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| Shabbat - Sabbath - Candles |
When we
gathered for Bible study last Wednesday evening at Seneca Presbyterian Church,
our attention was focused on the text for this Sunday’s worship. It comes from
Luke 6:1-16. That text contains two stories about Jesus, the Pharisees, and the
Sabbath. I was anxious to press my friends and trusted colleagues on their
experience of Sabbath as retirees – something I have no ability to imagine. (I
can only dream of such things!) And we did have a nice discussion about the Sabbaths
and Sundays of days gone by.
But I
was a bit surprised when our initial focus of conversation was on the Pharisees.
The participants in this group are earnest seekers who try to not only
understand scripture in its historical context but also to listen for what the
Spirit is seeking to teach us today. So they are naturally caught between the
Pharisees of common understanding - what dictionary.com defines as sanctimonious,
self-righteous, or hypocritical – and the actual historical reality of the first
century. We talked about the Pharisees as a sect of Judaism that sought to
carve out an understanding of faithfulness to the Law in a time of assimilation
and accommodation. We remembered that the Pharisees and their movement survived
the destruction of the Temple because they had crafted a life of faithful
devotion that was not dependent on the Temple. But we also remembered how the
Pharisees were (or at least are described as) the enemies of Jesus.
Perhaps
I’ve listened to Amy Jill Levine too many times to ignore the conversation and
simply move on. Anyone who has heard Dr. Levine speak on the way Christians
interpret Judaism – especially first century Judaism – knows her passion for correcting
errors and crushing stereotypes. (If you wish to read more, pick up The Jewish Annotated New Testament and
read her article entitled “Bearing False Witness: Common Errors Made about
Early Judaism.”) The passion is not merely academic. For if we allow the image
of Pharisaic Judaism to be a religion of laws where Christianity is a religion
of grace, we do both faiths a disservice. And we move dangerously close to the impression
of how Christianity has been characterized by our Muslim friends. “You
Christians have it so easy. If you do wrong, you just ask for forgiveness and
then everything is OK.”
No doubt
we will talk more about Pharisees in our Wednesday night group. And the
discussion will be faithful. This group has studied the Hebrew Scriptures with
Dr. Levine through her Great Courses lecture series. But the question also applies
to the subject at hand for this week, namely the Sabbath. We must resist the
temptation to allow the debate Jesus had with the Pharisees over Sabbath regulations
to color our understanding of Sabbath – for it is an essential, life-restoring gift
meant for Christians as well as Jews. Unless
we are careful, the Sabbath could been seen as a burden rather than a blessing.
We’ll
explore that blessing when we gather for worship at Seneca Presbyterian Church
this Sunday – the Christian Sabbath. Before we do, I invite you to consider:
- What traditions marked Sundays in your childhood or even adulthood?
- How have they changed?
- Have the changes been a blessing?
- What has been lost?
- How can it be re-gained?
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