Sermon for September 1st, 2013

Matthew 22:-34-40

34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Deuteronomy 5:12-15

12 Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 14 But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. 15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

Exodus 20:8-11

8 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10 But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

A Labor-less Day

At church one day, the pastor saw a little boy standing in the middle of the hallway, staring at a display on the wall. He stopped and said hello to the boy, and the little boy asked him "Pastor, what are all those little American flags hanging on the wall for?" The wall was covered with dozens and dozens of flags. The pastor answered, "Each one of those American flags is a patriotic memorial to the many members of our church, who, over the years have died in the service." When he heard this, the little boy turned as white as a sheet. In a trembling, quiet voice, he said, "Pastor...was it the 9:00 or the 11:00 service?"

That joke has absolutely nothing to do with today's sermon, but since we begin our 9:00 Contemporary service today, and we now have two worship services for the first time in many years, I thought it was appropriate. We'll certainly pray that no one dies in the service today!

Exodus 1:7-14 8 Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9He said to his people, ‘Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. 10Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.’ 11Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labour. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. 12But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. 13The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, 14and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labour. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.

Isaiah 58:13-14 13 If you refrain from trampling the sabbath,

  from pursuing your own interests on my holy day;

if you call the sabbath a delight

  and the holy day of the Lord honourable;

if you honour it, not going your own ways,

  serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; 

14 then you shall take delight in the Lord,

  and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth;

I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob,

  for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. 

Mark 2:23-27 23 One sabbath he was going through the cornfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24The Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?’ 25And he said to them, ‘Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? 26He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.’ 27Then he said to them, ‘The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; 28so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.’

Ten Commandments: For God or for People? Sabbath: For God or for People?

Egypt -- slavery -- no rest -- Sabbath Industrial Revolution -- work -- no rest -- labor movement -- weekend Digital Revolution -- always on -- no rest -- Rest??