from rigidly observing the Sabbath commandments, we have swung so far in the other direction that we still misapply them.

We have misinterpreted the freedom we receive from God’s grace as an indication that we should shun anything that could come across as legalistic.

Instead of using Sabbath to remember that God freed God’s people, we have enslaved ourselves to grind culture.

It’s not bad to work hard, but grind culture only wants us to turn us into machines that only work hard with no rest or grace.

Grind culture tells us to monetize our hobbies, optimize every second of our schedules, and substitute caffeine for rest.

And fun? What’s that? Grind culture has no place for fun unless a grueling workout can be considered “fun.”

Anyone who doesn’t live up to grind culture’s standards must be weak, undisciplined, and lazy. It’s their fault for not measuring up. And by extension, because no one can live up to grind culture’s standards, it’s your fault.

But Jesus, the lord of the Sabbath, wanted something different for the Pharisees and for us.

The Pharisees wanted to uphold their rigid understanding of what counted as work on the Sabbath, but Jesus invited them to consider the needs of their hungry neighbors—in this case, Jesus’ disciples—and their neighbors in pain—in this case, the man with the withered hand.

It’s easy to observe a rigid understanding of work on the Sabbath from a privileged position like that of the Pharisees, who probably didn’t have to think about what they were going to eat or how they were going to manage a disability or chronic health condition.

Blanket rules rarely work for everyone.

Jesus wanted to turn their attention to the spirit of the Sabbath laws instead of fixating on the precise details.

He asked them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?”

He pointed them to their merciful and loving God, the instituter of Sabbath and Jubilee—practices of communal rest and justice and joy.

They were practices of freedom, not of control.

But we humans like rules, especially ones that help us control other people.

And so, these religious leaders tried to use Sabbath laws to get Jesus in trouble.

And over the years, we Christians have tried to distance ourselves from those Pharisees (probably not without a good deal of antisemitism).

We tried so hard to not be legalistic that we started serving an idol: grind culture.

We threw the freedom and joy of Sabbath out with the proverbial bathwater.

But Jesus still points us to our merciful and loving God who rested on the seventh day and freed God’s people from enslavement.

We do not need to serve grind culture. We can’t deprogram ourselves from it overnight, andwe can’t rid our society of it by ourselves, but we can learn to practice Sabbath in its full communal rest, justice, and joy.

One antidote to grind culture is play.

Grind culture has no room for play, thinking itfrivolous and unproductive.

But play helps us connect with each other, live in the present moment, and experience joy.

It helps us feel like human beings instead of human doings.

Catherine Price, author of The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again, defines fun as: “the confluence of three psychological states: playfulness, connection, and flow.”[1]

·       “Playfulness refers to having a lighthearted spirit,”

·       “connectionrefers to the feeling of having a special, shared experience with someone else,”

·       and “flow is the state we’re in when we’re totally engrossed and actively focused on the activity or experience at hand—it’s when we’re in the zone.”

Grind culture doesn’t want this for us. Playfulness is unproductive, connection is unnecessary because depending on other people is weak, and flow is only good if it’s in the context of work.

But there are people in our society today who are reclaiming fun.

For instance, there was a running group in Franklin, Massachusetts that decided they needed more fun in their lives.[2] They started having “fun interventions,” or “funterventions,” where each month one member of the group would plan something fun for them to do together.They’ve tried cross-country skiing, surfing, and even goat yoga, but most importantly, they’ve been there for each other during the ups and downs of life. Fun has led to connection and support.

If the funterventions sound familiar, it’s because they were the inspiration for our play dates starting this summer. Please email me about hosting one—share your fun with others.

We could probably all use some more fun in our lives, and we need connection with each other. God made us relational beings. God created Sabbath practices to deepen relationship, justice, and wellbeing among God’s people.

As we learn about and practice Sabbath this year, let’s do it out of joy and freedom, not fear or control.

Jesus reminds us that we can take care of ourselves, like the disciples did when they picked themselves a snack, and take care of others, like Jesus did for the man with the withered hand, even on the Sabbath.

Instead of worrying about what we’re not supposed to do on the Sabbath or ignoring Sabbath completely because of grind culture, we are freed by God to enjoy creation, delight in rest and play, rejoice in liberation, and hope for the ultimate Jubilee that God will complete one day.

Let’s practice letting go of grind culture. Let’s play.

[1]https://catherineprice.substack.com/p/what-is-fun

[2]https://omny.fm/shows/the-happiness-lab-with-dr-laurie-santos/do-we-even-have-fun-anymore-a-listeners-story-of-f