Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 1

Advent through Transfiguration

David L. Bartlett, Barbara Brown Taylor, David L. Bartlett, Barbara Brown Taylor

• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN: 9780664230968
• eBook ISBN: 9781611641158
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

With this new lectionary commentary series, Westminster John Knox offers the most extensive resource for preaching on the market today. When complete, the twelve volumes of the series will cover all the Sundays in the three-year lectionary cycle, along with movable occasions, such as Christmas Day, Epiphany, Holy Week, and All Saints' Day.

For each lectionary text, preachers will find four brief essays--one each on the theological, pastoral, exegetical, and homiletical challenges of the text. This gives preachers sixteen different approaches to the proclaimation of the Word on any given occasion.

The editors and contributors to this series are world-class scholars, pastors, and writers representing a variety of denominations and traditions. And while the twelve volumes of the series will follow the pattern of the Revised Common Lectionary, each volume will contain an index of biblical passages so that nonlectionary preachers, as well as teachers and students, may make use of its content.

NINTH SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY

Deuteronomy 5:12–15

¹² Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you.¹³ Six days you shall labor and do all your work.¹⁴ But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you.¹⁵ Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

Theological Perspective

How do we make time for rest in a society and world that most often rewards workaholism? A question like this is one way we often begin to reflect upon the meaning of Sabbath. Although such a question is an important point of departure for twenty-first-century people of faith to engage this lectionary text, we must also discern the meaning of rest in terms of practices of faithfulness and an understanding of work with reference to vocation.

This text in Deuteronomy highlights a third theological key for interpreting the relationship between God and Israel. In last Sunday’s Isaiah text (43:18–25), God’s relationship with Israel is a matter of election (God chooses a particular people as God’s own). In this week’s Hosea text (2:14–20), covenant (a mutually binding agreement based on God’s promises and the obligations for humans) is the earmark of the relationship. Here in the Deuteronomy text, keeping a commandment or “living the way of Torah”¹ is at the center of how Israel is to be faithful. The three texts thus may be understood as a threefold commentary on the requirements of moral life for communities who seek to be faithful people of God because of the promises God makes and steadfastly fulfills. The common reference in all three texts is remembrance of the exodus.

This text (Deut. 5:12–15) is part of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments. These specific verses are the fourth commandment, the commandment to observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Biblical commentaries remind us that Deuteronomy’s version of this fourth commandment differs in form from the one in Exodus 20:8–11. Although the intent of both versions of the commandment is that there be one day without work and set apart to the Lord, the Exodus version begins by recalling God’s work of creation in six days followed by a seventh day of rest; that remembrance of creation establishes a pattern for Israel and the basis of the commandment. In Deuteronomy, it is the memory of God’s redemptive work in terms of Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt (v. 15) that is the reason for observing the commandment; this remembrance is the reason why all persons in the community—perhaps, especially the slaves—and all animals are to rest. In sum, “in the case of Exodus, the community is called to remember and to obey out of that memory; in the Deuteronomic form, the community obeys to keep alive the memory of redemption and to bring about the provision of rest from toil for all members of the community.”²

These two emphases, keeping alive the memory of redemption and providing rest from toil for all members of the community, are crucial because God has consecrated the day. God’s consecration of the day means that Israel’s obligation is to keep the day holy. The question of how to keep the day holy pushes us to ask, “What are the practices of faithfulness that embody the meaning of rest in this commandment?” “Practices” here refers to ways of being and doing that are formative to a community. Here are a few ideas regarding rest and practices of faithfulness.

First, rest is not simply the cessation of work; rest as a practice of faithfulness requires that the doing of work is replaced by the worshiping of God. A community at rest keeping the Sabbath holy is a community that is worshiping God for the purpose of thanking God for deliverance and redemption. A practice that embodies this meaning of rest is worship—worship marked by thanksgiving and rituals that evoke historical memory of the ways that God has delivered and redeemed us.

Second, rest interrupts the established flow of things at the same time that it opens up a space for recognizing that which may be awry in the midst of everyday living and for reaffirming members of the community, as well as expanding the community. When the commandment makes clear that all members of the community, regardless of social status and species, are to rest, the established order of hierarchy and the potential for exploitation, abuse, and objectification of those who are not the power brokers of the community are suspended. Likewise, this understanding of community is one premised upon radical inclusion. A community at rest keeping the Sabbath holy is a community that respects interpersonal and interspecies relationships. A practice that embodies this meaning of rest is hospitality, and hospitality will be manifest through acts of care, service, and justice toward those from whose labors we reap benefits or over whom we have power. For if hospitality as described is practiced over time, then hospitality that is in effect justice making will become part of the character and actions of the community all of the time.

Still, how does the twenty-first-century person of faith, prone to workaholism, keep this commandment? As suggested at the beginning of this essay, there must be a shift in how we understand work. If our work is the job whereby we earn money, and accumulating money is why we work, then work is detached from a theological understanding of vocation. Frequently today we seem to reserve discussion of calling or vocation to those who are in ordained ministry. Focusing the discussion in that way has led us away from nurturing each person to discern his or her vocation; in the words of one author, “vocation is not a profession. It is definitely not ‘work’ and even less a ‘job.’ Vocation is knowing and staying true to the deep voice.”³ The deep voice is our purpose for living, and this voice can be best discerned over time, when we observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy in communities where practices of worship and hospitality are at the heart of what it means to rest.

MARCIA Y. RIGGS

Pastoral Perspective

This text points to a theology of work. While many have emphasized the theology of Sabbath or rest, the Sabbath is intertwined with work. Frequently we confuse income with work. We think that work is simply a matter of earning our income. Work is the embodiment of vocation nurtured by a deep calling and clarity of direction, commitment, and sacrifice. Because work is an organic function of our daily life, it is both life-giving and draining. Work as a vocation consumes and restores; it is fulfilling and frustrating.

The text is clear about the need for work: “Six days you shall labor and do all your work” (v. 13). Because work is the embodiment of a vocation, it is multifaceted. If we limit work to what we have been trained to do or to the hours we spent doing a task, we lose the divine dimension of work as vocation. Work as vocation gives meaning and transcendence to the encompassing tasks that define who we are in our daily life experience. It is the transfer of not only kinetic but also psychic and spiritual energy. The result of our tasks returns with varying degrees of satisfaction and frustration that become nutrients to continue our work, to continue our vocation.

If verse 12 demands that the Sabbath be observed and kept holy, does that mean that all we do during the other six days is unholy? Perhaps the text provides an opportunity to discuss a theology of work or vocation that offers continuity and connection between the holiness of the Sabbath and the other six days. Exploring the continuity and connection between the Sabbath and the other days of the week might offer the following opportunities: (1) To discern the vocational and missional grounding of working committees in the community. Could you imagine the budget committee working with a missional grounding rather than exclusively exercising its administrative oversight? (2) To discover in our daily life activities—such as parenting, cooking, teaching, playing, reading, thinking, shoveling cement, sharing time with friends, accompanying an ill neighbor to the hospital, making love, debating—the divine intention and vocation of our life. (3) To differentiate our income-making tasks from work as vocation and, as a result, discover how our vocation should guide and shape our income-making tasks. (4) To create a new modus operandi that would illuminate the ways in which our personal and communal theologies of work or vocations—work as embodied vocation—inform and form our Sabbath worship experience. Seeking, thinking, and discovering the continuity and connection between work and the Sabbath can be draining. The discernment of the Holy in our vocation, of the relationship between the six days and the Sabbath in our daily life experiences, demands a time for rest, a time to be renewed. Sabbath is irrelevant without transcendence and meaning in our daily work!

The command is clear: “But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work” (v. 14a). This is God’s invitation to shift energy and focus from our work—our embodied vocation and the daily wrestling that comes with and from it—to our relationship with the Creator. It is amazing: God demands time and space for us to deliberately rest. Focusing our attention and self on God prevents us from burnout and exploitation of others. While some may think that the Sabbath is a day for God, the Sabbath is commanded for our sake: to liberate us from being trapped in a loop of overanalysis and overwork in our vocation and, consequently, protect those who are intertwined with our vocation.

The Sabbath is also commanded to protect those abused and exploited by our misguided vocation and by those who do not have a vocation but have an income-oriented task totally submitted to the insatiable but mistaken values of wealth and prosperity typical of the global economy. The command stretches not only to family and household members but to the living things that contribute to sustain daily life—“or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock” (v. 14b). Moreover, the command also includes the most vulnerable—“the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you” (v. 14b). The Sabbath fulfills many critical functions: (a) it invites a true embodiment and continuous reflective evaluation of our theology of work or vocation; (b) it protects the believer from exhaustion given the intensity of living in and critically reflecting on our vocation; (c) it protects those who directly or indirectly participate in our vocation; and (d) it protects those who, because of their particular role and/or vulnerability in society, may fall prey to exploitation from a misguided vocation or an income-oriented taskmaster. Shifting our focus and direction to God creates justice for all.

Faith communities and pastoral ministries—ordained and laity—need to reconsider the meaning of Sabbath. Among many Protestant communities, Sabbath is about renewal and revitalization, but often it does not include the vocational and protective elements described above. Perhaps it is because there is something missing in our recovering of the Sabbath. The text’s historical referent is crucial. We can ask, Why should we keep the Sabbath? The text answers: “Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there … therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath” (v. 15).

A slave has no vocation. A slave lives in exploitation and abuse, mechanically performing offensive and humiliating tasks. Energy is consumed with no life-giving return. Life is drained. Rest is given to pursue further exploitation. A reminder of this condition will demand a different approach for the time of rest and for the experience of work. Not anymore under the control of Egypt, daily life finds God’s direction in the Sabbath, for it is a time of constant discovery of vocation and protection of creation. Will our religious communities find a historical referent with the power to change our interpretation of the Sabbath?

CARLOS F. CARDOZA-ORLANDI

Exegetical Perspective

The Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, appears twice in Scripture, in two different versions (Exod. 20:1–17; Deut. 5:6–21). Jewish tradition holds that Exodus 20:2–6 and Deuteronomy 5:6–10, which are virtually identical in the two versions, were spoken by God to all Israel, while the later commands, which differ, were interpreted by Moses (see the Babylonian Talmud, Makkot 23b–24a). Clearly these two Decalogues are related; however, the nature of that relationship is difficult to discern. The Exodus Decalogue, which belongs in its present form to the final editing of the Torah, may be based on the version in Deuteronomy.¹ However, archaeologist Ron Tappy argues that the latter part of the Decalogue (Exod. 20:12–17; Deut. 5:16–21) is old family and clan law and likely predates the monarchy in Israel (though the pairing of those commandments with religious law was a later development).² It may be best, then, to think of these two passages as alternate forms of a common tradition. But whatever their relationship, the question of the role each version plays in its context remains.

Today’s lectionary reading, the commandment concerning the Sabbath in Deuteronomy 5:12–15, marks the most significant difference between the two Decalogues. The Sabbath commandment in Exodus 20:8–11 refers back to the Priestly creation account (Gen. 1:1–2:4a), where God completes creation by resting on the seventh day (Gen. 2:1–3). In Deuteronomy, however, Sabbath refers not to the timeless story of creation, but to the history of Israel—specifically, to the exodus (Deut. 5:15). What theological purpose is served in Deuteronomy by linking Sabbath to deliverance from slavery?

A core feature of the book of Deuteronomy is a deep concern for what we today would call human rights. Indeed, Deuteronomy does for ancient Israel what the U.S. Constitution does for American democracy: it describes the polity of the society while ensuring limits on governmental power and guaranteeing the rights of individuals. No wonder S. Dean McBride Jr., who translated Deuteronomy for the NRSV and is perhaps the greatest living expert on this book, suggests that Deuteronomy is the first constitution in world history.³ Deuteronomy’s concern for the individual shows itself in numerous ways. The often abused practice of debt slavery (see Amos 2:6–8) is carefully regulated in Deuteronomy 15:1–18. No Israelite man or woman could ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Editorial Board
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Publisher’s Note
• Series Introduction
• First Sunday of Advent
• Second Sunday of Advent
• Third Sunday of Advent
• Fourth Sunday in Advent
• Christmas Eve
• Christmas Day
• First Sunday After Christmas Day
• Second Sunday After Christmas Day
• Epiphany of the Lord
• Baptism of the Lord (First Sunday After the Epiphany)
• Second Sunday After the Epiphany
• Third Sunday After the Epiphany
• Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany
• Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany
• Sixth Sunday After the Epiphany
• Seventh Sunday After the Epiphany
• Eighth Sunday After the Epiphany
• Ninth Sunday After the Epiphany
• Last Sunday After the Epiphany: (Transfiguration Sunday)
• Contributors
• Scripture Index