Sermon for August 18

The Readings

Deuteronomy 5:12-15; Matthew 11:28-30

Deuteronomy 5:12 Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 14 But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. 15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

Matthew 11:28 "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

The message

We are ending our Summer series with 3 weeks on the Sabbath, rest.  I wanted to start with a look back. This Summer, we sent 4 weeks on the book of Psalms, the ancient songs of worship in the temple.  These songs were written to express people’s experiences of God. We looked them in terms of how they shared faith, realistically. Using Walter Brugglemanns breakdown,  some were psalms of orientation, written and sung when things were good, when the world seemed fair and kind. Others were disorientation, when times were bad, collapsing, when there is chaos, loss and there seems to be no way out of suffering. Finally, there is reorientation, things are well again, the suffering endured and triumphed over, a drastically different world but one where the memory of things past remains and God’s presence is still known.

After this we had 5 weeks with the Letter to the Hebrews, written to try and restore, revitalize, wake a church community that started off great but quickly faded, grew dull and confused.  The author writes to try and wake people by focusing on Christ’s death and resurrection. They also define faith in word ( now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.)  and examples of people like Noah, Enoch, Abraham and Abel doing it.

We finish summer with 3 weeks about the Sabbath / rest. This is something I don’t do well. Jen can tell you I am not a fan of resting, its okay in small doses but much more then a hour and I start getting concerned. This leads to Jen and I’s annual vacation debates, Jen will say look at, want a nice hotel, I will say who cares, every moment spent in the hotel is time wasted, time better spent doing something, we need a hotel with a great location so we don’t waste 20 minutes getting to stuff.  If it has a view, balcony, something to look at, I could think of hotel time as doing something

I am coming up to 10 years of ministry here at St Jacobus, here in Woodside, and I must admit my approach to ministry has been very similar to my approach to vacation, we are in a time and world where the best answer to how are things? Is I am busy, I am very busy, I am overwhelmed with how much I have to do, it feels like I will never catch up, all that equals I am important, I am capable, I can list a whole bunch of stuff on the calendar, until whoever I am talking to mentions that enough,  wow you do a lot, that’s impressive becomes are you nuts, why are you doing all that, don’t you have help, cant you find others to work with you (probably, I barely ask and don’t want to put off doing) , how do you do any of that well, intentionally, how do you find time to connect, empower others ( I don’t, there is no time), you can do more together     

Perhaps this is why I have choose this series on Sabbath and rest, words I need to hear as much as you do.  We measure worth by how much we do, what our job is, what we have accomplished, what we are good for, once a week, that all disappears, on the Sabbath, we measure worth because we are loved by God.  I often hurry to see one more thing, get one more thing done without taking the time to ask “why”/  

One of the earliest commands on Sabbath rest (like do not steal, do not commit adultery and  share the good news, Sabbath rest is a command, not a thoughtful suggestion) Points you to the main things, Awake and think on the Exodus. This was the main event of the Old Testament, the God driven, miraculous escape from slavery in Egypt.  

To pause for a Sabbath gives us a chance to remember why we are church,