Fairhaven Sermon 9-3-2023

Summary

Rev. Dylan Parson begins the sermon by describing how he discovered as a child that falling asleep made long car trips go by faster. As a kid, Rev. Parson would try to distract himself on road trips by bringing lots of books, music, etc. However, distraction came at the cost of missing sights along the journey. The sermon then transitions to Moses noticing the burning bush while distracted with the work of shepherding.

God spoke to Moses through the bush because Moses took the time to notice it. Rev. Parson explains that we must believe God still speaks to us and take time to notice the signs God puts in our lives. Though modern technology offers endless distraction, we must cultivate the willingness to notice God’s voice by stopping, breathing, and listening. God promises to be with us when we follow his call. The question is whether we will take the time to notice God speaking to us.

Transcript

It took me a strangely long time to discover one of the most miraculous travel tricks to make a trip easier, and that is, of course, to fall asleep. While this doesn’t work whenever you’re the driver, it is amazing how much faster a trip can go. I remember the very first time I discovered this, I was probably like 12, 13, I had placed a pillow on my lap and folded myself in half as my grandmother was driving my sister and I to Chicago, across what is quite possibly one of the most boring roads in America, and that is the Ohio Turnpike. There is no worse drive that I have ever experienced.

 Before I had this revelation that you could just fall asleep, my preferred method to improve long drives was intense efforts at distraction. More than clothes or toiletries, my bags for vacation when I was a kid were loaded with just hilariously unrealistic numbers of books, of cassette tapes, you know, before the world briefly transitioned to CDs. My bag was always so heavy I could barely carry it because there were like a dozen books in there. My mom would always, You’re never going to read all those.

 And I didn’t. And then as we got in the car at three in the morning to head down to the beach, I would I’d build myself an isolation pod in the back of our van. You know, we’d have, I’d have a wall of pillows and blankets separating me from my sister, which was absolutely necessary. I’d have a backpack full of entertainment at my feet.

 And the moment we left the driveway for our 12 hour trip to North Carolina, my headphones went on. And immediately, my Walkman was blasting Radio Disney kid jams. Volume one or two, I think they’re at like volume 73 by now. And then I would crack into the first of my half a dozen Nancy Drews, which I inherited from my mom’s collection.

 I had like 40 of them. Now, 12 or more hours in the back of a minivan, waiting to smell the ocean, is a really long time no matter what, especially whenever you get about 2/3 of the way there. You’re on I-95 in standstill traffic. The sun’s baking you through the window.

 But distraction, I found out, was the best way to cope. Distraction comes with a cost, though. I was constantly missing things. Part of the glory of the trip was all these landmarks that I always look forward to seeing every year.

 The route down is just littered with landmarks that I would always be waiting for to know. They were just getting closer and closer. Cool things that you don’t get to see at home, right? I was always thrilled to see the castle in Berkeley Springs. I don’t know how many of you are familiar with this route down south.

 The castle in Berkeley Springs, there’s a giant roller skate in Front Royal that’s like 10 feet tall. I was excited to see that. There are apple statues around Winchester. The city is loaded with just these like huge 10 foot apples that are painted in all kinds of different colors.

 I’m always look forward to the tunnel that I hated to sleep through in Newport News and then all the aircraft carriers and the warships in Norfolk and then the grave digger monster truck in Curry Tuck, all these big, exciting landmarks. I wanted to see them, But it was extremely difficult for my mom to get my attention over the Backstreet Boys and Christina Aguilera and past whatever mystery I was reading. And by the time she could reach around all the cooler and everything to shake my leg, it was gone. Whatever it was was gone.

 And so I’d miss almost everything. I’d usually see one of those things per year. Even if I decided I was going to be ready for the next landmark, I always allowed myself over the next couple hours to just fade into distraction once more. Because that’s what I wanted anyway, right? I wanted to be distracted.

 And then once you decide that, there you go. And there is inherent conflict between keeping oneself distracted and on the other hand, noticing. You cannot do both things at once. And distraction now doesn’t take that much effort, maybe now more than ever.

 And this feels like such a crotchety old person thing say, but the world we live in is designed to distract us now. I’m not sure my phone ever goes much longer than 15 minutes without a call, a text, some kind of social media notification, an alert that the Dollar General app has a Saturday coupon. And immediately whatever focus that I’ve mustered up on whatever task that I’m working on is just gone. It is so much harder for me to just read a book now than it was when I was a kid because there’s always something.

 And social media, news apps the same way, are literally designed to just keep us scrolling and refreshing, reading more stuff, just desiring to keep opening it because that’s how they get money. And we’re almost never bored anymore because there’s always something at hand that we can use to distract ourselves. Whether we’re sitting in traffic, whether we’re waiting on food at a restaurant. Now I have to believe that some kids have never in their lives at this point experienced riding in a car with nothing to do but look out the window.

 We cannot stand to just do nothing. And I mean this is me, this is everybody. Literally as I wrote this sermon, I put off going to the mechanic to get my leaking tire repaired because until Stormy got home from work to pick me up, I knew that I had to sit down there and just sit and wait for them to fix my tire with nothing to do than sitting with the old guy, scratched his lottery tickets off across from me. Nothing to do but sit.

 And I put it off. And then I went down there and I did it in ten minutes. And so you’re walking down the sidewalk and there is a bush smoldering from within but not burning up. You’re walking down the sidewalk.

 Do you notice it right off beside you? If God were trying to get your attention to speak to you as he did to Moses, would you keep on walking or would you notice? The great Jewish Rabbi Rashi says that God’s choice to appear in the form of a bush was completely intentional. He chooses a bush precisely because it’s small, it’s not grand or commanding. Other Middle Eastern gods at that time were often associated with these huge trees or sacred forest, but God chooses to be like his people were in their slavery. Small, flimsy, insignificant, just one among many.

 They’re just a bush in the midst of this scrubland. And you know, there’s really no such thing as a beautiful shrub. At best, they’re interesting, I guess. And not really when they’re scattered across desert scrubland where there’s just patches of thorny bushes, that’s just not pretty.

 The Lord could have chosen to be this grand cedar tree, the kind that the emperors of the day built their palaces out of. He could have chosen to tear the clouds in two to get Moses’ attention with a voice of thunder, but he doesn’t. So keep in mind that Moses at this point in his life, we’re just kind of jumping into the Moses story so we miss kind of the background here, but Moses at this point in his life is not having a good time. He is a man without a people.

 He’s a Hebrew, he’s come to find out recently, but he was raised by Egyptians. He’s a fugitive from the land of Egypt where he grew up because he murdered an Egyptian in a fit of righteous rage. He saw this Egyptian officer mistreat a Hebrew, one of his cousins, and he killed him. And so now he’s fled Egypt entirely He’s living with his wife and his father-in-law in the foreign land of Midian, which is three days journey across the desert from the place he’s known as home.

 And he is doing one of the most low skill, unpleasant, boring jobs imaginable. Far away from his new wife. I mean, at least he’d be excited to have a new wife, right? But he’s far away from her most of the time anyway. He’s out being a shepherd.

 So conceivably, reasonably, Moses could have been shepherding in complete dismay. I promise you he was not looking forward to each new day at work. He probably could have been out there doing his best to dissociate from the reality where he finds himself. He does not want to be here.

 He wants it to be over. Moses, who was once a baby rescued by a princess from the reeds along the Nile. He was once a young man who lived in Pharaoh’s court along this great and mighty river. He has lost everything.

 And now he finds himself, and you could literally translate it as the backside of the desert, not just regular desert. This is far into the desert. And he’s on this mountain, Mount Hermon, that means parched. He’s known water, he’s known luxury, he’s known this urban, exciting lifestyle, and now he’s carrying sheep from place to place on this desert mountain.

 So you could forgive him if he was just trying to do the stupid job, moving the sheep from place to place, supervising, wandering around in low-grade sorrow, and just waiting till he finally gets to go home to his tent– he’s living in a tent now, I’m sure– with his wife. But when he comes upon this bush, he notices. His eyes aren’t on his feet as he walks. They’re not just zoned out looking at the horizon as he keeps walking.

 He sees the bush and he says, Let me check out this amazing site and find out why the bush isn’t burning up. He chooses to drop what he’s doing. He could have just powered through the day, but he chooses to stop, to drop what he’s doing and see what is going on. And notice this, because I think this is very important.

 just half a sentence that it’s easy to skim over. Then God calls him. God speaks to him out of the bush but not until he goes to look. God is not in the burning bush and saying, Moses come over here.

 That’s not what’s happening. If Moses had not bothered to notice or if he saw the bush out of the corner of his eye and went, Huh, weird, and kept walking, I don’t think that God would have yelled for him to come back. I think it’s very possible that the entire saga of the Exodus here, all that is to come in Moses’s life as he becomes the instrument through which God liberates his people, none of that happens if he doesn’t decide to drop what he’s doing for just a second to go check out that weird thing. He hasn’t enveloped himself in the many distractions he could have And so he hears God’s voice because he’s available to hear it.

 And then Moses, Moses cries a voice from the bush. Here I am, Moses replies. Here I am. And history has changed forever.

 Now it’s not smooth sailing from that moment forward. The promise is actually kind of difficult that God gives in that moment because God says, you know, you’ll know that this comes true whenever you’re back on this mountain after you free your people. There’s a lot of stuff in between here and there. But God expresses exactly what he’s gonna do.

 He’s gonna use Moses to free his people from slavery under Pharaoh and he’s gonna bring them out of Egypt into a broad land flowing with milk and honey. And Moses asks what any reasonable person would. Who am I to go to Pharaoh and to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. Who am I? It’s gonna be the challenge of a lifetime.

 There’s nothing that Moses could have done to prepare him for this. You can’t learn some kind of leadership to lead your people out of slavery. You can’t prepare yourself to do these miracles that God is gonna work through you. It’s going to be an impossible challenge for him to do and he knows that.

 The author Elie Wiesel, who was a Holocaust survivor, writes of Moses. Moses was the greatest legislator and commander-in-chief of the first liberation army. He was a prophet, God’s representative to the people and the people’s representative to God. And he never had a good day in his life.

 But God makes a promise that guarantees it’s going to be worth it. I’ll be with you, God says. And God even tells Moses something that no human being had ever heard before. His name.

 I am who I am. Or I will be who I will be. God is the one who stands beyond everything. The world changes, empires rise and fall, people are born and die, continents drift apart and crash together, the years just blow away.

 But God is. God will be. God’s promise, the hope that we can build our lives on, is in God’s very name that he gives to Moses. I am what I am.

 And all of this happens because Moses noticed this bush. I don’t think we often believe it deep down, but God is still speaking. God is still calling. God is leaving signs for you in your life, waiting for you to see them.

 And so the first thing you have to do is to decide to live your life in such a way as if God is still at work and speaking. That the book that we read from every Sunday is not some dead history book, but an account of the God called I will be who I will be. That’s a future, infinite name. The God who was and is and is to come.

 Whenever the book gets to the end, it’s not over. That alone is a first step, to really choose to believe that. It’s one thing to believe that in the abstract. It’s another thing to decide to live as if the God that led the Hebrews through the Red Sea just might light a bush on fire in front of you on your way out the door today.

 Why not? But the next thing, and I know that I struggle with this one every day, is to cultivate a willingness to notice. And again, we all know this, that we are just smothered in distraction, and we like it that way. It feels a whole lot better not to have to experience silence, whenever you can just turn up the white noise instead, whatever that is. So it doesn’t really matter if God lights that bush on fire, if you’re too wound up in the cares of your day, the stresses of work and family, and the countless distractions that bombard us.

 If you’re too busy to even see that, it doesn’t matter if the bush is burning so close it that might light your pant leg on fire. God will let us keep walking and deal with all of our little stuff if we’re not ready to hear God on the big stuff. It’s in our commitment to stop, to breathe, to simply shut up on the inside and the outside that we encounter God’s voice. How many times, and I know this is me too, how many times have you taken a moment to pray and not said anything.

 Now it’s constantly words going up. Is there any room for words to come back down? God is speaking to you. God is calling you to something special and crucial to God’s work in the world. It might be easy.

 It might be hard. But I am promises to be with you every step of the way. The question is whether you will take the time to notice. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 Amen.

Sermon Shorts 9-3-2023

God Is Still Speaking

I don’t think we often believe it deep down, but God is still speaking. God is still calling. God is leaving signs for you in your life, waiting for you to see them.

God’s Promise To Moses

And God even tells Moses something that no human being had ever heard before. His name. I am who I am. Or I will be who I will be.

Announcements 9-3-2023

  • Book club finished reading “The House That Love Built” and is starting “Just Mercy” in October.
  • Book club is participating in Cards of Peace ministry for people in immigration detention. Training via Zoom on 9/5. Contact Rev. Peg Bowman if interested.
  • Baby shower on Saturday 9/9 from 10am-1pm. Bring a new, unwrapped gift. See Stormy with questions.
  • Covered dish lunch after service in two weeks on 9/17. Bring a dish to share.
  • Living Stones free hot meal at church on 9/24 at 4:30pm.
  • Conference event “Alive” on 9/30 from 9am-3pm in Gibsonia. Register online at wpaumc.org/alive. Learn about new ministries.
  • Charge conference with district superintendent at Hilltop on 10/7 at 4:30pm.

Fairhaven Sermon 8-27-2023

Summary

This Fairhaven Sermon by Peg Bowman explores the history and significance of Sabbath from the Old Testament through Jesus’s life. It starts by summarizing the origins of Sabbath in Genesis, where God rested on the 7th day after creating the world. God intended Sabbath to be a time for all people and even animals to rest together and enjoy freedom.

The sermon then examines how Jesus reclaimed the original purpose of Sabbath, which had become weighed down by legalism. Jesus healed people and picked grains on Sabbath to show that tending to human needs took priority. He modeled Sabbath as a gift of rest and restoration for people, not a burden of rules. The sermon encourages Christians today to observe Sabbath as a time to relax, be with loved ones, enjoy nature, and worship. Keeping Sabbath honors God’s design for rhythm in life.

Transcript

Well, welcome to the final installation of our three-part series on the Sabbath, and I hope that this sermon series has been a blessing to you. And I would love to have your thoughts and feedback on it, especially if you’ve decided to try out some of the things that we’ve been sharing. But for anyone who has not been here for the first two installations, very, very briefly, in part one of the series, we read from the first chapter of Genesis where God created all things and then rested on the seventh day and made the seventh day holy. And God called all people to rest on the Sabbath or on the seventh day, essentially to join God in enjoying a time of rest together with God.
 God also commanded that all the living are to be treated equally on the Sabbath, that is, that on that Sabbath, that is to include family, visitors, foreigners, workers, children, and even farm animals. is invited to rest on that Sabbath. And finally in part one, we saw the people of Israel celebrated the Sabbath with great joy when they were finally set free from slavery in Egypt. And from that time on, Sabbath became connected to freedom.
 Freedom from slavery, freedom from tyranny, freedom to be with God and with family. In part two of the series, we saw how Sabbath creeping grew and changed over the years in Israel. We saw how God taught the people of Israel to trust him by not going out to collect manna on the Sabbath when they were living in the wilderness. And God also taught the people of Israel to not hoard that manna.
 God gave the commandments that no fire should be started on the Sabbath. And we saw that this included a whole lot of different activities that might involve starting fire. But mostly what it means is that the people who observe the Sabbath need to plan ahead a little bit, because Sabbath begins with a dinner, which usually requires fire. So we kind of plan ahead a little bit.
 So food needs to be prepared before the Sabbath begins. We also saw in part two that God commanded farmers to give the land a Sabbath. So every seven years, the land would rest. And finally, in part two, we saw that God commanded a financial Sabbath.
 Every seven years, all debts would be wiped out. And God said that God’s people should therefore be generous with what God has given them, and if they did, the nation would be blessed. So this much alone, I think, is enough to persuade me that Sabbath is a blessing worth having, but there’s more. And that’s what we’re going to take a look at today in part three, what happened when Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, started teaching about and living the Sabbath.
 So starting with the first reading, Jesus and his disciples, and this was a fairly decent size group by the way, this is not just the 12. There were some friendly Pharisees along with them, and they were all walking along a path through the grain fields on the Sabbath. And as they were walking, the disciples started to pick some of the heads of wheat and eat. And when the Pharisees saw this, some of them said to Jesus, look at what your disciples are doing on the Sabbath, is this lawful? Now if I had been there, I think I would have been asking a different question.
 along the lines of whose grain is this that we’re eating? I mean, this must be someone’s field, right? Which means the grain belongs to someone. But the Pharisees did not mention this. And it took a Jewish scholar to explain that back in Jesus’ time, there were very few public roads. So most footpaths would be cut through what we would consider today to be private property.
 And many villages in Europe, by the way, are still like this. And if you go hiking in the countryside, you might find yourself on the edge of a cornfield, or even in some cases, surrounded by a bunch of sheep who are wondering what you’re doing there. Anyway, the Jewish tradition was based in the law of Moses, and that was that strangers were to be made welcome to practice hospitality. So it was an unwritten rule back in Jesus’ time that a traveler on a footpath was welcome to eat whatever food they found within arm’s reach.
 And the owner of the field was honored to have them share this food. So the problem the Pharisees had was not that the disciples were taking grain that wasn’t theirs. It was that they were picking, that is, harvesting, and then processing. They’d be rubbing the grains together to get the chaff off.
 And both of these things were considered work, and therefore, they shouldn’t be done on the Sabbath. Isn’t that right, Jesus? Jesus answers the question in the style of a rabbi, by answering from the law and the prophets. Jesus is not troubled by this conversation, by the way, and neither is the rest of the group, because expressing differences of opinion and posing questions to a master were encouraged in those days as a way of learning. So Jesus’ first word gives a word of prophecy from King David, who was both a king and a prophet.
 Jesus says that when David and his friends were hungry, David went into the temple, took the bread of the presence, which was only lawful for priests to eat, and David ate it and gave it to his friends as well. And Jesus draws a parallel between this and himself. Jesus is also a king, and he also has some hungry friends. And the bottom line is, when people are hungry, both then and now, hunger takes precedence over Sabbath law.
 Human need is to be taken care of first, even on the Sabbath. This is something that would have been understood by any Jewish person in Jesus’ time, the principle of the importance of preserving human life. This was essentially the prime directive for that culture. Preserving human life ranked above the Sabbath in order of importance, and that included providing food when someone is hungry.
 So Jesus’ comment that the Sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the Sabbath fits in with all the traditions of Jewish law and custom. Then Jesus adds two more teachings. First off, God desires mercy rather than sacrifice. And secondly, that Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath.
 And these teachings are reinforced in the second half of the reading when Jesus heals a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath. The synagogue leaders, they object to his doing this. And Jesus says to them, if one of your animals is injured on the Sabbath, you help it, right? The Sabbath is meant to be a day of restoration, which is why we rest on the Sabbath, so we can be restored. And helping someone to be restored is a good thing to do on the Sabbath.
 In our second reading, we meet a man whose life has been about as tough as life can get. He has been sick for 38 years, unable to move into a pool of water nearby to be healed. His only hope in order to stay alive was to beg for a living and hope that maybe someday someone would help him get into that pool first. And Jesus, seeing this man, says to him, stand up and take your mat and walk.
 And he does. What an amazing miracle. People had never heard of miracles like this back then. And there is no doubt that the priests and the religious people in the temple knew who this man was, because he had been there for 38 years.
 They would have recognized him. But rather than being happy for him that he’s walking, they ask him, Why are you carrying a mat on the Sabbath day? This isn’t lawful, they said. Never mind that this mat is the only thing this man owns in the entire world. Never mind that the religious leaders are wrong anyway because there is no place in the Sabbath law that says you can’t carry a mat on the Sabbath.
 that’s not in there. And after asking around, the religious leaders discover it’s Jesus who performed the miracle. And again, rather than saying, Wow, that’s really fantastic, they attack Jesus for breaking the Sabbath law, which he also did not break. So we know that the whole purpose of the Sabbath is to set people free, free from bondage, free to be whole.
 And the argument Jesus has with the religious leaders is not whether to keep the Sabbath, but how to keep the Sabbath. Jesus sticks to the original definition of Sabbath law, which is freedom. So he opposes the people who have made Sabbath keeping a burden. And last but not least, Jesus says to them, my father is still working, and I also am working.
 In other words, back then and today as well, Right now is not Sabbath for God. It is for us, but in a human way. But God’s Sabbath has not come around again yet. Yet.
 God is working now and so is Jesus, but that second time of rest for God will come someday and it will last forever and it will include us. There was, however, one Sabbath when Jesus did rest. We didn’t read about this today, but there is one time when Jesus did rest, and that was the day after he was crucified. The Gospel of John says that on Good Friday after Jesus died, the religious authorities went to Pilate and asked them to break the legs of all the people on the crosses so that they could take them down before the Sabbath started, and Pilate agreed, but when they came to Jesus, they found he was already dead, and so they didn’t break his legs, which fulfilled the prophecy of David in Psalm 22.
 I can count all my bones. After Jesus died, but before Sabbath began, Joseph of Arimathea came to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body so he could bury it, and he and Nicodemus carried Jesus’ body to Joseph’s tomb and brought spices and a linen wrap to place him in, but it was late in the day, and as the sun went down, The burial traditions of the Jewish people, they didn’t have time to complete them. So they did what they could, made plans to come back and finish later. And Luke’s gospel tells us on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
 And so did Jesus. After all he’d been through, Jesus rested on that Sabbath day. And then at the break of dawn on Sunday, Jesus was back. And we have been living in Easter time ever since.
 So that’s basically Sabbath in a nutshell from the scriptures. So for us, living in the light of Jesus’ resurrection 2,000 years later, does Sabbath still apply to us? Does Sabbath-keeping still apply to us? John Wesley, founder of Methodism, gave a very passionate yes to this. In fact, he wrote about it, preached about it a lot. Here are just a few of his comments on Sabbath.
 John Wesley wrote, The Lord not only hallowed the Sabbath day, but he has also blessed it, so that you are an enemy to yourself if you throw away your own blessing. If you neglect to keep this day holy, it is a day of special grace. And he also wrote, Oh, what mercy has God prepared for you, a peace which the world cannot give, joy that no one takes from you, rest from doubt and fear and sorrow of heart, and love the beginning of heaven. There’s gotta love a man who talks like that.
 So how do we, as Americans in the 21st century, keep Sabbath holy? There is no one answer to that question. It will be different for every person and different for every family, but here’s just a handful of thoughts for that. The Bible Project online says that Sabbath is not a commandment that Christians are bound to, which is true. It’s a promise that we’re invited to enjoy.
 Sabbath rest is an invitation to prepare for eternity in God’s presence. The website Desiring God says, Especially in a day when many people can work anytime, anywhere, answering emails after dinner and taking calls on the weekend, we might do well even for one day in seven, to say, I worked yesterday and I will work tomorrow, but today I rest and worship. And Jesus said, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
 So in terms of practicalities, here are a few things that I have found helpful as I have practiced observing the Sabbath. And again, practice is the key word. I have not mastered this by a long stretch. I’m still learning how this works.
 But first off, you can forget about the blue laws, all right? If indeed you still think about them. Sabbath is not about keeping rules. Rather, I should say whatever rules are out there are meant to help us keep Sabbath well, but they’re not written in stone. The one thing I would say is this, don’t schedule anything on the Sabbath.
 No doctors, no car repairs, no pet appointments, no rehearsals, no sports practices. On the Sabbath, avoid anything that requires effort or focus or that might result in frustration. Secondly, set aside 24 consecutive hours, traditionally from sundown to sundown. Most Christians observe Sabbath from Saturday night to Sunday night, that any day of the week will do, whenever you have a day off from work, whatever that may be.
 But do try to make it the same day every week so it becomes consistent. Personally, I have been observing Sabbath on Saturdays because I work on Sundays. And if 24 hours seems too long at first, which it probably will, start with six hours. Start with eight hours.
 It won’t be long before 24 hours seems too short. but start where you can and build up from there. Third, third, there we go. The day before the Sabbath, pay any urgent bills and then put away the wallet.
 Make any urgent phone calls, finish any high priority business and then put away the office machines. And just before Sabbath begins, prepare the evening meal so that it’s ready to eat at sundown. And finally, begin the Sabbath with some kind of a pattern or a habit. And I really like the Jewish pattern.
 It’s not required. I can post some examples up on Facebook when I get a minute. But I don’t follow it exactly, but I like their pattern. It starts with lighting candles and saying a prayer.
 And if you can gather your family together for a meal, that’s even better. Light the candles together, and then pronounce blessings, pray blessings over the children. Once the candles are lit and all the cares of the world have been placed in God’s hands through prayer, it is time to eat and relax. And so if we’re not working on the Sabbath, what are we doing for that 24 hours? There are lots of possibilities.
 Rest, eat, listen to music, read a book, go for a walk with family or friends, spend time with your spouse or partner, pray, ride bikes. I do recommend staying away from the computer, the email and Facebook, and also the TV news. Just stay away from all that. Order out for pizza or Chinese if you like, call an old friend you haven’t talked to in a long time.
 Cook if you want to, but only if cooking is restful for you. And of course, attend worship, where we give thanks to God for all of God’s blessings, including the blessing of the Sabbath. So you get the idea. Sabbath is a day to relax.
 One website I read said this. Once you’ve kept the Sabbath for any length of time, it is truly painful when you can’t. Somehow your physical and spiritual clock knows when the Sabbath is and longs for it. And I have definitely found this to be true.
 Both emotionally and physically, I look forward to Sabbath every week. If you’re already observing the Sabbath, keep on keeping on. And if you’d like to try it, please do. God blesses our efforts in these directions, not only to be obedient to the law, but to claim the blessing of being with God and taking the gift that God has offered to us.
 As Jesus said, the Sabbath was made for humankind, for us. Sabbath is God’s gift to us. So let’s not miss out on it. Amen.
.

Sermon Shorts 8-27-2023

Jesus Answers Questions About Sabbath

Jesus answers the question in the style of a rabbi, by answering from the law and the prophets. Jesus is not troubled by this conversation, by the way, and neither is the rest of the group, because expressing differences of opinion and posing questions to a master were encouraged in those days as a way of learning.

So Jesus’ first word gives a word of prophecy from King David, who is both a king and a prophet. Jesus says that when David and his friends were hungry. David went into the temple, took the bread of the presence, which was only lawful for priests to eat, and David ate it and gave it to his friends as well. And Jesus draws a parallel between this and himself.

Jesus is also a king and he also has some hungry friends. And the bottom line is when people are hungry

Jesus Rested on the Sabbath After His Crucifixion

Friday after Jesus died, the religious authorities went to Pilate and asked them to break the legs of all the people on the crosses so that they could take them down before the Sabbath started. And Pilate agreed, but when they came to Jesus, they found he was already dead. And so they didn’t break his legs, which fulfilled the prophecy of David in Psalm 22.

I can count all my bones. After Jesus died, but before Sabbath began, Joseph of Arimathea came to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body so he could bury it. And he and Nicodemus carried Jesus’ body to Joseph’s tomb and brought spices and a linen wrap to place him in.

But it was late in the day, and as the sun went down, the burial traditions of the Jewish people, they didn’t have time to complete them. So they did what they could, made plans to come back and finish later.