From a summer of studying the concept of Sabbath, excerpts from a sermon preached July 29th, 2012.
How often do you describe your day as "a joy?" Do you consider your life to be full of delight? These aren't words we typically use to describe our hectic lives. The biblical concept of Sabbath inherently carries with it a sense of deep joy and delight. On the seventh day, God doesn't simply take a nap. In Proverbs 8, Wisdom is personified and recounts the creation days: "I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man" (Prov. 8:30-31). Norman Wirzba, in his book Living the Sabbath, notes that God did not fully complete his creation in six days. The seventh day, the Sabbath day, his time of rest, was actually the crowning completion of creation. He refers to a medieval rabbi named Rashi who suggested that on the seventh day, God created the capacity for joy and delight. He called it menuha – which is the rest, tranquility, serenity, and peace of God. Menuha is closely related to shalom, genuine peace, or the sense that things are as they ought to be. Just as we take joy and delight in a mountain top view, a child’s play, or a lover’s beauty, God takes joy and delight in all that he has made. And the great thing about being human, being made in his image, is that we also get to see the world in this way. We are given the same capacity for joy and delight, awe, wonder, and celebration. In a world scrambled by sin, we often – maybe even mostly – miss out on joy and delight. What we have is never good enough. Want we want never comes soon enough. Two components of Sabbath that can orient us to God’s joy and delight: Attentiveness: To take joy in the world that God created, you have to first pay attention to it. Attentiveness has it’s eyes wide open. It wants to see everything that’s around. The spider web’s intricate design. The veins on a leaf. Wispy clouds forming a hazy ring around the moon. Often, we are rushing through life way too quickly. We are not genuinely present. Our eyes are looking at screens. Our minds are possessed by" to-do" lists. Our hearts are worried about things out of our control. With such distractions, the Sabbath calls us to STOP . . . and be attentive. What’s around me? What has God been doing? Who is around me? How has God blessed me through them? Sabbath calls us to be attentive, so that we can take joy in what God has done. Recognizing the Gift: Joy sees life as a gift. All the things that God has made good, joy receives them as gift. Such blessings are a gift and NOT a wage or a result of my deserving work. Yesterday we took our youngest to the zoo and rode the carousel. My wife accompanied her as I watched. Right behind them was a boy with special needs. He was about 10 years old. He was holding tight to the zebra. A smile took residence on his face and didn’t leave. You could hear his giddy laugh. And at every rotation, he saw me waving to my daughter and waved back to me. Such simple ride, such wonder and awe. Life can be seen as burden or as gift. With the handicapped, life is often seen as burden. The cost of raising a handicapped child is great. There are medical bills. There is the disruption and hardship on family life. The divorce rate is high among parents with disabled children. There’s the reality that they will be caregivers for a lifetime. In contrast to burden, joy sees life as a gift. The same child who’s seen as a burden could be seen as a gift from God. "This child is a gift from God, precious and loved." Those with special needs have a way of teaching us joy and delight, faith and love. Joy takes circumstances and situations, and it sees them as gift when they could be seen as burden. Is there something that you’ve been seeing only as a burden, that might really be a gift? Your job. Your parents. Your spouse. Your home. It’s gift. This is what God has given to you. In Genesis 6:6, it says, “The LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.” The God who took such joy and delight in the beauty of his creation was now sick in his heart. The creation has now become a burden. It is tainted, deranged, rebellious, ungrateful, egotistical and yet God still takes delight in its redemption. Jesus told a story about a herd of 100 sheep. One stupid animal wandered from the rest and got tangled in the wilderness. So the shepherd abandoned the 99 to track down the one. And after bringing home the wanderer, covered with dirt, burrs, and thistles, the shepherd throws a party with his friends and neighbors. All because he got the one back. Jesus said, “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous who need no repentance.” In God’s inexpressible love, he takes joy and delight in you. You are precious and prized. You are valuable and delightful. He made you. In Jesus, he redeemed you. We delight in his restoration of all creation, joyfully anticipating the fullness of Sabbath on a great and .
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I continue to see the dangerous effects of porn in the lives of men (in particular). A recent CNN post on a new book called "The Demise of Guys" links video games and porn to the rise of "slacker males" in our country. You can debate the correlation. Nonetheless, author and psychologist Nakita Duncan notes: "If you watch excessive amounts of porn, you're going to find it hard to have real life relationships, because you're developing your sexuality independently of real people." My "porn talk" to guys goes something like this:
Help: Confession and Forgiveness: You must acknowledge and confess the addiction and your utter inability to control it. Then you must hear forgiveness. Personally. This is the first and critical step. No sin likes to come into the light. But when it's pulled out of the darkness, the light works to kill it. Jesus himself - his work on the cross - is the remedy. Come to a pastor (or a trusted, godly man) for private confession. Accountability: Confide in a trusted male (never your girlfriend or wife). Tell them the fulness of your problem. Give them full permission to check in with you regularly and hold you accountable. This is not unlike Alcoholics Anonymous, and the sponsor concept. Software: I don't have knowledge of the various protection software available, but many exist. Guardware. Hedgebuilders. Covenant Eyes. Resources for reading: A helpful short book I've read is by Pastor Mark Driscoll, called Porn Again Christian. You can download it online here for free. A website called XXX Church also has extensive resources, recommendations, and programs for porn addiction. Ongoing life in the Christian community. The church is a "hospital for sinners." Find refuge in the hospital. An active worship life, and meaningful relationships in the church are natural ways in which Christians are built up to live in the midst of the world. Our Christian community serves as a "home base" from which we go out into the many challenging corners of the world. I continue my thought and study on biblical Sabbath. The following is from a sermon preached July 22nd, 2012. At around two or three years old, a child learns the phrase, “I do it.” They are developing independence and individualism. So you go to mow the lawn and he says, “I do it.” The blade starts spinning, he grabs the handle and starts pushing it through the yard. All the while, mom or dad’s hand is gripping the handle and pushing and steering. Or you go to sweep the floor and she says, “I do it.” She goes around, not so much sweeping, but scattering dust bunnies and crumbs. All the while, mom or dad follows to catch all the dirt that was missed. You go to drive, and he says, “I do it.” So he grabs the wheel and steers around the parking lot, squealing through left and right turns. All the while, mom or dad quietly grip the bottom of the steering wheel, braking and accelerating along the way. The child says, “I do it,” but all the while it was really mom or dad. Regardless of age, a human tendency is to say “I do it.” It’s a question of who’s in charge and who’s doing the work. As Lutherans, we have a solid belief that in terms of salvation, it’s all God’s work – not “I do it.” But we leave God’s work there – strictly to the realm of salvation and spiritual things. “God is in charge of my salvation, but everything else is mine.” In doing this, we clearly separate our work and God’s work. The result is an increasingly busy, frantic, exhausted society. The pace of life is blistering. I’ve observed an epidemic of people who work too much and rest too little. People who are: Over-committed. Over-programmed. Over-worked. Stressed out. Burned out. Strung out. You have trouble saying “no.” You feel you have to do more or you’ll left behind. Your kids have to do more sports, more camps, more classes or they’ll be a failure. You have to keep busy or you’ll feel lazy. I see a people oppressed by their frantic pace, and over-crammed schedules, and unrelenting work. Oppressive calendars, oppressive to-do lists, oppressive gushes of information and media. I do it. In such a franticly overworked society, the third commandment is increasingly radical. “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God.” The word Sabbath means “to cease” or “stop.” The significance of observing the Sabbath is that it forces us to see the limits of “I do it.” Work is not bad. But Sabbath tells us, “Your work has limits.” You can work hard six days throughout the week, but on seventh day, you stop. You rest. And you realize that the world goes on without you. Sabbath says, “Your work has limits. Stop for a day, and see that God has been working all along. HE has been creating. HE has been providing. You thought it was ‘I do it,’ when all the while, HE did it.” We often separate God’s work and our work. “He does the salvation and spiritual stuff. I do everything else.” This attitude dismisses God’s work in our everyday life. There is a mysterious intersection with God’s work and ours; where we work, and strive, and toil, and at the same time God is at work in us and through us. He gives us the work, and guides the work. It’s like gardening. You till and fertilize and water. You sweat as you pull the weeds. And then you go to bed, and when you wake up, the bean plants are flowering. The lettuce got a little bigger. The tomatoes turned green to orange to red. And you had nothing to do with it. Wendell Berry writes of this phenomenon. He says, “Great work is done while we’re asleep.” Or it’s like pregnancy. We all know how babies are made. Certainly two people are involved. And yet, God mysteriously goes about his work. Fingernails are formed. A brain develops. Little feet with little toes. And mother and father have nothing to do with how the child forms. It’s left to grace. Great work is done while we’re asleep. Great work, because GOD DOES IT. In Mark 6:31, Jesus told his disciples, “Come away to a desolate place and rest a while.” They needed rest from their work, but the crowds of people would not leave them alone. When it was late, the disciples noticed a logistical problem. A small stadium full of people, and no concessions. Jesus said, “You give them something to eat.” They recognized the limits of their ability. “I do it” won’t cut it. You’d need almost a years’ salary to buy enough food for all these people. But when no work of ours will suffice, God’s work becomes evident. Jesus provides. Five loaves of bread. Two fish. 5 + 2 = 7. The Sabbath day is the seventh day. Seven is the number of completion, wholeness, fullness. Elsewhere in Scripture, Jesus refers to himself as “Lord of the Sabbath.” HE is Sabbath in a person. There is a limit to your work, to “I do it.” And when you recognize this, you see that he it’s not your work, but HIS work. HE is rest. He is relief. HE is power. HE is peace. He is provision. All of creation is HIS work. Under HIS rule. Subject to HIS Lordship. And when the humans said, “I do it,” he didn’t say, “Well, you got yourself into this mess, you can get yourself out. No, the Creator chose to redeem. He said “I will do it.” And HE invaded broken humanity. HE suffered the consequences of our bloated arrogance. HE has compassion because we are sheep without a shepherd. HE shackled death. HE stands as the King. Him, not me. HIS work, not mine. His control. His will. His love. His provision. His Sabbath. His rest. His work. In a person. How do you live and work in a way that acknowledges God’s work? That trusts his control? How do you observe the Sabbath beyond simply “going to church”? Three suggestions (not laws):
"Tradition is tending the flame,
it's not worshiping the ashes." Composer Gustav Mahler We value and honor our traditions. Tradition allows those who have come before us to teach us. With tradition, we inherit centuries of wisdom. But we dare not let the tradition become an idol, for it helps us tend "the flame." A new post on the Regeneration Blog. My summer study on Sabbath, rest, and restart continues.
I had a restful week of vacation last week with my family in Minnesota. Caught fish in one of Minnesota's 14,000 lakes. Filleted them. Fried them. Ate them with a Minnesota-brewed Premium Grain Belt. All in all, it was a few days of good, healthy rest. Often times it seems we either get bored or feel guilty when we rest. It feels like we have to do something. I've been doing more thinking about sabbath. The third commandment appears increasingly radical in our frantic society. How do we reclaim a healthy work/rest rhythm? Do we set aside times of stillness to find joy and delight in God and his work? Take a moment to pray or sing Psalm 92. It's a Psalm of the Sabbath. |
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