|
Sunday Morning – January 31, 2010
Pastor Joel Renkema
Deuteronomy 5.12ff
Freedom
When I was in high school I ran track for one year. It wasn’t the most pleasant experience that I had in high-school. Running for the sake of running to me seems akin to masochism. So I ran the shorter races, the 200 and the 400 yarders. And when I trained, I didn’t take it too seriously. I would run to the local Christian bakery where if you recited a Bible verse they gave you a free donut, and then I would run back. That was my workout. There was one thing about track that I enjoyed. That was the track meet. It was the huge event where eight or so different schools would send their teams to compete. The atmosphere was fun, busy and a little chaotic.
I remember there was one school that had a small and atrocious track team. And I mean terrible. There was one boy from that school, he must have been in 9th grade, who ran the varsity 800 yd race. Now, he didn’t run varsity because he was fast. He ran varsity because he was the only person that school had to run that race. This boy was short and skinny, about 5’ nothing and 110lbs. He never stood a chance against boys 3 years older, six inches taller and 50lbs heavier. He nearly got lapped in a two lap race. But what caught my attention was his determination to go as fast as he could. Not many runners tried to run as hard as he did. You could see the effort in his face and the desire in his eyes. And his teammates gathered at the home stretch and all yelled and cheered for him to run, to keep going, to run faster, even though everyone else had crossed the finish line a good minute earlier. This of course made him all that more determined to push as hard as he could. I can still see him plod up to the finish line. He was a paradox in motion. Quickly going very slow.
The Israelites in the time when they were given the 10 commandments were also a paradox in motion. They traveled purposefully nowhere. They fled Egypt abruptly. In the dead of night they shoved out of town, and they quickly arrived nowhere. For many years they wandered the desert. And in the middle of these wanderings God gave them the 10 Commandments. And while they wandered aimlessly in the desert one of the 10 commandments told them to keep the Sabbath holy. And in a way I think this commandment was meant to help the Israelites understand another paradox. How could they live in the world, but not be of the world?
Doesn’t it seem odd that in Deut. 5.15 it says, “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord brought you out of there. So therefore the Lord commands you to keep the Sabbath day holy.”? This same commandment in Exodus chp. 20 seems to make more sense. In Exodus God says, “The Lord made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them in six days. On the seventh he rested. And so you shall do all your work in 6 days but rest on the Sabbath thereby keeping it holy.” That makes sense. God did it this way, so we should do it this way. But in Deuteronomy it isn’t about creation and how God worked and rested, and so should we. In Deuteronomy God makes this commandment because he rescued Israel from Egypt. So this commandment in Deuteronomy is about deliverance. It is about freedom. This commandment, above all, is about Liberty. If you are going to give this commandment a name, call it the liberty law.
Let’s consider the Israelites story here for a moment. First, they were slaves in Egypt for years. They lived and worked for the satisfaction of Pharaoh. They spent all day, everyday working hard to build nothing of consequence. Storehouses for Pharaoh. They were not only slaves to Pharaoh but also were slaves of a pointless life. A life that gained them nothing. But then comes Moses and Aaron and the 10 plagues. Then before they know it the Egyptians are begging them to leave in the middle of the night. Pleading with them to be gone. So the Israelites, slightly stunned by the turn of events I imagine, stumble out of Egypt only to find themselves caught between an army and an impassable sea. Moses parts the Red Sea, and the Israelites escape Egypt for good. Except that little did they know they had just begun a long 40 years of wandering aimlessly, pointlessly, meaninglessly in the desert. You remember God brought them to the promised-land but the Israelites got scared. They didn’t trust that God would provide a way for them to take the promised-land… a land with wealth and strong enemies. They rejected God’s providence. And so they were doomed to wander the desert for 40 years. And as they wandered the desert they often grumbled and dreamt of Egypt. At times they even wondered if they should go back. If Pharaoh would take them back. They wanted to go back to a pointless existence of slaving away for Pharaoh. When they grumbled they weren’t doing a good job remembering why they had to keep the Sabbath holy. They weren’t remember what God saved them from.
But what does keeping the Sabbath day holy have to do with escaping Egypt?
The Sabbath was supposed to be the day of the week where Israel was freed from their working routines. It was the day of the week where the Israelites were freed from their daily struggles of life. On the Sabbath being freed from the daily work to survive or to progress was supposed to remind the Israelites of the freedom they had from God in that they no longer lived pointlessly in slavery for an earthly king. So keeping the Sabbath day holy by resting was not so much about keeping strict laws of what they couldn’t do, but it was about remembering that God freed them from a lifetime of slavery, a life time of pointless work. And so for one day a week the Israelites, as a sign of their covenant with God, were supposed to take a day off from the slavery of earthly routines to remember their salvation, their liberty, their freedom. In a way Sabbath for the Israelites was supposed to be like July 4th for us. The day to remember what made us free.
Remember that track runner I told you about. The paradox in motion. Quickly going nowhere fast. We are all kind of like him. We live life as fast as we can. We are determined to push as hard as we can. All our family, friends, wives, husbands, children, parents and yes churches are cheering for us to go faster when we are already going at a frenzied speed. There always seems to be more that needs to be done. The lawn hasn’t been mowed in two-weeks. The kitchen floor could use a scrub-down. The boss wants you to work more nights. Another child on the way to join an already hectic life. The chores on top of homework and friends. There are volunteer opportunities at the Rescue Mission and Hands In the Community. There is the church committee and junior’s soccer practice. And then there is this economy. It scares us. Will there be enough work? And there is the test tomorrow in math class and the research paper due for economics class on Wednesday. There just aren’t enough days in the week. Seven days just isn’t enough to get done what we want done. And in all our busyness we sometimes don’t realize that we have accomplished nothing. I remember a T-Shirt I read once that said, “He who dies with the most toys, still dies.”
As one author said concerning Sabbath day observance today, “It is not that we are rejecting God. We just don’t have time for him. He is lost in the blur of our lives. Most of us don’t struggle with the Bible, with theology. Instead we struggle with the clock. It is not sinning too much that is killing us. It is our schedules that are annihilating us. Most of us don’t come home staggering drunk. We come home staggering with exhaustion. We are drained because we are living too fast.”
Sabbath day observance is a touchy topic, isn’t it? It seems every one you talk to has a different list of what is OK and what is not OK to do on Sunday. I remember when I was 18 or so I got invited by some college friends to go water skiing on Sunday afternoon. I had only ever been water skiing once before, so after church I went and I made it back in time for night church. But later that week a member of our congregation heard I went skiing on Sunday and with total horror she said, “What! You the pastor’s son went skiing on Sunday!! Isn’t that breaking the Sabbath?!” Now, it was a snotty age for me. Maybe it was because I was a new college student and I thought I knew everything. I don’t know, but I kindly pointed out to this lady, in a self-righteous way that only pastor’s kids can accomplish, that her children were well known to do homework on Sundays, often missing youth group. And that seemed to me to be a much worse infraction. I think I made a lifelong friend that day.
I’m sure you have all talked to people about this. The person sitting next to you on the pew probably does stuff on Sunday’s that you wouldn’t do in a million years on a Sunday. But then again, you do stuff they wouldn’t do. Maybe we can find you at Marie Callendar’s or Chapala’s after church, but others would never eat out on Sunday. Maybe you will take a couple of hours to check over the account books or your business. Maybe you will take an hour to trim the back hedge. Maybe you will play football. All these things might be on someone else “do not do” list for Sunday.
Now, with this law people usually do one of two things. Either they get all legalistic. Like the Pharisees. They come up with a huge list of things you cannot do. Or people go to the other extreme. They remember that Jesus told the disciples that that the Sabbath was made for humankind. Humanity was not made for the Sabbath. And so these people think we can make the Sabbath into whatever we want. Both extremes are wrong. Both extremes miss the point of the Sabbath. Of all the 10 commandments this is the most subjective. So as I stand up here this morning I have to be careful. I have to be careful that I don’t just tell you what I think you should or should not do. Because this law about keeping the Sabbath day Holy is not about do or do not. It is about freedom. It is about liberty.
First, this commandment is not about laws and restrictions. It is about leaving behind the cultural ideas of productivity that uses us up, wears us down. It is about breaking the routine of life that enslaves us so that we can remember that we, like Israel are delivered from a life of slavery. The Sabbath was supposed to remind the Israelites that God delivered them from a life unrewarding expenditure of time slaving for Pharaoh. The Sabbath is supposed to remind us that God delivers us from at life that the author of Ecclesiastes calls, “MEANINGLESS, MEANINGLESS, EVERYTHING IS MEANINGLESS!”
So, a simple rule of thumb, perhaps is this. What do you normally do during your week? What enslaves you during the week? What has a hold over you? Is it work, chores, homework, sports…. This is what you are supposed to take a break from on the Sabbath. If every day after work you tinker with your car, then maybe on Sunday you don’t. If every day you cook for your family, then maybe on Sunday you don’t. Remember, Sabbath day observance is about rejecting the habits, the drives, the ambitions of this world and choosing liberty.
Observing the Sabbath day is also supposed to be proof of our faith. Will we, God’s people, keep the reigns of our lives in our own hands, or can we one day a week trust them in the hands of the Lord? Can we take a break from our business, our school work ONE DAY and trust that the Lord will take care of us?
There is the other extreme too that we have to worry about. The extreme that says we can do whatever we want on Sundays.
Remember the story of Cain and Abel? They both made sacrifices to God, but the difference was that Abel gave God his best produce and Cain gave God his leftovers. Sabbath day observance is a sacrifice to God. Do we give God your best time, or just our leftovers?
I’ll admit to you that I struggle with this commandment. I mean look, I’m a pastor and I work on Sundays. Now traditionally we allow for 3 exceptions. Necessity- we need policemen and firemen on Sundays. Mercy – we need doctors and nurses on Sundays. And religion – we need pastors, Sunday school teachers, praise teams on Sundays. But that doesn’t mean I/we get to skip this law. We still must set aside some time. So, I take a day off. But here is the question that always trips me up, and maybe you too. What is the difference between a day off and a day off sanctified to the Lord? Can I paint my living room, do my expense reporting, file my taxes on a day Sanctified to the Lord? Or perhaps more difficult, is doing nothing but relaxing, watching football, reading books, playing golf, doing whatever I want. Is that making a day sanctified to the Lord? Does that make a day Holy?
The Sabbath day was supposed to show who Israel was: A people chosen and liberated from slavery by YHWH. The Sabbath day is supposed to show who we are: A people chosen and liberated from slavery to the things this world by Jesus.
When Israel was in exile they were a small people scattered amongst the nations. They were a minority. Vulnerable to other cultures and societies. Yet to them Sabbath day observance asserted their distinctiveness as a community by announcing their loyalty to YHWH.
You and I live in similar circumstances. As Christians we are a cultural minority. And for us Sunday/Sabbath observance gives us a unique opportunity to assert our distinctiveness as a community. Of all the 10 commandments this commandment is the most visible for outsiders to see. Sometimes I get asked, “How can I live in a way that shows my neighbors I am a Christian, I am saved?” On Wednesday in Catechism class a student asked me, “How can we be in the World but not of the world?” Well, Sabbath observance is as good a place to start as any.
Let the world see us deny the ambitions of culture. Let them see us disengage from the economic system of productivity that enslaves us during the week so that one day we might be set apart, different. I’ll leave it up to you to decide what that looks like for your life. Just don’t give God your leftovers.
I have an almost unholy love for British medieval history. So I love movies like Braveheart. In the movie Braveheart William Wallace is a freedom fighter for Scotland trying to overthrow tyrannical English rule. In a pre-battle motivational speech to his out classed and out-numbered troops William Wallace shouts, “They may take our lives, but they will never take our freedom!”
On a Sunday morning almost 2,000 years ago Jesus broke the Sabbath in spectacular fashion. He conquered death and walked out of an empty tomb. Declaring to the world that NOTHING in this world has a hold on us. We are free. Free from meaninglessness. Free from a pointless life. Free from a pointless death. And though we will all die. One thing that can never be taken from us is the empty tomb on Sunday morning. One thing that will always set us apart, is Freedom. And that is why we keep Sunday separate. Holy. To remember our freedom. To show the world, “WE ARE FREE!”
Amen.
| 
