Caleb was probably the laziest boy in the whole village. At least that was his reputation, although no one had ever done scientific study on the question. Caleb could sit in one position - usually, shaded by a tree and upon a matting of soft grass - for hours. He could sit there and watch the clouds move across the sky from daybreak to sunset. Actually, he was never out of bed at day break so the statement was more for effect than truth!

This day Caleb had chosen to escape his field chores by hiding away in his father's grain field. The grain was high enough so that by lying down he was completely hidden. Only the high-flying birds could see him. Which, of course, did not count in any list of possible ways he might be caught. Caleb had really found his place - his youthful resting place.

But suddenly his leisure was destroyed! Sounds of many voices and many feet disturbed his hideaway. And as the voices came closer so did the foot-falls. It sounded as if an army were coming - an army looking for him, he was sure. But before he could run away, the grain around him was parted by an angry crowd who stopped a few feet from him and began shouting. Crouching very still, Caleb shared in an unexpected encounter between Jesus of Nazareth and the religious leaders of his day. Caleb didn't really mean to be part of it. He was caught in the midst of it. Life just moved along, engulfing him, whether he was lazy or not. He long remembered that meeting in the middle of the grain field.

And whether you want to be involved in it today, you are! That is the point. You may have tucked yourself away, but the world comes to you anyway! And you really have to take sides! And, lest you think I am talking of chocolate-coated candy today, I am not.

It is strange to us now, but religion when Jesus encountered the Pharisees was something to be done. Or, better said, something only to be done. Religion then, symbolized by those Pharisees from Jerusalem, was following the good work rules - careful rules, detailed rules, God-oriented rules. On the sabbath one did not work! To make it clearer, so that no one would misunderstand, work was defined by many, many precise definitions, one of which included harvesting - even harvesting grain one kernel at a time by fingertips! In that day you did religion. That is what pleased God, it was then announced.

"Not!" said Jesus, or words to that effect! Religious faith was more than good works! Elsewhere he talked of the two sides of a cup: the inside and the outer side, the motivation and the deed, the thought and the act. The inner beliefs which gave birth to deeds, as well as the deeds themselves. Jesus taught that adultery was not simply an act. Adultery was initially a thought, a plan, a decision of the mind. I believe part of the revival in religious faith in our generation has been this breaking through externals to touch the inner spirit, the soul, the source of belief and motivation. Religion as external observance is not satisfying, nor life-giving when the pressure of living is intense. But when God's Spirit breaks through the externals, then life is entirely different.

Those Pharisees who had traveled from Jerusalem understood that Jesus' way was very different from their way. It was, they believed, the work of Satan, of God's enemy.

As the debate continued, Jesus tried to argue with logic. He thought that it would be a way to reach those learned teachers from the Holy City. Jesus cited the very writings that the Pharisees understood as holy law. King David ate sacred, holy bread when he and his army was hungry. It was bread reserved only for the priests, but King David recognized the human need before the sacramental. That is scripture. (1 Samuel 21) The sabbath is to provide opportunity for humanity to rest and to have time to meditate upon God. "Sabbath was made for humankind, not men and women for the sabbath." (Mark 2:27)

The Pharisees would have nothing to do with such discussion. They continued to hound him. They watched as Jesus' presence in the synagogue brought strength to a man's withered hand. Jesus saw the Pharisees watching and he tried to reason with them once again. "Tell me, Learned Ones," Jesus said, "is it allowed to do good on sabbath?" Jesus knew that the law said it was all right on the sabbath to rescue a cow that had fallen into a ditch. What about a human life? Mark's gospel shares some emotion in the recounting. He says the Pharisees didn't answer Jesus. Jesus "looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart." (This is one of the very few references to Jesus' anger.) And so in the presence of the Pharisees from Jerusalem, and in the presence of God's Holy Spirit working through Jesus, the man's arm was strengthened - on the sabbath! Mark then says that the Pharisees plotted how to destroy Jesus.

That is the scripture for today. Now, the M and M factor! It involves siding with the Pharisees or with Jesus.

The Pharisees said one must do religious work to be worthy of God's love and care, to be accepted by God! They spelled out that work with great precision. It had to be precise so that one could know if God really cared for him. This was the reason for the many, many rules and regulations and law that formed the religion of Jesus' day. "You don't work on the sabbath because God won't like you if you do!" Religion involved things that must be done and must not be done.

But, Jesus taught by example that we may do good work as a response to God's love and care that has already been given to us. The healing of that man's arm in the synagogue on the sabbath was done because God's concern for the man willed a strong arm. Jesus knew the power of God's Spirit and he sought to be a channel for that power wherever it could bring God's blessing and goodness upon life. The arm is strengthened. The lame walk. The blind see. The hungry are fed. The despised are befriended. The dying are brought new life. The invitation is extended by Christ: you may choose to do good deeds, as God does good to you. It is the difference between must and may! That is the M and M factor!

This past week some of the committees of our congregation have been talking about finances for the year ahead. Budgets are being drawn up. Plans are being laid for the pledge time on November 1st. When we get into these discussions I always think of a man I knew in another church 12 years ago. He had been a salesman all his life and in his later years was disabled by blindness. He was not wealthy although his retirement income was adequate for his care. When I would visit with him he would recount stories of past time when he taught Sunday school, when he helped with this church project or that. One of his sons entered Christian ministry and he was very proud of that. He had been involved with many Christian projects in the community, in addition to his local church work. A community house was of special interest. On one of my visits, he produced a check - one that had a number of zeroes on it - and said that he had some money that he really didn't need and he wanted to share it with some special interests. Would I divide it up and pass it on? Then, pausing in a special reverie all his own, he said, "You know, I have been very, very blessed in my life and I don't have to make these gifts. I just want to give to something that will be of some help to others so that they can someday say how lucky they are." It wasn't anything he had to do! There was no must about it! It was a may, a response to the goodness that he had experienced in life - even in his present blindness!

It is more than money. Giving also involves the resources of thought and experience and prayer and time - all those resources over which we are stewards. You may teach a church school class or you may sing in the choir. You may help with meals on wheels. You may build a house for another person or visit an elderly shut-in person. You may call on a visitor to your church or lead a Bible study time. There is in our response to God's goodness no must. It always is only an invitation.

Christian theologians talk of the Prevenient Grace of God. They mean that God's love comes upon us whether we are deserving of that love or not. God's love comes to us as a grace, a gift that we never earned. We never earn it with a long list of good works, nor a long list of unbroken laws. God's love and care is given to us. Jesus shared that in the strength he gave to the man's withered arm - a strength given even amid the sabbath restrictions thought so important. In response to that grace we may pass on the love to others. God's love does not demand it. That is sometimes a difficult concept to grasp. Edwin Markham understood it when he wrote these four lines:

Here is the Truth in a little creed,Enough for all the roads we go:In Love is all the law we need,In Christ is all the God we know.