In reflecting on our theme for this year - merciful discipleship - I find myself thinking that mercy takes  time - time to be with the people who need us most, who need the love of God in our lives. In our lives today, it is very easy to fall into a couple of ruts: 1) to always be rushing off to do the next thing on the to-do list; 2) to be so wedded to routines that we forget to look and see the people around us who have particular needs.

 

The gospel reading (Luke 14:1-6) describes one of many places in scripture where Jesus asks a question about what it means to keep the Sabbath. Among some Jews of his day, healing a person on the Sabbath was against the law - but Jesus means to ask the crowd a few difficult questions about whether they wouldn't, in fact, heal their own children on the Sabbath if there were an emergency?

 

Jesus' question is a good one, for it reminds us that no matter how holy or important the events and to-do lists of our lives are, loving our neighbors is still more important. Sabbath keeping was, and is, crucial for Jewish life. It reminds practitioners that they are made for God, and God's love - and they are not made for work, even though that comprises six days of the week. The kind of joy and rest of the Jewish Sabbath ought to inform our own practices of taking Sundays off, I think. In fact, I think more Christians ought to be doing some form of Sabbath rest - some form of playing and praying together!

 

Yet Jesus reminds us that however holy and important it is to remember that we are God's people who are made for love - we are not slaves to work six days a week - still, keeping Sabbath, could become a routine that makes a person forget to look out for neighbors. It can also become a thing to check of the list, and in the rush of getting it done, forget to see. 

 

What I am most struck by in the gospel is the fact that no one has an answer for Jesus. It is like they are struck dumb, even though they've been watching and waiting for Jesus to do something crazy and blasphemous like this. I'd like to think - in faith - that this crowd observing Jesus is maybe being slowly converted, slowly coming to realize who Jesus is - and slowly coming to realize that the whole point of the Sabbath to begin with is to be reminded of love, to experience love abounding. Therefore we ought to be constantly living in that love by loving other people.

 

In this year of Merciful Discipleship, let us be reminded that mercy takes time, and pray for the grace and wisdom to stop our routines - even our best routines - in love and service of others.

 

- Jana M. Bennett