Jeremiah 1:4-10 Psalm 71:1-6 Hebrews 12:18-29 Luke 13:10-17

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire.

Imagine yourself as a first century Jewish Christian.  You have been reared as a faithful Hebrew, steeped in the faith tradition that has been handed down through your ancestors – generation after generation, century after century, from the time of creation – God’s chosen people, responsible for the preservation and dissemination of God’s word for their children, and their children’s children, and to you.  For centuries, the earliest of your ancestors handed down these traditions and accounts of the sacred workings of God verbally long before they were written on the scrolls from which you have been taught and can use to teach your children.  How miraculous is that!

Your Hebrew faith is your ethnicity as well as your culture; your Hebrew faith dictates your family life, your daily activity, what and when you may eat, your livelihood, those to whom you may speak in public or private and with whom you may engage in business, certainly those you may marry, and, most of all, your worship practices – your understanding of sacrifice and atonement, your appreciation of when/where/how Holy Days are to be honored and celebrated, your indoctrination into God’s Law and covenant with his people, every specific detail woven into your being as one of God’s children.  Your Hebrew faith encompasses you.

Yet, in your adulthood, there has been a major transformation of the faith.  Jesus of Nazareth, one of Jewish descent as are you, has presented a new Way – a New Covenant – a new understanding of God’s commandments.  In fact, he claims to be the Son of God, the Messiah, foretold by the prophets – the earliest vessels of the word of God.  Early on, you were convinced by the radically new and powerful message of this hometown boy, Jesus.

Despite the contradictions in your own community, you believe that Jesus was and is the Messiah, the Lord and Savior of all.  He took upon himself the sins of the world; he was crucified, and rose again on the third day after his earthly death.  His “sprinkled blood” was the one full, perfect, and complete sacrifice for the atonement of all human sin; he overcame evil and death for your sake and the sake of all – Jew or non-Jew.  This, you believe; you have chosen to follow Jesus.

You are still just as Jewish, but the light of Jesus Christ has reshaped your understanding of God’s intention for his creation in the most radical way.  In Jesus, you have experienced the healing power of God’s love – redemption of sin, the “sprinkled blood” of Jesus Christ as the one full, perfect, and complete sacrifice.  Contrary to the teachings of the Temple priests, there is no human earthly sacrifice that can even be considered in comparison to the sacrifice made by Jesus Christ.

But now, decades have passed since the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. You’ve been banned from the synagogues and family traditions of your childhood; persecuted religiously, politically, and socially for your beliefs, still considered very radical.  Significant followers of the Way have suffered brutal deaths.  As the first century is nearing its end, you and your fellow Jewish Christians are much in need of encouragement.

And, God hears your cries.  Another persecuted yet faithful believer in Jesus Christ is inspired to compose the letter to you and your fellow Hebrew Christians.  We read in the verses that follow today’s portion of the letter to the Hebrews that this anonymous writer is alarmed by the “drooping hands” and “weak knees” of fellow Hebrew believers.

The writer is inspired to exhort the Hebrews to live into the reality that Jesus Christ reigns superior over the prophets in whom their faith is steeped; Christ is superior over angels, even superior over Moses.  Jesus Christ is superior to the priests ordained as God’s representatives, superior to all earthly human sacrifice.  The New Covenant, instituted by the incarnation of Jesus Christ, is superior to the old.  Believers come with new understanding, in thanksgiving, worshipping God with reverence and awe.

Our Gospel account of Jesus’ healing of the crippled woman in the synagogue on the Sabbath illustrates this radical new understanding that inspires this letter to the Hebrews.  We read from Luke’s Gospel of Jesus’ chastisement by the leaders of the synagogue; this healing on the Sabbath, they contend, is a violation of the Fourth Commandment.  Did Jesus violate the God’s law regarding the keeping of the Sabbath by performing this act of mercy that freed this woman from the bondage of infirmity that had plagued her for eighteen years?  Or, should we say that if a religious rule is keeping us from loving, we’re reading the rule wrong.

Sabbath is a divine gift, as was this gift of healing that Jesus, unsolicited and freely, delivered to this woman in the synagogue.  Accordingly, we understand Sabbath observance is not to be seen as a burden.  Surely, God intends that we honor the Sabbath with worship and praise for God and with rest from our earthly labors.  But, we honor the Sabbath on God’s terms, and we cannot keep this day truly holy if, in complacency or arrogance, we ignore or misuse this gift of Sabbath for purely self-serving purposes.

Keeping the Sabbath, following God’s law, was never intended as a tool for human extploitation and self-serving earthly superiority.  This misuse of the Sabbath – this misuse of the Church as a weapon is truly among the most grievous of sins – setting ourselves up as representatives of Jesus Christ as we arrogantly deny Christ’s healing grace to those who need it the most.  The New Covenant redefines the keeping of Sabbath, and all God’s law, as guidelines for seeking the greater good – opening our souls to the healing grace of God and sharing the joy of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ – the one full and perfect sacrifice – the kingdom that cannot be shaken.

The first century Jewish Christians understood the immensity of this radical new Commandment brought about by the life and works of Jesus Christ.  Yet, as the decades passed, they needed encouragement from fellow believers.

For us 21^stcentury Christians, it is not so different.  The healing power of God’s love is profound.  Together with one another, we receive and share the healing power of God’s love in the kingdom that cannot be shaken.