Holy Work, Holy Rest
1 Corinthians 5.1-8, Psalm 5, Luke 6:6-11
(I am taking a day off today. What follows is a re-post of a reflection from last year at this time.)
It’s a holiday Monday morning, Labour Day here in Canada, and I am reflecting on work.
There are two issues in today’s gospel each coming from a different perspective. The scribes and the Pharisees are keeping a close eye on Jesus to see whether he is going to heal (work) on the Sabbath and, true to form, Jesus does not disappoint. Jesus makes a point of doing a very public healing of a man with a withered hand. For the Pharisees the issue is breaking the law of the Sabbath rest.
For Jesus the Sabbath was not the issue. For Jesus the issue was whether someone in need deserved a helping hand even if it went against “policy”. This morning two men came to my back door and asked for a cup of coffee on a cool fall morning. “Sorry”, I said, “its only 7:30, we don’t serve coffee at the back door until 9:00”. That is our policy. Sometimes policy and rules get in the way of helping someone in need.
To be fair to the Pharisees, the law of the Sabbath rest was a lot more than just a policy, it was even more than a law. It really was a way of life that, when understood well, was meant to bring one’s spirit closer to God. Also the curing of the man’s withered hand was not essential. A healing the next day would have been just as advantageous.
In healing on the Sabbath, however, Jesus showed that sometimes we have to be willing to set aside our comfortable patterns of behaviour and ritual. This can be scary because without our familiar patterns we are left very vulnerable and we can’t be sure of what might happen next. Jesus certainly found this out as he raised the ire of those in authority as he stretched the boundaries of law with his ministry.
In our time many of us don’t consider the Sabbath (for Christians it is Sunday) to be a day unlike any other. For those who go to Church we might do our “obligation” and then stop and pick up some milk on the way home before we get on with our yard work which has been neglected during the busy week. If this sounds like you, then maybe it would pay to reflect on the value of a Sabbath rest. Where in your hectic life do you give your body a chance to rest and your soul a chance to recharge? But Jesus also invites us to consider the value of helping one in need even at personal cost. Even if it might interfere with personal time set aside.
Finding balance in our life is not always an easy task we must work, rest, play and help others. May God help us with his grace.
Do you make time for God in your daily life?
Do you get enough rest?
What does “A Balanced Life” mean to you?
This is a good post – and good of you for taking the day off. Happy Labor Day. In the UK we have it on 1 May.
Anyway … whilst I agree with Sunday being a day of rest, sadly this has been erroded in modern society of late. But to be fair, the Catholic Church (here in the UK at least) did not help in this respect. For some years now it has allowed people to go to Mass on Saturday evenings and this “counts” instead of Sunday – thus implying they made a deal with God to move the day of rest by a few hours. As a result, many employers have enforced Sunday working – I know this from experience – claiming that you can go to church on Saturday instead.
Is it the same in Canada?
God bless you.
Yes, we have the same situation here in Canada. But I don’t know what the initial cause of the shift was. The Sunday vigil mass was an option for as long as I can remember but I do remember days when there was no business conducted on Sunday except for maybe at a gas station. Then it seems that the big box stores made a plea for an exemption and then before long the smaller stores needed to stay open to compete. I am not sure that anyone is to blame other then to say that commerce trumped religion. I have been happy to see that some people I have met have kept the Sabbath mentality even though they can no longer observe it on a Sunday. One family I knew came to mass faithfully on Monday evening and brought their offering envelope with them because that was what worked for them. Perhaps not orthodox but certainly meeting the spirit of the law.