Chasing Spiritual Mirages

Then God spoke all these words:

² I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; ³ you shall have no other gods before me.

⁴ You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.  ⁵ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me,  ⁶ but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

⁷ You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

⁸ Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.  ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work.  ¹⁰ But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work– you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.  ¹¹ For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

¹² Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

¹³ You shall not murder.

¹⁴ You shall not commit adultery.

¹⁵ You shall not steal.

¹⁶ You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

¹⁷ You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. – Exodus 20:1-17  

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The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.  ² Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.  ³ There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard;  ⁴ yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun,  ⁵ which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy, and like a strong man runs its course with joy.  ⁶ Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them; and nothing is hid from its heat.

⁷ The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the LORD are sure, making wise the simple;  ⁸ the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is clear, enlightening the eyes;  ⁹ the fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever; the ordinances of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.  ¹⁰ More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb.  ¹¹ Moreover by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.  ¹² But who can detect their errors? Clear me from hidden faults.  ¹³ Keep back your servant also from the insolent; do not let them have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.  ¹⁴ Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. – Psalm 19:1-14

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The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  ¹⁴ In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.  ¹⁵ Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.  ¹⁶ He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!”  ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”  ¹⁸ The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?”  ¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  ²⁰ The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?”  ²¹ But he was speaking of the temple of his body.  ²² After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. – John 2:13-22

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On this our third week of Lent, the theme for today is “Chasing Mirages”.

A mirage, as many of you know, is something found in a desert that looks like a pool of water but isn’t; and for this reason mirages have often caused the death of travelers. A person might think they see water, but when they keep traveling and find no water, it becomes too late: and they may have (in the journey) passed up real water without seeing it.

In a similar way, spiritual mirages can be spiritually deadly. The problem, as always, is recognizing what we’re looking at. In the desert, a mirage can be identified in a number of ways: real water usually has trees around it, or things that are growing, or tracks from people or animals. A mirage, on the other hand, has no signs of life – and as the traveler moves towards it, it never gets any closer; the mirage remains the same distance away no matter how far you travel.

The key to avoiding spiritual mirages is knowing what we’re looking for as we journey through life. Our three scripture readings for today give us some good ideas of what to look for.

In our reading from Exodus, God gives the Ten Commandments: laws organized and put down by God that will help us thrive. The law is not meant to be a killjoy – it was meant to help us live well! It’s like how we, as parents, teach our kids what foods are good for us; or what not to do, like “don’t go running out in the street”.  God’s law is good for us.

In the Psalm, David leads us in a song of praise to God for the goodness of creation, and for the goodness of God. Again, we’re looking at a relationship here. It’s like when we fall in love: we love what the other person does, but we love who they are even more. In the same way we love what God does, but we love God even more.

Then in our reading from John, we see Jesus getting angry. It can be scary when God gets angry! But what is Jesus getting angry at? He’s angry because injustice is happening and we are being excluded.  The events of this day take place in the Court of the Gentiles. Back then, only Jewish people were allowed in the Temple; Gentiles had to worship outside. And we here today are Gentiles. The Jewish buyers and sellers had set up their tables and their moneychangers in the place where we Gentiles were supposed to worship.

Jesus wasn’t having it. He was angry that anyone would try to keep people away from God who love God and want to know God.

All three of these scriptures lead us to love God even more, and to love Jesus for who He is. If nothing else I say this morning makes any sense, take this with you: Jesus stood up for you and for me. We are here today because we love Jesus for what he does and for who he is.

Having said all that, we turn to the concept of spiritual mirages. What is a spiritual mirage? How might we spot them? How might we deal with them?

Again, all three scriptures for today give us possibilities and pointers. For the sake of organization I’ve identified seven kinds of spiritual mirages that are indicated in our scripture readings today:

• The mirage of idolatry

• The mirage of “being good enough”

• The mirage of location

• The mirage of ‘outsiders getting in’ being a problem

• The mirage of corrupt leadership

• The mirage of having to be worthy

• The mirage of ‘salvation by law’, that is, by keeping the rules

I’ll spend a couple of minutes with each.

The Mirage of Idolatry

Back in Old Testament times God was always complaining about the Israelites worshipping idols instead of God. In fact God used to poke fun at those idols, saying things like: “hey look at that! You carved an idol, and covered it with gold and gemstones. Then you nailed it to the table so it doesn’t fall over. What kind of god is that? Is your idol so weak it can’t even stand on its own feet?”

These days we don’t – well most of us don’t – worship things that are made with human hands. But today – and in fact back then too – the real definition of idolatry is making the real God anything less than #1 in our lives. Anything or anyone that is more important to us than God is an idol.

The God of the Bible is a God of relationship. In fact the Holy Trinity has relationship built in: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three-in-one and one-in-three – a relationship that has often been described as a dance; and we are invited to join in that dance. But we can’t dance if we are chained to an idol.

This is why God says in Commandment #1 “You shall have no other gods before me” (or in some translations ‘you shall have no other gods but me’ – which I think is more accurate). God is not trying to ruin our fun! God is saying “this is the only road to life and health and joy and peace” and all those good things we want for ourselves and our families.

This law is the foundation for all the other nine Commandments. Without this one the other nine are irrelevant. In fact the other laws actually help us to identify our idols: things like power, anger, violence, sex, deception, control, and so on.

Personally I believe idolatry is the greatest and most pressing sin of our time. Our culture will value and follow anything but God: sports idols, rock idols, TikTok influencers, talking heads on TV, you name it. Anything that takes up the bulk of our time or the bulk of our attention might be an idol.

God wants to be #1 on all of our lists, because God loves us and knows what we need. One theologian puts it this way: “every time we open our eyes, ears, or nose, every time we taste or touch we can know that… God’s handiwork declares His glory.”[1]  Or as my old pastor used to say: “A Christian is someone who is into Jesus the way a football player is into football.”

So Mirage #1 is the mirage of idolatry.

Mirage #2 is the mirage of “trying to be good enough”. Back when the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt, they didn’t have much time or opportunity to know God. They had heard stories about God, about Noah and Abraham, but they didn’t have Bibles or worship services or priests. They had never been taught how to relate to God.

That didn’t matter to God. God brought Israel into the wilderness – as he told Moses – so that the people could know God and worship God. It would be a first for them. God gave the law to people who had no idea who God was or what God wanted. The Israelites did nothing to earn salvation; they barely knew about God; but God adopted them, and taught them, and cared for them.

The Law of Moses – the Ten Commandments – was not about setting up rules so much as it was building a framework for a relationship.  The Ten Commandments were not something that, if you broke a commandment, you’d end up in jail. They were a learning process. The laws were loving guidelines for human flourishing. And while God does say to ‘obey’ the Commandments; the word ‘obey’ in Hebrew is deeply related to the word ‘listen’. So ‘doing what is right’ is the same thing as ‘listening to God and saying yes’.

If and when we feel like we’re not good enough for God, remember that God called Israel – and God called us – before we knew God. None of us were ever ‘good enough’. In fact, trying to be ‘good enough’ often sets us up to be taken advantage of by religious hucksters who prey on our feelings of uncertainty. Remember the words of scripture: “while we were yet sinners Jesus died for us”.

I like the old Jewish saying:

“you are closer to God when you are asking questions than when you think you have the answers.”[2]

Mirage #3 is the necessity of location – that is, feeling like we have to be in a holy place in order to worship God. Jesus brings this out in our reading from Luke, when he says “destroy this temple and I will rebuild it in three days.” Jesus is saying he IS the temple – Jesus IS where we worship. Not in buildings. We meet in buildings, out of necessity. But real worship is done in Jesus.

In our reading from Luke, Jesus is introducing the concept that people no longer need animal sacrifices; and that any barrier that comes between people and God (like these money-changers) makes Jesus and God very angry. In fact one of the things that made Jesus so angry was that these hucksters and money-changers were set up for business in “the Court of the Gentiles”.  Anyone who wasn’t Jewish, could only worship God in the Court of the Gentiles. And foreigners who came seeking God found the place full of hucksters! No wonder Jesus was ticked off.

Bottom line, Jesus is doing away with the old system of worship. From now on people who worship God will worship in Spirit and in truth. So there is no longer a need for a Holy Location.

Which leads us to Mirage #4: The Mirage of ‘Outsiders Getting In’ Being a Problem. In Jesus’ day outsiders were kept out. Gentiles and foreigners had to stay outside the Temple. But this was never God’s plan. In fact, Gentiles have been included among God’s faithful from the very beginning. The nation of Israel was established by God’s covenant with Abraham, but God had faithful people like Noah long before Abraham. There were Gentiles present at Mt Sinai when the Ten Commandments were given. There were Gentiles who sought out Jesus – and Gentiles who Jesus sought out!

God chose Israel to be God’s chosen people, through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. But God never intended Israel to be ‘exclusive’. A large part of Jesus’ anger that day at the temple was the ostracism of foreigners who had come seeking help or seeking wisdom or seeking God.

So foreigners coming in, is never a problem with God – in fact, just the opposite.

Mirage #5 – The Mirage Created By Corrupt Leadership

In Jesus’ day much of the leadership of Israel was corrupt in some way. Politically, there was King Herod – a puppet king installed by and controlled by Rome. Before him, starting a couple hundred years before, there had been what’s known as the ‘Hasmonean revolution’. This was a time when Israel, after hundreds of years, finally gained back self-rule, and rebuilt the Temple. This was the period of time during which Hanukkah came into being. But as Israel regained rule, they did not set up the kingdom the way God originally ordered it. When it came to choosing a king, they ignored the descendants of David; and when it came to appointing priests they ignored the descendants of Aaron.  As a result both political and religious leaders of the time were poorly educated, poorly prepared, and didn’t really know how to lead well. It wasn’t long before Israel fell again, this time to the Romans.

This was the time when the worship of God became tangled up with money-changers; and the High Priesthood was either bought or exchanged instead of inherited as God originally commanded. The result was the people were badly taught if they were taught at all – and this infuriated Jesus, because it kept people away from God!

Sadly in our own day, faith leaders can be equally sketchy sometimes.  I’m reading a book right now written by a writer for Atlantic Monthly. The book is called The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory. The author, Tim Alberta, is the son of a preacher, a man of faith, who has been wondering what has happened to the churches in America in the past few decades? And why all the scandals – from Catholic priests to disgraced evangelists to Christian Nationalists?

Just to pull one of many examples from the book, he talks about a group of ordained ministers who have been going across the country doing voter registrations in churches – but they’re being very selective about which churches they visit, and they include a healthy dose of campaigning while they do it. It’s part of something called The American Restoration Tour. These pastors see nothing wrong with selling books and flags and other political items in the lobbies of churches. It’s not all that different from what Jesus turned over in the temple that day 2000 years ago.

The author believes most of the problems in the churches today can be boiled down to one of two things: (1) corrupt leadership; or (2) idolatry of some kind. Often both. The leaders of groups like this are are far more interested in earthly power than in God’s word and God’s will.  God gets really angry when God’s people are misled this way.

That’s just one tip of one iceberg in the Mirage Created By Corrupt Leadership who lead people anywhere but to God.

Mirage #6 – The Mirage of Having To Be Worthy

When the Israelites were in Egypt, they knew very little about God and how to live God’s way – God loved them and saved them anyway.  And God gave them Ten Commandments, which “describes what a graceful, dignified human life looks like.” The Commandments are to us, in the words of the prophet Micah, a way to “do justice, and love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.”

God is in every way perfect. This can make us imperfect human beings uncomfortable sometimes. But we cannot ‘domesticate’ God. You all know that one of my specialties is domesticating feral cats. But God cannot be domesticated! If anything, God is the one making us worthy of being lived with.

King David says in our Psalm today: “who can detect their errors?” but then he prays to God: “Cleanse me from hidden faults.”  This is our prayer too. Which leads us to the final mirage…

Mirage #7 – The Mirage of Salvation by the Law  (or by keeping rules)

As we’ve already seen this morning, Israel was saved by God before the Law was given. It was not the Torah that liberated Israel from Egypt – it was God who led them out.

In our reading from John today, the Passover – which is what Jesus was celebrating in the Temple – was the celebration of the liberation of Israel from Egypt. It was, for them, what Juneteenth is for our Black brothers and sisters. And because of this it was meant to be celebrated by everyone, not commercialized by sellers in the courtyard.

It was not the giving of the Law, but the beginning of the relationship with God, that was being celebrated. And to this day it is still the relationship with God that counts. We are saved by grace through faith by Jesus who died for us on the Cross – and his death on the Cross is a parallel to the Exodus. By the Cross, Jesus leads us out of captivity and into relationship with God, which will last forever.

By comparison, the Ten Commandments are a kind of an introduction. It’s God’s way of saying “here’s how we do things in My Kingdom. This is how we live.”  We are saved first, and then we learn how to live. David says in his psalm that the Law “revives the soul” – it gives hope, it gives wisdom to those who need it, it gives light to the eyes, it gives us truth. But our salvation is not by law, it’s by a relationship with God.

So to sum it up, these are the mirages to be on the lookout for:

• The mirage of idolatry

• The mirage of “being good enough”

• The mirage of the necessity of location

• The mirage of ‘outsiders getting in’ being a problem

• The mirage of corrupt leadership

• The mirage of having to be worthy

• The mirage of ‘salvation by law’, that is, by keeping the rules

May we always keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. And as we grow in our relationship with God, and may God keep God’s word close to our hearts. AMEN.

[1] CMJ

[2] CMJ

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Sabbath for Christians, Part 1: Sabbath Begins

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude.  ² And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.  ³ So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation. – Genesis 2:1-3  

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⁸ Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.  ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work.  ¹⁰ the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work– you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.  ¹¹ For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.  – Exodus 20:8-11  

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A few years ago I preached a sermon that included some comments on the Sabbath, and a couple of people came up to me afterwards and said “I never thought of Sabbath that way before.” If I remember correctly, what I said was that the Sabbath, as understood in the Bible, is closely related to liberty and freedom, because the Sabbath Law was given in the context of Israel’s freedom from slavery in Egypt. This also makes Sabbath a good topic for Americans in July, because this is the month when we celebrate winning our freedom as a nation.

Counting today, I will be here with you three times between now and Labor Day. And on these three Sundays I’ll be bringing a sermon series on the Sabbath – what Sabbath meant in Bible times, and what the Sabbath means for Christians today.

I have been wanting to share on this topic for years, for a couple of reasons: (1) when Sabbath is mentioned in Scripture, there’s a lot of background information that’s not necessarily in the passage – scripture assumes the reader knows the context. So when we read about the Sabbath in the Bible, we don’t usually have the foundation that people in Bible times had. And (2) observing the Sabbath is one of the greatest blessings life has to offer – one of the greatest gifts we’ve been given by God, and I wouldn’t want anyone to miss out on it! Sadly, in our day and time, when everyone is so busy and so hassled, many people miss out on it.

Our Jewish cousins know better. The different streams of Judaism practice Sabbath in different ways, but they all observe Sabbath in some way or another. And if they don’t, it’s because something is wrong.

Let me give an example. We’ve been hearing a lot lately in the news about the trial related to the shooting at Tree of Life. One of the Tree of Life synagogue members who survived the attack – at the time it happened, he was a colleague of a colleague. I’ve never met him myself, but my colleague shared his wife’s Facebook posts. This man was badly injured in the shooting – his life was hanging in the balance for a number of weeks, and his recovery took a long time. I’m pleased to say he did recover. But during those dark days, when things were uncertain, and people asked his wife “what can we do for you?” his wife answered by saying, “I will not light the Sabbath candles again until I light them with my husband at home. What you can do for us is to light the Sabbath candles in your own homes, and remember us when you do.”

To turn one’s back on the Sabbath – to stop observing it – is an act of grief. And for the most part, our society has turned its back on the Sabbath. I’m not talking about the “Blue Laws” – they were an attempt at legislating something that really can’t be legislated. But to turn one’s back on God’s Sabbath is to turn away from rich blessings God wants to give us.

In our scriptures this week we hear about how Sabbath began. In Part Two of this series we will see how the practice of Sabbath developed through the Old Testament – both in good ways and in bad.  In Part Three we will see how Jesus put Sabbath-keeping back on the right track – and also how we in the 21^st century might observe this ancient tradition in contemporary ways.

I should also mention at the beginning that observing Sabbath is not considered a ‘requirement’ for Christians. It kind of falls into the same category as fasting or daily Bible reading and prayer. For this reason people sometimes think Sabbath-keeping is “for really spiritual people”. But that’s not the case; and I hope by the end of this sermon series, each person here will find some way of making Sabbath a part of our lives – because it is such a rich blessing.

I should also mention at the beginning that I have been “practicing” the Sabbath – emphasis on ‘practice’ – I am nowhere near perfecting it – but I’ve been trying different things for a few years. So I can tell you first-hand: observing Sabbath is worth the effort.

When I want to know more about Sabbath, I often find it helpful to read Jewish authors. Again, we as Christians do not need to do or believe what our Jewish cousins do or believe, but I find their point of view enlightening. One of my favorite authors on the subject says this about Sabbath. He writes:

“There is no other commandment or ritual observance in all of Judaism for which you can find such expressions of affection and devotion as the Sabbath.” “To persons looking in from the outside… the Sabbath might appear to be restrictive… a day lacking joy and spirit. Yet experienced from within, it is just the reverse. It serves as a glorious release from weekday concerns, routine pressures, and even secular recreation. It is a day of peaceful tranquility, inner joy, and spiritual uplift…”[1]

I’ve discovered this to be very true in my attempts to practice Sabbath. But enough talk! Let’s start with God’s word.

The story of Sabbath begins in Genesis chapter two. Chapter One of Genesis is very familiar to all of us: God creates everything. God creates and organizes the universe, and life on earth – all the plants, all the animals, and finally human beings. And on the seventh day “God finished the work he had done, and he rested on the seventh day…” (Gen. 2:2)

This raises the question of whether or not God needs to rest. Many theologians say that God does not need to rest; that God chose to rest. And by choosing to rest, God was taking time to appreciate creation – to just stand back and look at it, and enjoy looking at it. Kind of the way a painter stands back and looks at his painting when it’s done; or a carpenter stands back and looks at what he’s built. God stood back, along with Jesus and all the angels, and said “this is really good!”

And so God blessed the seventh day, and called it holy. And all the heavenly beings took part in the first Sabbath with great joy! Ever since then, the Sabbath day is a day that looks back in joy at the creation of our world and the creative genius of our God.

So that’s the first thing we do when we practice Sabbath: we look at creation – all that God has made and given us to enjoy – and we share in the joy that these things exist, and we admire the mind and the heart of God who made them all.

The rest of the book of Genesis tells the story of what happened to the man and the woman God created, and their children and their children’s children. We read about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and his brothers. And then we read about Jacob’s descendants – by this time called Israelites – being forced into slavery in Egypt. We turn the page into the book of Exodus, and we read about Moses, and how God introduced Godself as “I AM” at the burning bush. We read about how God set the people free from slavery, and met the people at Mount Sinai, and gave them the Ten Commandments.

We still have the Ten Commandments with us today. We still see them on signs and on walls, and we still consider the Ten Commandments to be God’s Word. Even though most of us, as Christians, consider ourselves free of the rules of the Old Testament, because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, we do not consider ourselves free of the Ten Commandments. Think about it: we still consider it wrong to kill, cheat, lie, take God’s name in vain, and want what other people have. People still do these things sometimes; but we don’t consider it right to do them. We still consider it a good thing to honor God and to honor our parents, and to not bow down in front of idols.

So if we still consider all these nine commandments to apply to us today, why do we ignore the command to observe Sabbath?

At this point I can imagine someone might be thinking “but it’s Sunday and we’re here in church – we’re observing Sabbath!” Yes, we are – and that’s good. Worshiping God on Sabbath is the right thing to do; it’s foundational to our faith. But Sunday morning is like an appetizer: there is much more to the feast! If we want the whole feast, from the main course through to the dessert, then Sabbath needs to be more than just Sunday morning.

In the Bible, Sabbath is – and always was – an entire day long. From the Jewish point of view, Sabbath is “A weekly 25-hour observance, from just before sundown on Friday through nightfall on Saturday.”

I need to insert here that as Christians observing Sabbath, we would most likely do this from Saturday night through Sunday night; but any 24-hour period works. If we happen to work on Sundays – if we have the kind of job where our day off is a Tuesday – it is perfectly OK to celebrate Sabbath on a Tuesday. The thing to remember is that Sabbath starts at sundown on one day and ends the next evening when three stars appear in the sky. That’s the traditional definition of Sabbath.

One of the Jewish websites on Sabbath says, “Shabbat is more than just a day off from labor. It is a day of physical and spiritual delights…”  On the Sabbath we join God in resting; we enter into – in a very real way – God’s rest. It’s meant to be a foretaste of heaven.

Having said that, it’s important to also hear what God says about Sabbath in Exodus. God says that on the seventh day of the week everyone in the household is to rest. Not just me and you, but the kids, the older folks, any servants (and in our world “servants” would include people like landscapers and house cleaners and waitresses… you get the idea… people who serve for a living.) AND all the animals are to rest: pets and farm animals. AND – God says – any ‘alien resident’. Anyone living among God’s people who are not from this country or who do not share our faith. Every living being is to rest on the Sabbath, because everyone is equal on the Sabbath. Again – a foretaste of God’s kingdom.

So that’s the second thing about Sabbath: it is about rest for all people, animals, friends, strangers… a day when everyone is equal.

So what DO people do on the Sabbath? People might enjoy time alone, or time with family, or with friends. Enjoy all the gifts that God has given us. Read that book we’ve been meaning to read. Sing together. Read scripture and/or pray together. Watch a movie together. Spend some time with our partners. Eat good food. Take a bath instead of a shower. Take a nap – for as long as you like!

If this starts to sound like a mini-vacation – that’s the idea! But more than that, for the people who came out of slavery, Sabbath is freedom. And that’s the third thing about Sabbath: freedom. Sabbath is the right to say ‘no’ to Pharaoh. Sabbath is the right to say ‘no’ to our employer when he wants us to work over the weekend. Sabbath puts the world’s powers in their places. Sabbath is, in that sense, revolutionary.

Again, quoting from the Judaism 101 website:

“for those who observe Shabbat, it is a precious gift from G-d, a day of great joy eagerly awaited throughout the week, a time when we can set aside all of our weekday concerns…. In Jewish literature… Shabbat is described as a bride or queen… It is said that “more than Israel has kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept Israel.””

So we have three things to take away from today’s scripture readings:

• Sabbath is closely linked to Creation and the enjoyment of God’s creation. It’s a time to step back and look at what God has done, and say to God “wow this is really good!”
• Sabbath is for everyone: parents, children, friends, foreigners, and animals alike. Everyone is equal on the Sabbath.
• Sabbath is closely linked to freedom from slavery and any other kind of work or demands on our time.

Doesn’t this sound good?

In Part 2 of this series, we’ll take a look at what happened later on in the Old Testament, as Sabbath law (and how it was observed) changed over the years. And in Part 3 we’ll see how Jesus gave a whole new meaning to Sabbath, and we’ll take a look at some suggestions as to how we might observe the Sabbath in the 21^st century.

For now I’d like to close with part of a prayer that comes from the closing of the Jewish Sabbath observance. When the Sabbath day ends this prayer is prayed (and I have edited for length) :

“Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the universe, who makes a division between the sacred and the secular, between light and darkness… between the seventh day and six working days. Blessed art Thou, Lord, who makes a distinction between the sacred and the secular.”

Lord Jesus, stir in our hearts a desire to keep this law, and grant us joy in our efforts to do so. AMEN.

 

[1] Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin, To Be a Jew

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