Pastor's Message for July 2008

"Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy." Exodus 20:8
(the third commandment)

Rabbi Abraham Heschel, the great Jewish thinker wrote:

"The Sabbath as a day of rest is not for the purpose of recovering one's lost strength and becoming fit for the work that is to come. The Sabbath is a day for the sake of life."

How are things going for you? Do you have enough to do? Do you have too much to do? Are you too busy - too scheduled - pulled in too many directions?

The Bible has an answer for today's busyness. "Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy." There is a reason why this is in the Bible. The Bible tells us that after God spend six days creating the world, "on the seventh day God rested from all the work that he had done." God gave us a model for our work and our rest and from what I observe we are good at both work and rest. But are we good at remembering the Sabbath and keeping it holy?

The quote above from Rabbi Heschel says, "The Sabbath is a day for the sake of life." What does that mean? I suppose it could mean lots of things. I think it could be an acknowledgement that our work sucks the life right out of us - and the Sabbath is meant for us to take the day off completely. Don't do anything at all. Don't go anywhere. Don't participate in anything. But we do those things. Living our lives means we get involved with all kinds of activities and events. So perhaps that's not what it means to remember the Sabbath.

Perhaps it means that we should do life-giving things on the Sabbath. In fact, perhaps the day is only the Sabbath when it is life-giving. If that be the case, then our Sabbath days are days when we become alive again - alive in our awareness of our physical presence - alive in our spiritual nature - alive in our relationship with others and with God.

That is what I believe the third commandment is about. Having a day to turn our hearts to God to be filled up with the life-giving promise that Jesus calls to himself the weary and the worn out, the discouraged and the depressed, the lost and the hopeless. Jesus calls us to himself and he gives us life.

When you hear what Jesus had done for you, can you help but be filled with an indescribable joy that fills you with energy - vitality - life? As we remember the Sabbath we remember all that he has done to take our burdens and our sins upon himself. And that gives us life.

The third commandment isn't meant to control our free time. The command to remember the Sabbath is to help us to know how - and where - and when to be filled with life.

Make one of our worship services an important part of your weekly life-giving Sabbath.

With you in worship and praise,
Pastor Mark