Sermon on the Sabbath and life today with video

Click here for Divine Service at St. Luke, Rensselaer

2024 Second Sunday after Pentecost

Deuteronomy 5:12-15     2 Corinthians 4:5-12                Mark 2:23-28, 3:1-6

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer. Amen.

Some time ago, I was part of a small group of Christians that met during the week to visit, study God’s Word, and pray together. One of the men in the group was just going back to work after several months recuperating from a job related back injury and surgery. He was a hardworking, hard driving man in his mid 30s’- 40s’. He and his family were members of the church we all belonged to. 

He was also in hot pursuit of the American dream of having it all. That meant owning an expensive looking home, boat, cars, clothes, taking exotic vacations, etc. He worked in alcohol distribution. In order to pay for his lifestyle choices, he worked lots of hours. Then, he got hurt and was flat on his back for several months recuperating from his surgery.

When I met him, he thanked God for the injury because it made him stop, think, and assess his life. Somewhere along the way he had miscued his relationship with God and his family. He realized that he barely knew his young son. He also learned that his marriage was on the rocks and he was too busy to notice.  He also realized that he had deceived himself. He was not really working to provide a good life for his family, he was working to look good so that he would be looked at and envied. He was enslaved by his pride. He thanked God that he had the gift of re-evaluating his priorities during his recuperation period.  It was truly a repentance in the full Greek sense of the word metanoia, a reorienting and changing of his mind and soul so that he had a different focus in life. 

He had lived to work but in this new chapter of life, he wanted to work to live. He wanted a life where God and family and neighbor came first. 

His spiritual and physical crisis was not a Sabbath, but it caused him to stop, reset his priorities, then repent, and go forward seeking the Lord’s guidance and His priorities. Among those priorities was his desire to reclaim Sabbath as a family spiritual discipline. 

Sometimes we have to have something dramatic happen so that God can use that as an opportunity to correct our course in life.  But, in the ordinary course of events, God has already provided a weekly time of rest, reflection, and resetting of priorities. 

After Moses led the enslaved descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob out of Egypt in 1446 BC, they camped before Mount Sinai. Among the 613 commandments that Moses received from God on Mount Sinai, we are most familiar with the Ten Commandments. The reading from Deuteronomy 5, is the 3^rdcommandment. Many of us memorized this commandment as “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”   We also probably memorized the brief explanation. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and his Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.” 

 Nothing wrong with that brief explanation. We should indeed have a profound respect and love for God. We should listen carefully to God’s Word and learn it. The best place to listen carefully to God’s Word and learn it is in church. We come together on this day and at this time so that we can receive God’s Word of Law and Gospel through the reading and exposition of the Holy Scriptures as well as encounter our gracious Lord and his promises of forgiveness and everlasting life on account of our faith in Jesus Christ who was crucified and risen for us.

God commands us to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy so that we can reap the benefits of a gracious encounter with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Obedience to the Law leads to Gospel.

God gives us the Law for our benefit. In the third commandment God commands us to stop work. Even though we are serving God through our work, we also need to cease regularly to focus exclusively on the Lord. The Lord truly wants what is best for us. He wants us to be free. 

The gift of the Sabbath is given in part for us to remember that in our spiritual history, we were once slaves. Our bondage meant that we had no rest. Always, we are available for the master. Always, we are at their bidding. Always, we work, regardless of day or night or how we feel. Slavery means no freedom. 

God has set us free. He led Israel out of bondage in Egypt into the freedom of a life shaped around the Lord God instead of Pharoah. We Christians are led out of bondage from sin, death, and the devil by Jesus Christ. His death on the cross breaks the chains of the unholy trinity and he is leading us into the fullness of the promised land. 

God has set us free. Free to work. Free to stop. Free to dwell in God’s Word. 

Yet, our nature keeps wanting us to go backwards instead of forwards. Our nature seems to want to be enveloped in deception, rather than freedom. That’s why God gives us the sabbath and the command to make regular use of it. 

Observe the Sabbath day. Why? Moses tells us because we need to always remember that we were once slaves, but that God has freed us. So, all unnecessary work stops on the sabbath. Even the servants who live in the house and work on the land are supposed to stop. Even the visitors. Everything stops so that God’s Word may be heard. And, through the Word, the Holy Spirit works to refresh and reset our priorities, lead us into repentance, and turn us again to the promises of God. 

The Sabbath is a precious gift of God to His people. With any precious gift, rules quickly developed to protect it. There were several clashes between Jesus and the Pharisees. One of those clashes centered around the intention and use of the Sabbath.  The Pharisees sought to enforce the rules that were designed by well intentioned men to protect the Sabbath. So, there were strict rules what constituted necessary or unnecessary chores, what one could carry, how far one could walk away from one’s residence.

God provides the Sabbath as a sign that point us to Jesus.  Sabbath is about rest, experiencing God’s grace, and being made whole. Jesus is our sabbath rest.  He relieves us from the burden of our sins through the cross. Through faith we receive the Good News that he died on the cross for us so that we may receive His forgiveness and His righteousness. In order to underscore the point that he can do this, Jesus heals on the Sabbath.  If he can heal a man’s hand on the Sabbath, what can he do for us on the cross? He can heal our shriveled and hardened hearts, that’s what he can do. He can take the anger and bitterness that has built up over the week, and he can give us peace. He can take the exhaustion of our minds and hearts, and he can lift us up as on eagles’ wings. This is His gift to us. 

Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath and we enter his Sabbath rest. 

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.