June 3, 2018              A Sabbath Rest                                        

          This morning, our scripture readings contain two passages which speak about the Sabbath day. The first is the passage from Deuteronomy, which expands upon the commandment to keep the Sabbath day, and the other passage comes to us from the gospel of Mark, where Jesus tells the Pharisees that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. 

         Walter Brueggeman, a famous UCC professor and preacher, noted that once upon a time, there was no Sunday, no Sabbath. The slaves in Israel worked every day of the week. When Moses asked Pharoah if they could go have a festival to worship their God, Pharoah replied that the slaves had too much time on their hands, and that from then on would make bricks without straw. This meant that in their time off, probably after sunset, they had to go glean the fields for the straw they needed. And so, we have this picture of the Israelites working 24 hours a day in shifts, 7 days a week without rest.

         Reflecting upon his comments, I remember that years ago, there used to be “blue laws” that forbade businesses from operating on Sunday. Last week, someone mentioned that Wednesdays used to be church night, but now groups schedule events then, and on Sunday mornings as well. Someone once told me, “that the younger generation has taken back Sunday for themselves”, but what is it they have gained?  Another day for games, trips, vacations, and parties? Another day for some to celebrate themselves, and another day for some to work overtime? Another day of buying and selling, of stress, debt, and worry, 7 days a week without rest?

         God gave the Sabbath commandment to the Israelites, so that they could rest from Pharoah’s 24/7 oppressive cycle of consumption and production. The Sabbath commandment was given not just for them to rest, but to provide rest for their families, friends, and even foreigners and strangers, to not demand work from them either. The Sabbath commandment was given to us, to break this oppressive cycle in whatever nation God’s followers found themselves.

         So what should we do on Sunday, our Christian Sabbath? First of all, find a community of faith and join them in worshipping God. Second, find a way to serve others, to listen to their problems, and to meet their needs. Third, spend some quality time with your family, some activity where you actually have a chance to communicate and interact with them personally. Now some may say, “I can do that on Wednesday night, or Saturday afternoon”. Great!  That’s when you do your Sabbath – but be honest with yourself, Sabbath is God centered and focused on others. It is a day of rest from the “me” centered life, which the Pharoah’s of today’s world use to divide and enslave us.

         In closing, I would note from our gospel lesson, that when Jesus challenged the authority of the Pharisees, by allowing his disciples to pick grain on the Sabbath for their own nourishment, and by healing the man with the withered hand, they began to plot to destroy him.

         I think this is Mark''s way of telling us that the world wants us to turn away from our observance of the Sabbath law. To skip Sundays for this and that reason, to meet the demands of parents or kids, or sports teams, social clubs, or whatever. But God has commanded a Sabbath day, not for God, but for you, to be freed of these demands, and to give you a true rest from the world. And that is the good news of Jesus Christ. Amen.