PROPER 4, YEAR B

June 2, 2024

Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, Warwick, R. I.

 

Deuteronomy 5:12-15

Psalm 81:1-10

2 Corinthians 4:5-12

Mark 2:23-3:6

 

A good key to interpreting today’s lectionary readings is found, I think, in the Collect of the Day. This collect tells us, first, that God’s never-failing providence orders all things both in heaven and earth.

 

Let’s pause to consider that affirmation for a moment. The largest city in this state is named after this doctrine of divine providence. Obviously, then, it was an important conviction for Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island. A simple definition of providence is the belief that God, in his infinite wisdom and love, is in ultimate control of everything that ever happens, in accordance with his purposes, which are always good and never evil.

 

This doesn’t mean for one moment that God actively wills the bad things that happen to us in this life: sickness, injury, bereavement, financial misfortunes, bad breakups. None of these things are God’s doing. But God is working in and through them all to turn them to our good, bringing good out of evil.

 

And so today’s Collect asks God to do what God does: namely, to put away from us all hurtful things, and to give us those things that are profitable for us. Here the words “hurtful” and “profitable” need to be understood from the perspective of eternity. In other words, we may rely on God, if we ask him, to put away from us those things that are hurtful in that they deflect us from our heavenly goal, and to give us those things that are profitable for our eternal salvation.

 

These reflections establish a context for understanding today’s Old Testament and Gospel readings about the Sabbath. Here Jesus affirms: “The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

 

In the language of the Collect, God gave his people the Sabbath as something profitable for them, both physically and spiritually. The Old Testament reading from Deuteronomy is very clear: when the people were slaves in Egypt, they were subject seven days a week to hard, back-breaking labor. So, after freeing them from bondage, God gave them the Sabbath and commanded them to observe it, as a reminder of their liberation: “Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.”

 

Psalm 81 rejoices in this gift: “Sing with joy to God our strength; and raise a loud shout to the God of Jacob. Raise a song and sound the timbrel, the merry harp and the lyre …For this is a statute for Israel, a law of the God of Jacob. He laid it as a solemn charge upon Joseph, when he came out of the land of Egypt.”

 

The deeper point here, I think, is that whatever God commands us, he commands for our good, indeed for our ultimate happiness. H. L. Mencken famously defined Puritanism as “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.” Well, if that be the case, then thank God that we’ re not Puritans!

 

But even good gifts can be turned to bad uses. And so, in the Gospel, the Pharisees challenge Jesus when his disciples pluck heads of grain while walking through the grainfields: “Why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

 

The irony is that where God gave the Sabbath as a celebration of liberation and freedom, they’re turning the Sabbath into constraint and oppression. That’s what happens when we focus on the letter and not the spirit of the Law.

 

And a key theme in our Lord’s teaching and ministry is that he’s come not to abolish but to fulfill the law by recovering its inner meaning. Some of those in the synagogue are watching to see whether he’ll cure the man with the withered hand and so violate the Sabbath. So, he asks them: “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?”

 

His clear implication is that in their narrow focus on the letter, they’re killing the spirit of the Law. Whereas, by healing and giving life on the Sabbath, he’s fulfilling the Sabbath’s deepest meaning—because God’s commandments are always given for our health, salvation, well-being, and happiness.

 

But notice that his good deed has a cost. “The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians to destroy him.” In other words, the healing of the man with a withered hand that Sabbath day in the synagogue marks a first step on our Lord’s long road to Calvary and the Cross.

 

As Christians, we’re apt to find that doing the right thing can and often does have a cost. In his Second Letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul describes the costs that he and his companions bear in consequence of their apostolic ministry.

 

On one hand, Paul affirms joyfully that the God who said, “let light shine out of darkness” has “shone in our hearts to give the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” But, on the other hand, it’s a costly ministry full of afflictions, perplexities, persecutions, and blows. So Paul reflects: “while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh.”

 

In other words, the hardships and sufferings that Paul and his companions undergo for the sake of the Gospel are bringing Christ’s life and light to the world. “So,” Paul concludes, “death is at work in us, but life in you.” And that makes the sufferings totally worthwhile. For as Christ himself teaches us, by both word and example, self-sacrifice in the service of others is the pattern of the Christian life.

 

And so we come full circle to the doctrine of divine providence. In his infinite wisdom and love, God is working in and through all things—even our sufferings in this life—to bring us to eternal light and glory. In that assurance, we can abandon ourselves to God’s service, trusting him to put away from us all hurtful things, and to give us those things that are profitable for us—for his never-failing providence orders all things both in heaven and earth.