Tuesday 26 August 2008

Sunday 17 August 2008 Rhythm of Life 2: Leviticus 25:1-7, Luke 6:1-5 Bruce

Welcome to the second of two sermons on the theme of the Rhythm of Life, looking at the need for balance in all that we do and all that we are. Last week Melanie gave new insights into the 23rd Psalm, how the shepherd rules over the flock, but also gives rest and protection.

This week we look at the key principle of Sabbath. I wonder what this word conjures up in your mind? When I was 19, I was an impoverished bank clerk in Woking, and gratefully accepted invitations for Sunday lunch. One lovely couple regularly entertained me, but it could be quite tense. They were wonderful parents, who lavished love and attention on their children, while giving them safe boundaries. On the Sabbath day, however, no ice creams could be purchased, and no ball games played outside; they must sit quietly because it was the Lord’s Sabbath. Needless to say, they spent considerable periods of every Sunday afternoon remonstrating with bored, upset youngsters.

We find the Sabbath in the fourth commandment, in Exodus 20:

8 Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
9 Six days you shall labour and do all your work,
10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.
11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

We see from the very first chapter of the bible that God rules this world through order: day and night, days of the week, seasons of the year. This extends to our relationships with each other, with God and with the world of work. Once a week a day was to be set aside as a day of rest; as we read from Leviticus, every seventh year was to be set aside. If you read on, you will see that after every seven periods of seven, i.e. after 49 years, the 50th year was to be a year of Jubilee, when debts and leases were cancelled.

The principle here is that all of our relationship with God and existence in this world is to be balanced, ordered, and that we should know rest and peace. We might refrain from our legitimate work, but in so doing we trust our God that he will provide for all our needs and care for us. As we honour the Sabbath, we demonstrate that we are God’s.

This is worked out in various ways throughout scripture. It might be through a day spent in quiet and contemplation, with time to give ourselves to our chief purpose here on earth, that of worshipping God – a preview of our occupation in heaven! We also have time for deepening and enriching our relationships with those around us.

The language of ‘rest’, of Sabbath, is also used of the gift by God of a land for the people to inhabit; remember the three promises to Abraham: land, descendants and a relationship of blessing. The people would not inherit the blessing by their own efforts, but by trust and willingness to receive what God had in store for them; to use the language of last week’s sermon, they could choose to follow the shepherd in the ‘ways of righteousness’ and to the ‘still waters’. This is rest, Sabbath. It is all about the goodness of God, and his desire to provide for us all that we need.

And yet my good friends in Woking had managed to take this expression of goodness and freedom and make seem harsh and restrictive. How does this happen?

Of course, it says it in the bible. And yet this is where we must take care to read the scriptures, and remember some simple guidelines. For instance, something can be biblical but not necessarily scriptural. To put it another way, the Old Testament was written for us, but not about us. We learn from it and are guided by it, but we read it with care. In some parts, the most questionable actions or beliefs are recorded for us to learn from, so that we can live better; we do not have to copy them. In other cases, commands that were good and helpful in a particular situation can be seen not to apply for all time and in every place. There is very often room for disagreement and debate, and that is where we need to know the scriptures well and seek to be mature. To use a familiar phrase, we want to encounter God and grow in him ….

Sometimes we can use a scripture that is very helpful to us. When reformers were trying to help children who were working seven days a week, they railed at the owners of the mills and factories that they must give their workers the biblical day of rest. Alongside this, they founded the first Sunday Schools, where children could be given the first rudiments of a more general education. From this came the institution the British Sunday, which has faded into memory so rapidly.

It could be argued that this well intentioned movement caused a great harm, giving to generations of children (and perhaps older people as well) the unintended message that God and the church are all about restriction and coercion: fun has been outlawed!

Jesus tackles this issue head on; he is the key to understanding God’s will and purpose in this and every subject. He knows and acknowledges the Old Testament strictures, and claims the right to reinterpret them. Just as Yahweh God has set the bounds on all creation and ordered the lives of humankind by giving the Sabbath, Jesus reveals himself as the Lord who can do the same in our lives. It is part of the gradually revealed picture of Jesus as fully human and fully divine. He is the one who says ‘Come to me and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11:28). On another occasion he says bluntly that the Sabbath was instituted for our benefit, not the other way round. (Mark 2:27). Everything that God does is love, and he has given us himself, his name and his rest so that we might be blessed and helped.

The writer to the Hebrews goes further: our whole life is now one big Sabbath. Where the Israelites were promised a land, we have an inheritance of a relationship of love and trust because of Jesus. He is the Good Shepherd. We are invited to enjoy the forgiveness of our sins, the provision of our daily needs, a growing and deepening relationship of love with God our Father and with each other. This is the true Rest, the true Sabbath that he wants us to enjoy.

We can make living the Christian life such hard work. Why can we not stop, wait, accept, delight, in God?

To be practical, each of us must prayerfully work out how to spend Sundays. For some, it is quite acceptable to play sport, go shopping. Others will choose to fit these activities into the other six days of the week. Some have no choice but to work, and we are grateful for those who provide essential services.

May I offer some general principles to help you? The Sabbath is God’s gift to bless you and enrich your life. It is symbolic of your whole life lived in trust. It can be very helpful to have a special day when we devote ourselves to building and deepening good relationships with family, neighbours and friends. By hosting a barbecue or going visiting, you may be keeping the Sabbath in its true spirit and intention.

Worship is not an optional extra or leisure choice, to be put alongside all the others. If you are not ill or required to work, you should expect to be in church. Even if there are some Sundays that are more appealing than others, your presence here deepens and enriches our corporate experience of God. It is a shame when not all the family can get to the gatherings.

Worship and our gathering together is designed by God to be a blessing to us and an enrichment. If that is not your experience, may I encourage you to pray for the service leaders, for those who choose the music and the singers and musicians who practice and prepare so hard to help us in our worship? Pray for yourself and all the rest of us to have a living, fresh experience of God’s love, that gives a glimpse of the glories of heaven where we will experience true Rest and joy for ever.

We can make living the Christian life such hard work. Why can we not stop, wait, accept, delight, in God?

Questions
1. When did you last sit in complete silence and experience peace?
2. What for you is the heart, the essential factor of Sabbath?
3. What ways could you work (!) with others to better experience the Rest that God has in mind for us?

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