REMEMBERING THE SABBATH

Exodus 20: 8-11; Luke 13: 10-17

Do you know people who can’t accept gifts well?  I’m one of them!  So many thoughts go through my mind: if I use the gift right away then it will be gone, so instead I save it! By my not using the gift, gift cards have sometimes expires or gotten lost. If it’s food, it might go bad or expire. I have seen places in people’s closets where they have neatly placed gifts they have received that a) they haven’t yet opened; or b) that they aren’t sure they can use; or c) that they think they’ll “re-gift!” I am bad about using gracious gifts, but now I am working to use them with thanks! Have people given you gifts that you haven’t used? Have people given you a gift and you didn’t thank them? Both have the potential of hurting the giver! 

Today I want to suggest that the Great Gift-Giver of the world—God

 --the one who has given us blessings, and the Son, and creation, has given us another gift that is often ignored, stomped on, or set aside, and often people do not thank God for it. It’s the Sabbath. It’s a day of rest, or at least a day of doing something different from the other days; doing something rejuvenating instead of debilitating. It is also supposed to be a day to honor and thank God. Even though it is a commandment that is meant to be kept along with do not kill, do not steal, and do not commit adultery, the gift of the Sabbath is one of the most trampled-on and ignored commandments on the list. I suspect it hurts the giver when we do not receive the gift and use it! Some walk around exhausted, sleep-deprived, over-worked, grouchy, or complaining. Could God be watching and say “I don’t want to hear it! You need to put your foot down and take a day; make a day; carve out a day to rest! I gave you that gift and even modeled it for you in Genesis!” Many would say back to God (and yes, God can take a good argument) “Right! Tell that to my boss, tell that to my kids, or tell that to their coaches.” Encroaching activity, like crabgrass on a lawn, will eat up your day of rest. We know since New Testament days that the Christian churches have most often carved out Sundays as their Sabbath. If you are Jewish your Sabbath is Saturday (actually Friday sundown until Saturday sundown.) Jews had problems in this country for years when many occupations required Saturday work and almost everything was closed on Sunday. Now Christians also have to decide to keep a Sabbath or not since most stores stay open that day. Sabbath is only one of God’s finest gifts, one that often gets set on the shelf of our lives to be used another month, or another year, or decade. But like many other gifts, you either use it, or you lose it or it expires.  I know a number of people who worked non-stop most of their lives, some of them even working extra hours for extra money. They looked forward to their retirement day, some even crossing off days on a calendar, when all their days would be free time. Finally: retirement! Their saved-up chores took about a month of retirement time and then many were bored. They decided to travel, but then a heart attack, or cancer, or some other ailment clipped their wings and the second half of life changed from what they had pictured. Soon their saved up time was just taken up reading magazines in doctors waiting rooms. Just as the saying suggests to stop and smell the roses along life’s pathway, the Sabbath is a gift meant to be enjoyed along the way, not saved. (Jeff Sumner, are you listening??) Using the gift of Sabbath pleases the giver!  There are no stars in our crowns by working ourselves into burnout, bitterness, or illness.

Certainly there are those who do observe the Sabbath- some strictly, some more openly.  Some of you grew up when there was no card playing, no television, and no shopping on the Christian Sabbath. For the Orthodox Jew even today, any food consumed on the Sabbath must be prepared the day before. “No work of any kind” is their way of understanding this law. Read it in Exodus for yourself. But we find in Luke that Jesus attracted critics when he stopped a synagogue service to offer healing on the Sabbath. “Healing is work!” they said. “Heal that person tomorrow!”  Can you imagine if hospitals went dark on a Sabbath day so that no care was offered? Or perhaps the Jewish nurses would work on Sunday and the Christian nurses on Saturday, and the atheist nurses would take a different day! Even now weekends have fewer staff. But healing and recovery does not happen according to a set schedule. The Savior, the one who came to give us abundant life, healed on the Sabbath. You’ll remember his words in Mark chapter 2: “The Sabbath was made for mortals, not mortals for the Sabbath.”  Even on the day Jesus was put into the tomb, his body was not anointed with spices until the next day because “On the Sabbath day they rested according to the commandment.” (Luke 23:56) Attending to the body of Jesus- perhaps one of the most important events in the history of the world- did not happen for 24 hours because God’s gift was before them. They chose to follow the commandment and not to insult the giver. If they had anointed Jesus’ body immediately, the Easter story would have been strikingly different.

In her book KEEPING THE SABBATH WHOLLY, Marva Dawn writes: “To keep the Sabbath means to cherish it, to honor it as the Queen of our days, in consort with the King of the Universe. To develop the habit of Sabbath keeping requires some intentionality on our part; [but] its ceasing enables us to rest, and its feasting enables us to embrace afresh.” (p.203)

Keeping the Sabbath; we know it is a commandment, not more or less important than the other nine; we know that it is a choice since God gave us free will, but that God hopes we will keep it. The other thing we learned today is that the Sabbath is a gift and that the giver is God. Now if we choose to keep the Sabbath, how might that be done?  There are those who have fond memories of Sundays in the past as I do. Growing up when I would visit my grandparents in Ellwood City, we would go to church, have family members over to share a big noonday meal, we would visit with each other, and then they would leave and we would take naps! There would be a light supper that night and afterward before dark when it was cool, we would drive to the cemetery to water the flowers on the family graves and hear once again the stories of their lives. At my grandmother’s in Sylvester we did almost the same thing. To the boys and girls here I have to tell you, it was not boring, it was magical. I never forgot the ritual. Certainly the times have changed and the way you might keep your Sabbath has changed. Some who work Sundays observe a Sabbath on a different day. But if you are like me, you have to be extra vigilant to guard your Sabbath. On those week days, you can get swept into work that is draining and stressful if you aren’t careful. The times are different in Florida. It is more difficult for most to keep the Sabbath. There are distractions and attractions everywhere. But when your soul feels most dry, or bitter, or over-worked, only stopping to drink in the living water of which Jesus spoke can revive your soul again. Observing the Sabbath is part of the prescription.

Lynne M. Baab wrote a recent book called SABBATH KEEPING in which she admits she struggles to do what her title suggests. That is honest. In our world that values what we have accomplished more than who we are, God says “I value who you are most.” Our world tries to create each one of us into the sadly humorous term “human doings” because it measures our worth by what we do. God, conversely, created us as “human beings” because we are valued for who we are.  There have been studies of those who have skipped having days off: some by work demands, some by choice. In both cases, people who took their Sabbath days were more alert, joyful, and productive. It was once put this way. “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” What saying might describe your life? How could you choose to change it today? 

Our Jewish brothers and sisters have been keeping or struggling to keep the Sabbath for ages even before Jesus was born. Let me close with their prayer of the traditional home service for Sabbath eve. Let us pray: (Silence)

Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who hast sanctified us by Thy commandments, and commanded us to kindle the Sabbath lights.

May the Sabbath-light which illumines our dwelling cause peace and happiness to shine in our home. Bless us, O God, on this holy Sabbath, and cause Thy divine glory to shine upon us. Enlighten our darkness and guide us [and the world] toward truth and eternal light. Amen.

Jeffrey A. Sumner August 22, 2010