FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA
Sermon by Rev. Craig N. Goodrich
The Second Sunday in Lent
March 28, 2004
“The Rest of Your Life”
Genesis 1:31-2:3
Exodus 20:8-41
Mark 2:27-28
This is the third of nine sermons in a Lenten sermon series on the Ten Commandments. On Ash Wednesday George Wirth covered Numbers 1, “You shall have no other gods before me” and Number 2, “You shall not make any graven image”. Last Sunday he preached on Number 3, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” Since George is in Kenya this morning, I get a crack at Number 4, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
As you participate in this sermon series I encourage you to go back and read the books of Genesis and Exodus, the first two books of the Bible and especially the account of God delivering the Ten Commandments. They were given to the Hebrew people directly by God from Mt Sinai in thunder and lightning and power. It was shortly after their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Led by Moses they were on their wilderness travels, often given to complaining and murmuring. The commandments provided the people with the gift of the moral law by which they were to live in community. They set forth one’s duty towards God and towards each other. Although given as rules, they were intended for freedom, and for order in the community. Perhaps they can also help us in our own wilderness wanderings and in our life together.
Let’s look at the commandments as printed on the cards in the pews. Follow along with me:
1. You shall have no other gods before me.
2. You shall not make any graven images.
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother.
6. You shall not kill.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet…anything that is your neighbor’s.
Do you see that the first three address our duty towards God: no other gods, no graven images to worship, no taking of God’s name in vain. And the last six beginning with “Honor your father and mother” set forth our duty to our neighbor.
Do you remember when you first learned the Ten Commandments? Was it in Sunday school or in your home? I’ll just tell you, Number 8 and I go way back. I think I was in first grade. After lights out, I would tip toe into my parents’ room and reach up to father’s dresser top, much taller then I, and scrape off the loose change that was always there at the end of the day. Well, one night as soon as my parents’ light went out, I made my entrance and up on my toes, the lights came on. There I was in mid-reach --- busted! As a punishment I had to write over and over, twenty times I think, “Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not steal” That was long ago, but I will tell you I am forever grateful to my father and mother for their love and discipline and teaching.
But that was number 8. We need to scroll back up to number 4. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
Of all the commandments, this is the only one that deals with time. It is the only one that makes reference to the creation and to the creative work of God in the creation. It is the only one that proscribes behavior that is perfectly legal all week long. It prohibits work on the Sabbath. Nobody is to do any work, even the cattle. All must rest. “Sabbath” literally means to stop, to cease.
To the Hebrews and to Jews still today the Sabbath day was and is sacred. ”Holy” means to set apart. The day is to be different. And we know in the Jewish tradition the Sabbath is celebrated from Friday at sundown to Saturday at sundown. It was and is a time to do no work, to celebrate and feast.
Of course, the first Christians were Jews who observed the Sabbath. However, because Jesus was raised on the first day of the week, Christians also gathered to celebrate the resurrection, weekly on Sunday, or as it became known, the “Lord’s Day”. It was not until 321 AD that the emperor Constantine declared the Lord’s Day to be the Christian Sabbath so that ever since most Christians observe the 4th commandment and celebrate the resurrection on Sunday.
Well, that’s a brief history. But how are we to keep the Sabbath rest? Are we still required to observe this commandment?
Our Presbyterian Directory for Worship provides that the Lord’s Day is to be a day that “gives shape to the life of discipleship” and that we are to observe the day by (1) participation in public worship [so far so good] (2) engagement in ministries of witness, service, and compassion, and (3) activities that contribute to spiritual re-creation and rest from daily occupation. It adds [and this is important] that those “whose work takes place on Sunday should set aside another day of the week for these observances.” Book of Order, W-5.5001b.
So how are we doing? How are you doing in keeping the Sabbath?
Well, I think it is safe to say that we are not getting too much help from the culture. When I was a child stores were closed and many of you recall how different Sunday was in your growing up days: family dinners, no dancing, no cards. Several years ago I asked the Berean class about their recollections. One man spoke of playing baseball, but only being permitted to hit and field, no base running was allowed! I know you have your own memories.
Believe it or not as recently as 1974, the law of Georgia provided that “any person who pursued his business or the work of his ordinary calling, works of necessity or charity excepted on the Lord’s Day shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.” A crime to work on Sunday! Of course, now everything has changed. All the stores are open, except Chic-Fil-A, and you can shop online 24 hours a day. Would you agree with me something has been lost? That maybe the only commandment that begins with the injunction “remember” has pretty much been forgotten? After all, even the Supreme Court was open for business on Sundays in the aftermath of the Gore/Bush Florida election debacle – as if there was nothing more important than the election!
And how are we really doing with work these days? A recent Atlanta Journal Constitution headline proclaimed: We’re No.1, at working.” The article went on, “Americans have increased their substantial lead over Japan and all other industrialized nations in the number of hours worked each year”. Another AJC feature entitled, “Where Has All the Time Gone” described our pace of life like this:
“Somehow society stepped on the accelerator. Life feels as fast as NASCAR. Gentlemen start your email! It’s so fast we can’t relax. One sixth of U.S. workers report they can’t or don’t use up their vacation time. Americans average 13 vacation days a year -- the lowest of any industrialized nation.
We can’t even relax at home, where the walls between office and home are now more virtual than ever. When the cellphone rings or AOL declares “You’ve got mail” chances are, it’s the boss. There are 110 million cellphones in the United States. There are 112 million adults with access to home computers. Like a trick of the eye, they conspire to bend time…
All that connectivity makes us feel rushed. Wherever we are, we’re at work.” (AJC, May 12, 2002)
Does any of this sound familiar to you? You see we all know how to work, but I think we are desperate to learn how to rest; desperate for renewal, for Sabbath. What about you? And what might a renewed commitment to keeping the Sabbath look like?
I have three thoughts.
First, we should take the commandment at face value. We should abide by its plain meaning. If you have any discretion in the matter, don’t work on Sunday! It is the Lord’s Day after all. Just don’t go to the office on Sunday, don’t open the briefcase. Stop. Stop. Stop! And if you have to work on Sunday, make sure you take your Sabbath on another day of the week.
Now, I know some of you are saying to yourselves, and I say it myself, “we don’t really have to keep the Sabbath do we? It seems like a quaint idea. It’s OK for Truett Cathy and his folks, but me, I can handle it.” Can you? How often do we make exceptions for ourselves, “other people may need that, I don’t. Just let me slip into the office on Sunday afternoon, it will help me relax Sunday night, to be ready for Mondays.” Listen, anytime we think the rules don’t apply to us, that we can handle it, we need to be very careful…for remember the serpent was more subtle than any wild creature that the Lord God had made and at the heart of all of temptation is self-deception.
We would all be better off if we just stopped, set aside work or house work or any other compulsive activity and devoted the day instead to worship, relationships, service in the paths of God. Don’t go shopping. Go for a walk, play a board game with family, take a nap. Learn to pray. You decide. The point is not to be legalistic about it but to pursue those activities that honor God, serve our neighbor and spiritually renew us.
So stop! Obey the commandment, not because it is a rule, but because it is a blessing. Jesus after all said the Sabbath was made for humankind, not humankind for the Sabbath. You may be surprised at the freedom you experience.
Second, even if we stop working, or for those of you who are unemployed or retired, we know that simply not working alone does not assure us of a true Sabbath rest, does it? Many of us simply carry over our compulsiveness into the weekend including Sunday. We may not be working at our occupations but we are working at our leisure or at all the other things we think we have to do.
Henri Nouwen has written a wonderful little book entitled, Making All Things New: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life. I suggest you read it your new-found time on Sundays. In it he addresses Jesus’ statement “do not be anxious about your life.” (Matthew 6:25) Nouwen writes not so much about our occupations but our “preoccupations.” Listen:
“Our lives often seem like overpacked suitcases bursting at the seams. In fact, we are almost always behind schedule. There is a nagging sense that there are unfinished tasks, unfulfilled promises, unrealized proposals…A lingering feeling of never really fulfilling our obligations.” (p.23) “To be preoccupied means to fill our time and place long before we are there. Worrying causes us to be all over the place but seldom at home.” (p.25)
Do you ever feel this way? You may not be working but you sure are worrying! All those “what ifs” coming at you relentlessly! Behind schedule… again!
Which brings me to the third and final point and the deeper meaning of the Sabbath. Yes, it calls up to stop working, and yes, it also calls us to stop worrying. But how do we do that? By recognizing that God is God and I am not. By obeying commandment Number 1. To celebrate the Sabbath means to acknowledge that God is the creator, not me. It is God that created us.
The Sabbath requires us to stop producing and to let go, it calls for renouncing any attempt to control our lives and the lives of those around us, a shifting of our trust in work to trust in the One who created us and loves us.
Do you think perhaps if we observed the Sabbath, if we actually took time in worship and throughout the day to seek and listen to God, that maybe we would truly discern God’s will for our lives according to God’s priorities, priorities such as faith, hope and love, those things that really last?
Marva Dawn in her insightful book Keeping the Sabbath Wholly writes...“We can truly learn to rest only when we are genuinely freed by God’s grace.” (p.55) “When we cease striving to be God, we learn a whole new kind of contentment, the delight of the presence of God in our present circumstances.” (p.56)
And how does Henri Nouwen deal with worry? “What counts [he writes] is where our hearts are. When we worry, we have our hearts in the wrong place. Jesus asks us to move our hearts to the center where all other things fall into place.” (p.42)
Christ at the center, an address for our hearts, a sense of peace, an at-homeness – that is what Sabbath is all about.
I hate to tell you this, but your life is not your own. In baptism you were claimed. One of our Confessions, The Heidelberg Catechism asks a profound question, “What is your only comfort in life and in death” The response, “That I belong--body and soul in life and in death--not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.” (Question 1)
This is who you are. A beloved child of God. How easy this is to forget when we hear those other voices all week long, saying, “I am my work, I am not good enough” or “I am no good… I need to do more. If only I can accomplish more…if only, if only, if only…”
Stop. Stop!
On Sunday, on the Sabbath, on the Lord’s Day in this place you hear a different voice. That voice says, “I love you. You are my beloved son. You are my beloved daughter.”
You see, the Sabbath is not to be observed out of guilt or as simply a rule to be obeyed. It is a gift from God in which we celebrate the grace of Jesus Christ that has saved us from our sins, and, thank God, from our own self-absorption. It is a day of freedom. It is a day simply to be and to realize that we too are God’s good creations. It is a day to stop striving. It is a day to breathe deeply and to receive with open arms and gratitude the blessings that God has for us.
Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, said, “Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest”... true rest. It is a gracious invitation. How will you respond? Won’t you receive this grace and take it to heart, cling to it in joy and wonder and celebration?
If you do you will find that that grace might just change the rest of your life, and not just on Sundays, but every day of the week.
Thanks be to God. Alleluia. Amen.