It is hard to worship. I will fully admit that right now. It is hard to worship. We are bound by so many things that restrict our ability to move toward God in any meaningful way.
I think of a man who talked to me one day. He regularly attends church, but he does not worship. You must understand that early on in his marriage, he and his wife were excitedly expecting a son. They painted a room, they bought the clothes, and they talked to their son while still in the womb. Not too long before the due date came, something terrible happened; his wife miscarried. She was devistated and he was stricken. He told me that “After that, I do not worship. Pastor, you will see me in church, but hear me clearly, I do not worship.”
It is so hard to worship.
The woman in this gospel story had such a hard time worshipping. From her bent-over position she could hardly see, she could hardly look you in the eye and talk, and there was no way that she could lift up her arms in praise to God.
It is so hard to worship.
Even some of our church's own rites and rituals get in the way. Take the rite of confirmation, this should be a wonderful day of initiation into the adult life of faith. Unfortunately, the idea of confirmation has become more of a “graduation from church,” rather than the beginning of an adult relationship with God.
It is difficult to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. There are so many things that restrict our ability to move toward God. There are so many things that restrict our ability to even be moved by God and God’s word.
We have a basic need, similar to the dead Lazarus, who was bound with the trappings of funeral cloth. Jesus raised him up and gave him a new life so he may praise God. People ran up to him and “unbound” him. The people literally unwrapped him, and we have the same basic need to be unbound from the things that keep us from worshipping God and loving the neighbor. There are so many things that bind us and hinder God’s ability to touch our lives: obsession with stuff, disagreement and hatred (hatred binds the heart so tight that it can barely pump any life-giving blood), and how about other “harmless” interests that simply pull our attention away from God and God’s day of rest.
I have been told by many people that they can worship God on the golf course just as easily as they can in the worshipping community. And, they are correct, a group of players can worship God on the golf course just as easily as they can in church…but they won’t.
To each bent over and out of touch person, Jesus offers healing. With a simple touch of Sabbath healing, Jesus will restore us to an upright position, and we will again see God, worshipping God with thanks for all that God has done, even after eighteen or more years of being worship-impaired.
Ever since God inscribed the commandment to “remember the Sabbath Day and keep it Holy” people have been testing its limits. It is a command after-all, and like a teenager who needs to see just how far away from the house they can get without their parents noticing or caring, we see how far we can get from God's command.
Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 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. 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.
The interesting thing about the Sabbath command is that following it brings its own reward and violating it brings its own punishment. Following does not put you on the fast track into heaven, and violating it does not put you on a fast track to hell. Failing to follow the command is its own punishment.
When you are tired, burned out, cranky, and cannot think straight, you know you have violated God’s command to rest and remember. When you bind other people with your selfishness and anger, and find yourself alone because your friends have left, you know you have violated God’s command to rest and remember. And, when you have no idea who God is or what God is up to in your life, you know you have violated God’s command to rest and remember.
Rest and remember: Share in God’s nap, remember God’s good work. The whole process looks like this: work the week, then share in God’s nap all while remembering God’s good works. Repeat again and again.
That is not to say that you will find a nice garden of Eden whenever you enter the sanctuary of the Lord with a cot just waiting for you. People have told me that sometimes going to church is more stressful than shopping in Wal-mart on Christmas Eve. This was certainly true for the bent-over woman. The poor lady just wanted to go to the sanctuary of the Lord and find rest. She did not want a controversy! And, Jesus did not seek out an argument in the house of the Lord. He was simply trying to help a woman rest by remembering the will of God and performing the work of God by unbinding her. Jesus simply wanted to free her so that she could worship.
Now, I must admit that the leader who complained that Jesus worked on the Sabbath was not wrong. Jesus did work. The leader was right in a sense. After-all, you need to guard against violating the Sabbath, or you will find yourself bound. He was right to demand that Jesus and the woman rest. But, he had forgotten one thing: he had forgotten to “remember.” He did not remember that the Sabbath is a day for freedom. It is a day to be unbound from the hindrances and influences of life. It is a day when freedom from all that keeps you enslaved is celebrated.
Is it possible to be “right” and still get everything wrong? Of course it is. He remembered to rest, but he had forgotten that resting sometimes requires unbinding. Most people cannot take off their own burial cloth. Most of the time we need help. The Sabbath is a day when the community helps each other to unbind, just as Jesus freed the woman. There, it does matter if you are not present. Maybe you are rested and do not need the Sabbath, but that does not mean someone else will not need your help to unwrap the burial cloth that binds them from loving and worshipping.
One Sunday I saw a new face in the rear pew. It was a woman who was obviously holding back tears. After worship, I approached her asked what was up. She bust out tears of anguish, sobbing that her husband had just left her. The husband had always done all of the bills and made all of the purchases. She did even know how to drive. "I don’t even know the first thing about living," she cried. And, as she spoke and as we worked together on where to go from here, I saw Jesus unwrap the bindings from her soul, and she slowly began to realize that she was free. “I don’t know what I would have done without you," she said. Frankly, I did nothing but be there. I had remembered the Sabbath day, and God used that as an opportunity.
Rest and remember. Rest and remember. Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it Holy.
All Scripture quotes are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyrighted, 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and is used by permission. All rights reserved.
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