Pastor Sherry’s message for June 2, 2024

Scriptures: 1 Sam 3:1-21; Ps 139:1-6, 13-18; 2 Cor 4:5-12; Mk 2:23-3:6

A pastor related the following story:  Apparently, the church he served was in a city and “…was located next to a Jewish synagogue. That synagogue was served by a rabbi who quite typically walked to the synagogue on the Sabbath, though his house was some distance away. It was not that he didn’t have a car, but that for him it was improper to drive on the Sabbath, for that constituted work. Sometimes I would see him riding a bicycle to synagogue. I suggested to him that that was a lot more work than simply turning on the ignition in an automobile. He said that when a person is riding a bicycle on the Sabbath, the person is not tempted to go shopping or run errands, or to pick up something at the cleaners. However, when one is driving a car, it is easy to do many more things than one intended to do, and thus, the special nature of the day is lost. He was, of course, attempting to live up to the requirements of the third commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy.” Some people would honor his attempt to live by the requirements of this commandment. Others would see it as an unnecessary concern for an outdated concept.”

(Illustration borrowed from www.sermons.com, June 2, 2024.)

From this side of the Cross, we know that Jesus often got into it with the Pharisees over the issue of proper Sabbath-Keeping.  Notice, He never said we were not to honor the Sabbath.  After all, the 3rd Commandment requires us to keep a Sabbath. Jesus would not have ever suggested we violate any of the Commandments.  He just wanted us to be sure to take into account human needs (love, grace) over strict rule-keeping.

To understand where He was coming from, we need to remember the history behind the Father’s institution of the Sabbath.  It’s based on God’s model of resting, on the 7th day (in Genesis 2:2-3), after having worked six days to create the world.  We know from Psalm 121:3-4 that our God neither slumbers nor sleeps.  He, then, does not require rest to maintain or sustain Himself.  So, the obligation to keep a Sabbath was for our benefit, not His.  Additionally, the Israelites had been enslaved in Egypt for 400 years. That meant they worked 7 days a week, without a break.  Our gracious, loving God wanted them and us to be guaranteed at least a one-day pause.  He knew our bodies, minds and spirits needed rest.  He also knew our human tendency was to do as much as we could each day.  So perhaps He was also building in a brake system to help prevent “workaholism.”

But I think God also knew He would need to appoint a time for us to make room for Him in our lives.  Yes, we are to worship Him on Sundays—our Sabbath due to Jesus’ Resurrection on Easter Sunday.  (The Jewish Sabbath is sundown Friday until Sundown Saturday.)  But we are also meant to use this time to make room for our relationship with Him.  Think about this:  The prohibition against murder (Commandment #6) is spelled out by God in four words—You shall not murder.  But God used 94 words to explain the Sabbath (Commandment #3).  God obviously views our keeping a Sabbath as very important.  Incidentally, your Sabbath does not need to be Sunday.  Many folks have to work on Sunday.  If this is true for you, be sure to set aside another day to seek rest and to visit with God.

Let’s see what further light our Scripture passages today shed on this topic:

A. 1 Samuel 3:1-21 relates God’s call to the young man, Samuel, to become His prophet (our Old Testament lesson last week shared a similar call to Isaiah, who came later in Biblical history).  You may recall that Samuel was given over to the priest, Eli, to be raised for God’s service (his previously barren mother, Hannah, had made this promise to the Lord).  He would have been about 3 years old when Hannah placed him in Eli’s care.

Eli had fed and housed him, and no doubt showed him what to do in God’s service–but he, a priest, did not teach him to make room for God in his personal life.  YIKES!  So Scholars tell us the 1st two calls awakening the sleeping Samuel were God’s call to salvation.  (Samuel would have been about 12 years old.) The latter two calls were God’s call upon him to serve the Lord as His prophet.  This is just after the time of the Moses, Joshua, and the Judges—all men (and one woman) whom God had selected to lead Israel (about 1200-1000BC).  From Samuel’s time until that of Jesus, God tended to speak to His people through prophets.

Eli was now old and out of touch with the Lord.  Verse 1 tells us—…in those days the word of the Lord was rare….God wasn’t speaking because few folks were listening.  God no longer spoke to Eli, his clergyperson.  Eli apparently went through the motions, but did not make space in his life for a relationship with the Lord.  So in this passage, God essentially fires Eli and calls Samuel to replace him.  Eli wasn’t so far gone that he did not realize what was happening.  He did prepare Samuel to answer the Lord’s call.  Samuel then went on to serve God faithfully for years.  The Lord used him to anoint the first two kings of Israel, Saul and David.  And Samuel listened carefully to God, making room for Him in his life.

B. In light of this lesson, we can look at Psalm 139 perhaps in a new way.  It’s certainly reassuring to know that God knows us intimately (He is both omniscient and omnipresent), and that there is nothing we might say or do that He does not already perceive.  But consider also how carefully and completely God pursues us for relationship.  He created us for relationship with Him.  He has made room and time for us.  So, if we do not feel close to God, who is at fault?  It’s us!  It is up to us to nurture a deep relationship with Him—to meet Him halfway.  King David encourages us in this psalm to make room in our lives for God.

C.  Paul, in 2 Corinthians 4:5-12 exhorts us to be aware of how generously God has gifted us:  In verse 6, he proclaims—For God, who said, ’Let light shine out of the darkness,’ made His light shine in our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Christ.  In other words, He loved us enough to send Jesus into our lives.  Jesus–and now, since Pentecost, the Holy Spirit–both gift us with life and light.  These are both “treasures” to which God has given us access, even though we are weak containers/”jars of clay”/”earthen vessels.”  He calls ordinary folks like you and me so that only God gets the glory.

Paul fervently believed our job/our ministry is to convey this wonderful knowledge we hold within ourselves—our born again relationship with Jesus, and the Gospel of Christ—to others who don’t know Him.  There is an old country expression:  “You can’t get back from where you ain’t been.”  In other words, we can’t convey to others what we don’t know ourselves.  Paul’s understanding, and ours, is that we cannot do this well if we do not make room in our lives for—or abide in–Jesus.

D. Finally, we have our Gospel message, Mark 2:23-3:6.  In this extended passage, Jesus has two encounters with the Pharisees over Sabbath-Keeping:

One occurs while Jesus and His disciples are out walking through a field.  His disciples are hungry.  There was room in God’s Law to cover this situation—Deut 23:25—If you enter your neighbor’s grain field, you may pick kernels with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to his standing grain.  But the Pharisees had decided picking kernels was work and should not be done on the Sabbath, no matter who hungry you might be.  Jesus, however, trumps them with precedent:  David and his men, pursued through the wilderness by King Saul, were hungry.  The High Priest, Abiathar, gave them the 12 loaves of showbread in the Holy Place to eat (1 Samuel 21:1-6).  It was reserved for the priests to eat at day’s end.  Jesus uses this to make the point that legalities must be tempered with love and grace.  You may bend the Sabbath Law in service of saving the lives of righteous persons.  David and his Mighty Men, as well as Jesus and His closest followers, were both hungry and righteous.

The other incident takes place, during worship, in a synagogue.

The guy with the withered hand was probably a “plant.”  Knowing this was a trap, Jesus calls the guy forth, saying (3:3)—Stand up in front of everyone.  Obviously, and knowing their negative intent, Jesus did not back away from doing what He knew was the right thing, to heal the handicapped man.  He also very wisely asks the Pharisees, (3:4)—Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?

In both instances, Jesus reiterates that the Sabbath was made for we humans.  The Pharisees practically abolished it by hemming it in with too many, often ridiculous rules.  We have practically abolished it by paying it too little attention.

An Eastern guru once poured tea for a fellow who insisted he wanted to discover how to have a deeper relationship with the divine.  The fellow kept talking and talking as the guru poured and poured, letting the tea overrun the cup.  When the seeker asked what the guru was doing, the wise man said, “This cup is like you.  You are so full of yourself there is no room for God.”   We don’t want to be like that guy.  We want to make room for the Lord.

Sabbath-Keeping helps us make room for God.  Being here in church every Sunday shows Him we are serious about wanting to honor Him. 

We want to get to the place that we don’t feel right if we haven’t been to church.  We probably should feel guilty if we have let other things take precedence over our relationship with the Lord.  This is a way we can tend the vertical of the Cross.  When I finally got this point in my early 40’s, I realized there was always something I heard each week—whether from the Scripture readings, the hymns, the sermons, the prayers, or even a comment by another member of the congregation—that I knew the Lord meant for me to hear.  If I missed church, I ran the risk of missing what God had for me.

Sabbath-Keeping also keeps us connected to our spiritual family, the horizontal of the Cross.  Each of us is important here.  When we don’t attend, the Body is left poorer.  Before I went to Seminary, I attended the same church in Tallahassee for 11 years.  I realized if I did not attend church a given Sunday, I would miss seeing some of those dear folks I did not encounter in any other arena of my life.  Let’s try to be consistent present in  worship each Sunday.  Your spiritual family loves you and misses you when you do not attend.  Amen.

©️2024 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams