Sunday 21 August 2022 – The Tenth Sunday after Trinity

Collect
Let your merciful ears, O Lord,
be open to the prayers of your humble servants;
and that they may obtain their petitions
make them to ask such things as shall please you;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen

Isaiah 58. 9-14
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you
remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food
to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your
gloom be like the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched
places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water,
whose waters never fail.

Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be
called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in. If you refrain from trampling the
sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the
holy day of the Lord honourable; if you honour it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests,
or pursuing your own affairs; then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride upon the
heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the
Lord has spoken.

Hebrews 12. 18-29
You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a
tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another
word be spoken to them. (For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even an animal
touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death. “Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I
tremble with fear.”)

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to
innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven,
and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator
of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking; for if they did not escape when they refused the
one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from
heaven!

At that time his voice shook the earth; but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only
the earth but also the heaven.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of what is shaken
that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

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; or indeed our God is a consuming fire.

Luke 13.10-17
Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.
And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years.
She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.
When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.”
When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.

But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath,
kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done;
come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.”
But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath
untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water?

And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years,
be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?”
When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing
at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

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Reflection

Is 58. 9 – 14, Luke 13. 10

Why remember the Sabbath?

The Sabbath is part of God’s plan for his people: not just a day when we stop our everyday tasks but
time for spiritual refreshment, joy and blessing. Isaiah explains that, on the Sabbath, we should not
pursue our own interests and affairs but make it a delight and honour it. (Isaiah 58. 13 – 14).

Blessed are you, Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has sanctified us with his commandments
and favoured us, and given us in love and favour his holy Shabbat as an inheritance, as a remembrance of
the act of creation. For this day is the beginning of all holy days, a remembrance of the Exodus from
Egypt. (part of the Kiddush Sabbath prayer)

This blessing shows that the Sabbath is not only part of creation but also a celebration of freedom from
the slavery endured by the descendants of Abraham in Egypt. In the Gospel story Jesus gives the
woman, a daughter of Abraham, rest from her bodily affliction. He offers her an opportunity to recreate
her life, he frees her from her slavery to pain and she becomes able, in her new upright position, to
look around at and be joyful in creation.