Many of us use stories such as the one we read from Luke telling about Jesus doing the work of healing a woman on the Sabbath as an excuse to ignore the Sabbath and what the Sabbath is really all about. After all, since Jesus was not legalistic about the fourth commandment and worked on the Sabbath, why should we be concerned about what we do on the Sabbath?

In this sermon, I am going to talk about the importance of the fourth commandment, the importance of remembering the Sabbath and keeping it holy. However, I do not want to be misunderstood. I am not lobbying for a reinstatement of Sunday "blue laws." Sunday is not the only day that can be used as the Sabbath. For some the Sabbath is Saturday; for others the Sabbath may be Wednesday or Tuesday. I am not concerned about which day of the week we set aside as our Sabbath. What I am concerned about is that whatever day fits the demands of our living, we set aside time to observe the Sabbath. I am convinced all too many of us, all too much of the time ignore the wisdom and truth that is behind the fourth commandment.

What is that wisdom and truth behind this commandment? It is this: if we children of God do not pause to remember who we are and whose we are, we soon forget. If we neglect intentionally setting aside time to work on our relationship with God, our relationship with God deteriorates just as the marriage relationship deteriorates when the husband and wife stop working on their relationship. My relationship with Rita will not grow deeper and richer merely because I believe she exists or because I believe she is a loving person; it will not even grow richer and deeper because we share some meals, share a bed and sit in the same room watching the same TV program. Just as we can drift apart living in the same house if we neglect working to improve our relationship, we can drift apart from God; in fact it is even easier and it takes less time to drift apart from God when we neglect that relationship. It takes intentional effort for any relationship to grow and deepen. Our relationship with God is no exception.

"Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy." What does it mean to keep the Sabbath "holy"?

Something that is "holy" is special; however, it is a special kind of special. It is special (it is holy) because it puts us in touch with or makes us aware of that which is eternal. For example, when we call the Bible "holy" we are not claiming it is a religious good luck charm or that it is in some way religiously magic. We call it holy because what makes it special is that when we read and study the contents of this library of books we call the Bible, we can be in touch with and be made aware of that which is eternal. It is holy because it enables us to be touched by that which is eternal.

The command to keep the Sabbath holy means that at least one day in seven we focus on that which is eternal. To be the persons God intends us to be, we must do this; we must set aside at least one day in seven to focus intentionally on our relationship with God, our purpose in life, and the direction our daily choices are taking us. Keeping the Sabbath holy means that at least once a week, we focus on the most and the best we know about God, and we ask ourselves what we must be and do to live as persons created in the image of God.

This means we do more than enjoy a social hour with our friends in Sunday School. This means we do more than enjoy some quiet, down time sitting in a pew for an hour every week or two.

To keep the fourth commandment means, that at least one day out of seven we are to be intentional in examining our living in the light of God’s grace – in the light of both God’s tender love and God’s tough love. To keep the fourth commandment means that at least one day out of seven, we are to strive intentionally to be aware of, to be sensitive to the presence of God, and to strive to discern what God is saying to us. We are to remember the Sabbath day, not ignore it or forget it. We are to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

But there is more to the commandment. We are also told not to do any work on the Sabbath. The Sabbath is sometimes called "a day of rest." We humans need rest. We need rest just to be healthy -- physically and emotionally, as well as healthy spiritually. Some years ago, I was thinking about rest -- what it is and what it is not. I have come to the conclusion that resting is not merely doing nothing. In the best sense of the word, rest is what brings us refreshment of body, mind and soul. I think I really learned this during some hard times, some troublesome, worry-some times in my life. I would try to rest by doing nothing, but my mind would churn with all sorts of "what if" worries and fears. I would try to rest, but lying on my bed my mind would not stop running like an overheated computer trying to find a solution to my problems, and finding more and more reasons why my solutions would not work. Whatever rest is, it is something other than merely doing nothing.

Rest has to do with refreshment. When I am refreshed, I am much less likely to say and do dumb things that make matters worse. Of course, nothing in my life is fool-proof, stupid proof or dumb proof. Even refreshed I can make a mess of things. However, I have learned, I foul up less often if I try to stay refreshed. The command to do no work at least one day out of seven is rooted in the wisdom that for us human creatures to be our best selves, we need the rest that refreshes.

I have also discovered that it is when I am resting in some way that refreshes, I am most able to be sensitive to God’s presence and most likely to be able to discern what God is trying to tell me.

When I am busy, busy, busy in body or mind or both, I am too busy to be aware of God’s presence, and God only gets busy signals from me.

I think it is instructive to note that the fourth commandment does not say: "You shall rest." The commandment tells us not to do any work. Why not? Because in order to keep the sabbath holy, in order to have at least one day out of seven to focus intentionally on our relationship with God and to strive to be sensitive to the activity of God in our lives and the plans God has for us we must be able to focus on that which is eternal. This is not something we cannot do on the run, nor can we do it well when we are physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted. We humans must not always be going and doing and doing and going -- not if we want to have a significant relationship with God, not if we want to be the persons God intends us to be, doing what God wants us to do.

As the Psalmist told us, it is in being still that we come to know God. Time and again, throughout the stories about Jesus, we catch glimpses of his setting aside time to stop going and doing so that he can withdraw for prayer. For Jesus, keeping the Sabbath involved gathering with others in the synagogue. He was not on the go all the time, constantly teaching, always doing deeds of ministry. Jesus obeyed the fourth commandment.

But what about stories such as the one we read from the Gospel of Luke? We understand that story. We understand that in all times and all places it is always appropriate to the deeds of love and mercy. Our problem is not that we do not understand the story about Jesus doing the work

of healing a crippled woman on the Sabbath as much as it is that we distort the meaning of this story. In order to do works of love and mercy Jesus was not legalistic about the fourth commandment. However, we tend to distort the meaning of this and similar stories about Jesus so that they will sanction our ignoring the meaning and purpose of the fourth commandment.

And those of us who come regularly to this place for worship on Sunday can be no less guilty of ignoring distorting what the fourth commandment is really all about than the non-church go-ers who obviously ignore it. Sometimes, some of us are so busy doing church work we neglect to keep the Sabbath holy. We go and go and do and do all the good things loyal church people go and do, but we never really work on our relationship with God. We are like the husband who spends a lot of hours at home taking care of the yard and fixing what needs fixing, but does not set aside time for being with his wife or being with his children. He’s home with them, but he is not really with them; he is doing and doing. The same is true of wives and mothers. The same is true of children. It is all too easy to substitute busy activity done in the general vicinity of one another for intentionally working on making the relationship better. And we cannot make the relationship better if the only times we try are when we are physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted.

There are many facets to the ministry of presence that I have said nothing about. Most of these other aspects of the ministry of presence were touched on in the talks, letters and articles members have shared the last three weeks. What I have tried to do in this sermon is emphasize that if we children of God do not pause to remember who we are and whose we are, we soon forget. If we neglect intentionally setting aside time to work on our relationship with God,

our relationship with God deteriorates, and we drift away from God, away from who we are meant to be, away from what God would have us do. That God seeks relationship with us is a gift. But for us to grow in that relationship takes intentional effort on our part.

 

God, help us remember the sabbath day and keep it holy so that we will grow in our relationship with you and be the persons you intend us to be, doing what you want us to do. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer:

God, we know that when we focus only on our own agenda and forget about yours, we become increasing insensitive to your presence and unaware of your activity in our lives. God, we know that when we focus only on our own agenda, our priorities and values drift away from your will and we fail to live as you intend us to live. God, forgive us and set us on the right path once again.

God, we know what we ought to do. We know that your grace is a gift, but that it takes effort for us to grow in grace and mature in faith. God, we know that to be the persons you intend us to be, worship and continuing education in the faith are essential. We know that faithfulness requires us to do more than sit in pews every once in awhile. We know that for us to have the spiritual resources for living a faithful life we must be genuinely present -- to you and to those around us. Forgive us for so often postponing what we know we ought to be doing.

God, help us be open to your guidance as we make our commitments to the ministry of presence. Keep us from playing games with ourselves and with you.

Trusting you to give us what we need in order to become the persons you want us to be, doing what you want us to do, we pray the prayer Jesus taught us: "Our Father.…"