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.

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!

We're working our way through each of the Ten Commandments this fall, and today's commandment is number four: Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. This commandment marks a turning point, a shift in the ten commandments--all of the previous commandments are primarily about how we relate to God (You shall have no other gods before me, don't make any idols, don't misuse the name of God), and all of the commandments after this one have to do with how we relate to each other (honor your parents, don't kill each other, don't steal each other's stuff, etc.). This split in the commandments is also reflected in our first scripture reading, in Jesus' answer to the Pharisees about the greatest commandment: Jesus says it's to love God with all your heart, and to love your neighbor as yourself.

So the big question for today's commandment is this: Which category does it fit in? Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Is this commandment about how we relate to God, or how we relate to each other? Most people tend to put it in the God category, but today I'm going to make a case that this is wrong: This is the first of the commandments that teach us how to relate to each other.

Now, the popular understanding of this commandment--that it tells us how to relate to God--hinges on the word "Holy." Keep the sabbath day holy. For us, holy means sacred, pertaining to the divine, basically having to do with God. Keep this day holy means "keep it focused on God." On our sabbath day, we should go to church, pray, think about God...do all sorts of "holy" things.

Now don't misunderstand me--I appreciate all of you coming to church on Sunday (especially on Labor day weekend!), and I'm not about to send you home just yet. The Bible talks in plenty of other places about how important it is for God's people to gather together on a regular basis for worship and fellowship. But I don't think the fourth commandment is telling us to pick one day out of seven and make that day "God's special day." The danger with that understanding is that if we make one day "God's special day" we tend to forget that ALL of our days belong to God. If I go to church on Sunday...worship God (check), pray (check), read the bible (check)...now I'm done for the week. See you next Sunday, God! Can you imagine if God did that to us? Imagine standing at the gates to the Kingdom of Heaven and hearing God say, "Well, you can come in for one day each week. The other six days you might have to belong to somebody else..."

When God said, "remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy" I don't think that's what he had in mind. The word we translate as "holy" is the Hebrew word קֹדֶשׁ (kodesh). It literally means "set apart." Often in the Bible that does indeed mean set apart to be sacred, holy, belonging to God. But sometimes it just means set apart...from other things. Different. How do you know which meaning to use? Well, you look at the context.

In this case, the sabbath day is set apart from the other six days. What do we do on the other six days? Verse 13-14: "Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work." The sabbath day is set apart, different, because we don't work. We rest. Notice also that verse 14 says the seventh day is a sabbath TO the Lord your God, not FOR the Lord your God. There's a slight, but important difference here: The seventh day is a sabbath TO God, because God observed the sabbath also. In another version of the fourth commandment, the one found in Exodus 20:11, we read: "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day." In observing the sabbath, we are following God's example. If the sabbath is a day set apart to worship God, then what are we saying God did on that first sabbath? Worship himself? No, on the sabbath, God rested. And that is what he asks us to remember in the fourth commandment.

I said at the beginning of this sermon that all the commandments can be divided into those that teach us how to relate to God, and those that teach us how to relate to others. I've said that the fourth commandment is not about how we relate to God. But if that's true, what exactly does remembering the sabbath--keeping it set apart, resting--have to do with relating to others? I have a hard enough time making myself rest...now I have to make my neighbor rest, too?

Listen to the rest of the fourth commandment: 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.

Hopefully, none of you have male or female slaves. One or two of you may actually have some oxen and/or donkeys, but the point is clear: don't just provide for your own sabbath, your own rest--you are also responsible for making sure that the people around you have a healthy balance of work and rest, too. That includes those who serve you, wait on you, and clean up after you...at restaurants, shopping malls, your workplaces...rest is not a luxury for the privileged classes, or for those who've paid their dues--it's a gift from God to everyone of every social class, and it's our job to protect it for each other.

Why? Verse 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."

I mentioned a few weeks ago that the ten commandments are a call to all of God's people to turn away from the prevailing empires and powers of the day, and follow God into

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??