4th Commandment

This sermon is hard. Where I grew up, Sabbath-keeping was serious business. People worked hard at it and took pains to ensure others toed the line on Sabbath-keeping too.

If you grew up with a more relaxed attitude about Sundays, it might be foreign to you. But among some Reformed Christians there were cultural assumptions and fierce debates about how to keep the Sabbath day holy.

Sports: what was allowed: pick-up sports? organized sports? Some of you remember not being allowed to ride bikes, roller-skating, or skipping rope on Sunday.

Mowing the lawn, knitting, vacuuming, discussing finances, cooking – what constitutes work? Do you peel the potatoes on Saturday for Sunday lunch?

Buying gas, stopping at store to p/u bread or cigarettes for dad, fixing a machine, or lunch @ restaurant – where do you draw the line?

All it takes to induce guilt is to say: You’re doing that on Sunday?

Then the kicker: What would your parents say?

Putting someone on a guilt-trip isn’t right. But I don’t want to make light of people’s efforts on Sabbath-keeping. Most people were sincerely trying to live as God’s holy people.

Maybe it was different for you or different here in Tillsonburg, but growing up, I heard accusations about breaking the Sabbath more often than I’ve heard accusations most other commands. We should acknowledge that for some people, there’s baggage here. There is lingering uncertainty and guilt.

It’s different baggage than w/ other commandments. When we get to the second table of the law and discuss stealing, adultery, and false testimony we have to deal with cultural baggage. What does it look like to live as God’s holy people in a thoroughly secular culture? That’s part of the Sabbath-keeping discussion too. But God’s instructions about keeping the Sabbath day holy also has church-culture baggage in some circles.

More than 10 yrs ago, I led a class discussion w/ teens on this commandment. They had surprisingly harsh words for any Chr. who worked on Sunday. After listening for a while, I reminded them of what I did as a pastor: “You guys realize that I work every Sunday, don’t you?” That got awkward fast.

Let’s admit, all of us are tempted towards legalism – trying to become holy by our efforts to keep God’s law. Keeping the Sabbath day holy seems like low hanging fruit.

How hard can it be? Simply don’t work on Sunday. It feels like the easiest of the 10 commandments to get a gold star on. Yup, I went to church, threw leftovers in the microwave, then watched Netflix all day. I kept the Sabbath!

Does that really plumb the depths of the life-giving blessing that God has in store for his people with this commandment?

There’s another problem. The illusion of keeping the 4th commandment makes us forget our total dependence on Jesus to overcome sin and temptation. Yet we were created to depend on God. We confess that w/o Jesus, we would face punishment for disobedience and pride. Apart from Jesus, we face death.

It’s only because God entered his creation and became human that we have life and hope. B/c Jesus died in our place and rose from the grave, his life, his love, and his righteousness now flow into us. We’ve been rescued from dangerous self-sufficiency to thrive as dearly loved children of God. Keeping the Sabbath is a weekly reminder that all our hope and everything that makes life worth living comes from God, our creator and Redeemer. We keep Sabbath because Jesus has already done everything that needs doing to make us righteous.

We observe Sabbath-rest b/c God designed the world and humankind to take a break 1 day in 7. It’s a break from our self-sufficiency. It’s a respite from the cultural pressures to go, go, go that dethrones the idolatry and habits as workaholics.

That being the case, Sabbath-keeping is a source of hope and life, not guilt and shame. It’s a celebration of God’s generosity, not a burdensome requirement. Sabbath-keeping is an on-going, life-giving experiment, not a strict set of rules.

In the 16th century, the reformers took a hard look at this commandment and made some radical observations about its possibilities. Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 103

Q. What is God’s will for you in the fourth commandment?

A. First, that the gospel ministry and education for it be maintained, and that, especially on the festive day of rest, I diligently attend the assembly of God’s people

to learn what God’s Word teaches, to participate in the sacraments, to pray to God publicly, and to bring Christian offerings for the poor.

Gathering for worship, learning, prayer, and charity has a long history in the church. The question was asked this week why Chr. gather on the 1st day of the week instead of the 7th. I got emails about that.

Jesus rose from the tomb on the 1st day of the week. So the 1stday became a weekly celebration in the early church: a mini-Easter every week. Early Chr. called it the Lord’s Day. They gathered for worship. It was a time to tell and retell stories about Jesus; to reflect together on living their new-found life in Christ.

In Acts 20, Luke tells of the Apostle Paul preaching on and on into the night on the Lord’s Day that a guy named Eutychus fell asleep and fell out of the 3rd story window.

In the 1st letter to the church in Corinth, Paul recommended they collected money for helping others on the Lord’s Day.

The NT examples about the Lord’s Day make it sound like a community day rather than a me-day, or even a family-day. Would anything change if we looked at Sabbath-keeping as reserving a day for the Lord? The HC uses the phrase: “the festive day of rest.” What does that stir in your imagination?

Second, that every day of my life

I rest from my evil ways, let the Lord work in me through his Spirit,

and so begin in this life the eternal Sabbath.

Resting from evil ways

Eternal Sabbath “in this life”