“Taking Time for God”

A Lenten Sermon Preached by

The Rev. Jean Niven Lenk

at the

First Congregational Church of Stoughton

United Church of Christ

Did you read the amazing news a couple of weeks ago – ten new commandments have been found!  Yes, that’s right – as reported by the seldom reliable, often irreverent, and always amusing Weekly World News, ten new laws for the new millennium have appeared.  Here is a sampling:

v     I am the one God of all faiths.  Thou shalt stop bickering about it.

v     Thou shalt not make war to obtain thy neighbor’s resources.

v     Thou shalt not allow thy God-given girth to exceed thy height.

v     Thou shalt speak and frolic with thy offspring and not place them before colored boxes of gaming.

v     Thou shalt discard containers of plastic and metal appropriately.

v     Thou shalt not worship the housewives who are desperate, nor their box, upon the Sabbath.

Even though I believe that the Weekly World News should be read only as entertainment, if at all, I’ve got to admit – these new commandments have a lot of wisdom in them.  But I suspect that, even if they were truly holy commandments direct from God, they would be largely ignored and disobeyed by just about everybody – just as the real Ten Commandments have been, from the moment Moses brought them down the mountain.  That’s when he found that the Israelites had grown anxious during his long absence and, fearing that they had been abandoned by God, they in turn abandoned God, creating a golden calf to worship instead.

The Ten Commandments fall into two categories: those relating to God, and those relating to how we are to treat – or not treat – others, including our parents.  Most of the commandments are short and to the point, but the commandment about observing the Sabbath and keeping it holy goes on for several verses.  As the fourth commandment, it is in the important position of linking those which concern God with those which concern our treatment of others.  In other words, the way we pay attention to God determines the way we treat others, and one way to pay attention to God is by observing the Sabbath.

The pattern of working six days and then resting on the seventh is woven deep into the fabric of the bible.  In this morning’s lesson from Exodus, resting every seventh day is connected with Genesis 1, when God creates the heavens and the earth in six days and then rests on the seventh.  And in resting, God blesses the day and makes it holy, taking pleasure in and sharing time with all that has been created.

When the Ten Commandments are repeated in Deuteronomy, the commandment to observe the Sabbath day is tied to the experience of a people newly released from bondage.  Slaves cannot take a day off, but free people can, and when the newly-liberated Hebrews are able to stop work every seventh day, they are to remember that it is God who has enabled them to take a day off from their labors and observe the Sabbath. 

But to understand how we got the Sabbath commandment is not enough.  We also need to know why we got it and why it’s important that we continue to keep it.  As human beings, made in the image of God, we are to rest on the seventh day, too.  And as God’s creatures, we are to honor God by obeying this commandment.  But this may be the hardest of the ten to keep.  Our lives are so full – earning a living, caring for dependents, maintaining a home.  And if we have any time left over, it’s filled with nurturing relationships and trying to maintain our sanity.  So much to do, so little time!  We know we need Sabbath time alright, but it’s hard to make time for it, even if it’s just a few hours out of our week.  As preacher and writer Barbara Brown Taylor observes, "Sabbath is a gift, but we are so reluctant to accept it, that God had to make it a command."

Many of us may think that “keeping the Sabbath holy” means taking an hour to go to church on Sunday morning and then we can check it off our “to do” lists.  But for the ancient Hebrews, formal worship was not the main element of observing the Sabbath.  In other words, Sabbath is not just about going to church; it is about taking time to contemplate the important things in our life, the things of our soul; it’s about taking time for God.  Sabbath does not end in church, but it can begin here.

“Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy.”  Keep it holy.  These three words clarify that Sabbath rest is not about us.  We do not rest so that we can recharge our batteries in order to do more things, to be more productive or efficient.  Sabbath time is time consecrated by God, and to keep it holy, we are to devote this time to God. 

The practice of observing Sabbath is at the heart of Judaism, and we, too, honor the Ten Commandments and stand in spiritual and historical kinship with the Jewish people.  However, as Christians, we know God most fully not through the perpetual covenant God made with the Israelites at Sinai, but through Jesus Christ.  And when we gather on Sundays, in addition to celebrating creation and deliverance from bondage, we also celebrate Christ’s resurrection, for each Sunday is a “little Easter.”

When we first entered Lent two weeks ago, I described it as a “holy springtime for the soul” -- an opportunity to do some self-examination, to review our lives and let them be directed by God; a time for us to repent of our sins and get into “right relationship” with God. 

And Lent is a most appropriate time for us to make a special effort to observe Sabbath, for we hear its echoes in Jesus’ journey to the cross.  This morning’s Gospel lesson from John takes place over Passover, a time of remembering the ancient Hebrews’ deliverance from slavery in Egypt.  The other three Gospel writers – Matthew, Mark, and Luke – place this scene during the final week leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion.  As he enters the temple, Jesus finds that it is occupied by money changers, who convert the coins of those who have made the Passover pilgrimage to Jerusalem so they can pay the required temple tax.  Also in the temple are people selling cattle, sheep and doves for sacrifice. 

Jesus sees that the marketing of Passover has so corrupted the whole celebration that the festival itself has become lost in the sounds of coins and animals.  There is so much noise and activity that those coming to the temple can barely find a way in, much less find quiet time for prayer and worship. 

With a whip of cords, Jesus drives them all out, saying, "Do not make my Father's house a marketplace.”  In the other gospels, Jesus adds, “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.”  He's telling them – and us -- to clear out all that takes away attention from God.  And that’s what taking Sabbath time is all about – ridding ourselves of all that distracts and interrupts and encumbers us so we can take time for God.

Unfortunately, the temples of our hearts can be so cluttered, we lose sight that it is the dwelling place of the spirit.  How many of us find that, in the midst of all our activity, we can’t find the quiet time and space for prayer? 

Like the ancient Hebrews, we too put idols in place of God; we, too, are in our own kind of bondage – to our jobs; to our cell phones; to our laptops; to filling our hearts and our calendars with doing rather than taking the time to clear away all that occupies our minds and our lives and taking time for just being – being with God. 

From the beginning of time, a rhythm has been built into us, a yearning to rest and enjoy what we have done, a holy hunger to stop working and breathe in deeply the Spirit of God.  Protestant Reformer John Calvin put it this way: "On the Sabbath we cease our work so God can do God’s work in us."  Or, in the words of St. Augustine, “My heart is restless, Lord, until it finds its rest in Thee.”

Sabbath time requires us to stop trying to hold up ourselves all by ourselves, and letting God hold us up for a little while; it means letting go and falling into the embrace of God’s love.  Taking Sabbath time means taking our hands off the controls of our lives and losing ourselves just long enough for us to find God. 

God is inviting us, indeed commanding us, to keep Sabbath.  And so, take time for God; lose yourself in God’s embrace; receive this holy gift; cherish it; rest in it; keep it holy.  And let God do God’s work in you.  Amen.