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WORSHIP THIS SUNDAY CONTACT US |
Here, you'll find recent sermons from Trinity Lutheran Church. In addition, you may find up to four prior sermons on the link below. PENTECOST XIII SERMON Time for a little quiz! "Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy." First question: Who said it? Right, it was God! OK. To whom was God speaking? Right again, to Moses for the Israelites. Do you rememb er the occasion? It was about 1300 BC, at the start of the Exodus. (Some of you may remember the movie!) The Lord had just freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. They'd walked through the Red Sea dry-shod, with the Egyptian army drowned behind them. They were at long last, free and on their way to the Promised Land. And there, at the start of their journey to new life, the Lord who delivered them and guides them, bestows on them what the Jewish people call "The Ten Words" (we say 'commandments'). They begin:
Those first three 'words' lay down the foundation for the relationship between God and his people. The remaining seven--all those 'you shall nots'--detail life in community with one another. Good start! You remember who gave the commandments, who received them, and on what occasion. Now, let me ask one more question, please: Why do you think God did it? I mean, why did God take the time and effort to chisel these words into stone? We could read them, I suppose, and think that God's trying to keep the Israelites under his thumb. "I'm in control, and here are the regulations." God's also the scorekeeper, and there's hell to pay for those who don't tow the line. I remember occasions growing up when my dad would tell me to do something (or not to do something). And, if I'd ask why, he'd say, "Because I said so." Authority! Period!! God can be seen as "Said so--period!", the Chief Regulator, Task Master, Boss (capital B!). God made it all. He can certainly write the rules for it...and set the consequences for disobeying them. With that picture of God, you can imagine the Israelites, on the other side of the Red Sea, dancing and singing for joy: "We're free! We're free!", then being interrupted by a booming voice from the mountain top: "That's what you think! Here's the collar, leash attached." That's one way to understand the Lord and the Law: Yoke around the neck, burden to bear, responsibility, obligation. The Sabbath needs to be holy, and we'll establish the Blue Laws, so that there's nothing else for people to do on Sundays except go to church! "You have to worship." Why? "Because I said so. Bend those knees, sing those hymns, offer those prayers...or else!" Show of hands: How many of you have that sort of God in mind? I'm so glad to see a lack of hands in the air! It would be like saying, "Tell grandma how much you love her--or else." The Ten Words were not given to 'regulate' God's people. Rather, they're given to establish a relationship with them, to protect and care for them because truly God our Father knows best! God speaks the Ten Words, not as Chief Killjoy, but rather out of love and devotion. On their way to a new life, God wants to keep them close to him, safe from false gods. With oppression behind them, God wants to establish their life together in a way that reflects his love, so that they can truly be a 'light to the nations.' ("Hey world, see what a people can be!") Those first three commandments put everything else in proper perspective. Get them right, and the other stuff will fall into place. "I'm your God. Here's my name; use it well. Now let's spend this day together each week." Because God knows that no good relationship is possible without time together, time filled with plentiful and open communication. Am I right? "You never call. You never write. You never visit." That's the stereotypical Jewish mother's lament, because she cares about her kids and she wants a life together. It's the same for our Jewish dad, who created us from the beginning for fellowship with him, to be God's delight, his pride and joy as a people. God set it up: In the midst of all the demands, challenges, voices and hassles of life, God clears this space called Sabbath--'rest'--for precious and important time together. "Keep it holy," God says. "Because I want this day to be a blessing, for your sake and for the sake those you touch." So it's not, "You have to worship. Put in the time!", but rather, "We get to worship," so that God's forgiveness, love, and peace can permeate our lives. Rather than a leash and collar around our neck, perhaps we can think of Sabbath as the string of a kite, the connection to God that enables us to soar high and long. Cut the string--terminate the hold--and you know what happens. Crash! The connection gives life! "Keeping the Sabbath holy" is what the first and gospel readings are about today. Isaiah's passage is written for the returned exiles. After years of captivity, the Lord brings them home, and they begin the task of rebuilding city and temple. But things are not going well. Taxes are high. Debt is higher. Work is hard. People are at each other's throats. (Does any of this sound familiar?!) And the only reason temple or Sabbath matter to them is insofar as they serve their personal interests, as in "What can I get out of this?" or "Maybe if I offer a sacrifice, the Lord will bless me." (Send in a contribution, friends, and God will answer your prayers!") Do you see how this absolutely misses the point and actually profanes the Lord's Day? We heard from Isaiah that God intends it to be 'light in the darkness,' 'water for a parched land,' providing a 'firm foundation' and 'strong walls' for their lives. Sabbath is a day to take mind off of self, to focus instead on God. So the prophet declares, "If you refrain from trampling the Sabbath, if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs, then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth." I don't know how you approach this day each week. But I wonder if we can see it more as 'opportunity' than 'obligation.' Can we hear God's word more promise than demand, so that this time together becomes 'delight', water, light, strength, joy...a time to soar with the Lord? We see Jesus doing that time after time in Luke's gospel, using the Sabbath as a day to bring healing, wholeness, 'setting free from Satan's bonds,' as we heard in this morning's gospel. Jesus straightens and strengthens a woman who had been bent over for 18 years, and the legalists around him are sore distressed because they see the healing as 'work' and an offense to God's day. But for Jesus, this is just what the Sabbath is all about: unleashing God's power to bring wholeness and new life to God's people. Worship is the hub of our life in faith from which everything else flows. So Isaiah indicates that holy Sabbath means that God's people stop pointing fingers and speaking evil; it means that they feed the hungry and tend to the afflicted. Because being blessed by God means being a blessing to the world! I hope you don't mind if I reflect a bit on our Sabbath day experiences in South Africa this past month. On three of the four Sundays we worshipped in Lutheran churches. Sadly, the Lutheran church in South Africa is not integrated, so these were entirely black congregations. First of all, we noticed that just about everyone walked to church, with the country roads streaming with people of all ages and conditions. The worship was generally about 3 hours long (with at least a 45minute sermon!). But those hours were filled with the most amazing exuberance and life. They sang 8 or 10 hymns, with no instrumental accompaniment, but with the congregation singing in 4-part harmony. There was hand-clapping and raising, dancing, and movement everywhere. I may talk more about this at stewardship time, but the offerings (plural!) were perhaps most amazing of all to me. Every service had three or four of them, each for a different cause or ministry. The offering was announced, and then the whole assembly processed forward, with song and dance, to give their offering. If it was for men's ministry, for example, the men would go up first, perhaps sing a hymn, then cheer the others on to join them. The whole experience gave new meaning to our prayer, "We offer with joy and thanksgiving what you have first given us." These Christians, who have so little, were able to give so much with such gratitude. Although I didn't understand the language of their worship, the communication was crystal clear: Sunday was a special day in their lives, so they put heart, soul and spirit into every minute of it. God knows what challenges they faced through the days in between, but the Sabbath was holy, and that time with God was absolutely essential to their well-being. Following worship, they remained for holy conversation, sharing, announcements, and reports about the offering counts, greeted with jubilation as the totals were announced. It was simply stunning! I'm not urging you to dance down the aisles--though I wouldn't mind it, to be honest. But I hope that my description might open us all to a more profound experience of this gathering: of God's presence among us and power through us; of its central place in our lives; of the joy and privilege of coming together with brothers and sisters for Word and Sacrament; of God's grace here spilling out, overflowing into each of our days 'out there.' If you look up the 10 Commandments in the Bible (Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 5), you'll see that #3 (on the Sabbath) gets the longest explanation of them all. It's an indication, I think, of God's investment in the relationship. He knitted us together in our mother's womb. He redeemed us through the death and resurrection of his Son. He knows our strengths and weaknesses; our joys and sorrows. God goes with us every step of the way. And God gives us this Day of Rest--a weekly family reunion--so that we get to know all that, delight in it, trust in it. God calls us to keep the day holy, so that he can keep us holy. Hold on tight for the glorious ride! Amen. Please view past sermons here at the SERMON ARCHIVE. |
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