Take My Moments and My Days

Take My Moments and My Days

Sixth after Trinity

Collect of the Day: O God, who hast prepared for those who love thee such good things as pass man’s understanding; Pour into our hearts such love toward thee, that we, loving thee above all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Homily Text: Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: In it thou shalt not do any work; thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.

A cartoon of two young people walking together captures the place of the 4th Commandment today. One says to the other, “Our grandparents called it the Sabbath. Our parents called it Sunday. We call it the weekend.” We no longer live in a society that treats Sunday as different from other days. There is no difference between Saturday and Sunday. When is the last time you paused and asked, “Is it OK with God if I do this on Sunday?”

Most Christians say they believe in the Ten Commandments. Some get upset when the Commandments are removed from public buildings. But how many Christians live according to the 10 Commandments, including the 4th?  Perhaps we would be more honest if we took the 4th out of the 10 Commandments.

What are we as Christians supposed to do with, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: In it thou shalt not do any work”?

Let me try answer by asking and answering a few clarifying questions.

First, what was the Sabbath for Israel?

The 4^th Commandment commanded Israel, “Remember the Sabbath day.” “Sabbath” comes from a Hebrew word meaning “to cease” or “to rest.” The Sabbath is a day of rest. Israel must remember it by keeping it holy, setting it apart from the other six. On this day, there must be no ordinary labor. “In it you shall not do any work.” “No work” included everyone – children, servants, and aliens among them. Even the animals got the day off.

But the day was not only a day of rest from work but also a day of rest in worship. The Lord said, “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwelling places” (Leviticus 23:3).

Keeping the Sabbath was a sign of Israel’s special relationship with the LORD, and breaking the Sabbath was a very serious offense:

And the Lord told Moses, “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people…Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever” (See Exodus 31:12-17).

For Israel, the Sabbath was a day of rest from work, a day for gathering in worship, and a sign of having a special relationship with the LORD.

Second, what did Jesus say about the Sabbath?

One of the ongoing conflicts between Jesus and the Pharisees centered on the Sabbath. What did Jesus do on the Sabbath? Jesus and his disciples went to the synagogue for Sabbath services. But Jesus did or allowed other things the Pharisees thought were not consistent with Sabbath keeping.

One Sabbath Jesus and his disciples were walking on a road that passed through a grainfield. The disciples were hungry, so they plucked some ears of grain and ate the kernels. The Pharisees immediately asked, “Why do you allow them to do what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” Jesus reminded them that on an occasion of great necessity, when David and his men were famished, David as king took the special bread used in the Tabernacle that only priests could eat and fed it to his men. Jesus then made two points. First, he told the Pharisees they had the Sabbath backwards. “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” God did not make man to fit the Sabbath but made the Sabbath to fit man -  to be a blessing. Second, Jesus said, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” Jesus, as the Son of God, had the authority to determine what is allowed on the Sabbath.

Another Sabbath a man with a withered hand was in the synagogue. The Pharisees believed it was OK to provide medical treatment on the Sabbath if life was in danger; otherwise it must wait till the next day. The Pharisees wanted to see what what Jesus would do. Jesus asked them, “If you had a sheep fall into a pit on the Sabbath would you leave it till the next day or get it out? Don’t you understand that a man if more valuable than a sheep? It is not wrong to do good by showing mercy on the Sabbath.”

Jesus reclaimed the Sabbath to be not a burden but a blessing for man and specifically authorized activities of necessity and mercy on the Sabbath.

Third, is there any connection the Old Testament Sabbath and our Sundays?

Some Christians say there is no connection between the Sabbath and Sunday. Christ fulfilled the Sabbath, so it has nothing to do with us. Other Christians believe there is a very close connection between the Sabbath and Sunday. They call Sunday “the Christian Sabbath” and keep it strictly.

From the beginning the Apostles, very possibly following directions from Jesus, decided that they would not keep the Jewish Saturday Sabbath, but would make one day out the 7 special. What day? Twice we are told in the New Testament that Christians gathered in worship on the first day of the week, or Sunday. Near the end of the first century Ignatius, a martyr for the faith, said that Christians “no longer observe the Sabbath, but dire their lives toward the Lord’s day, on which our life is refreshed by him (Christ) and his death.”

Why would the Apostles make the first day of the week, Sunday, special day rather than keep Saturday, the 7^th day? Because Christ rose from the dead on the first day. Every Sunday would be celebration of the resurrection. Not just Easter but every Sunday is a feast of the resurrection for Christians.

Christians observe a weekly holy day, not on the Jewish Sabbath, but on Sunday.

Fourth, what does the Sabbath teach us about how we observe Sunday.

First, God himself set the pattern for us from the very beginning - life has a rhythm of work and rest.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.  And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation (Genesis 2:3).

God made us for work. Work is not a curse. Adam kept and cultivated the Garden. Everyone should work, whether or not it’s for pay, by doing things creative and productive. We should not waste time or be lazy. But everyone should also rest. God did not make us to be slaves to our work, or to find the who significance of our lives in work. One Sundays God calls us away from our work to remember him and that we are his people. When we do not follow God’s pattern, whether by not working, or not resting, we reject God’s plan for us and harm ourselves physically, psychologically, and spiritually.

Second, God has provided us with a day to worship. One thing we can say for sure about Sunday is that the first thing on the list is worship. Everything else should be arranged under the priority of public worship. One of the questions we ought to ask ourselves as we plan our Sundays is, “Will this keep me from worship?” Setting Sunday aside for worship calls for us to manage our time. Suppose you know that you want to take off next Friday and go on a picnic. You would have to figure out what you must accomplish Monday through Thursday so that without being distracted you can enjoy Friday. Similarly, if we are going to keep Sunday as a holy day for worship, we must  manage our time Monday through Saturday, so we can devote ourselves to worship.  

Third, Sunday points us God’s rest and our hope of entering - sharing that rest. That rest for us is not the rest of inactivity and boredom but rest from all the sorrows and frustrations caused by sin and sharing God’s in his rest of joy and delight in his creation. Till that day comes Sunday calls us to rest from the vain effort of trying save ourselves by works. It calls us to rest in Christ and his finished work of salvation for us. 

The writer of Hebrews says, “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his” (Hebrews 4:9, 10). Some people live frenzied lives trying to be good enough and do good enough to earn God’s salvation. Sunday says, “Christ has done the work of salvation for you. Stop trying to earn it by works. By faith rest in the assurance that Christ has accomplished everything necessary for your salvation.”

Both this Day and this Table call us:

(1) To reorient our lives to God and eternal things.

(2) To gather with God’s people public worship,

(3) to celebrate Christ’s resurrection

(4) and to enjoy a foretaste of God’s eternal rest.