Sermon (March 20) - "An App for That: Sabbath

What’s your favorite day of the week? Friday seems to be the popular choice. For most people, it’s the end of the work week. It’s the beginning of the weekend. And hopefully it’s a time to enjoy some down time before the whole thing starts all over again on Monday.

I don’t know where Monday ranks on the list of favorite days, but my guess is that it ranks somewhere around the bottom. Does anyone seriously look forward to Mondays besides preachers? I guess Monday lovers are out there somewhere.

In our society, we see Monday as the first day of the week, but from a Jewish and biblical perspective, Sunday is the 1st day of the week. And so when the first few verses of the Bible talk about the creation of the first day, it’s really talking about Sunday.

As we focus on these opening verses from the Book of Genesis, it’s obvious that each day of the week is important to God. Each day has its own special place in God’s creation.

And so we have the first day, Sunday. On the very first day of creation, we are told that God created the heavens, light, and darkness. That was all on Sunday.

On the second day we get the creation of a dome or a sky. Maybe if you like to look at the stars at night, this might be your favorite day. That’s Monday.

On the third day, God creates dry land called earth and this leads to vegetation. If you like to do any gardening, maybe this is your day. That’s Tuesday.

On the fourth day, God creates a greater light to rule the day and a lesser light to rule the night. Aren’t you glad that God made the night darker than the day so that we can get some sleep? If you like to get eight or more hours of sleep at night, Wednesday might be your favorite day.

Then comes the fifth day when God creates sea life and birds to fly in the sky. Those of you who like to fish, this is your day. Without day number five, you wouldn’t have your favorite hobby.

On day six, God really got a lot done because it was on this day that we get the creation of cattle and wild animals and what the Bible calls creeping things. Creeping things. By the way, I am the designated spider remover in our home. I’m convinced that God created spiders just to make dads feel useful around the house.

But notice that it was also on day six when God created humankind. Male and female. And it was on this sixth day that God told them to be fruitful and multiply and in modern day terms, to be good stewards of everything that has been created. “Take care of my creation,” God tells us. Why? Because God’s creation is good. If you like to go to the zoo or if you’re a people person, perhaps Friday is your favorite day of creation.

How can you top these first six days of the week? What does God do on the seventh day? We are told that God rested from all this work. The word “Sabbath” gets translated as “rest.” God took a day-long sabbatical on the 7th day. But God didn’t just sleep all day on the 7th day. The Book of Genesis tells us that God also blessed the seventh day. That’s Saturday, the seventh day of the week.

During this Season of Lent, we are taking a look at six important spiritual apps that can help us to grow closer to Jesus Christ as we prepare for Easter. These are six apps that Christians have been using throughout the centuries. Some of these may already be familiar and are ones that we use on a regular basis. By focusing on these more familiar apps we can have a fresh perspective on how they can become even more helpful to us.

Some of these apps may not be nearly as familiar. My hope is that we will take the time to download these apps and begin using them right away.

Last Sunday, we looked at the spiritual app of fasting and I encouraged those of us who are physically able to consider giving up eating at least one meal on either a Wednesday or a Friday each week and to instead use that time to pray and focus on our relationship with Jesus Christ. Fasting on one or both of these two days goes all the way back to the early church. John Wesley encouraged his Methodists to continue this practice of fasting on a regular basis.

Today, the spiritual app for us to download is observing the Sabbath. We often get the Sabbath or Saturday confused with Sunday. In addition to being the first day of creation, Sunday has also become known as “The Lord’s Day” because Jesus’ resurrection and the empty tomb happened on a Sunday.

And we often collapse these two days and turn them into one day. And to some degree, that’s appropriate because as we shall see, there are important aspects of the Sabbath that we should keep in mind for every day of the week.

But first, I think it’s important to note that of the six spiritual apps we’re looking at during this sermon series, fasting, prayer, Holy Communion, following the Christian calendar, and spiritual pilgrimage, the Sabbath is the only one that is in the form of a commandment.

It’s one of the Ten Commandments and it’s listed as the fourth commandment. And remember, these aren’t the Ten Suggestions. These are the Ten Commandments.

The fourth commandment goes like this. “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work – you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days, the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it.”

And this brings me to the first thing in how the spiritual app of observing the Sabbath can help us in our faith journey. By observing the Sabbath, it can help us have a rhythm to our faith. Three weeks from now, we’ll talk about the importance of having an annual rhythm when we focus on the Christian calendar, but for today our focus is on a weekly rhythm to our faith which is what the Sabbath can provide us.

Many of us seek to have some kind of weekly rhythm, but that’s not always easy to do in our fast paced society. Recent surveys show that more than half of us are overwhelmed by work. One third of us are chronically overworked. Only 14% of us take vacations of two weeks or longer each year. Americans have the shortest paid vacations in the entire world. And 20% of those who do go on vacation stay in touch with their jobs while on vacation.

Many of us can probably relate to Sisyphus from Greek mythology. Sisyphus was condemned to drudgery and futility by pushing a boulder up a mountain only to have it slip from his hands and watch it tumble down the mountain. And he is forced to begin the process all over again. He has to push the boulder back up the mountain and then watch it as it slips from his hands yet again. This is his eternal fate.

The person who is addicted to work has the misconception that he or she can out-master the fate of work. But it can’t be done. Before too long, it catches up with us and gets the best of us.
This is why the Sabbath is an important spiritual app for us. It helps us to find a rhythm to our faith each week by giving us needed time to rest.

One of the ways that I seek to honor the Sabbath is to pray this same prayer every Saturday morning. It’s a prayer that reminds me of the importance of this day of the week. Here’s the prayer:

“O heavenly Father, who has filled the world with beauty: Open our eyes to behold your gracious hand in all your works; that, rejoicing in your whole creation, we may learn to serve you with gladness; for the sake of him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Just that short prayer has a way of helping me to not take my Saturday Sabbath for granted. It’s a day for us to open our eyes and behold God’s beauty.

One of the things that I have done over the years is to have my sermon for the upcoming Sunday finished by Friday of that week so that Saturday can be a time to get outside as much as possible and enjoy God’s creation. And while there are some Saturdays that can be busy with weddings and church events, I still try to find ways to slow down and enjoy the day as much as possible.

So my typical week looks like this. Church on Sunday. Sermon work on Monday. Tuesdays through Thursdays are filled with church events, meetings, and pastoral duties. On Fridays, I do some finishing work on my sermon and try to take the rest of the day off. And I already shared about my Saturdays.

The Sabbath gives us that needed rest on a week to week basis. It doesn’t always work out that way, because that’s just the way life is sometimes, but at least the Sabbath is God’s way of helping us to have a balance in our lives.

The second thing the Sabbath does for us. It helps us to experience joy. Who doesn’t want more joy in their lives?

The bible uses the word, “rest” in referring to the Sabbath.

Many of us can recall blue laws in our country which restricted the sale of goods and products on Sunday as a way to encourage Christians to not work and attend church instead. I already mentioned how Christians have confused the Sabbath with Sunday, but the blue laws have fed into this notion that to honor the Sabbath simply means to not work.

I was in a hotel in the city of Jerusalem. On the Sabbath, the elevators would not allow me to push the button of my floor since pushing an elevator button was considered working. So I had to stop at each floor even if nobody was getting on or off the elevator.

I remember feeling annoyed and impatient that it seemed to take forever to make it to my room. But isn’t that the point? The Sabbath is meant to help us slow down and enjoy all that God has given us.

A better translation of the word Sabbath is “joyful repose.” In other words, Saturday is to be a day that we specifically set aside from the other days of the week to rediscover the joy of God’s creation. It is a day that is to be filled with delight because when God created the world, he called his creation good. God delights in us and we are to delight in God as well.

I like how Dan Allender, author of the book, “Sabbath,” describes what the Sabbath is meant to be at least for him when he writes, “The Sabbath is like hanging out with God in a French café drinking an espresso and talking about Simone de Beauvoir and listening to cool jazz.”
There’s a sense of playfulness with the Sabbath. It’s a day to light some candles, savor a delicious meal, enjoy a conversation with a loved one, exercise, go for a walk, read, listen to music, and take a nap.

It’s a day for us to use our senses and experience God’s good creation with all of its color, texture, taste, fragrance, sound, adventure, and sweetness. Those of you who are nature lovers, who enjoy hiking, who love to take walks outdoors, have a lot to teach those of us who are tied to our homes.

One particular Sabbath moment comes to mind. I went for a 30 minute run out by the OU campus here in town. In that one day, two beautiful white tail deer darted right in front of me as I was running on the bike path. I watched the deer gracefully run up the side of a hill.

And after my run, as I was driving home and coming down the steep road along Rising Park, I was blown away by the incredible sunset that pierced through the bright red and yellow autumn leaves. It took my breath away as I savored that sacred moment.
Honoring the Sabbath helps us to experience the joy of God’s creation.

The third thing that the Sabbath can do for us. It can help us offer God’s healing love to the people around us. When we are living balanced lives and taking care of ourselves, than we are better able to show God’s love to others.

Jesus teaches us this again and again throughout the gospels as he heals people on the Sabbath and gets criticized for it. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day had a narrow understanding of the meaning of Sabbath. Jesus responded by telling them that the Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath.

In the Book of Leviticus, we get the commandment to observe the year of Jubilee. The year of Jubilee was held every 50th year and it was during that year that the gap between the haves and the have-nots was erased. Everyone was allowed to start all over again which was especially good news for those who had fallen on hard times and who had incurred tremendous debt.
It was God’s built in way of making sure that wealth was distributed more evenly and that people had a second chance to have a better life.

And this Year of Jubilee was based on the number seven. Just like the Sabbath was considered the 7th and final day of the week, by taking seven times seven years, you get 49 years. And it was on that 50th year, that the people of Israel were to celebrate the Year of Jubilee.

This is one of the reasons why I love our Second Saturday outreach in which we gather at our Crossroads facility on the Second Saturday of every month to go out and be a blessing to our community. Maybe we should rename it “Second Sabbath” because this monthly outreach reminds us of how Jesus blessed others on the Sabbath. Notice that God didn’t simply take a nap after he created the world in six days. We are told that God blessed that day.

As part of our upcoming Crossroads facility fund drive, let’s hear how people are making a difference through our Second Saturday outreach:

(Watch Video)

Whenever we serve others, we are offering God’s blessings upon God’s creation.
And the fourth way that the Sabbath can help us in our faith. It gives us great hope. The Sabbath is to remind us of the time when God created the world and then rested on the seventh day.

The Garden of Eden was this incredible place where there was peace, harmony, joy, love, and everything we needed. It was just as God had created it to be. But of course, we messed it up when we sinned and disobeyed God.

And that’s when we first got thorns and thistles in the garden and we were driven out. And the story of the Bible is really a story of how God longs for his creation to be renewed again. And just when it looks like God’s people make it into the Promised Land or return from being in exile, what would happen next? They would sin and the cycle started all over again. The bible can be a frustrating read!

But there’s another beautiful garden that shows up in the bible. It’s a garden that is pictured for us at the end of the Book of Revelation when heaven and earth come together in a beautiful way. And all of this is made possible through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The bible is a wonderful book because we get to see how the story ends. God wins! We are told that in this garden, there will be no more tears, no more death, no more mourning, no more crying, and no more pain. And all of this is because of what Jesus Christ has done for us.

About a month from now, we are going to observe a very special Sabbath day. A Sabbath like no other. Unlike other Sabbaths, where we enjoy fun and play, this Sabbath will be very different.
On that Sabbath, we will recall how after Jesus was crucified, his body was placed in a tomb during a Sabbath day where it rested. Just as God had created the world in six days and then rested on the seventh day, so Jesus’ body would rest in a tomb on the seventh day.

This is the one Sabbath day during the year when it will not be a day of laughter and sharing jokes with one another. No. It will be a very sad day indeed.

But here’s the good news. That Sabbath will soon give way to an empty tomb, a risen Lord, and the promise of new life.

If you’re looking for a way to have more rhythm, more joy, to make a difference in the world, and to have more hope along your faith journey. There’s an app for that.

And it’s called, the Sabbath.

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