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Last week was my Mom’s first visit to College Station. She wanted to
take home some souvenirs of her trip. I thought about going to
Wal-Mart and getting her the least expensive shirts and caps, but then
I thought, “If you really want some Aggie souvenirs you have to go to
The Place for Souvenirs – the MSC.” We went to the
Memorial Student Center Bookstore across from Kyle Field. There
really are places that simply are The Place to Be for
certain things. When I was at the Vatican in March, I felt compelled
to purchase a rosary. I don’t even know the prayers of the rosary,
but I know that the Vatican is The Place to Be if you
want to buy a rosary.
Somewhere along the line in human history the Sabbath
went from being simply a day of rest, a day in which one crosses
nothing off of a “To Do” list, to being a day for worship as well.
This happened centuries before the birth of Jesus and by the time
Jesus started his public ministry, he had already established the
habit of getting together with the people of God on the Sabbath.
We learn about this in Luke 4:14-32 where Luke, the evangelist, gives
us a snapshot into a Sabbath day in the life of Jesus.
Hear now the word of the Lord:
14Then Jesus,
filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report
about him spread through all the surrounding country.
15He began to teach
in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
16When he came to
Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on
the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read,
17and the scroll of
the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found
the place where it was written:
18“The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to
the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and
recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,
19to proclaim the
year of the Lord’s favor.”
20And he rolled up
the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of
all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
21Then he began to
say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your
hearing.”
22All spoke well of
him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.
They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”
23He said to them,
“Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’
And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we
have heard you did at Capernaum.’”
24And he said,
“Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.
25But the truth is,
there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the
heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe
famine over all the land;
26yet Elijah was
sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.
27There were also
many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of
them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”
28When they heard
this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage.
29They got up,
drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on
which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.
30But he passed
through the midst of them and went on his way.
31He went down to
Capernaum, a city in Galilee, and was teaching them on the sabbath.
32They were
astounded at his teaching, because he spoke with authority.
The
Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
In this passage Luke recorded for his readers the scene in the
synagogue one Sabbath when Jesus showed up. Let us
pray: Dear Lord, show up today and speak to hearts that are opened to
your presence. Amen.
We
have taken the time ever since Easter to re-examine the subject of
Sabbath and spell out its application to our lives. The
“S” reminds us to Set Aside this day for
rest, reflection, and reassessment. The first “A” is
for Always Observe the Sabbath as a
sanctuary of time instituted by God. The first “B”
reminds us to Be Still and open the Sabbath
as a gift given by a God who waits with anticipation as we unwrap it.
The second “B” is for Benefits Beyond Belief.
Benefits of joy, exhilaration, home. Still, in the
midst of all these promises and the quiet presence of God, we
discovered last week that Abuse Happens when we focus on
rules over relationships. Today we look briefly at the community
element of Sabbath and discover that at least once a
week, this is The Place to Be. The T in
Sabbath is for The Place to Be.
This Is The Place to Be for Worship
Verse 16 of Luke 4 reveals that Jesus had a habit of going to
synagogue on Sabbath. It was his custom. Synagogue was
the place to be for the people of God to come together and worship God
every Sabbath. Jesus went as a child in Nazareth, it
remained his custom as an adult, and in verse 31 we discover that in
spite of a very negative experience in one synagogue, he continue to
show up every Sabbath. It was The Place to Be
for worship.
Christianity lost no time in translating this custom as our custom.
Every Sunday we are open for business – open for worship. This is
true not only of this church, but every church gathers together at
least once a week for worship. It is part of what makes up Sabbath
for many of us. Our daughter, Chelsea, grew up going to church for
worship every week. Neither she nor Zachary has known anything else.
It was not odd for us to join a worship service already in progress
one Thursday night in Rome. We walked into Santa Maria of Trastevere.
We did not know at the time that this might be the oldest continuously
worshipping community in all of Rome. Apparently a house church
started there around 200 and a church was built there in the early
300’s with the existing structure having been built in the late
1100’s. All we knew was that as we walked in we were handed candles
and sat on the back row of a sanctuary filled to capacity. As they
recited the creed in a foreign language my heart felt at home. When
it was time for the Gospel reading the Bible was paraded through the
congregation while the people sang in Portuguese a familiar tune, “Thy
word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” I sang along
as the words were printed in our bulletin, and tears began to fill my
eyes. I looked over to Chelsea and she was wiping tears from her
cheeks. We both knew at that instance that this was “The
Place to Be for Worship”.
I
hope you have such Sabbath experiences in your life. I
hope that worship is such a habit that you will find comfort in a
foreign land, singing in a foreign language, and sensing the stirring
of the Holy Spirit in your soul whispering, “Welcome home, my child.”
This is The Place to Be for worship.
This is The Place To Be For Instruction
There was a lot of instruction offered that day in Nazareth. The
Sabbath worship service probably began with the Shema,
“Hear O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is One…”, then there was a
prayer, a reading from the Torah or Law, the recitation of
benedictions, and the reading from the Prophets, before the closing
prayer. Jesus was asked to do the reading from the prophets and
expound upon it, as he desired. He desired. He read from Isaiah 61
that speaks of liberation for the poor, the oppressed,
the blind, the captive. Then, as was
customary, he sat down and with every eye glued on him he said,
“Today, right here, this has been fulfilled.” What exciting news! It
is obvious that Jesus referred to spiritual poverty, blindness,
oppression and captivity, but to the Son of God these are much more
profound than their physical counterparts. He is saying to all who
would hear him, “You are free!” How fantastic. They were amazed.
However, then the obvious took over.
This was Joe’s boy. How did he know about this kind of freedom?
Jesus knew what they were thinking and told them it would be hard to
believe. They would want him to prove himself with miracles. They
would be prone to mock him. They would not recognize a hometown boy
as the Messiah. He told them that Elijah and Elisha had the same
problem, so God sent them to outsiders, present day Lebanon and
Syria. Residents of Nazareth still would not welcome this story that
speaks of God showing favor to these perennial nemeses of Israel.
Commentators vary on how the describe the crowd’s reaction to this
unwanted instruction. Virtus Gideon said they were filled with
boiling anger, Norval Geldenhuys described it as blind hate
erupting, and William Arndt wrote, “Mad prejudice dictated
their course.”
This sounds like
the descriptions of the NBA playoffs - not the players, but the fans.
I read Thursday morning that the Phoenix Suns fans were so angry at
the San Antonio Spurs that one elderly woman sitting courtside gave an
obscene gesture to the San Antonio players and one man yelled out to
Brent Barry, a bench player for the Spurs, “You have no class.”
Barry was stunned and pleaded with the
fan, “But you don’t even know me.”
It’s
easy for blind hate, boiling anger, and mad prejudice to block good
instruction. Don’t fall for that. Jesus’ hearers had a golden
opportunity before them – freedom, but they preferred their shackles
of prejudice. We have the same opportunity for freedom and for
failure to see the living Christ in our midst.
It
is important to note that the instruction all started with the
inspired Word of God. It still does. When this book is opened and
read in this place, something happens. It is as though the gates have
opened at the Kentucky Derby. The Word races out into the
congregation and begins to affect lives that are open to it. This is
The Place to Be for instruction.
I
love the rest that Sabbath provides. It is an oasis to
my tired soul, but I also love when I am at The Place to Be
for Sabbath. I am glad that I am together with you.
Here I find worship and instruction. Here I discover the presence of
Christ as I get away from the distractions of daily life. Here I
listen to the voice of God calling me even as he called Isaiah and I
pray that I will respond, “Here I am, Lord.”
I
hope that you have been able to discover the joy of Sabbath
in your weekly life. I hope that you have found a day to get away
from the demands of doing and experience the rest of being. As you do
remember this - find, even as Jesus did, The Place to Be
for Sabbath worship and instruction. I am sure you will
enjoy that which God promises us --
Shabbat Shalom. Sabbath peace. Amen. |
