The Second Sunday after Pentecost

I’m going to be honest, I identify with these Pharisees in Mark.  It shouldn’t shock you that I identify more with the rule follower.  The one who believes in order, consistency, legalism, systems.  I like being told what to believe from a “higher authority.”  I like to be able to fit inside a little box.  It’s comforting, it’s secure, it’s predictable, and most importantly it’s correct.  I don’t have to worry about questions regarding what to do in a particular situation.  I find solace in the fact that in systems answers are readily available.  Even in our Episcopal system this is the case. Just look in the back of the Book of Common Prayer, it tells you point blank what we believe. It’s even in question answer format!  My friends, fitting in a box just makes life so easy.  It takes the load off, it takes the pressure off of ourselves and places it upon the system that we know, love, and trust.  I feel for these Pharisees, and I bet you do too.
In our society, systems are quite popular. In our life, we grow up choosing systems, or sometimes those systems choose us.  Regardless of how it happens we begin to define ourselves by those systems. We live into their rules, their beliefs, their way of life.  We surround ourselves with other’s in those same systems, which in turn magnifies those rules, those beliefs, that way of life.  And as that system magnifies we begin to think more and more about what we believe, and less and less about why we believe.  And that’s a problem.
In our reading from Deuteronomy we hear about the rule of the Sabbath.  “Keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work.  But the seventh day is the sabbath to the Lord your God, and you shall not do any work,” you – or your son or your daughter, or your slave, or cattle, or immigrant… No one shall work, all shall rest…  And yet in the Gospel of Mark, here we have Jesus and his disciples on the Sabbath and what are they doing??? They are harvesting grain from the field, they are going into the temples and healing the maimed.  And so the Pharisees ask him an honest question, “Look, why are you doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”  Why are you breaking the rules? Do you, Jesus, always have to be breaking the rules?
You see, these Pharisees weren’t wrong.  They, just like Jesus, had bought into the Jewish system, raised by the Jewish way of life.  Furthermore, these people were Pharisees, it was their job to make sure the rules are followed.  As theologian Ronald Byars says, “Those in leadership positions in any time and place are supposed to care about the rules!  To be in a position of leadership requires bearing the responsibility for understanding the rule.   It takes a bit of fine-tuning to distinguish between upholding the rules and allowing for really exceptional cases, particularly when one’s trusteeship is under scrutiny.  The safest course, usually,” he says, “is to insist on the rule.”  And Jesus broke the rule. 
But what happens when the rules work against those who they were supposed to protect.  The disciples were hungry, so they picked food to nourish them.  Should the man with the withered hand stay crippled simply because we should, “keep the Sabbath holy?”  For that matter, what is holy?!  What is of God?  What is the reason for this Sabbath?  So Jesus reminds them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath.”  And as usual, he was right.
While the sabbath was always an institution since Genesis, that seventh day of rest, it became law under Moses.  We see it explained this morning in Deuteronomy. “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.” The sabbath was a direct response to the horrific conditions of slavery under Pharaoh.  The rule of Sabbath deemed that no one, no bit of creation should be subject to endless labor, endless suffering.  So when the disciples were hungry, or Jesus found a man in physical distress —— picking the food and healing the hand weren’t acts of labor, they were acts of salvation, nourishing the disciples, freeing the man with the withered hand.
Jesus is telling the Pharisees, his disciples, us, that we must understand our rules.  Why they were set into place, what they are to guard us against, how they can help us, how they are meant to be truly used.  We must make sure they are still bearing fruit.  Because if they are not, if they are not doing what they are supposed to do.  Then they are taking up space between us and God, and his kingdom.  Then they’re a waste.  The rule of the Sabbath was not set in place to keep us from healing those who are sick.  It was set in place directly to heal the suffering.  The Sabbath was made to make us whole.  Not to restrict us.
In our lives, we belong to many organizations, systems that seek to make us better, make us whole.  Now, Jesus is not saying that these systems are inherently bad, be they religious, political, or social.  They often have the best of intentions.  Jesus is simply reminding us to wake up from our complacency within the system.  Remember what it was originally designed for.  Quit paying attention to what our rules are and begin again paying attention to why are rules are. 
My hope is that in America we are beginning to awake to this reality.  We belong to this party or that party and we are frustrated, just like Jesus, because for some reason our rules seem to have overridden our principles.  Our leaders seem to be focused on the rule, not the people. They have lost sight of what truly matters, the individual, and instead focused on the system/the party.  My friends, a system is not a person.  A system should never replace or even override the needs of our neighbor.  We should at all times seek to respect the dignity of every human being.  We need to quit looking at our system, our parties, our rules, and begin the difficult but primary task of looking at our community, our neighbors.  It is our job as Christians to be this voice in the world.  To cry out to the lawful injustices that hurt the very people they were created to protect.  Jesus is telling us, our leaders won’t be that voice. So, it’s up to us to lead them. 
I imagine it will be difficult.  That there will be push back. The rules wont always be on our side.  We wont be able to simply sit back and fit inside our neat little box.  But this is our calling. To speak out for those who are oppressed by the systems we have so long stood behind.  To be a voice for the truth.  Amen.