The Liberation of the Sabbath: Sermon for the 11th Sunday after Pentecost, August 24, 2025
- Leslie Scoopmire
- 5 hours ago
- 7 min read
By the Rev. Leslie Scoopmire
Readings:
Isn't today a beautiful day? How many of us awoke this morning to the exciting fulfillment of the meteorologists' promise that we here in Missouri are beginning a week of cooler, moderate temperatures after weeks of high heat and humidity?
And, I hope for many of you, it's a beautiful day because it's a Sabbath day. I am sure many of us remember a time when hardly anything went on on Sunday mornings-- and by law. In my own childhood, nothing was open before noon on Sundays except for a lone gas station here or there-- and that only so that people would have enough gas to get to worship. The assumption, back then, was that everyone was Christian, and everyone needed to be in church on Sunday mornings.
But are those kinds of expectations and those kinds of requirements actually in keeping with the spirit and intention of the Sabbath? We are called to examine this question in our readings for this weekend, especially those from Isaiah and the gospel of Luke.
In a scene that probably Luke was hoping would highlight the increasing tensions between Jesus and his opponents, we actually have a much more important question brought before us, one that has so much relevance for today. It starts with asking about how to actually keep the Sabbath day as a holy day. But the deeper implications are about how to live a holy life out in the secular world so that our faith as Christians shines through. This ties directly into the reading from Isaiah and the commentary that is linked there.
The commandment to keep the Sabbath was actually the first commandment given, get since it is tied to the first creation story in Genesis 1. On six days God labored to create the entire universe in that first creation account, and on the 7th day, God, having declared everything that had been made as good, rests from all God's labors. Of course, what is blessed by God is holy for human beings, so then humanity is enjoined to likewise set aside one day out of the seven in the week for rest. The Talmud, the commentary that grew up around the Torah, makes clear that there's a radical economic aspect to this commandment, for on the 7th day both poor and rich alike would be equal.
Over the years, as communities of Jews spread not just in the Holy Land but throughout the world, the rabbis instituted various rules and limitations on questions such as how far one was allowed to walk on the Sabbath and not be violating the spirit of rest, the use of modern conveniences, such as elevators, bicycles or street cars; and so on. This is what the Talmud addresses.
In Berakhot 57b:10, one of the Talmudic documents, the rabbis comment that Shabat can be an escape from the mundane challenges of daily life. It is a day of freedom-- freedom from worry, freedom to have the time to worship and praise God. In Birkat Hamazon, another Talmudic text, it is pointed out that the liturgy used on the Sabbath contains many prayers that are unique to the Sabbath day, but that when the Messiah comes the intention and essence of Sabbath will no longer be confined to only one day, but to every day of the week. Every day will be a Sabbath in that every day will be a day of rest and praise to God a day of freedom and equality for all.
The commandment to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy is listed in the 10 Commandments. We remember that the first four commandments are about worship of God, and the last six commandments are about how we live with each other as neighbors. The command to keep the Sabbath day holy appears in the list from the Exodus at number 4. So the commandment to keep the Sabbath holy serves as a hinge between how we approach God, and how we live in love and care with each other. It is important to remember that. The Sabbath is meant to be a loving gift to each other as well as with God.
This reminder is so timely, given the fact that there is currently a push by certain evangelical Christians to require by law the posting of the 10 Commandments in public places, especially public schools. At this time in 2025, as school is heading back into session all around us, such a law has indeed been passed and it is currently on hold by judicial injunction in Texas. Proponents of these laws make the untrue assertion that the 10 Commandments are part of our specific legal heritage as Americans. The lawmakers who attempt to pass these laws limit themselves to this argument-- unsaid is the underlying claim that posting these laws in public, especially in schools, will presumably make children responsible for following these laws. They do so because posting the Commandments as religious content has already been ruled unconstitutional in 1981.
Indeed, during the debate over the proposed law in Texas, the House sponsor of the bill was asked a series of questions by another representative about whether the hope was that these commandments would then be followed. The irony was that the debate over this bill was being held on the Jewish Sabbath itself, meaning that all of the legislators were required to work on the Jewish Sabbath to conclude debate in violation of the very text that they were seeking to impose into classrooms. Further, had the debate been concluded on that Saturday, the actual vote was scheduled for a Sunday, which is the day observed by most Christians as the Sabbath. Questions were also asked about whether members of the Texas Legislature had ever been known to lie-- to much amusement, sure, but it was certainly a legitimate question.
Which is more important-- posting what we claim to be God's laws, or living by the law and the spirit of the law ourselves? I am convinced that what Jesus is highlighting here is keeping the SPIRIT of the Sabbath, and not just on a single day but on every day, just as the Talmud envisions. The Sabbath is NOT meant to be another way of beating people down, or holding them in contempt if they can't all reach our own perceived levels of piety. Even in Jesus's time, the Sabbath was not imposed on non-Jews, and so likewise, those who call themselves Christians today appear to be going in opposition to the spirit of Sabbath by attempting to make a practice of freedom and rest a thing of enforcement and a means of looking down upon others.
In its original radicalness, on the Sabbath day, both poor and rich alike would have time to focus on worship of God, when otherwise the poor would be forced to work non-stop. That was the ideal at least. The reality was that probably from the very beginning of Israel's observance, the poor were constantly forced to violate the Sabbath since they lived a subsistence lifestyle in which they earned their food for each day on that day, and a day spent without working would be a day that would be filled with hunger and push them closer to the edge of losing what little they had.
Unfortunately over time, there is often a tendency to take something good, something that should be a cause for joy, and turn it into an opportunity to oppress. What was intended to be a practice for freedom and equality ends up becoming yet another way to divide people and look down upon them based on their abilities to adhere to a standard of purity. The story that we have here places Jesus on the side of freedom.
Above all things, the Sabbath was meant to create unity, not division, among the people, rich or poor, privileged or not. And we see this tendency even today. Here, Jesus specifically ties the keeping of the Sabbath with liberation-- specifically the liberation of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt. It was, of course, during the Exodus from slavery that the 10 Commandments were first handed down, after all. The Mishnah, over the centuries, had allowed people to untie their beasts of burden and lead them to water and have that not be considered a violation-- so long as those beasts of burden were actually carrying no burdens.
It is here that the rich symbolism of this story becomes clear. The woman that Jesus encounters is symbolic of the instructions that were reiterated in the Isaiah passage. Just like oxen, or donkeys, she does not speak. Just like oxen and donkeys, she is burying a burden that has been placed upon her. She symbolizes all those who could not afford to easily take an entire day of rest. In freeing her from her burden, and allowing her to stand upright, at liberty from her ailment, there's a larger point being made here about the purpose of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is for freedom, for healing, for rest, for rejuvenation. It is not for placing yet another stricture on people who are just trying to survive.
How exactly can we, as people of faith, actually keep Sabbath and make it holy by our observance? Our reading from Isaiah and Jesus's actions in our story actually are truly radical, going beyond a focus on enforcement of worship. In the mouth of Isaiah, God actually states the true practices that would mark God's people as holy: and they start with another deeply political but absolutely non-partisan list for the faithful, no matter what party they belong to.
Jesus asks us, "Do you believe in keeping that Sabbath day as a holy testimony to the abundance and generosity of God?" For those who answer in the affirmative, the next step is to do this:
Feed the hungry.
Clothe the naked.
House the homeless-- the scripture actually says to into the unhoused into our own homes.
Offer the means of healing to those who are sick, or in pain, or in need of medical care.
See those who are bent double by their burdens-- truly see them, and do all that you can to free them so that they can stand upright and free once more.
This is how we are called to celebrate the Sabbath as a testimony to the goodness of God.
Amen.
