The Value of Life

Exodus 20:13

Matthew 5:21-24

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            Go out on the street and ask any passerby to name any of the Ten Commandments and chances are they will mention this one first. “Thou shall not kill.”  It’s the one everyone seems to remember.  Ask those same people if they believe they’ll go to heaven when they die and chances are they’ll say, “Yes”.  Ask them “why” and often you’ll hear, “I’m not a bad person, I’ve never killed anyone.”  Keeping the sixth commandment for some becomes the bare minimum required to enter God’s Kingdom.

            I guess this is so because the command seems so simple and straightforward and easy to understand. But, is it?  Some of the most controversial and contentious issues of our day swirl around the question of life and its value and when it might be taken.  Several years ago, the State of Florida, the United States Congress, the President of the United States and every talk show from here to Honolulu involved themselves in a family conflict between the husband and parents of Terry Schiavo who lay unresponsive in a coma for many years. Should she be taken off of life support?  Is it right to withhold food and water?  Is that murder?

            Around the same time our government began preparations to enter into a war with Iraq.  One of the reasons given was to prevent a cruel dictator from possibly using suspected weapons of mass destruction against our country or our allies.  Condolezza Rice, then Secretary of the National Security Agency and Sunday School teacher at the National Presbyterian Church justified this by saying, “You don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.” Many theologians and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church that year were troubled by this new pre-emptive strike policy and wondered if this fit into what had become a traditional understanding of the requirements needed to begin a “just war”?

            Shortly after that new Supreme Court Justices were needed to fill vacancies and that re-opened the debate on Abortion and Stem Cell research.  “Pro-choice” once again squared off against “Right to Life”.  People of faith found themselves on opposite sides.

            The sixth commandment is evidently not so clear as it would seem on a first read. So, how do we interpret and understand this basic right to life?  Do we plant our flag in a pacifist camp and say under no conditions is life ever to be taken?  No war, no capital punishment, no abortion under any circumstance.  Or do we march across the battleground and claim our cause is righteous and just and declare a holy war?  Or do we find ourselves somewhere in the middle puzzled by the questions raised by scientific advances in medical technology and worried about weapons of mass destruction and befuddled by legal distinctions only a lawyer can understand?  Chances are that is where most of you find yourself, so this morning we’ll try to look at these questions through a theological lens as we each make our own decisions.  Let us pray:

            Creator of life, you have made us in your image so we are bound to be our brother’s keeper.  We are to value the life you have given and protect it as best we are able.  Grant us your wisdom as we make important and complex decisions on life and death.  Amen.

            First off, we need to get the language right.  Hebrew has a word for “kill” and a word for “murder”.  One is used on a chicken and the other on a person.  This commandment does not forbid chicken soup or even justifiable homicide.  It does forbid the taking of innocent human life.

            Now, I wonder how Moses felt the first time he read these commandments.  He may have checked them off one by one:  “No other Gods” – sounds great.  That’s what I’ve always believed.  “No graven images” is good when you’re traveling because you don’t want to be carrying around any heavy statues.  “Do not take the name of the Lord in vain”.  Well, he may have paused over that one and made a mental note to clean up his language.  “Sabbath” was just the ticket because if there was ever anyone who needed a day off it was he.  “Honor your father and mother” was easy because if not for their sacrificial love Moses would have never made it beyond his infancy.[1]  Then he came to this one, “Thou shall not murder”.

            I imagine Moses must have taken a deep breath when he got to that one because he had already broken it. He had taken the life of an Egyptian overseer back in Egypt.[2] The verse describing this act tells us this was premeditated because “he looked this way and that before he killed him”, but was it justified?  To be sure the Egyptian had been beating a Hebrew slave, but was there no other way to defend him?  Moses after all was Pharaoh’s adopted son, so not without power or influence. Was this a righteous act or the flash of a hot temper? Was this justice or vengeance? It’s not always so easy to tell.  Did the punishment fit the crime?

            To answer that question you have to go back to the beginning of the Bible.  The fourth chapter of Genesis obviously follows the third, which described the entrance of sin into the world and the fall of humanity.  That’s the well-known story of the garden and the snake and the forbidden fruit.  When the dust settled, Adam and Eve found themselves on the outside looking in and so began a new life far from the home into which they had been born.

            They made a new home for themselves and began to raise a family – two boys, Cain and Abel.  Now the Bible says Abel was a shepherd and Cain was a farmer, so each brought what they had as an offering to the Lord, but God for reasons only God knows accepted one but not the other. The sacrificial lamb was apparently more significant than sacrificial zucchini, so Cain in jealous rage killed his brother.  Murder was the first sin committed outside of Eden.

            Cain did what people do when they are caught red-handed.  He lied.  When God asked, “Where is your brother?”  Cain said, “Don’t know” and then asked, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”  Well, it turns out he was or at least was supposed to be his brother’s keeper and since he did such a poor job of it, God sent him into exile.  In those days, that was tantamount to a death sentence because away from the protection of family you stood little chance in a cold and cruel world.  Cain knew that and so pleaded for leniency.  God granted this request for grace and marked Cain in some way in order to protect his life.[3] Grace and justice became intertwined in that moment. Cain was punished for the crime, but the reprieve from capital punishment allowed for the possibility of redemption.  That would not be the last time God would weave grace and justice together.

            The next scripture that speaks to this question of life and how it is to be protected and when it may be taken is found a few chapters later in Genesis. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image.”[4] With this declaration human life is valued because we have been created in the image of God.  For that reason life is to be protected and when it is not, when an innocent life is taken, capital punishment in this particular verse is not only appropriate – it is required.  Murder was seen not only a sin against society, but also a sin against God.  “The Lord gives life and the Lord takes life.”[5]

            When you read the chapters that follow these Ten Commandments you will find a number of infractions listed that fall under this capital punishment rule:

            “Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death.”

            “Whoever strikes his father or mother shall be put to death.”

            “Whoever steals a man, (kidnapping) shall be put to death.”

            “Whoever curses his father or mother shall be put to death.”[6]

            The list goes on.  When you are a wandering through the wilderness of Sinai imprisonment was impractical, that left only three forms of punishment: death, exile, which was just about the same thing, or a financial fine and court costs. Justice was best understood then, as it is for many today with the verse, “Eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth”.[7] 

            As time passed by the people settled down into the Promised Land.  They built houses and courthouses and jails, so justice mellowed a bit and was not enforced quite so severely, but still the death penalty was handed down for a variety of offenses. We find an example of this in the eighth chapter of the Gospel of John. 

            In the well-known story of the woman caught in adultery scribes and Pharisees asked Jesus whether or not he agreed with the law and its requirement that people guilty of this sin should be executed?  That is, did Jesus agree with Moses?  Was he for law and order or was he soft on crime?  Since Jesus was already known for his emphasis on God’s grace, they thought they had boxed him into a corner.  Either he repudiates his earlier words or he offends all who believe justice must be done.

Most of us know what happened next.  Jesus knelt, doodled in the sand and said, “Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone.”  The Pharisees now found themselves in a box, unable to fulfill their understanding of justice lest that same standard be applied to them and so they melted into the shadows.  Jesus then said to the woman, “I don’t condemn you, but go and sin no more.”[8]  Grace and righteousness were interwoven once more.

            This story highlights one of the problems inherent with capital punishment and that centers on the question of equality.  That is, if capital punishment is to be used to serve justice; it must be fairly applied.  Everyone must be treated the same regardless of gender, race, or position in society.  Notice, in this story, only the woman caught in adultery faced an angry mob with rock-laden hands.  The man, and there would have had to have been a man, was not dragged into the town square.  No one was calling for his life.  So, in this case capital punishment was one sided, to be enforced on one and not the other.  If that happens justice is not really served.

            Since there is no correcting a mistake made in this matter, the process for determining when it should be used needs to be perfect. You’re looking to score a hundred per cent on this test, because even one mistake is too many.  On this scripture is clear, no one, not even the government has the right to shed innocent blood.

            This same principle of protecting the innocent would apply to the other right to life questions of our time.  The debate on abortion and stem cell research must ultimately focus on the question of life and when it begins?  On the back end there is another question on when life ends?

           

In these areas, medical advancements in technology and information has both muddied and cleared the waters.  Today, almost every parent has seen through a sonogram his or her little one wriggling around in the womb long before the child is born and since “seeing is believing” conclude that life is present and to be protected. But, how far back do you go?  Some in the Christian community say life begins at conception and so forbid the use of birth control methods that do not allow a fertilized egg to make a home in the womb.  Others protest and say that restriction will result in the unwanted pregnancy you’re trying to avoid in the first place.

            All of this can get pretty complicated so people of faith do come to different conclusions on the question of when life begins. There are those though who believe this question is irrelevant and so these decisions are to be made only on the basis of power, on individual rights and the ability to do what you want. On that Richard Neuhaus once observed, “In the absence of truth, power is the only game in town.”  All that matters then is that you have the power to do whatever you want for whatever reason you decide is valued. The only qualifier nearly everyone accepts is that no one has the right to infringe upon the right to life of another.  So we come full circle to the question of when life begins.

            On the other end of life we run into the opposite question on when life ends. Anyone who has ever stood next the intensive care bed of a loved one and watched medical technology perform all the functions needed to sustain life knows that as with the questions of life’s beginning, the questions of life’s ending can be confusing as well.  While measuring quality of life to determine when life must be sustained or when it may be concluded can be a slippery slope and very subjective leading to decisions based on convenience or cost; it is equally true that modern medical technology creates ethical questions our grandparents never had to consider.

Waiting rooms in hospitals everywhere are filled with people who wonder, “Is this what Mom would have wanted?”  “Is it right to keep Dad in this medical purgatory where machines to sustain every bodily function without any hope of recovery?”  These are all tough decisions and very personal, so the important question becomes, “whose interest is being protected – the one laying in the bed or the one standing by his side?”  Motive matters.

            Maybe that’s where Jesus was going when he linked murder to anger in his beautiful but impossible Sermon on the Mount.  “You have heard it said, “you shall not murder”, but I say to you if you are angry with a brother or sister, if you insult a brother or sister, if you call them “Raca”, fool you shall be liable to judgment.”[9]  Intent, motive, matters of the heart, have always seemed to matter as much to God as the actions we take.  The Bible says, “While we look at the outward appearance, God looks to the heart.”[10]

            So, while someone may boast, “I’m going to heaven because I’ve never killed anyone”; they would likely fail this litmus test on anger.  If God’s justice is measured by our attitudes as well as our actions, then none of us can stand tall before him proud and unblemished.  For that reason, Jesus said, “we must take care when we judge another, lest we be judged.[11]

            All of us look for justice and wonder what it must look like.  All of us believe life is a gift of God and so to be protected by this sixth commandment, but we don’t always agree on what that means.  The stakes are high, a matter of life and death, so we wrestle with these questions of life and when it must be protected and when it may be taken.  In confusing and complicated times we all run the risk of being wrong, and that is why we all must rely upon the grace of God in order to fulfill the justice of God.

            From the beginning of God’s Word to the end, from the cross on Calvary to the empty tomb God weaves together justice and mercy in ways we can barely comprehend. Faith becomes our only hope for making our way in such a world and in making our way to the next.

            Lord, in Jesus Christ you have promised life abundant.[12] Help us to celebrate and share that life so that all might see you way, understand your truth, and experience your life.[13]  Amen.

           

           

           

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[1] Exodus 2:1-8

[2] Exodus 2:12

[3] Genesis 4:16

[4] Genesis 9:5

[5] Job 1:18

[6] Exodus 21:12-17

[7] Leviticus 24:20

[8] John 8:11

[9] Matthew 5:21-22

[10] 1 Samuel 16:7

[11] Matthew 7:1

[12] John 10:10

[13] John 14:6

                                                            Family Ties

Exodus 20:12

Mark 7:1-13

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            Eugene Peterson in his book, Under the Unpredictable Plant, wrote, “In infancy, as our eyes gradually focus, the face becomes our first vista.  By means of the parental face we know ourselves as ourselves and in its expressions learn our place in the world.  In the face we acquire trust and affection (or in some terrible cases, rejection and abuse).  Our formative years are spent looking up into the face, and we grow up toward what we are looking up to.”

           

            Every parent who has ever looked into the face of a newborn knows this is true.  Even pastors who baptize these children see it.  When I’m holding a little one and saying God’s words and dipping my hand into the water, he or she one will look up at me with wide-eyed wonder believing and trusting I will not drop or drown.

            That’s the nature of those early years.  Children really have no choice. This seems to be hardwired into their nature. They will invariably look into the face of the one who holds and feeds and sings to them with pure love and trust.  They will listen to what their parents say and accept whatever they say as gospel truth. They are eager to please and proud to show off each new accomplishment.

            Somewhere along the way all that begins to change. As the years go by absolute trust in parental teaching comes into question. The transition is gradual moving from the conviction that parents know everything, to the belief that they do not know as much as they think they do, and ending with adolescent certainty that they know nothing at all.   In those years they become more eager to please their friends than parents.  Pride in accomplishment is sometimes hidden beneath veiled aloofness in an attempt to appear “cool” or “grown-up”.

            This is as it should be.  Separating from parents and establishing your own identity is part of growing up.  But it is never easy – on the child or the parent. Even in the best of relationships some kind of generation gap will emerge.  Parents will invariably reminisce about the old days when they had to walk to school barefoot through three feet of snow - uphill – both ways.  Kids will roll their eyes and then shake their heads when their parents can’t figure out how to use an ipad or program their cell phones.  We are each a product of our times, so our children are a product of theirs as we are of ours.  They have their own culture, their own songs, and their own icons. 

            For this reason God gave this fifth commandment as a reminder to “Honor your father and your mother.” This command concerns the struggle between the generations and tries to bridge the gap between traditions, which sometimes focuses too much on the past and narcissism that says, “Nothing really important happened in this world before me.”  This commandment establishes a connection between the past and the present so that together we may have a future.  This is the only commandment that comes with a promise, “so that your days may be long in the land the Lord your God is giving.”

The word for honor is in Hebrew “kabed”, which literally translated means “heavy” or “to give weight to”.  It’s opposite would be to “take lightly”, to “treat flippantly”.  Note, neither absolute obedience nor total subservience is implied.  The word does not mean, “love” or even “like”.  It means you have to take your parents seriously, to give them their due. 

This is an important distinction because for some Dad did not follow the patient, wise, compassionate and caring model of “Father Knows Best”. Mom did not bake chocolate chip cookies while wearing pearls and high heels.  Rather for some, childhood memories were nightmares forged in homes wracked by rage or consumed by a bottle or confused by a revolving merry-go-round of partners so you never knew who would show up at the breakfast table.

That’s why for some even the Lord’s Prayer becomes problematic because father was not a positive image. “If God is like my father”, some think, “he is to be more feared than loved, better avoided than embraced.” Some wonder, “How can I honor those who are responsible for my some of my most bitter memories? I cannot change the way I feel.”

            This command does not ask you to do that.  It take not take lightly the wounds you may have suffered nor pretend these hard memories do not exist.  It does not gloss over the sins of your parents, but neither does it gloss over yours.  On this scripture is very clear, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”[1]  That’s something all of us need to remember when we set out to judge another.

            So, what exactly is the responsibility of children to parents?  If the relationship is strong and if the home has been nurturing and if the parental example has been uplifting, the answer is easy.  You say “thank you” in every way that matters. That may mean you make the time play golf with Dad or go shopping with Mom.  Each family has its own traditions that express an attitude of gratitude. Ultimately it means that you are there for them as they were there for you.

However, if the relationship has been strained and home-life distressing and the parental example poor, then the answer to the question, “How do I honor my mother and father” is a little harder to find. In the seventh chapter of the gospel of Mark Jesus seems to describe a bare minimum responsibility that is owed no matter what.

 The story began with a head-to-head confrontation with the Pharisees over some minor point of the law.  They had criticized Jesus’ disciples for failing to follow a prescribed ritual for properly washing their hands before eating.  Exasperated over one more case of trivial nitpicking Jesus turned the tables to demonstrate their hypocrisy by and citing the fifth commandment. 

Some of the Pharisees had evidently been using a tradition called “Corban” as a legal loophole to shield their assets from the IRS and also to absolve themselves from their responsibility to keep their aging parents off the streets.

Corban means, “dedicated to God”.  So, some Bible scholars believe that some of these financially savy Pharisees stamped this word with big red letters on their investment portfolio which indicated one day it would be given to the Temple and so to God.  Mind you that was not going to happen that day or the next or the next.  Rather it meant they were just intended to give it one day to the Lord, perhaps leaving him to him in their Wills to be executed the day after they died.  So, they got credit for being spiritual and generous while at the same time holding onto their money.  For them this was win/win.  For their parents living on the economic fringe in an age before Social Security it was lose/lose.

            Jesus understood the fifth commandment then to serve as protection for those who are at the back end of life.  They are not to be abandoned or forsaken or left alone in their rooms. He demonstrated that upon the cross when he said to his mother Mary, “Woman behold your son” and to his disciple “Son behold your mother.”[2]  Though he would no longer be able to look after her, he insured she would be looked after.

That means even if past nightmares have so strained the relationship that all you can handle is a short visit, then make a short visit.  If it is such that all you can manage is a phone call, then make the phone call.  If all you can do is to send a card, then send a card. If you can’t do anything positive at all, then refrain from doing anything harmful.  Sometimes all you can do is walk away from a fight, but even that can be an act of grace.

            Grace is never easy.  There is always a cost.  It requires you sacrifice your right to justice.  It means you don’t take vengeance, don’t try to get even.  It means you give even if you haven’t received.  Forgiveness is letting go of your desire for retribution and retaliation.  Those who have been wounded deeply know this is hard.

In fact, the only way this may be possible at all is to recognize that you have already received “grace upon grace”, experienced forgiveness, and have been embraced by the love of God.[3] Behind me is a symbol that confirms the reality of the sacrifice God made for us.  The cross tells us, no shouts to us, “We are forgiven.”  No matter what we’ve done, how far short we’ve fallen, God’s love reached down to us before we even thought of reaching up to him.   “God showed his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”[4]  So, the Bible says, “If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”[5]

Remember what I said at the beginning of this sermon?  “By means of the parental face we know ourselves as ourselves and in its expressions learn our place in the world. We grow up toward the one at whom we are looking. ”   In the face of God our heavenly father reflected through the face of Jesus Christ his son we begin to see ourselves as God sees.  We find our place in the world and in our families. 

Jacob’s story had a happy ending.  He reconciled with Esau.  But, they all don’t end that way.  No matter who takes the first step reconciliation, renewal, and restoration may never happen because it takes two to shake hands and make up. So, what do you do then?

Scripture outlines our responsibility, “Love one another and outdo one another in showing honor. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.”[6]  That’s probably the best way we fulfill this fifth commandment.  Show honor, be patient and pray.  Parents pray for your children.  Children pray for your parents.  Do this “so your days may be long” and your faith strong so you will know you belong to the family of God.

Let us close with the prayer we used to begin our worship.  Join me in a celebration for family people printed in your order of worship:

God, you have called us to live within the privilege of family life.  You have gifted us with mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents and beyond these with friends who become like family.

Praise God for the gift of family life.

Lord, we thank you for older folk who link us with the past and enrich us with their experience.  We thank you for the newborn so rich in potential greatness and goodness.  We thank you for the gifts we see emerging in our children.

Praise God for the gift of family life!

Eternal Father of us all, enter our homes not as the occupant of a guest room, but as the senior member of each household, so that we may live out your love in the most ordinary parts of life.  Keep us human as you make us holy.

Praises God for the gift of family life! I is all your doing Lord, and wonderful in our eyes.[7]

            Amen.

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[1] Romans 3:23

[2] John 19:27

[3] John 1:16

[4] Romans 5:8

[5] 1 John 4:11

[6] Romans 12:10,12

[7] Bryan Jeffery Leech

IV. The Ten Commandments

“Sabbath”

 

Exodus 20:8-11

Mark 2: 23-28

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            The complaint is almost universal, “I’m too busy!  I’m so tired!  There’s too much to do and not enough time.”  So stress levels rise and fatigue saps the soul and joy fades away.

 

The story is told of a South American tribe that went on a long march, day after day, when all of a sudden they would stop walking, sit down to rest for a while, and then make camp for a couple of days before going any farther.  They explained that they needed the time of rest so that their souls could catch up with them. 

There is a deep need today to rediscover the gift of Sabbath. ...Across all barriers of age and culture, the need speaks, presses, makes itself known.

 

            If that’s your problem scripture has a solution and it’s pretty simple.  In fact we teach it to our children when they learn to cross the street – stop, look, listen.  That’s one of the reasons God gave Sabbath.  There are others as well, but before we cross that street, let us pray:

           

Lord, you have given us the Sabbath to remind us that you are in charge of the cosmos, and that you can use us for the fulfillment of your plans.  Remind us again and again, that you never give us more than we are able to do in the time you have given us.  Amen.

 

            It is the fourth commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.”[1]  Some call this the “hinge” commandment because it serves as a transition between the first three, which define our vertical relationship with the Lord and the last six, which describe our horizontal relationship with others.  The fourth commandment does both.  Keeping the Sabbath honors God, but also nurtures our relationships with others and it restores the soul.

 

There is more detail provided in this commandment than in most of the others, but still people wondered and argued over the obvious question - “how”? How do we remember the Sabbath and keep it holy? When God said, “you shall not do any work on the Sabbath”, what does that mean?  What is work? 

 

            Rabbi’s wrestled with this question again and again as they tried to parse this word, so by the time of Jesus, they had developed a list with 39 chapters and countless sub-sets that provided a clear and explicit definition of this word “work”.  Keeping the Sabbath “holy” was reduced to knowing and following these prohibitions.  They determined how far you could walk on the Sabbath day, what you were and were not allowed to do for meal preparation.  Consequently, Sabbath for some became an odious experience.  There was nothing refreshing or healing about it.  It was just something to endure.

 

            But, that is not what God intended.  The Sabbath was not to be a burden; rather it was given to help us lay our burdens down.  To understand God’s purpose for this command, we go back to the story of creation itself.  You remember the pattern; “In the beginning God said, “Let there be…” and creation began.  Order came from chaos, light broke through the darkness, and life emerged from the earth.  The account of creation is elegantly folded into one week.  In six days God created the heavens and the earth, with the creation of humanity appearing to be the grand finale – God’s greatest work.  One more day is added to finish out the week, so the Bible says, “God rested.”  How about that?  Even God deserves some time off.

 

            I think many of us, if we think about this at all, imagine that God must have been perspiring and panting after an incredible week of thinking up giraffes and hippopotamuses, and creating plants and people.  So we figure that on the seventh day, God just plopped down on an easy chair with a beer in one hand and a remote in the other and turned on the Super-Bowl.

 

If that is your view, then Sabbath is understood to be only a kickback, do-whatever-you-want day.  It is a reward for completing a hard week.

 

            When you read the fourth commandment in its entirety there is something more to it than that.  In Exodus 20:11 the Hebrew word usually translated, as “rest” is “vaiynafesh”, which literally means, “exhale”.  It is that breath you take when you have finally finished that important project.  It is a cleansing breath.  It is that transition between what you have just done and what you are about to do. Skip that breath, or slide past that moment, and one thing just leads to another and there is no distinction.  You just end up living in a 24/7 world without reflection or celebration.

 

            That’s what the Pharisees were afraid of.  This is why they were so critical of Jesus.  If the Sabbath becomes a day like any other; if you do the same things on this day that you do during the rest of the week, then you skip the “vaiynafesh”- the great exhale.  There is no opportunity to stop and take a breath to reflect upon what you have done, and how you have lived, and where you are in your relationship with God.  You give no time to celebrate the blessings God has given nor do you carve out a space for grace so that you may consider the direction God may be leading.  Without that life just becomes a matter of increasing speed.

 

            Many today, and many in this congregation are doing just that, burning candles at both ends.  Your personal goals for achievement, and your financial needs for security pull you onto a treadmill that never seems to stop.  You are always on the clock, bound by Blackberries and laptops to a life that leaves you feeling weak and weary and heavy-laden.[2]  You feel as if you don’t even have time to breathe.

 

            This anxiety is transferred to our children as well.  Their schedules burst the calendar over-flowing into Sunday morning and extending through the day.  Homework, sports, and music are all worthwhile and beneficial, but when all of life is consumed by constantly doing there is no time to simply “be”, to be a child or as scripture says, “To be still and know the Lord is God.”[3]

 

            Bonnie Thruston, Professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary asked an obvious question that few of us have time to ponder, “Why do we have to be so busy all the time?” She answered her own question.  She said, “I think it is because we like to both complain and brag.”  The conversation goes like this: 

 

            “Hi! How are you?”

 

            “Oh, I’m so busy. Everything is chaos at work.  There’s this big project I have to complete.  Then I have to attend night classes in order to finish my Masters.  Of course, the kids need me to sew a costume for Halloween, and the dog has to go to the vet.”  But, beneath the complaint that we are too busy is an unspoken the pride in attainment and achievement.

 

            “I’m so busy” may well be a way of saying, “See how important I am – how necessary, how essential!”  How calendars validate our existence.

 

            I remember when we first moved to the D.C. area.  Newt Gingrich had just become the Speaker of the House and he got into a game of chicken with President Clinton.  They shut the government down and an order was given, non-essential employees of the Federal government were not to report for work.  You’d think people would have celebrated the time off, but they did not.  Many showed up for work who were not supposed to because they did not like to think of themselves as non-essential.  They wanted to believe they were important and that they mattered.  So, they worked hard toward that goal.

 

“Stopping work tests our trust: will the world and I fall apart if I stop making things happen for a while?

  Is life really gifted and the Spirit moving through it, so that I can truly rest and taste this playful caring?

 Can I trust that this caring will be the bottom line when I rest, beneath all the suppressed and repressed sides of myself that are likely to rise when I relax my controlling reins?

 Is there truly a unique image of God in me that is simply given and rises to obscure awareness in such spacious times, an image that is my deepest identity? 

Or is there really no such deep self in God, and does everything really depend on my producing, asserting, and protecting a conscious, managing ego-self?”

(Edwards, Tilden:  Sabbath Time.  Upper Room Books, Nashville.  1992.Pg 68)

 

 

There are other reasons as well.  We push ourselves so relentlessly, because we believe that if we don’t do it, it won’t get done; and if it doesn’t get done - well, we don’t want to even think about that? The kids do need to be fed.  I do need to show up for work to earn the money to feed the kids. The list goes on.   So, we constantly juggle these balls in the air, work, family, future, faith afraid that if we stop for even one minute they’ll all come crashing down.

 

            This pressure to achieve and attain or just to keep these balls in the air is also stimulated by the world in which we live.  A thousand times a day, in a million forms, a single message shouts from billboards, magazines, television, radio, newspapers, movies, and telemarketers: You are not enough!  You do not have enough so you cannot happy.  You have not achieved enough so you cannot be fulfilled, cannot be at peace.  Never do they say, “Be still and know that the Lord is God.”

 

Stopping tests our trust. Will the world continue to spin if I stop making things happen for a while?  Is life really a gift? Is God really at work so that I can stop work truly rest and taste and see that the Lord is good?[4]  Can I trust him to hold me while I rest? Does everything depend on my producing and asserting?  We must not be so sure because we keep pushing ourselves.

 

            That’s why I sympathize with the Pharisees who believed that Jesus’ exception to the Sabbath requirements would lead them down a slippery slope where one exception follows another and soon the Sabbath becomes like any other day. In my lifetime I’ve seen Sunday change from being a day of rest, reflection and recreation to become the busiest shopping day of the week, so I understand the Pharisees concern.

 

 What they did not understand was that Jesus was not breaking the Sabbath, but rather was really fulfilling it.  “The Sabbath was made for people,” he said, “and not people for the Sabbath.”[5]  God gave this and all commandments for our benefit.  God is our creator so is well aware of our limitations.  In the same way a civil engineer knows how much stress the steel in a bridge can take, so God knows how much we can take before we break.

 

            I believe that is why God rhetorically asked Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments?”[6]  The disappointment is not because God’s feelings are hurt, but because God knows how our insecurities make us “weak and heavy laden”.  God knows how our faithlessness and lack of trust in Him becomes a heavy burden.

 

            That is the point of the Sabbath.  It is about lifting the heavy burdens we carry throughout our lives and laying them before the Lord.

 

            John Calvin, the spiritual grandfather of the Presbyterian Church wrote that the purpose of the Sabbath is to “rest from our work so that God can do God’s work in us.” 

 

            There is an old legend about the Apostle John, late in his life.  One day some Christian Pharisees were scandalized to find him playing a game with his followers.  They believed the time could have better been spent teaching or preaching or praying or in the study of God’s Word.  They thought this a frivolous waste of time. 

 

            So, John asked one of them who was carrying a bow pull back and draw an arrow.  He did this several times.  Then John asked him to draw the arrow and hold it without interruption.  Soon the archer’s arms began to shake.  John said, even if you could hold the tension on the bow; the bow would soon break in the end.  So, he said, will the human spirit break if the tension is never released.[7]

 

            “By saying no to make some things happen, deep permission arises for other things to happen.  When we cease our daily labors, other things – love, friendship, prayer, singing, rest can be born in the space created by our rest.  Worshipping, walking with a friend, reciting a prayer, caring for children – those are the intimate graces that need precious time and attention.”[8]  Sabbath calls you to pay attention to your life.

 

            I know that some of you have staggered in here this morning and plopped down on the chair with a great “vainyafesh” - a great exhale.  This past week has just been one thing after another, and next week looks like it will just be another rerun of the last.

 

            Hearing me to you slow down won’t make a bit of difference because most of the responsibilities you carry are important.  Your boss has expectations, and your family has more.   You are carrying heavy burdens that you cannot just toss aside, but here in this place and on this day you can lay them down at the foot of this cross and allow Jesus to “give you rest unto your souls.”  You can find a place and create some space for grace.  So, stop, look, and listen this Sabbath day for God in you life.  Then you may find strength for your soul.

 

            Let’ do that right now.

 

            Lord, we come to you “weak and heavy laden”.  We carry great burdens and calendars that are filled to the brim.  Grant that in this moment we might “exhale” the stress of this past week, and “inhale” the cleansing breath of your Spirit.  We carve out of our week this time, and consecrate it to you, so that we might keep it holy.  Amen.

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[1] Exodus 20:8

[2] Matthew 11:28

[3] Psalm 46:10

[4] Psalm 34:8

[5] Mark 2:27

[6] Exodus 20:28

[7] Edwards, Tilden:  Sabbath Time.  Upper Room Books, Nashville. 1992. Pg 52.

[8] Muller, Wayne:  Sabbath. Pg 29-30.