Deut 5 1-15 Mark

Pentecost 2

Deuteronomy 5:12-15

June 22, 2003

“Made For You”

Introduction: Every day seems to have its own personality.  Fats Domino sang a song called “Blue Monday.” Monday is back-to-work or back-to-school day—back to the grind.    Wednesday is called “hump day,” getting over the hump moving towards the weekend.  We all know the phrase “Thank goodness it’s Friday!”

What about this day—Sunday, the day of worship, the day we gather together as God’s people? What kind of day is this?  What personality, what purpose, does our Sunday observance have?  Our readings center on the Sabbath, that time God commanded be kept as special day of worship.  What is the Sabbath now?  Why and how do we keep the Sabbath?

What kind of day is the Sabbath?

I.    Is the Sabbath a workday?

            A.    The Pharisees thought so in today’s Gospel.  They imagined the Sabbath was a day to work: to keep rules and observances by which God would accept them as holy.  Therefore they were offended when Jesus’ disciples didn’t seem to keep those rules.

            B.    We easily slip into this attitude.  We imagine our prayers, church attendance, offerings, service in the church are what make us “good Christian people.”  We go to church to be seen by the pastor and the rest of the people so we can pat ourselves on the back.  We could not be more wrong.  This is religious pride, a sin!  That is what Paul calls works-righteousness.  God condemns all our efforts to keep the Sabbath holy by our religious activities.  This is also the reason that we oppose those people that make the Sabbath into Law by forcing its observance on a particular day of the week, be it Saturday or Sunday.   

            C.    This attitude poisons our relationship with God.  It turns the Sabbath into a workday.  It makes God our boss and us the “employees.”  Worship becomes our work to appease him.  Salvation becomes our “paycheck,” of which we can never quite earn enough.

            D.  Sometimes we don’t want to go to church because it seems like to much work.  How often do we see this happening in our own lives?  We get up on Sunday morning not really wanting to go to church.  In the distance we here the troops of our families ringing out that familiar cry, “Do we have to go to church today?”  Slowly everyone moves towards the door and to the car and finally just making it to the church on time.  For some of us it truly is work coming to church, fighting against our clothes and our bodies, each step harder and more painful than the last.  For all of us though we know that it is worth the fight and worth the pain because here we find rest for our souls.     

II.    The Sabbath is a “day of rest and gladness”!

            A.     The Sabbath is a day of rest.  “Rest” means to stop working.  The Hebrew for Sabbath means “cessation,” “to stop.”  God wanted to give us a rest from work so that he could do the giving.  Illustration: At lunchtime a farmer’s wife calls to her husband and farmhands, “Dinner is ready.” They must stop working to receive the food and drink prepared for them.  So it is for us.  God calls us to stop working so that we can come to Him to be refreshed and fed.     

            B.    On the Sabbath Day God commanded the Israelites to remember his mighty acts of salvation.  To “remember” was to hear God’s Word, the proclamation of his accomplishing salvation for them.  The true core of keeping the Sabbath consisted of gladly hearing God’s Word and learning it.  Illustration: Luther’s wrote his explanation to the Third Commandment in the Small Catechism, ““Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and his Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.”

    The Large Catechism amplifies this core message of the commandment. It emphasizes:  First, “The treasure of the Sabbath is God’s Word, “The Word of God is the true holy thing above all holy things. Indeed, it is the only one we Christians acknowledge and have. . . . God’s Word is the treasure that sanctifies all things”  Second, God’s Word makes us holy, “At whatever time God’s Word is taught, preached, heard, read, or pondered, there the person, the day, and the work are sanctified by it, not on account of the external work but on account of the Word which makes us all saints”.  Our Confessions continue, “Note, therefore, that the force and power of this commandment lies not in the resting, but in the sanctifying, so that to this day belongs a special holy exercise.  For other works and occupations are not properly called holy exercises, unless the man himself be first holy.  But here a work is to be done by which man is himself made holy, which is done (as we have heard) alone through God’s Word.  For this, then, fixed places, times, persons, and the entire external order of worship have been created and appointed, so that it may be publicly in operation. (Concordia Triglotta )  Thirdly, the Large Catechism continues, “We are to keep God’s Word in our hearts.  Even though you know the Word perfectly and have already mastered everything, still you are daily under the dominion of the devil, who neither day nor night relaxes his effort to steal upon you unawares and to kindle in your heart unbelief and wicked thoughts against all these commandments.  Therefore you must continually keep God’s Word in your heart, on your lips, and in your ears.  For where the heart stands idle and the Word is not heard, the devil breaks in and does his damage before we realize it.  On the other hand, when we seriously ponder the Word, hear it, and put it to use, such is its power that it never departs without fruit.  It always awakens new understanding, new pleasure, and a new spirit of devotion, and it constantly cleanses the heart and its meditations.  For these words are not idle or dead, but effective and living. (Tappert, 378–79:100–101) 

            C.    We, too, come to church and keep the Sabbath to hear God’s Word and to receive God’s gifts.  God’s command to worship is not his ordering us around as our boss; it’s the commandment of the One who with a mighty arm on the cross won salvation and rescue from sin and death for us.  He is the gracious and merciful Giver who bestows this salvation through his Word.  Our part is to hear and learn it—to believe that our sins are forgiven, that Christ has died for us.

D.    Picture what our Sunday worship is.

Illustration: I remember two sets of feelings toward certain days when I was young.    Sunday evenings I dreaded going back to school the next day.  I had to study, get up early, and work.    That was the Pharisees’ picture of the Sabbath, but it’s not ours.  The focus and foundation of worship is not our work and our doing.  Our Sabbath is more like another feeling, a very different feeling, I used to have.  I remember the marvelous anticipation of going to Grandma’s for Christmas—gifts and food and celebration and family.  That is closer to what our worship is.  The focus and foundation is God’s work and salvation and giving where we receive God’s gifts of life and salvation through the forgiveness of sins.  We come to receive.

Conclusion: Every day seems to have its own personality.  This is the Lord’s Day, the day he gives and forgives and stretches out his mighty arm to put his mercy through his Holy Word in your heart and hands.  Every day has its own personality; this is a day of rest and gladness.    We rest and let God give to us.  We are filled with gladness because he is kind and merciful.    Let us keep the Sabbath in joy and rejoicing.  Let us gladly hear God’s Word and learn it.