A sermon by the Rev. Guillermo A. Arboleda, written for and delivered at All Saints' Episcopal Church, Tybee Island, GA, on Sunday, June 2, 2024, the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost (RCL Proper 4, Year B).
Introduction / Preface
Today it is my great honor to be able to join you, the people of All Saints’ Episcopal Church, for the first time. I have worked it out with the Vestry and Diocese to be able to serve as a guest minister here about twice per month for at least the rest of this year. I have been in and around the Savannah area since 2014, so I’ve gotten to know some of you over the years, but I’m looking forward to establishing new and deeper relationships with the members of this church.
Some of you already know that I spent eight years as the rector of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Savannah and that I’m married to Rev. Kelly Steele, the rector of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church on Skidaway Island. A couple of months ago, I left that call to take a somewhat-unusual non-parochial church call. I now work for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s denominational center. ELCA Lutherans and Episcopalians are in full communion, which is why Lutheran pastors sometimes serve All Saints’ and why I’m welcome to serve in Lutheran contexts like this one. I work as the Program Manager of New Church Starts, so I support new churches all over the USA and Caribbean with grant funding and pastoral coaching and consultation. Many of our New Communities serve recent immigrants whose first language is not English; many of the members of the new churches come from other historically marginalized communities. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve in some of the most innovative and creative ministry spaces out there. In these new churches, the love of Jesus breaks down divisions, healing, transforming, and inspiring people who participate and those like me who support and cheerlead. I hope that I’ll have opportunities to share some of the lessons I learn with y’all during our time together on Sundays.
How Can I Choose Love?
With that introduction out of the way, let’s turn to this fascinating story about Jesus in the Gospel of Mark. Here, Jesus tried to break down divisions in his religious communities, but the leaders pushed back. What does it mean to obey God’s Laws? What do we do when someone breaks a rule? When laws contradict one another, what do we do? Who decides?
Mark 2:23-3:6
23 One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields, and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food, 26 how he entered the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions?” 27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the Sabbath, 28 so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” 3:1 Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 2 They were watching him to see whether he would cure him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3 And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.” 4 Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. 5 He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6 The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
The first part of this story tells us that Jesus and his disciples are walking through grain fields on the Sabbath. They are hungry, so as they walk through the fields, they pluck pieces of grain that they can eat. (Side Note: Raw wheat or barley grains don’t taste very good, so they must have been starving!) Seemingly out of nowhere, a group of Pharisees appear to challenge Jesus about the behavior of his disciples. They are not supposed to be harvesting on the Sabbath day; that is work. “Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy” is the Fourth of the Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy 5:12). God cares about it enough to name it before even telling us not to murder each other!
Hopefully, this is a pretty familiar story to us, so you already know that Jesus argues right back with the Pharisees, appealing to a story about King David from the Old Testament. But that’s not really where we are going to focus today. If you lived in Judea in the 1st Century and you heard this story, you would think that everything about it is weird!
Why are Jesus and his disciples walking through fields on the sabbath? Where are they going? What are they trying to accomplish on that day? Traditionally, rabbis teach that you are only allowed to walk a limited distance on the sabbath, so what was so important that they went walking together? And why were the Pharisees also close enough to the grain fields to see them? Where were they going? Maybe they are all walking to the synagogue to worship together — the same service that begins in Mark 3:1, in the middle of today’s reading, where Jesus meets a man with a withered hand. Okay, that sort of explains this piece of the scenario.
But then, here’s the kicker: Why are Jesus and his followers hungry? I listened to a Rabbi teaching about this Gospel story at a conference recently, and he blew my mind with this question. He told us that according to most rabbinical traditions, the most important thing someone can do on the Sabbath day is offer hospitality. If you know that someone is hungry on the sabbath, you are supposed to invite them to eat with you. These Pharisees certainly knew about that tradition, but they abdicated their duty to invite Jesus and his followers to dine with them; instead they were outside criticizing and questioning them. They thought it was more important to rub in that they were “lawbreakers” than to follow the Law themselves. This connects back to that famous image about taking the log out of your own eye instead of looking for the speck in someone else’s eyes (Matthew 7:1-5).
But the real reason that the Pharisees chose to criticize their rival rabbi Jesus was because they had already judged him. By the time we get to Mark, Chapter 3, Jesus has already had seven public confrontations with the religious leaders. They were jealous of his popularity. They were angry with the way he bent the rules. They were embarrassed at the way that he publicly challenged them and undermined their authority with the common people. They allowed their jealousy, rage, and hate to get the best of them. By the time Jesus heals the man’s withered hand in the synagogue on the sabbath day, they were unable to rejoice at the miraculous healing. They weren’t happy for this man whose life was changed. They were even angrier with Jesus. That story ends with this ominous verse: “The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him” (Mark 3:6).
Jesus came with love trying to break down divisions between the hungry and the full, the disabled and the temporarily able-bodied. But the religious leaders would rather kill Jesus than give those divisions up. The lesson in these stories is clear. Honoring the Sabbath is good, but putting rules over people is wrong. When given the choice, always choose hospitality, always choose generosity, always choose mercy, always choose love.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just nod our heads, smile, and leave it at that? We all agree with Jesus: “love one another.” We got it! But there is a huge difference between agreeing with Jesus’ teaching and living it. It’s way harder to choose love and compassion for someone who offends you or irritates the heck out of you. I’m an extremely compassionate person… until I turn on the news and hear about a politician I don’t like. I’m very patient… until that annoying coworker calls me on my day off. I’m very generous… until someone asks me for change when I’m walking my dog. I’m very loving and forgiving … until my wife forgets to add her dishes to the fully loaded dishwasher and hit the start button at the end of the night (which would never happen, of course).
The point I’m trying to make is that these stories are about Jesus confronting judgmental religious leaders during his lifetime… but they’re also about us. This Gospel reading is an invitation for us to examine our own lives. Where am I being judgmental and assuming the worst about someone else? Where am I forgetting to be curious and empathetic and try to see something from someone else’s point of view? Even when I know someone else is wrong, where am I letting my anger get the better of me?
I’ll leave you with one final question to ponder: At least once this week, How can I choose love when it’s hard? It doesn’t have to be big and dramatic like a miraculous healing. But look for one opportunity to be compassionate where your first instinct is… something else. How can I choose love? Let us pray…
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