Isaiah 58:9-14
When I was in the seminary we had a course on homiletics, good preaching if you will. It calls into play everything you have learned in life. Not only every experience you have ever had, every lesson you ever learned. Even what your creative writing teacher taught you in 9th grade to perhaps the most important, being prayerful and open to the Spirit. Ideally, a preacher is a vessel or vehicle it seems, one that allows the Spirit to speak; to make the scriptures of old relevant to today and to NOT make it it one's own message. It requires being respectful of what God is saying to us through the dynamic of the preacher. There is a dynamic tendency of preachers who very often are a type of personality that want to share everything they know. Perhaps this is why God uses them, us. A danger is that you try to give what you think is God's message and sometimes get convinced that somehow you are speaking Gospel truths yourself that can go unquestioned. Preachers are people though. So when you want to impart all the wisdom you think you have to offer the world and share all the knowledge you have within your brain, it's probably time to stop and place yourself in the presence of God and let him speak to you in the silence.
Such was my dilemma this morning because my mind was wandering over what seems to be a rich passage that speaks volumes to me. In trying to put it down here, it became a mish mosh of messages. When I realized it, I knew it was time to stop writing and sit and listen to God. What is the message God wishes to impart to all of us through this reading, through me, at this time?
One of the messages that comes out clear and that I began to give great thought to are the words that we refrain from trampling the sabbath. Then I began to pray on what the sabbath was. To me it would traditionally be Sunday. I think that is true for all Christians. To Jews, and Jesus was a Jew, the sabbath was Saturday. But I had a thought the other day about something my daughter in law said. Lent seemed to come very early this year. Why is it that Easter comes at different times? Perhaps equally important, why is it different than Passover? The last supper was a Passover meal wasn't it? And why do the Eastern Rite Christians celebrate Easter based on yet another calendar? It seems we use days and calendars as human constructs to give form to our days here on earth. God has no such limits. God is not bound by our humanly creations. When God spoke of the world being created in 7 days, that was a message to us about the truths of creation in a format we could comprehend, so that we could understand.
So what does the line refrain from trampling the sabbath mean if the sabbath day itself is being called into question? The answer to me, at least for me, is revealed in a phenomena that I have noticed over the years. Did you ever notice the number of people who rarely go to church (or temple) but live exemplary lives? At the same time, have you noticed that there are people who go to church every Sunday, or perhaps every day, and they are the most vile and contemptuous people you've come across? It seems to me that attending Mass is not a guarantee of holiness. It is not a guarantee to the intimate relationship with God that He calls us to. In fact there are jokes about getting run over by a car by congregants trying to get out of the church parking lot as fast as they can - assuming they stay until the actual end of Mass.
I am not arguing for a wholesale abandonment of Sunday services. The fact is God does wish us to keep holy the sabbath. By attending and participating in our communal worship services, we bring what God really wishes from us. But that is not enough. We need to recognize that Sunday is really a human construct and that to keep holy the sabbath, we need to keep holy every day.
Every day. Now re-read the scripture passage and see what our lives would be like, what our world would be like if we accepted the fact that every day is God's day. Every day is the sabbath.
Your appreciation of God, ourself and the rest of the world would take on a new meaning. There would be a new richness to each and every sunrise. Everything about you personally, whoever you are, however God made you, becomes a true and magnificent gift. You get to share who you are. You get to experience everyone else. You may even see some goodness that is hidden in that "vile and contemptuous person" that I spoke of earlier. You'll see things differently than you had.
Keep Holy the Sabbath - every single day.
When I was in the seminary we had a course on homiletics, good preaching if you will. It calls into play everything you have learned in life. Not only every experience you have ever had, every lesson you ever learned. Even what your creative writing teacher taught you in 9th grade to perhaps the most important, being prayerful and open to the Spirit. Ideally, a preacher is a vessel or vehicle it seems, one that allows the Spirit to speak; to make the scriptures of old relevant to today and to NOT make it it one's own message. It requires being respectful of what God is saying to us through the dynamic of the preacher. There is a dynamic tendency of preachers who very often are a type of personality that want to share everything they know. Perhaps this is why God uses them, us. A danger is that you try to give what you think is God's message and sometimes get convinced that somehow you are speaking Gospel truths yourself that can go unquestioned. Preachers are people though. So when you want to impart all the wisdom you think you have to offer the world and share all the knowledge you have within your brain, it's probably time to stop and place yourself in the presence of God and let him speak to you in the silence.
Such was my dilemma this morning because my mind was wandering over what seems to be a rich passage that speaks volumes to me. In trying to put it down here, it became a mish mosh of messages. When I realized it, I knew it was time to stop writing and sit and listen to God. What is the message God wishes to impart to all of us through this reading, through me, at this time?
One of the messages that comes out clear and that I began to give great thought to are the words that we refrain from trampling the sabbath. Then I began to pray on what the sabbath was. To me it would traditionally be Sunday. I think that is true for all Christians. To Jews, and Jesus was a Jew, the sabbath was Saturday. But I had a thought the other day about something my daughter in law said. Lent seemed to come very early this year. Why is it that Easter comes at different times? Perhaps equally important, why is it different than Passover? The last supper was a Passover meal wasn't it? And why do the Eastern Rite Christians celebrate Easter based on yet another calendar? It seems we use days and calendars as human constructs to give form to our days here on earth. God has no such limits. God is not bound by our humanly creations. When God spoke of the world being created in 7 days, that was a message to us about the truths of creation in a format we could comprehend, so that we could understand.
So what does the line refrain from trampling the sabbath mean if the sabbath day itself is being called into question? The answer to me, at least for me, is revealed in a phenomena that I have noticed over the years. Did you ever notice the number of people who rarely go to church (or temple) but live exemplary lives? At the same time, have you noticed that there are people who go to church every Sunday, or perhaps every day, and they are the most vile and contemptuous people you've come across? It seems to me that attending Mass is not a guarantee of holiness. It is not a guarantee to the intimate relationship with God that He calls us to. In fact there are jokes about getting run over by a car by congregants trying to get out of the church parking lot as fast as they can - assuming they stay until the actual end of Mass.
I am not arguing for a wholesale abandonment of Sunday services. The fact is God does wish us to keep holy the sabbath. By attending and participating in our communal worship services, we bring what God really wishes from us. But that is not enough. We need to recognize that Sunday is really a human construct and that to keep holy the sabbath, we need to keep holy every day.
Every day. Now re-read the scripture passage and see what our lives would be like, what our world would be like if we accepted the fact that every day is God's day. Every day is the sabbath.
Your appreciation of God, ourself and the rest of the world would take on a new meaning. There would be a new richness to each and every sunrise. Everything about you personally, whoever you are, however God made you, becomes a true and magnificent gift. You get to share who you are. You get to experience everyone else. You may even see some goodness that is hidden in that "vile and contemptuous person" that I spoke of earlier. You'll see things differently than you had.
Keep Holy the Sabbath - every single day.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.
The Lord will guide you continually,
and satisfy your needs in parched places,
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters never fail.
Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to live in.
If 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 honourable;
if you honour it, not going your own ways,
serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs;
then 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.
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