Be honest now. This morning when the alarm rang or when your wife nudged you in the ribs; when your mom screamed something about being late -- what was your reaction? What did you feel about getting up and going to church? I asked you to be honest – but not necessarily out loud!
Now thus far this morning no one has come running up to me to say, “Pastor, I could just hardly wait for Sunday morning to roll around so I could get here.” And no one has said, “You know you preached part one of a two part message last week and I have been wondering all week what you planned to do with the rest of Isaiah 58!” No one at all.
However, a good many of you last week, when I was talking to you about our going to two services this Sunday and when I was emphasizing trying to finish the early service in time to get Sunday School starting at ten o’clock – quite a few of you grinned from ear to ear when I offered the opinion that that might mean shorter sermons. Somehow, you see, there are some feelings coming out about Sunday and about worship that are beginning to tell. There are some attitudes and some understandings about worship that lie deep down in us, and they come out in all sorts of ways.
Maybe this morning we need to clarify for ourselves something about the Biblical understanding of what the day of rest and worship means. Maybe the prophet can help us get a handle on how we can best view this thing that happens every seven days, whether we want it to or not -- and believe me, pastors above all others recognize that the Lord made a Sabbath in every single week, without exception. As we used to say in the kids' game we played, "Ready or not, here I come."
Sabbath: what is it and what does it mean? Is there a better way to do Sabbath than what we have trained ourselves to do? I want us to hear the prophet of Judah's return. If you were here last week you'll remember that this prophet, the prophet who is responsible for the last ten or so chapters of the book of Isaiah – this prophet, sometimes called by the scholars Trito-Isaiah or Third Isaiah – the prophet of the return, we called him, because he spoke to Judah an the sixth century before Christ, addressing their needs at a time in their national life when they had overcome their sense of defeat and despair. They had come back after a fashion following their long exile in Babylon, and they were waving the flag and indulging themselves and going great guns in lots of ways; but as we saw last week, the great prophet of the return in the first part of his great justice chapter cries out against self-indulgent, entertainment religion, and says, it is only when you pour yourself out for the needy and only when you commit yourself to justice and compassion for the oppressed, only then when God becomes real to you.
But now this same great prophet sees the other side of that coin. For him, there is a rigidity as well as a self-indulgence that is developing in the nation's life. Not only are they pursuing their own pleasures, but they are building up guilt and building up laws and regulations and burdens. Not only are they devotees of feel-good religion, as we saw last week, but they at one and the same time are starting to lost their spontaneity. They are piling up a mountain of laws and rules and negatives, especially about the day and style of worship. And so the prophet of the return cries out to Judah about her way of handling and thinking and feeling about Sabbath, and he will help us today to rediscover the Sabbath, to re discover the value of the day of rest and worship.
You know, we are in a fascinating place to rediscover the meaning of Sabbath. Had you really looked at and thought about this community, right around the church? Sabbath is a significant issue and concern here. For one thing, this used to be a heavily Jewish neighborhood. Synagogues still dot the landscape, and several buildings which are no Christian churches, when you look at them carefully, still carry the marks of domes and Stars of David and Hebrew inscriptions that will remind you that at one time these walks were filled with t he sons and daughters of Israel, making their way to worship on the Sabbath. In their own way they were hearing the word of this prophet, Honor the Sabbath.
And then there is the significant presence of the Seventh-Day Adventist church. With their world headquarters just a few blocks from here, with hundreds of their members living all around this area, with large and wealthy and prestigious churches of that communion all around us … well, we have a constant reminder that these folks believe they have, quite literally, rediscovered the Sabbath. Seventh-Day Adventists, as I assume you know, believe that God never in any way modified his command to honor the seventh-day, Sabbath, Saturday, and so insist on worshipping on that day, Sabbath. And if you drive down the trail of churches we call 16th Street you will see a Seventh-Day Baptist Church, folks rather like us, holding Baptist beliefs, doing Baptist things, but also insisting that the proper, Biblical day of worship is the Sabbath, the seventh.
By the way, the Seventh Day Baptist Church is right next to one of those synagogues turned church that I mentioned earlier. So whenever you pass through 16th and Crittenden Streets you will get a visible reminder of this sermon and of the fact that there are folks today who are heavily invested in the Sabbath, who have rediscovered, Sabbath.
Now of course I am not interested in arguing the case for or against the first day or the seventh day, not this morning, at least. Good historical reasons exist for mainstream Christians using Sunday – and to tell the truth, if I know this bunch, you are so invested in Sunday morning that if we were to try anything, anything else at all, you would still show up on Sunday. The Lord will have to schedule the second coming on a Sunday morning, or else most of us will miss it!
I'm not interested in arguing the case about which day we use as Sabbath, but I am concerned that we think about what Sabbath means. I am concerned that we rediscover Sabbath and that we make it a part of our lives, because I sense that we are missing some things the great prophet of the return would want us to see.
I
For one thing, there is a discipline to Sabbath-keeping that we need to recognize. There is a discipline and a negative side; there is a way to set aside some things and rediscover Sabbath. Listen again to the prophet:
"If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day … if you honor the Sabbath, not going your own ways or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly, then you shall take delight in the Lord."
What does that say to you? No fun? No recreation? Horror of horrors, no Redskin games? Many of us can remember a time when Sabbath was kept like that, a time in which we did nothing, went nowhere, kept quiet. My own upbringing was pretty much like that. I didn't play outside on Sunday. I didn't go to movies on Sunday. I most certainly was not asked to mow the lawn on Sunday, though woe be he who did not get it done on Saturday. And my wife tells me that the British were even more strict … nothing on Sunday after church but writing letters and reading books. You know what books are, don't you? Sort of a portable TV with all captions?!
But I don't believe that is really what the prophet is getting at. I believe that what he wants us to hear is very similar to what he wanted us to hear last week, that authentic life is more than self-indulgence, authentic life is more than doing whatever feels good. Authentic life is moving beyond what I feel like doing for me, and certainly authentic religion is far, far more than following the pleasure principle. No, for the prophet, authentic life is going to come out of an authentic relationship to the living God. And that is going to mean Sabbath. That is going to mean waiting in His presence. That is going to mean the discipline of setting aside some of the "I want tos" and waiting for the movement of the Spirit.
When you and I rediscover Sabbath, we are going to become real and authentic because we will learn to be still and know that He is God.
When you and I rediscover Sabbath, we are going to become real and authentic because we will have taken time to be holy, we will have taken time to be calm in our souls and let moments of worship address us.
Let me connect this emphasis with last week. Last week I tried to show you how the prophet of Judah's return punctured a self-indulgent, entertainment-oriented religion by insisting that God does not become real until we go where God is, among the poor, working works of justice. Not everyone that says to me, Lord, Lord, will inherit the kingdom, but he that does the will of my father.
But now the prophet wants to take another angle on this, he wants to cut into this another way. One of the issues with us is that we can get so busy doing, doing, ceaselessly doing, that we lose touch with ourselves and with God. And we are no longer authentic. We do good stuff out of habit or out of duty or even out of fear, but we don't do justice because at the depth of our souls we hear the call of the still small voice. And we soon run dry.
Rediscover, then, Sabbath. That’s the prophet's vision for us. Rediscover Sabbath, and see it as more than rest; see it as restoration. Don’t see Sabbath as nothing more than one day we can sleep in – "Be still and sleep, during the sermon!" Don’t see Sabbath as a good day when we can buy cars and houses by video … but as a pause that refreshes, a pause in the whirl of doing, even doing good things, that leads us into the delight-filled presence of God.
Last week in a burst of oratory I urged you, go ahead and sing, "I come to the garden alone," as long as you also sing, "Where cross the crowded ways of life, where sound the cries of race and clan." Now I would add, but "Take time to be holy, be calm in thy soul; each thought and each motive beneath His control."
Last week I cried out, go ahead and sing, "0 how I love Jesus, O how I lave Jesus, because he first loved me," me, me, if you can also sing, "0 brother man, fold to thy heart the brother; where pity dwells, the peace of God is there." And now I must add, sing on, sing on, "When morning gilds the skies, my heart awakening cries, May Jesus Christ be praised." Rediscover the Sabbath and rediscover your own authentic existence.
II
But there is a positive side too. For this great prophet, it is not only setting aside self-indulgence and beginning to wait far the word of our Lord. It is also that if you rediscover Sabbath, you will discover it as a delight and not as a duty. You will see it as an honor, not a heaviness; as a beauty, not a burden.
Says this prophet, who sees through us so readily: "Call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; then you shall take delight in the Lord." Call the Sabbath a delight.
Several years ago a friend of mine was a tourist in New York City, and went to see the great Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, one of the largest churches in the world. He says that after he entered and his eyes adjusted to the darkness and to the wide variety of sights and sounds and smells, he could see that way, way up there, at the high altar, there were three or four people doing something. And as he approached he realized that there was a priest there conducting a service of worship, for three or four people, a service of worship. After it was over, he approached the minister and said, "Why do you do this for so few in such a huge place? Is it worth it for just two or three?" The answer came back, "The Lord is here". The Lord is here.
All right. I have an idea that the clergy of that cathedral, committed as they are to providing moments of worship every day at certain times, begin to think of worship as a burden and not a delight. And I would have to confess to you that there are Sunday mornings on which, if I did what my tummy told me to do, if I did only what I felt like doing … well, I'd point the car toward the beach or the museum or the countryside. But do you know what? Invariably, when I just go ahead and come, come because I have to – invariably something happens that blesses me and encourages me and speaks to me and says to me, "The Lord is here." And almost despite myself, I rediscover Sabbath because it is a delight. It is a delight.
Hear the prophet again: "Call the Sabbath a delight and call the holy day of the Lord honorable … then you shall take delight in the Lord." Then you shall take delight in the Lord.
I am astounded at how many of us think that there should be no delight in worship. Or rather, how many of us enjoy worship only when it punishes us! Oh, pastor, you really stepped on my toes today, thank you. Oh, I could just about feel the fires of hell today.
But, you see, you get what you expect. What you bring here as expectation is likely what you will receive. And so, if you have come out of a sense of duty, then likely you will carry away a little smugness that you have done that duty and you are safe for another week. Or if you come out of habit, expecting little, anticipating no word from the Lord, then no matter how gloriously the music rings and no matter what histrionics the preacher brings, likely it will not happen for you. But come and call this day a delight, and you will find delight in the Lord Himself. Come and call this day an honored one, a joy and a hope, and the Lord Himself will make you ride upon the heights of the earth, and will feed you with a rich heritage.
Discover and rediscover Sabbath as a time of delight, or joy and of wonder.
Those who framed the American constitution wanted, as they said, to promote the general welfare, insure domestic tranquility, and secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity. They might have decided to force us all to worship; they might have determined that the route to accomplish all this would be to drive us and force us to church. But they did not. They set instead before us a free land and in it a free church, and they said choose. Choose. Discover Sabbath, not because we force you to do so, but because when you choose freely you choose authentic life. Discover, rediscover Sabbath, not because you must but because when you find it for yourself it will be a delight and not a duty, it will be a joy and not a burden, it will be an honor and not a heaviness.
"Then you shall take delight in the Lord Himself, and he will make you ride upon the very heights of the earth."
