El proposito del sabado es practicar la fe. No merecemos tanta bandicion ni tanta condenación, pero lo pedimos lo que necesitamos. No trabajar en el sabado es acto de soladaridad uno con otro en recibir alivio, perdon, y la justicia. Es como huelga sagrada.
We are currently reading through the book of Exodus at Thursday morning Bible Study. We meet each Thursday at 10:30am and read through the bible verse by verse, pausing for discussion. Please join us! Thank you to Mark Allert who led study while I was on vacation. Last week we read the climax: chapter 20: the giving of the 10 Commandments. While all the commandments are important, some take on a special significance. Honor the Sabbath and keep it holy. Keeping the Sabbath is central to Judaism. Do you know what is the most holy day of the year in Judaism? It is the sabbath. Every week the holiest day of the year is given to us by God to enjoy.
Something that’s interesting is that even before the 10 commandments are given, the people are instructed to observe the sabbath. The people are starving in the desert wilderness and they complain to Moses for food. God in turn sends them: Manna. Also known as “What is it?” The thing is, each morning people gather just enough Manna for what they need, except on Friday, they gather double, so that they don’t have to work on the sabbath. Today we read from the prophet Isaiah,
Then we have this strange reading from Luke 13. Jesus heals a woman who had been crippled for eighteen years by a Spirit. When the Bible talks about Spirits crippling people and causing all kinds of ailments I can’t help but wonder if we should translate that word, “Spirits” to something that makes more sense for us today. What if we used the word, “virus.” We attribute ailments to viruses like ancient people attributed them to Spirits. Indeed West Nile Virus can cripple people.
Why do people do this? Why is that when someone tries to do something good, they get ganged up on, criticized, and torn down? Maybe it is out of jealousy? Maybe we are afraid that if someone lets their light shine brightly it will diminish our own light. Maybe a good deed makes us uncomfortable because we have grown accustomed to the Spirits or Viruses in our lives. We act out of pain and frustration longing for a healing from the suffering from which we deal with.
So where is the grace in all of this? We believe that we are saved by grace through faith, and not by works. In other words, if and when someone is giving you a hard time, criticizing and belittling you, don’t for one moment think that this is the will of God. God does not punish us for our sins. The God of judging and condemning is dead. So if someone is judging and condemning you, they do not speak for or represent God. The evil, pain, and suffering of this world is not the will of God, it is the result of broken and hurting people. So if you have faith in God’s grace and God’s forgiveness. If you believe that all sin died on the cross with Jesus’ then your faith must compel you to not standby while innocent people are suffering. Many people, multitudes of people suffer every day in silence. If you would be the one to lift up your head, to come to the defense of the suffering, you have truly become a person filled by the power of the Holy Spirit.
What is the holiest day of the year?
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