Sermon: Luke 12:32-40 Summer, Time, Holy-days
Time is deeply mysterious. There’s a time when things open, and there’s a time when things close. Speaking in the spirit of a gardener, or a Rosarian, (this is a nifty new word I learned and incorporated into my vocabulary this week), like a rose, or other flower, things open and close, open and close, in front of us, behind us, and around us, all the time. As it has a beginning, it has an ending… and often, where things end, life brings new shoots, a second blooming just under the previous one, (about a couple of leaves down), new possibility, unexpected joy…
Sometimes, things seem to close permanently, and we grieve, and then, we learn that even in the midst of true loss, life continues, life flows… Through time, we learn resilience. Resilience doesn’t mean we become toughened, stiffening against the hard knocks; we learn how to accept things as they are, being able to bend with a little more flexibility each time; it’s very hard, but we can rebound, and grow. Some things die in the winters of our lives, then rise up above the ground and grow again in the spring. Time is deeply mysterious; its essential character is holy and eternal.
Our reflection on the sabbath leads us to ponder time and how we are born, grow, live, die, get ill, thrive, flourish, and age with time, which is essentially holy. Time is not just an aggressive force, making us age as each year goes by, if we know how to handle it wisely and gently. We are not kidnapped to work on the unstoppable conveyer belt, or stand in the endless line-up of capitalist production of material things, wealth, success, status, power, prestige, buying, selling. Christ calls us to learn about the time of Jubilee - the God-declared time for justice, restoration and reparation. Creating Eden, God declares the Sabbath day after the six days of creation. Those kinds of sabbath… the set-aside time that is holy… the intentional time for restoration, peace and reparation are seldom sabbath in our days.
Sabbath is the time that opens when we intentionally dedicate our presence to finding true delights and unexpected joy. Our Scriptures are full of images and teachings that tell us about the mystery of time, (how the kingdom grows, like the unleavened bread arises in time, and the moment is delightful and restorative.) The Bible says, “So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. On the seventh day God had finished their work of creation, so they rested from all their work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when they rested from all their work of creation.” (Gen 2:1-3).
Abraham Heschel (one of the leading Jewish theologians and philosophers of the 20th century) says, in his book, Sabbath Pause, “The meaning of Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space. Six days a week, we live under the tyranny of things of space: on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time. It is a day on which we are called to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world.”
Of course, it really depends on how we define spaces… If ‘spaces’ mean decorating our rooms with more glittering, plastic ornaments, for example, or building highways, apartments and offices, yes, of course, we live under the tyranny of things of space. However, if ‘spaces’ means creating more garden spaces and planting flowers and herbs that attract bees and birds and butterflies, or dreaming a new heaven and earth, in Steven Heinrichs’ words, “dreaming a new ‘Turtle Island’ for all peoples in the land”, some spaces are sacred. Sacred spaces are those spaces we hold open for others to do the work they need…
But we also get what Heschel means: “Turning from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world.” Searching and seeking out the root of creation (not only the result).
I believe the Sabbath has many practical benefits. Like herbal medicines – teas, for example. If you are a tea drinker and buy herbs or tea bags or tea leaves, you usually check what their benefits are for body and mind. Sabbath is the same. One benefit of “sabbath tea” may be that it can prepare us for the times that surround us: the time of the expected and the unexpected events that would open and close to us. Loss and gain. Birth and death. Deconstruction and Construction. From the sabbath tea, you can get substantial medicinal benefits that would help you to navigate the path of grief, uncertainty, as well as normalcy - - because Sabbath teaches us the mystery of time: Time is deeply mysterious: a spiral, holy and eternal.
Everyone loves a holiday… (I do.) Everyone loves vacation. (Do you?) But really, we may not ask ourselves what is and has to be “holy” in holidays… In my opinion, something should be holy, if we call it a holiday (smile). On vacation, what should we truly “vacate” from? To vacate is to empty - - that is, to get rid of something. What do we vacate? What kinds of activities, experiences, what kinds of pleasure and play should make our holiday holy?
The Jubilee (“Year of Release”) and Sabbath have a close connection (in Leviticus) and both describe the meaning of holy in our scriptures. Jubilee is the seven times seven Sabbaths of years (so the 50th of the year), and in Ancient Israel, people sounded a loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month throughout all their land. In the Jubilee year, slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven, and the mercies of God would manifest. The Bible says, “You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you.”
And in Luke, Jesus selects the Jubilee passage from the scroll at the synagogue and reads in the spirit of freedom: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.”
If that is true, shouldn’t our holy-days (holidays), the Sabbath, have the same deep calling and our response for freedom, holiness in time, the jubilee?
Calling for holiness in time is very radical and invites us to ponder how we would enter it with a heart primed for delight. Turning from the results of the creation to the mystery of the creation, from the world of creation to the creation of the world!
Some quotes about sabbath that help to spark that delight.
“The issue with sabbath is not when or how long, but if a day is at all chosen for delight”
“The Sabbath is a day when the kingdom to come has come and is celebrated now rather than anticipated tomorrow.” Here, instead of there.
“A feast” (no five-star fare, but the rich diversity of God’s creation and redemption.)
“Sabbath is far more than a diversion; it is meant to be an encounter with God’s delight.”
“What would you do for a twenty-four-hour period of time if the only criteria was the pursuit of your deepest joy?”
It is a serious question. Not all people ask it before taking a holiday or vacation.
In today’s reading, Jesus tells us about pleasure… “the good pleasure”. “It is God’s good pleasure to give you the kin_dom,” which would mean, on the flip side, to us, that it should be our “good pleasure” too, to receive it. With a pleasure that is purposeful, dreaming a new paradise for all creation and all nations, where the treasure of life is. Where our heart is. Where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. Where we vacate from possessions, but give alms. The holy time is an unfailing treasure, fear-free, to encounter delight, on the threshold of heaven and earth. It is the mysterious time which, when it is truly sought, opens eternity to us all.
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