Sermons in Brief - Mini Messages from Pastor Harmon
"The Gift we Forget to Open" - Luke 6:1-11
Guy Atchley was a news anchor in Tucson on KGUN 9. He was good looking with distinguished gray hair; Short but handsome. Behind a news desk height makes no difference. He was an influential personality in the community. Driving along 22nd Street one day I saw Guy Atchley staring me from a billboard. It looked like Guy was wearing a hat, a crown, some Statue of Liberty- type headwear. “Why in world" I thought, "would the TV station have him dressed like that?” "Maybe Guy had a new “do” and spiked his hair" I reasoned. As I got closer to the billboard I noticed the "crown" was nothing but a flock of pigeons! What I needed was a new perspective!
6 times in scripture Jesus butted heads with th Pharisees over the issue of Sabbath keeping. Every time he tried to give them a new perspective on Sabbath. He tried to get them to see that Sabbath was a gift not a burden. But the Sabbath issue became such a problem between them they began plotting his death. They could not see the new perspective. Instead of a gift of REST AND WORSHIP Sabbath keeping become a great legalistic burden. Law after law, rule after rule, regulation after regulation, was piled on top of the gift of a day of REST AND WORSHIP.
Christians are not required to keep the Sabbath law of the Pharisees. Christians are not required to keep the Old Testament Sabbath of a day of rest and worship from Friday evening to Saturday evening--sundown to sundown. From the 1st and 2nd centuries onward most Christians have worshipped on the 1st day of week. BUT even while Sabbath law, Jewish law, is not required, most Christians still need new perspective on Sabbath keeping. We need to drive closer to the billboard amd realize Guy Atchley is not wearing crown, but pigeons are roosting there! We need to realize that Sabbath, a day of rest and worship, is a Gift that —we need to unwrap/open/ enjoy! It is a Gift intended for our spiritual, mental, and physical well-being. It is a Gift that needs to be opened,used, and appreciated.
The Gift of ENJOYMENT
By enjoyment I do not necessarily mean that Sabbath is a day of enjoyment, fun, or pleasure. Sabbath does not mean "day off." But it is a day to enjoy the previous six days! The Hebrew word "Shabbat" simply means “stop, quit, take a break.” Whatever you're doing—stop it! Whatever you're saying—shut up! Sit down, look around, take a breath, fold your hands and don’t to anything.
When God created in Genesis and his work was completed he stopped. He stopped making. he stopped speaking. The 7th day of not doing took place in the context of six days of much doing. Have you ever known anyone who worked two or three weeks in a row, 7 days in and 7 out, without a break? Do they ever say "I just love work? I just love this job? I just love what I've accomplished?" Probably not! BUT OPEN THE GIFT OF SABBATH—stop doing, creating, making, for awhile and you begin to enjoy what you just did, just created, just made, just accomplished in the past six days. OPEN THE GIFT OF ENJOYMENT!
The Gift of VALUE
In Genesis God began Sabbath living himself. In Exodus he told Moses thet his people were going to remember Sabbath and keep it holy. GOD’S SABBATH DAY REST WAS GOING TO BE PARTICIPATED IN BY HIS PEOPLE! God gives TWO reasons Why his people willparticipate in "Shabbat": 1) because that’s what he did (Ex 20) and 2) because they were slaves in Egypt and all they did was work, work, work (Dt. 5). This Deuteronomy reason says we participate in Sabbath because we are of VALUE. We open the gift of Sabbath rest and worship one day a week because we are not workhorses, we are not slaves. Our worth is not reduced to our doing! We are persons of worth and value as beings. We are human beings not human doings! So we as Christians need to participate in Sabbath rest and worship. We need to come to church, worship in community and learn again that we are loved, important, and valued. Can’t get that in front of theTV or at the ballpark or on the golfcourse!
The Gift of WORSHIP
Sabbath is a day set aside to deliberately cease, stop, halt and focus on God. On Sabbath we remind ourselves that God is central to our lives and shouldn’t be relegated to the edges. Worship means to “declare worth”. Sabbath is a day of worth-ship. If we think it is only a rest day we are wrong!
If we fail to spend time refocussing our lives on God or re-centering lives on God our lives will get out of focus quickly. they will quickly become off centered. Do you know what living off centered is? It's becoming eccentric!! Garrison Keillor from Lake Woebegone said "SUNDAY FEELS ODD WITHOUT CHURCH IN THE MORNING. IT’S THE TIME OF THE WEEK WHEN WE TAKE OUR BEARINGS, AND IF WE MISS IT, WE’RE JUST FOLLOWING OUR NOSES.”
The Gift of COMMUNITY
Sabbath is a gift that rings us not only in focus upon God but it brings us into contact wirth His people; the family of God. Sabbath day of rest and worship is a day we are reminded we are not alone on the journey. Some people argue "I can worship just as well in the mountains, at the riverside, at the lake, on the golf course. I agree you can worship in those places (I have many times). My argument is “just as well.” There's something about corporate worship that cannot be experienced alone. Encouragement. Agreement. The realization there are other soldiers in the battle.
Have you ever been to a major league baseball game? There is something quite unique about going to a ballpark that you cannot experience sitting in your living room watching TV. Likewise there is something quite unique about sharing worship in community that you canot experience alone.
The Gift of RESTORATION
There is something rejuvenating about observing a day rest and worship. We replenish spent emotions. We refresh overtaxed resources. We renew sagging spirits. In Genesis God created then rested. Rhythm. When we observe Sabbath we enter into that rhythm and maintain that rhythm. There is something restorative about rhythm, like the rocking a a child in a an old-fashioned rocking chair.
The Gift of PREPARATION
It is interesting to compare Jewish Sabbath with Christian Sabbath. The Old Testament Sabbath was the last day of the week. One worked all week then experienced a day of rest. Labor, labor, labor, rest. The Christian day of rest is typically the first day of the week. Rest, labor, labor! The work we do is begun with rest. For us the Sabbath—Sunday—is preparation day for the tasks ahead. We rest and that rest carries us into the tasks of the week.
We realize that God created for 6 days then entered into rest. He created man on the sixth day, at the close of the day. So. . . the first day for mankind on earth, the first day Adam and Eve experienced was Sabbath! They began with a Sabbatical experience--to prepare them for life ahead! Our Sunday Sabbath is a Gift of rest and worship and it also a day in which we are prepared--prepared for our tasks for the new week. Drinking in his resources and supply, we enter our week, filled with Him!
In the novel "Moby Dick" there is this turbulent scene where the whaleboat scuds across ocean pursuing the great, white whale. Sailors are laboring, muscles taught, all attention and concentration is focussed on the pursuit. Every man is feverishly working at his job. In the boat one man is doing nothing. No oars, sweat, or shouting. It is the harpooner. He is quiet, poised, waiting. Then this sentence: "TO INSURE THE GREATEST EFFICIENCY IN THE DART THE HARPOONERS OF THIS WORLD MUST START TO THEIR FEET OUT OF IDLENESS AND NOT OUT OF TOIL." How do you begin your week? In frenzy, flurry, worry, hurry? Or have you opened the gift of Sabbath-living?