Westwood Presbyterian Church

October 4th, 2009

197 Browning  Boulevard, Winnipeg, Manitoba  R3K 0L1

REV. PETER BUSH's SERMONS

4th Commandment - Sabbath - Deut. 5; Mark 2:23-28

The standard line from the movies which is used by thieves holding up people on a train is "Your money or your life." There have been all kinds of variations on that line over the years - but these days I wonder if a more effective way of holding up people might be - "Your money or your time." So it would involve a thief coming up to the person the are hoping to rob and saying, "Give me all your money, or I will use the next hour to tell you all about my life and why I turned out this way. Give me your money or your time." I think a large number of people when faced with the choice of giving up money or time would sooner give up money. Time has become a highly valued possession that people are not prepared to give up easily.

But it is not just about time, it is also about who is in control of our time. The time that someone else runs - like the boss, or the school - that time is not really time in our minds. Because we are not in control of it. The time that is really ours is the time that we control, and when people try to take that time away from us we get upset.

And that brings us slam into the fourth commandment - The Sabbath commandment.

Because God says, "I get one day in seven." One day in seven we are told that we are not in control - one day in seven we take our hands off the wheel - one day in seven we stop and we trust someone else to be in charge. And we want to rebel. We want to say, "How dare you do that!"

Listen to the way people talk, "Sunday is the only day when I get to do what I want." (That is about our being in control.) Or "Sunday is my time." (No wonder God's asking for that day is so offensive.)

The Sabbath command makes the question of who is number 1 in our lives very practical. We can talk in fairly abstract terms about what is an idol in our culture, we can debate in fairly impersonal terms what it means to use God's name in vain. But the Sabbath command is about the nitty-gritty, what we do with time is not an abstract reality, it is real life, it is here and now. It makes saying God is Lord of our lives not just nice words - it tells us something about living that out. In part, when Jesus says that He is Lord of the Sabbath - He is claiming to be the Lord of our time.

Sabbath is a practice of the Christian life - something that we do that draws us closer to God, that deepens our spiritual lives, that becomes a way of being. With Sabbath we stop working, we stop striving, we stop making it happen - and we rest in God - in one who makes it happen independent of us. One day in seven we give our business, managing our money, work related challenges to God, as we step away. Our actions say what we are called to believe - that we do not save ourselves. That our salvation is not the result of us working harder, better, smarter than the next person; that our well-being is not the result of us living better lives; that the good that comes to us is not the result of anything in us - no all of these things our salvation, the blessings in our lives - all are from God, are gifts from God - which come independent of anything in us. We did not earn them, we did not work for them, they are God's gift. And one day in seven we stop to remember that God is the one who made all this - including us - and one day in seven we stop to recognize that our salvation also comes from him alone.

When we stop working, stop striving - and rest, we let God do God's thing free from our interference. When we stop working, stop striving - and rest, we remind ourselves that God is the One who is our creator and is the one who is our Saviour.

This may be sounding like a heavy load, a serious thing we are to carry. It may begin to feel like we have been made to obey the Sabbath command. But while it is serious business, it is joyful business. Sabbath is grace from beginning to end. The grace of being given the chance to stop, to stop working, to stop striving, to stop. In a world that says work harder, be more efficient, think faster, God says STOP! In a world where people talk in boastful terms about their 70, 80,90 hour work weeks - God says STOP! Sabbath is amazing grace in such a world.

In a world where we are told to take responsibility for our lives and the goal is to be in charge - God says "One day in seven let me take the load off you, one day in seven let me carry the weight." In such a world Sabbath is good news. For it reminds us of the truth - "It is not about us." One day in seven we remember that we are but human, but the dust of the earth. One day in seven we remember we are not God, and that is a good thing. Sabbath is a powerful tool helping us to remember the joy of simply being human.

Some of us are in occupations that require us to work on Sundays. My brother teases me saying that I preach about not working on Sunday and that is the day on which I work I work the hardest. Those who need to work on Sundays, need to hear the pattern of one day in seven - while Sunday may not be the day we do not work, one day each week we need for a "good for nothing" day. A day to stop - a day to grasp the principle of Sabbath and live it out. I think that is at the heart of what Jesus is saying in the passage we read from Mark - Sabbath is for the good of humanity, and human beings need to stop one day in seven to remember who they are and who God is.

The Sabbath command speaks to us of a grace that we have received from God - and it invites us to share that grace with those around us. With our servants and the work animals on the farm - and we who live in a modern urban culture blow by those instructions thinking that they say nothing to us. But I think we should not be so quick to do that.

Yes, in our culture there are individuals and structures that need to keep functioning: hospitals, emergency services, nursing homes, seniors' centers, and the like. But there are other people whose services, help, we do not need on Sundays - and this command invites us on Sundays to not make use of goods and services that we do not need - not for our benefit - but that we might spread the grace of stopping, the grace of not working, to others. That we share our rest with others, so they too may rest.

The same could be said of the creation - that one day in seven we seek to use as few of this world's resources as possible so that the creation itself might find rest one day in seven. So that as we rest; our rest brings rest to the whole of creation.

The Sabbath command is lived out communally - this is not about just Jesus and me ­ not just about my personal relationship with God. The command is rooted in a social dimension, inviting us who are heirs of God's grace to share that grace with others. We are called to live out this command in the life of our community.

 

At the meal we will share shortly we see the Sabbath command lived out among us. At this table we take bread and the fruit of the vine - the gifts of the earth - the gifts of creation. Practical, rooted, down-to-earth stuff and therefore we remember creation and that we are part of the creation - a creation made by God and at the end of which God rested. At this table as we taste of the creation we remember that we are called to rest - to take Sabbath.

At this meal rest we remember the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ - for while the table reminds us of the death of Jesus - the day upon which we are eating and drinking is Sunday - the resurrection day. Both the death and the resurrection are at this table. At this table we remember that we were slaves - caught by the powers of sin, and death, and hell - and that we have been freed. Freed to live as the people of God - freed to live in joy of the salvation that God has brought to us. As we eat and drink remembering the death that sets us free - we remember that our salvation has not been earned by us - not deserved by us - it is gift, all gift. Sabbath gives us the space to remember our salvation given so freely, so graciously to us.

We eat this meal not alone - not by ourselves - but within a community - yes the community in this room who will gather around this table. But with our Christian sisters and brothers who on this World Communion Sunday gather in our city - in our country ­in this world - to remember and give thanks. And just as we receive the grace - we offer the grace to those around us - that as we enjoy the grace of this meal and of the Sabbath­we share that grace with them.

Thanks be to God for the Sabbath - thanks be to God for the gift of grace we receive in the practice of Sabbath.