I grew up with a band of semi-feral boys with minimal adult supervision.
We had a great time. It was like Where the Wild Things Are meets the Lost Boys.
It was like heaven. We had this reckless freedom.
Somehow we survived with minimal scarring, broken bones and fire damage.
We would play with fire. We made our own gunpowder. We even played with gasoline a few times. Though after some impressive explosions we gave up on the gasoline. Even we realized how dangerous that was.
Throwing gas on the fire. Somehow we survived.
That’s a great saying by the way, “Throwing gas on the fire.” I have very vivid memories. It is a metaphor that I understand.
Jesus throws gas on the fire in the reading from Mark today.
This is why Jesus was killed.
The Sabbath, The Lord’s Day, the day of rest.
It turns out the Sabbath was more dangerous than gasoline and gunpowder.
There was nothing new about debating how to honor the Sabbath.
There were Sabbath liberals and Sabbath fundamentalists.
But Jesus takes that ongoing fiery debate and throws gas on it.
The two great Sacraments of the Old Testament are the Sabbath and the Torah, and of the two the Sabbath is the greater, it is part of the foundation of creation itself.
The theology of the Sabbath is a beautiful thing.
The last day of creation is a day of rest, the 7th day, the day that completes the Universe, the culmination, the final act, the pinnacle of creation.
Creation finds its meaning and purpose in this, the reason for existence itself is for sharing in God’s rest, entering into God’s Sabbath presence.
So the reason for creation itself is the Sabbath.
It is much more than a custom, it is why we exist.
The debate was over how to honor that day that is set aside as holy and different from all other days.
But Jesus doesn’t do that. He doesn’t just talk about eating and healing on the Sabbath. He displaces the Sabbath from its throne as the pinnacle of existence.
The Sabbath is no longer about why we exist.
The Sabbath is now secondary.
The Sabbath was made for humanity, not humanity for the Sabbath.
The Sabbath then becomes a blessing, a ministry, a medicine to assist and heal the needs of humanity.
Humanity and human kindness is elevated to the top priority. The heart and soul of the divine order of things is about taking care of each other.
It is a different way of seeing and practicing faith.
For many, religion is about forcing humanity into a particular mold, a set pattern. Fear, coercion and exclusion are the way of God.
For Jesus and the Jesus people, faith is about lifting one another up. Freedom, invitation, hospitality are the way of God. Relationships become more open-ended, less determined, defined by faith and trust and hope.
Two different visions of faith, two different visions of God.
Instead of a bunch of rules that I have to get right to make God like me, faith is about lifting one another up.
The scriptures are for humanity, not humanity for the scriptures.
The sacraments are for humanity, not humanity for the sacraments.
We see the two visions in Mark’s lesson today.
One heals the withered hand.
One looks for a way to destroy the rule breaker.
Two very different expressions of faith, of what it means to be a child of God.
Jesus grieved at the hardness of their hearts.
Jesus forced the issue. It was just another debate about picking wheat. But he had to throw gas on the fire, and challenge the entire worldview of his opponents.
He seemed determined to force the issue to expose the twisted harsh vision of God that enslaved them.
Jesus goes into this looking for a fight, looking to upset, to get their attention and redirect it to things that really matter.
Exposing the hardness of the human heart and revealing the reckless freedom of God.
Today we are given a glimpse of God’s reckless freedom, the freedom to lift one another up in resurrection.
Today we are shown two different visions of God and the way of God in the world.
We are challenged to be creatures of blessing and freedom, to open our hearts, to lift one another up. It’s like heaven.
May it be so.