Sermon for August 25

The readings

Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. 2 And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.

John 15:9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. 12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.

The message

We have our second week on the theme of Sabbath and rest.  The Sabbath is much more than avoiding work. The Sabbath is so much more than not doing laundry or sweeping on Sunday. It is a call to be God’s people. Nehemiah 10:30 shows a massive expansion of what keeping the Sabbath means.  "When the neighboring peoples bring merchandise or grain to sell on the Sabbath, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on any holy day. Every seventh year we will forgo working the land and will cancel all debts.  Debts are canceled because debt is not part of creation, the land rests, abusing the environment is not part of creation, The Sabbath remind us that the earth makes enough food for everyone without our interference, it is distribution that is the problem, Sabbath is a time to remember what we do matters and most of the time in very bad ways. Sabbath stops business as usual

The idea of a Sabbath, a day of rest, is built into creation. God, setting the example for us and showing the world is more than capable of sustaining life. In Genesis God blesses and hallows (makes holy, set apart) the Sabbath, establishing it as a day of rest to think about God’s love, power and presence. It is also a sign that creation is good, capable of functioning on its own, God does not need to micromanage, the sun will come up without God pushing it, the earth will spin without God winding it, gravity will keep stuff in place without God tying all of creation to strings and pulling things up and down, the thousands of perfectly tuned laws of nature will hold life together.

I think back to when I took my first driving lessons, after the first hours in the car, the instructor noticed that I had a habit of constantly adjusting the steering wheel to keep the car strait on the road. I started to think that the car was defective, maybe the wheels were misaligned or some issue with the tires being unbalanced.  My constant mini adjustments to the left, right and back to the middle would make a zig zag pattern and I would do it more and more to keep correcting.  I would constantly worry about drifting out of the lane so I would always end up going from line all the way to the other. After numerous attempts to explain to me that the car would go straight if I just left it alone, the instructor realized, I still didn’t get it, when he said “stop doing that”, I heard “your right to adjust, just do it little less and smarter”, which just led me to worry and correct more.   After this, we got to a stretch of straight, empty road and he tells me “okay, just take your hands off the wheel” and see what the car does. Sure enough for about 20 seconds the car went straight ahead in the lane with no zig zag or veering off to the left or right. It was not the car that was defective, it was me.  That was a truth I had to experience, I had to witness, I had to sit in and see.  After that I remembered that cars were designed to go forward in a straight line and did not need countless mini adjustments.      

John chapter 15 is focused on relationships, the believer’s life in faith, with Christ. These relationships will keep people on the right path, that place us in right relationships. . John 15 starts with Jesus explaining the relationship of believers with him. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. ² He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes^[a] to make it bear more fruit. ³ You have already been cleansed^[b] by the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.  This is one of the 7 “I am” statements Jesus makes in John’s gospel (I am the Good Shepherd, I am the way, the truth and the life),

Next is about our relationship with each other, this time the defining word is love  "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends

Chapter 15 ends with the believers relationship with the world, 18 “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you do not belong to the world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you.   We are in the world, it is the place we love, we live, we experience but we are also part of the kingdom of God.

We need a Sabbath to realize these things, to remind us God is in control