Proper 4 - An Ordinary Sabbath

Welcome Statement

Good Morning everyone, this is now the first week of Ordinary Time in the Liturgical Calendar. A lot of major holidays have really been worked through our year, we still have a couple of big ones coming up, like Fathers Day and 4th of July, but in terms of the Christian Season, this is when things are, well, ordinary, the work of the Church is done, and we go about our business. But When you look at things like the Acts of the Apostles, and the letters of Paul, things are anything but ordinary. So many signs of the Holy Spirit working through people are quite clearly revealing themselves through the churches as there is an explosion in the Church, as we attested this past season of Easter. We are going to continue to attest to this, as we reflect further on these ideas in Ordinary Time, as the church in this cycle is in its sort of “established” state liturgically. So much wisdom and early knowledge, almost feels so foreign to our modern world, waiting to be reclaimed, and revisited in how to be integrated in our lives as we live as Christians in the 21st century. One of those questions as we start to reclaim this idea of having a healthy, Christian rhythm of work, play, and rest, is, what truly is, a Sabbath? Well, lets first ask, what is the definition of a Sabbath? It is simply the following according to Oxford: a day of religious observance and abstinence from work, kept by Jewish people from Friday evening to Saturday evening, and by most Christians on Sunday. It is derived from the word Shavat which means to cease or desist. It is this joyous reminder of the covenant with God. We recognize as Christians, we do not have to observe our own sabbath in the rigorous sense of the Old Testament Laws, where one would actually have to substain from any defined labors. If you actually ask the different streams of Judaism today, they disagree on what labor is allowed, and what isn’t, the legality can get quite dense, and I appreciate their commitment to these Covenants, because I certainly could not do it. If you’re curious on how complicated these discussions can get, I recommend reading the Talmud, if you are interested in the scholarly debates between those interpreting the law recorded in history, It is absolutely fascinating. Let’s take a look at God’s Command to the Israelites in Deuteronomy to get us started.

Old Testament Reading - Deuteronomy 5:12-15

Deuteronomy 5:12–15 ESV

“ ‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall 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 Command of Old

The question becomes, do we as Christians, do we observe a Sabbath? Well let’s review, we still as Christians see all of scripture as all sustaining and important. God’s commands still are important, many of the laws of the Torah, we find much wisdom in. If you had nothing but the context of just these verses. One could ascertain it would make sense as a Christian that it might be a good idea to find a time to rest, as God also rested a day while creating the Universe, whether you believe that day to be a literal day or a metaphorical day that could be some number of years, he still rested, scripture makes that bold claim that an omipresent, omniscient God who does not require rest, chose to proclaim and enjoy a day of rest to enjoy, bask in and glorify his creation. I find that truly fascinating. But then we have this complication, of, when do we need to put aside rest, for the wellbeing of, and serving others? Mark addresses this.

New Testament Reading - Mark 2:23-3:6

Mark 2:23–3:6 ESV

One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

The Sabbath was Made for Man

This is a really strange statement to hear from Christ. Typically we see statements in the bible about especially in the New Testament about denying ourselves, and there is some of this language when Jesus Christ comes to help someone. But he explicitly says that the Sabbath was for Man, not that man was to serve the Sabbath. So what is Christ saying? I can’t go into intricate detail of what you can and can’t do during a Sabbath during this time period, but it was pretty restrictive, so the point is, if you need to use the Sabbath to take care of yourself, and your loved ones, and that requires some form of work that would go against the law, Christ was pushing against that. But Christ was not abolishing the law was he not? We have to remember Christ was the fullfillment of the law when he died on the Cross. As Paul says, the law was like a school teacher. The law was losing it’s luster at this point because now people were following it ritually but losing the purpose of why it was established in the first place.

New Testament Point #2

So we witness the apostles feeding themselves by plucking grain, what are they supposed to do, actively harm themselves by starving? It just seems silly, but this would be the type of situation that could happen if they attempted any work. Christ wasn’t going to let a hurting person just sit, simply because of the law. This is the point. Your sabbath isn’t ruined because you take 15-20 minutes to address an immediate need. This is how Christ is glorified. But if we don’t have to follow the law. Why have a sabbath at all? Well, one, it’s important I would say to take a day to spend time in reverence of God and spending time to rest in whatever it is you love to do. Rest isn’t just sleeping, it is also play. For some, rest can even be gardening. Now I don’t want to abuse this idea of the Sabbath and start saying it is the time you use to take care of things you haven’t had time to get done during the week, so it’s the day you go Mow and go get all the odd jobs done around the house. That is what I think Sabbaths have turned into for some, and while, if you enjoy working and tinkering on things, and it doesn’t exhaust you, I’m not going to go against that, I’m going to still caution that we don’t want to fall into a works righteousness cycle in our sabbath. There is a balance that Christ is showing in this scripture, so we don’t burn ourselves out. However, It is not always possible for people to take a true Sabbath in this sense, especially when people are in service roles. However, there is an importance that one finds times during the week to take even mini-sabbaths if you’re schedule does not allow for a full day of a Sabbath to occur, it’s important to take those times to devote to silence in God, and remember when he chose to Rest, and remember all the good he did. This is why a sabbath is important, It is not just an obligation of the law, it is now an act of Love we show to ourselves, and our own temples, our bodies, and to Christ, who has shown us a different way to consider them. While we traditionally think of Sabbath as the Lord’s day now, some might even think of it still being on Saturday in the Christian tradtion, there’s a ton of debates on this, the truth is, the Sabbath is a day you set aside for yourself to glorify God and rest, and if you have to set the pause button to help someone, or to deal with things, that’s absolutely okay, but it is paramount we do in this modern age start to consider our mental health again. This sabbath might be a time we consider to turn off from social media, or other things that stress us out but we might even enjoy, and give our minds a break from the week. It is important, we cannot be in overdrive 24/7 in this busy world that is focused on efficiency and being busy all the time. The God that made us from dust, chose to Rest, so it is pertinent, I think, we follow in some sense, by his example. Let us Pray.

Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father, We thank you for reminding us to put a day of rest on our calendars in our traditions with you, that even if we fall short of keeping you in our hearts daily, there is always that day we will return to the altar to reset, let this be the day we get our cups filled, as we prepare our hearts today for communion, I ask that you fill our hearts and look upon all of us today and give us the nourishment and rest we need to heal from all that we are weary from today. Amen.

Amen.

Doxology / Benediction / Closing

May you Have a Blessed Sunday, and rest of your Week! Amen!