Getting It Right with God and Neighbor: Remembering the Sabbath
Exodus 20:8; Mark 6.31-56 September 26, 2010
Key Verse: Exodus 20:8
Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
Did you ever have a day like that? A day when you give, and give, and there's still someone with their hand out, wanting MORE? The day where you escape to the bathroom, for just a minute's peace, and you hear, knock knock knock, "hey dad, what you doin? Dad, dad, dad, you in there, what you DO-in?"
All Jesus wanted, both for him, and his disciples, is to get away and rest. Get some food. And they just couldn't get away! They tried to go to the other side of the lake, but the people followed him around, on the shore, and got there ahead of him! And as soon as he stepped off the boat, they wanted something from him. Then, after working all day, the disciples come to him and want him to send them away, for they were STILL hungry. So Jesus performs another miracle with the loaves and fishes, and there were 12 basketfulls of blessing left over. Then, he FINALLY sends everyone away, goes up the hillside to be with his Father. And the MOMENT he comes down, his disciples need him again to rescue them. So he walks across the water and saves them...AGAIN.
This sermon is all about sabbath - it is the Hebrew word for CEASE.
Eugene Peterson: The Most difficult command to keep, a most difficult practice to cultivate. It is one of the most abused and distorted practices of the Christians life.
What Sabbath is NOT:
- just a day off! If you are like most Americans, you take this “day off” and fill it with MORE than enough activity to make you more tired than you are if you had actually gone to work! “well, we’ve got a ball game at 1, and a tee time at 3, and I have to mow the lawn, and we’re having supper with his parents, and the kids have to finish their homework before they go to bed, and oh, I have this load of laundry that HAS to be done, and oh, yeah, I’m not going to be able to make Sunday School because I promised I would bring dessert, and that’s the only time I have to make something…
- while I can’t prove it with hard statistical data, I have to believe that one of the primary reasons that we in America are having more fatigue-related health problems, including depression, anxiety, hypertension, ulcers, muscle and joint pain, insomnia, and hormonal irregularities, just to name a few, is that we are ignoring our need for Sabbath; and even as I say that, I know that many of you are saying, “well, that’s true, and I’ve experienced most of those things on your list, but I don’t have the luxury of choosing to just plop down and rest…” WHO SAYS?!?
What the Sabbath is:
Sabbath is a day set apart
o Why would God choose one day in particular to require His people to pause; to take time-out? After all, they were on a journey to the Promised Land! The sooner they get there, the sooner they can start reaping the benefits of God’s covenant, right? So why stop everything one day in seven?
o Because that ONE DAY is different from all the others; God calls it “HOLY” – and if you remember from last week, the word “holy” means “of a different sort or substance altogether.” We observe the Sabbath because whether we acknowledge it or not, it is a DIFFERENT day than the other six.
o Sabbath establishes for us a divine rhythm; a spirit-led dance through each day, and when we reach the point of Sabbath, we are to take note. This day is different from all other days.
Sabbath connects us with the Creator
Sabbath reminding us that God created us, and that God sustains us: “on the seventh day, God rested”
o The first lesson God sought to teach the Hebrews after freeing them from slavery in Egypt was that of Sabbath: he sent food from heaven, only enough for each day, except for the day before Sabbath, where he sent enough for two days so they could rest
o It is by the Sabbath that knowledge of God and a relationship with him is acquired; and it is a sign that identifies his people, as distinguished from those who are not his people
o There is also a danger in NOT keeping the sabbath holy:
o Eugene Peterson, “Christ plays in ten thousand places”: If there is no Sabbath- no regular and commanded not-working, not-talking — we soon become totally absorbed in what we are doing and saying, and God’s work is either forgotten or marginalized. When we work we are most god-like, which means that it is in our work that it is easier to develop god-pretensions. Un-sabbathed, our work becomes the entire context in which we define our lives. We lose God-consciousness, God-awareness, sightings of resurrection. We lose the capacity to sing “this is my fathers world” and end up chirping little self-centered ditties about what we are doing and feeling.
Sabbath is a day of rest
o In Hebrews 4, it is written that there is a difference between getting rest and getting SABBATH rest: that many have ignored the provision for rest to their great peril. In v. 9, the writer distinguishes between “rest” (katapauo=”with pause” or “ceasing”) and “God’s rest” (sabbatismos=the blessed rest from toils and troubles looked for in the age to come by true worshippers of God)
o It is so often thought that the Sabbath is to be a day to rest from the week behind you; I believe it is to relax and prepare for the week ahead
o Three times in our passage from the gospel of Mark Jesus tried to get away; to get some solitude, some Sabbath. And three times he was denied. The crowds followed them; they wanted miracles! And Jesus had compassion on them. Then they were hungry! Now, let’s not miss the fact that Jesus and his disciples hadn’t eaten either; that’s why they were trying to get away in the first place! So Jesus had to perform the miracle of the loaves and fishes just so everyone would be fed.
o Let’s not miss this crucial fact: Jesus still desired; no, NEEDED rest; he needed Sabbath. So he sent his disciples away, and dismissed the people, and went alone to the hillside.
o What do we get from this? Sabbath rest doesn’t HAPPEN; we must MAKE it happen. We must establish boundaries, both for ourselves and others. Jesus’ compassion could have dictated that he continue teaching, meeting the people’s needs. But HE knew the necessity of following that divine rhythm; he went up the hillside and spent time with His Father.
Which leads me to the final fill-in today:
The Sabbath is for keeping wholly holy.
Have you made intentional, deliberate time to spend with the Father? Trust me, it won’t happen until and unless YOU make it happen.
And here is the Sabbath Challenge:
o Pick a day this week. Turn off the tv, the ipod, the blackberry, the laptop, the phone; dismiss your kids, your spouse, your co-workers, your friends (they CAN get along without you); ignore the laundry, the un-mopped kitchen floor, the trash, the pots, the pans; they will be there when you return
o If you find that just too much of a dis-connect from your world and your way of currently being in the world, start with a mini-sabbath: take a vacation, a fast if you will, from something that takes an inordinate amount of your time: if it is facebook, or twitter, or TV, or golf or food; whatever it might be, take deliberate time away from that thing. An hour, an afternoon, a 24-hour period; whatever it might be.
o Whether it is a day or an hour, SPEND THAT TIME WITH YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER. Let Him speak to you. If you’re not sure what to do in that time, imagine what Jesus must have done up on that hillside. Find that rest with just as much fervency as you keep the other commandments; just as you resist stealing or murdering or committing adultery, KEEP THE SABBATH WHOLLY HOLY.
o The key is to keep those moments fiercely guarded; for we have heard the danger of keeping our Sabbath UNguarded.
Because if you’re trying to find rest, reflect on these words from St. Augustine:
"Thou hast made us for Thyself O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee."
– St. Augustine
The End
4 years ago
