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The past two weeks have been a nightmare for my friends, Janie
and Gareth. Their 35-year-old son lost his life to acute depression
and suicide. He had been treated for depression for almost a year,
but something went wrong and now he is gone. They honored me with
the request that I help celebrate his life, because Matt and I
thought so much of each other. Determined not to let the absurdity
of Matt’s death distort the awesomeness of his life, I began to
remember Matt. Matt was a member of First United Methodist Church
of Sugar Land, when I was an associate pastor there. He and I did a
lot together one summer, when he was the Summer Youth Intern. By the
way, the Director of Youth Ministries at the time was named Kip
Johnson and she too is from Ohio. Matt was a gentle soul, not
nearly as verbose as me, but with a much quicker wit. What I
remember most about Matt is the smile that he so often flashed. The
most memorable time for me to see that smile was the day that I went
to Matt for golf lessons. He was the Assistant Pro at Old Orchard
Golf Club. I had been playing golf for about ten years and was
never any good. I wanted to be better. I told Matt that I did not
aspire to Tiger Woods’ level, but any improvement would be
appreciated. He suggested that I take one practice swing so he
could study my grip, back swing, address of the ball, follow
through, and other stuff over which golfers obsess. I grabbed the
club and took a swing. That’s when I saw that smile. Then Matt
went to work. He looked at the way I held the club and modified
that, then he looked at my back swing and cringed - not a good
sign. His wit came out when he held my sand wedge in his hands,
stared down the shaft and said, “This club seems to have suffered
a stress fracture.” Then slowly he began to address some of the
more glaring errors. I left there with a back-ache and a bit of an
idea of what I’d been doing wrong for about 10 years. I knew it
would take a long time to fix it. After all, I’d been doing the
wrong thing for what I would guess to be about 150 rounds of golf.
I just never knew it would take so long to correct those ingrained
errors.
Today is the fourth consecutive Sunday that Sabbath
has been our focus. For those of you who are 50, you’ve passed
2,600 Sabbath days. If you are like me, you’ve been
doing the wrong thing for most of those. Keeping Sabbath
is not going to be an easy habit to teach or to develop. You and I
have been conditioned to ignore it. “Life’s too short to relax one
out of every seven days”, we think. We understand the other nine of
the top Ten Commandments: No other gods, no false idols, no taking
the Lord’s holy name in vain, and honoring mom and dad. It makes
sense not to kill, commit adultery, steal, lie, or covet, but
Sabbath -- How’s that hurt anyone if we break it?
Isaiah, the prophet, put a different spin on it. Instead of
addressing the question, “Who’s harmed by my breaking Sabbath?” he
answered the question, “Who benefits by my keeping Sabbath?” Listen
to what he wrote about 2,500 years ago. It is found in Isaiah
58:13-14. Hear now the Word of the Lord:
13If you refrain from trampling the sabbath,
from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the
sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord
honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your
own interests, or pursuing your own affairs;
14then you shall take delight in the
Lord, and I will make you ride upon the
heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of your
ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the Lord
has spoken.
In this passage the
Lord spoke to the people in exile, through Isaiah the prophet,
outlining the conditions and benefits of Sabbath keeping.
Thus far in this seven sermon series of Sabbath, I have tried to set
the stage for changing our mindset. I’ve wanted us to discover what
Sabbath is, how we keep Sabbath. We’ve
been spelling out the word and the whole concept of SABBATH.
S is for Set aside, as we set
aside one day a week for rest and reflection. A is
for Always observe Sabbath as a
sanctuary of time untouched by the guilt of what we “ought” to be
doing. Last week, we examined the first B - Be
Still, and were encouraged to open the Sabbath as a
weekly gift from God. Next week, I’ll address when Sabbath
is, but I felt it important this week to give us some basic lessons
about what it is.
Today I want to briefly respond to the question, “Who benefits
from keeping Sabbath?” We do. Keeping Sabbath brings
about benefits beyond belief. God revealed this through the
58th chapter of Isaiah. The chapter begins with the
people of Israel saying, “We don’t get it. We’ve done everything we
know to do and still we’re in exile, still we’re in misery, and God
doesn’t even seem to notice.” So they went to the pro shop and
Isaiah, God’s assistant pro-phet, looked at what they were doing and
said, “Let me help you with that back swing. If you learn
how to keep Sabbath, then you’ll be on your
game.”
But that’s a big “if”. Look at what “if” involves
The first condition: Change the way you walk. “If you refrain from trampling the sabbath,
from pursuing your own interests on my holy day.” That’s
the first condition and what it means has to do with life itself not
just feet that trample and pursue. It deals with the way we walk
through life. Self-absorption seemed to be the way Isaiah’s
audience walked. To keep Sabbath, one needs to get
out of one’s self – not trample the Sabbath and pursue
one’s own interests.
The second condition: Change the way you talk. “If you call the Sabbath a delight
and the holy day of the Lord honorable,”
that is, don’t be some long-faced kid standing at the door and
saying, “I can’t play today, it’s Sabbath”. Wayne Muller reflected
on some of these distortions of this sacred day in his book,
Sabbath: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest, “The Sabbath
could be so restrictive and morose that, for some, it became a day
of lethargy and depression rather than sensuality and delight.”
Don’t let that happen. Look forward to the day, bask in the day,
enjoy the day. It’s the best day of the week.
The third condition: Change your whole attitude. “If you honor Sabbath, not going
your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own
affairs”. Again, a reminder in three parts that while
Sabbath keeping will benefit us, it is not to be all
about us. Sabbath keeping requires one to get outside
of one’s self. Beware of the, “If I don’t, it won’t…”
statements that lead us astray.
Sherry was a college
classmate of mine. She was a sweet girl and probably had no more
flaws than anyone else, but to the rest of us, she just seemed to
display her flaws more boldly than most. The saying, “never be the
first one to tell a story” was certainly true when you were with
Sherry. It did not matter what story you told. You might have
overslept that morning, tried to save some time by shaving in the
shower and cut your face, put your shirt on inside out, raced down
the freeway, got stopped by the police and was ticketed for more
money than you would make that day, arrived at work 1-1/2 hours late
and got fired. If you told Sherry about your day her response would
be, “You! What about me?” Then she’d launch into a story
that was not nearly as traumatic to anyone else – except her.
I
think of Sherry often, not because she was so flawed, but because
she gave me a clear picture of myself when I think everything is
about me, “You! What about me?” Rick Warren began his book,
The Purpose Driven Life with a very big exclamation, “It's
not about you. If you want to know why you were placed on this
planet, you must begin with God. You were born by his purpose and
for his purpose.” Keeping Sabbath requires that I
get outside of myself and realize this day is about God.
There is an irony of Sabbath keeping. Once we
are able to look beyond ourselves, God grants us what we are looking
for all along. Keeping Sabbath brings about benefits beyond
belief.
After the big “if’s” of
Sabbath keeping, Isaiah set forth the “then”.
Benefit 1: “Then
you shall take delight in the
Lord.” Deep, abiding, confident
joy is something for which all of us long. It’s something
that often eludes those who seek it most fervently. Yet it’s a
benefit to those who fulfilled the “ifs” of Sabbath keeping. Joy.
Benefit 2: “Then
I will make you ride upon the heights of
the earth”. I keep a picture on my desk at home of me
standing on the top of a mountain at the Continental Divide. My
hands are raised in victory after the four-hour hike up. It was an
exhilarating experience to reach the true top of this mountain.
I’ve got to believe that’s what riding the heights of the earth
feels like. Exhilaration.
Benefit 3: “Then
I will feed you with the heritage of
your ancestor Jacob.” Another
translation reads, “He will bless you with the land of your
ancestor Jacob”. Remember this was spoken to
exiles forced to leave their homes, sitting long-faced by the river
Babylon, tears flowing as they remember home. To them the Lord
says, “If you keep Sabbath, then I’ll bring you home.” These
are benefits beyond belief; joy, exhilaration, home.
Who could ask for much more?
I’ve already shared with you that often the Lord joins me when I am
watching television, listening to music, or sitting in the movie
theater. These are those moments when spiritual truths are
communicated to me through some rather unusual channels. Such was
the time when I saw the movie, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”
It is an interesting movie with some clever scenes and good music.
One of the scenes had the central characters, three escaped
convicts, discussing what they would do with the treasure of $1.2
million they were seeking. The simplest of the three said, “I
would go home and buy back my family farm. My daddy always told me,
‘Son, you ain’t a man if you got no land.’” As a pastor living
in a parsonage, I hope that’s not true, but I could see in that
man’s eyes the truth of his conviction. When asked about other
goals like fancy clothes and finding a wife, he said, “First, I
gotta get my family land back. I can’t think of nothing else ‘til
then.”
The
people of Israel, living in Babylon, know exactly what he meant.
Any land would not do, they wanted their daddy’s land, their momma’s
land. They wanted to go home.
Keeping Sabbath brings about benefits beyond belief.
Joy, exhilaration, home. These are the kind of benefits offered
if you learn to keep Sabbath. That’s a big “if”.
It may be more difficult than teaching a preacher how to play golf.
I can almost see the Lord smiling as Matt did. I can almost hear
the Lord say, “It is going to like a long time for him to improve in
this area.” Someone asked me the other day if I practice what I
preach. To be honest, I do not keep Sabbath as often as I should,
but I keep it much more than I ever have. I have discovered that
keeping Sabbath brings about benefits beyond belief -
benefits that are ours - if we learn to keep Sabbath,
if we rediscover the gift of the day, and if
we get outside of ourselves and see God. We have the chance to do
that this morning if we look beyond the bread and
beyond the cup and we see a God who so loved the world that he gave
his only Son. Once again, benefits beyond belief await us.
Shabbat Shalom. Amen.
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