The Park Road Pulpit

  Sermons from Park Road Baptist Church 

      Russ and Amy Jacks Dean, Pastors

 

                                                             The Last Best Hope^[1]

Exodus 20.8-11; Luke 13.10-17

Russ Dean, June 30, 2002

 

The writer of the gospel narrative sets the stage for his readers with this opening line: "Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath..." This is not a trivial detail -- this statement sets the tone for the passage: Jesus, whose Sunday Resurrection would recast the whole picture of worship, was speaking on the Sabbath. There is the foreshadowing of conflict. Sunday meets Sabbath.

The issue that Jesus confronted is at issue in every worship experience that we try to craft. How do we (all) "remember [our] Sabbath day and keep it holy? (Exodus 20.8)" How do we set aside a day for worship and develop all the aspects of our religious practice, without making Sundays and our created worship an idol itself?

"Rabbis went so far as to debate if a cripple could carry his wooden leg out of a burning house on the Sabbath." (William Simpson, Jr.) Of course, we have our own humorous examples of Sabbath-keeping gone amuck.

A weekend snowstorm canceled church at Leesville Southern Methodist when Amy and I were dating. The whole crowd gathered at Meda and Phil's house for sledding, vegetable soup, snow cream and game upon game of "Spades." But this snowy day the men hesitated before dealing. "Ma Polly," the matriarch of the whole clan did not allow playing cards... on Sunday. Every other day was fine, but on Sunday, those 52 pieces of decorated, laminated paper took an ominous form. "Can we play on Sunday – just this once?"  Only after Ma Polly rendered a hesitant approval did the first game proceed!

One rabbi suggests that Sabbath itself is the a unique expression for the spirit of Judaism. The word, Shabbat, represents that which is central to Jewish life and thought, to Jewish faith and practice. For practicing Jews, Sabbath is not simply a day to end each week, Sabbath is a holiday. It is the greatest of all Jewish holidays (like Christmas, every week!).

What goodness has faded from our weekly celebration of Sabbath? On the other hand, what idolatry, what ritual hypocrisy has crept in, leaving our Sundays just as exposed to Christ's judgment as the blind religiosity of those legalistic devotees of Sabbath so long ago?

In 323 C.E., Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the state; in 789 C.E., Charlemagne mandated the ritual observance of the Lord's Day, setting aside Sunday from work and for worship. In 1624, Puritans in Virginia passed the first of this country's Sunday statutes. An expansion of these Sunday rules, which were printed on blue paper, was adopted in New England in 1638. Our "blue laws" were born. After the American Revolution, these laws began to be repealed, and we are still waging wars over Sunday practices.

A few years ago the battle was fought in the small college town of Clemson, SC. The National Football League had expanded its roster, and the Carolina Panthers announced that its inaugural season would be played in "Death Valley." Pandemonium covered "Tiger Town." The Chamber of Commerce celebrated a possible 850,000 new fans, and all of their well-earned money that would be dropped in Clemson that fall. Yet churches and many of Clemson's residents disapproved of such a noisy intrusion into its otherwise quiet Sunday routine. The battle centered around the existing "blue laws" which restricted the sale of alcohol on Sundays. Tavern owners and restauranteurs rallied for a repeal of the law, against a surprising alliance of preachers, teachers, and public officials.

In what I considered the most revealing and insightful of all the appeals made, the local Chief of Police argued against the upcoming referendum. "Friday nights are the busiest nights for our officers," he said. "If alcohol consumption increases on Saturday nights, with the elimination of a midnight ‘last call,’ so our problems will increase." And in a completely unsolicited call for Sabbath, Chief Johnson Link finished his remarks by saying simply, "Our officers and our town need Sunday -- to rest."

Jesus defended his Sabbath healing and rebuked his detractors saying, "You hypocrites! Ought not this woman… be set free… on the Sabbath day?" The Greek word, "ought," implies obligation. Sabbath was not just a day when healing could be allowed. Sabbath is a day  on which people must be set free. Consider with me three theological themes that are implied by the ancient word and its tradition, and three corresponding freedoms that our own practice of Sunday-Sabbath, ought to render.

1) The meaning of Sabbath first must be understood from the theme of creation. The word itself comes from the verb (shavat) "to cease," or "to rest."  How well do we truly rest on our Sabbaths? Is Sunday just a brief pause, a time to catch your breath, before the next Monday rush-hour? If so, we have missed the point. Sunday is not a day of rest, in the service of work, so that when we get back to work we can do it well. The focus of Sabbath is not work. The focus of Sabbath is Sabbath (rest).

Genesis 2.2 tells it this way: "And on the seventh day God finished the work that God had done, and God rested on the seventh day..." The text does not say that God finished working on the sixth day, and rested on the seventh. Finishing on the seventh day, and resting were one and the same. The resting was work. Rest still is the proper work of Sabbath.

This is an un-American this story is. It is foreign to our work-ethic. God finished working and proclaimed it "good" and then sat back to enjoy. God did not pronounce the creation "great!" Or "new and improved!" Certainly not "perfect" or "finished." God knew that the creation was in for its share of bumps and bruises, and that its potential for error would soon leave it far from its intended glory. If that were one of our products, the boss would make sure that no one rested until the "bugs" had been worked out.

But God rested. For only in the resting is the creation complete. We are driven to workaholic perfection, striving for unattainable heights, and stressing our poor hearts to death, yet the Creator has shown the only perfect way. Stop. Rest. Be satisfied as it is. Only in resting, shall we be made whole.

The story is told about a family, [one of whose five children] was born brain-damaged. She could not sit up nor speak. She died before reaching adolescence. She spent her apparently useless short life lying in bed in the sunniest room of the house...

When she died people said it was a blessing. But the family mourned. Someone asked "Why does the death of this child who has never spoken or moved among you make you all feel so deeply bereft?" "You don't understand," answered the mother. "Whenever one of us was sad or happy, joyful or depressed, we would go to her room and laugh or cry or just put our head on the pillow next to hers. The room was always quiet. When we left we would feel restored." "But she could not even speak."

"That's right," said her mother. "She could not even speak."

This is the story of a little sick girl and her apparently useless life in whose presence her parents, her brothers and sisters and their friends found rest and felt restored. (Peter Fleck)

Our Sabbath ought to set us free to Rest in God. May it be so.

2) The second theme of Sabbath is holiness. This word hardly holds meaning for us today. How long has it been since you even used the word "holy?" Yet Sabbath, and our worship this day, calls us to holiness.

Sabbath calls us to recognize the holiness of God. In fact, this is the only basis for maintaining the Sabbath. The Lord (who is holy) "blessed the Sabbath and made it holy." We learn to recognize and appreciate the holiness of God through the corporate worship of that God. Now I have enjoyed my share of spiritual moments behind the pages of a good book, with a gathering of friends, and on the tight end of a ski rope. These are good, well-spent moments, truly high and holy moments when God is recognized in our midst. But high and holy moments of individual spirituality, as genuine as they are and should be, must not be confused with worship. God did not call Abraham as an individual., God called a father of a nation. In our individualism, our self-reliance and self-determination, we must not pare down the corporate dimension of our faith so that we become "one nation [individually] under God." In corporate worship, we find the holiness of God.

As a youth minister, for five years I listened defenselessly, to parents tell me that it's "not like it used to be." (I was young, and not a parent at that time, so I was unqualified to disagree. "Just wait..." they said!) My favorite line was "Kids just aren't the same as when I grew up."

There was one thing that I never quite had the gumption to say to those parents that I always wanted to, and as I have observed other churches since my early years in ministry, and as I consider a call to holiness, I recognize that it needs saying here just as well. Those parents were absolutely right. Kids are not the same. It is not the same world, and frankly, I'm glad. I don't want to try to make it like it was "when we grew up." God is always giving us a new day. Kids are not the same... but neither are their parents. The problem with the church today is not that we have fourth graders who don't like to go to church. The problem is that we have parents today who will come to church and leave their fourth graders at home watching the television.

The television will teach your children much. It will not teach them to be holy. School will encourage your children's gifts. It will not encourage them to be holy. Friends will lift your children's spirits and provide life and excitement and opportunities galore. Friends will not lift your children's souls to make them holy. God has entrusted to you, as parents, and to the church, as the body of Christ, the high and holy calling of training and teaching and instructing your children in righteousness. But the church can not do its part in that training and teaching and instructing, if your children are not here with you worshiping God.

The Church will not fail because our children are different from us, or because they live in a new world. But the Church will not survive the failure of parents to bring their children to worship.

Our Sabbath ought to set us free for holiness in God. May it be so.

3) The final theme of Sabbath is covenant. The relationship between Israel and God is defined by a covenant, initiated by God. Israel's obligation in the covenant was Sabbath. Sabbath became important for the Jews especially in the exile. Their Jerusalem home and their precious Temple were destroyed by the Babylonians. In Babylon, on the banks of that foreign river, they were forced to learned to sing a new song.

"Sabbath was now observed as a continuing witness, to the Babylonians and to one another, of their identity as God's people. This witness pointed to their covenant… and proclaimed confidence in God's faithfulness: More than Israel kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath kept Israel." (Simpson, p. 12, emphasis mine)

What is our continuing witness to the new covenant of Jesus Christ? It must be the Church. And how will we be known if we are not faithful to the Church? Is Church just one-among-many options in your busy routine? Sunday faithfulness sets us apart from the world, and makes clear our covenant with a living Christ.

I am grateful to faithful parents for so many aspects of my personal life. If they believe anything, Helen and Russell Dean believe in the continuing witness of Christian observance. In other words, come Sunday, we were going to be in church. Period. This was not a threat. There was no manipulation or fear or sense of dread. It just simply was not an issue. That's just what Christians do on Sunday. That 7-day pattern is burned into my psyche. When Amy and I do miss church altogether my body clock stays off for a week. (What day is it now?)

One Halloween evening the pastor opened the front door of his parsonage home, and instead of the expected "Trick or Treat," he found a young boy waving wildly to the church next door. He stuttering with excitement, "That's my church. Right there, that's my church. Hey mister, did you know that's my church!" This young trick-or-treater had forgotten about his costume; the excitement of his more important identity far outweighed an evening masquerade and a few pieces of sweets.

How important is the Church -- how important is Park Road Baptist Church, to your identity? How committed are you to its goals and to its God?