Sabboth Sermon (11/15/09)

The choir sang “Steady My Tremblin’ Soul…Steady My Tremblin’ Soul.” We all have people and events in our lives that get our souls a-“tremblin’.” If the question is “How do we calm or steady our trembling souls?” The answer is “Sabbath.”

An example of Sabboth is the hour of worship you’re experiencing right now. You’re not working and not at home. You get to experience inspiring words and music and to re-center on what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

When it comes to Sabboth, both Islam & Judaism have a head start on Christianity. They are both religions structured around practices, whereas Christianity is defined around a set of beliefs. Today we look at the practice of Sabbath as a life enhancing building block for your day & your week.

Please settle in. Take a good breath, and relax any tension you may feel in your jaw or shoulders. Stay with me now on this Sabbath journey.
It’s easy to get frazzled from life’s busy-ness. For anyone who commutes or simply intersects with other humans in an intense way, there’s the reality of stress.

So what is a Sabbath? Sabbath is an effective antidote to stress & is different for different people. It can be a place, an oasis, an amount of time – possibly a not being somewhere such as not looking for work or not being at work. It can be “an hour of worship, or it can be a whole day. Ancient writings tell us to remember to “Keep holy the Sabbath.” Yet Jesus tells us that the “Sabbath was made for people” & not the other way around. In Genesis we are reminded that even God rested on the 7th day.

Our dog Buddy is 15 which means in people years, he’s about 75. Buddy has two gears. One is prance – that’s when he gets his twice daily walk outside. He moves with the grace of a dog half his age. Buddy’s other gear is when he’s on the love seat, on his back, with his feet up in the air, snoring. For Buddy, that’s Sabbath. Would you not love to be able to sleep like Buddy…or like the children or grandchildren in your life?

While many adults dash around, young ones are usually still able to sleep very soundly and sometimes in weird positions. They have not accumulated the baggage & concerns of life. They benefit from the built-in sleep capacity that animals display when they’re not on predator alert. Adults are able to re-develop habits and patterns of rest. How do we do this? Jesus says come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest. Notice the emphasis on rest.

Ask yourself: “Is there any Sabbath time in my life right now?” Any down time? Is there any consistent period of time that is not intruded on…which allows you to rest, recuperate? Maybe it’s bowling time, if you’re an extrovert. Maybe its naps, if you’re an introvert.

Our body & mind together are an exceedingly precious bio-computer which requires downtime. Emerson says that “what lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” Does that give you even a glimpse of the treasure that you are?

Jesus honored the Sabbath. How about you? “Are you on occasion getting away from the familiar and taking some extended time off?”

Why is Sabbath Needed? We all have problems in our lives – challenging clients, bosses, partners, children, finances, and so on. What allows us to re-create ourselves so we can continually face and effectively deal with the challenges in our lives? Jesus had problems too. Our gospel today reports that one problem Jesus had was with regional religious authorities. He saw their temple system as corrupt. The religious leaders had turned a house of worship into a den of thieves. Temple was to be refreshment for God’s people to ponder and worship the God that loved them so much he had delivered them from bondage and the wilderness.

Today’s gospel shows Jesus was furious and proclaimed no stone would be left upon stone of the temple. Jesus made it clear that no temple was needed to go to God. When he died, the temple curtain was torn in two indicating that no inter-mediary was needed between people & God.

Jesus had real human emotions like we do. And emotions need to be vented or acted upon, or we become like a house furnace stuck on the “on” position. We’re bound to overheat. In our gospel today, Jesus was over-heating. He was angry at the religious system; and this type of emotion needs to be expended for us to relax well.
As any good parent knows, Jesus needed a time out – and he was wise enough to take it. He headed for his favorite places to rest - the Mount of Olives. Of the eight verses in today’s gospel, only half a line is given to the Mont of Olives rest stop for Jesus – a moment of Sabboth.
This points to how pivotal even a small amount of Sabbath time can be – just like a mustard seed, just a little bit of Sabbath time can season or refresh the entire day.

Some background may explain why a brief Sabbath rest allowed Jesus to move from his position of anger to the centered position he held when he gave guidance to his disciples about events to come.

The Mount of Olives is a mountain ridge in east Jerusalem almost 3,000 feet high. It’s named for olive groves that once covered its slopes. The Mount of Olives is where King David fled from his son Absalom. As David went up the Mount of Olives, he wept. This is ironic for this same Mount of Olives is the location where Jesus wept over Jerusalem lamenting that the Jews had not accepted the prophets. What was it about the Mount of Olives that David and Jesus wept there? Perhaps being in the beauty of that natural place, both men w/heavy responsibilities were able to unburden themselves.

Matthew tells us that Jesus spent time on the Mount teaching and prophesying to his disciples. He’d return there each day to rest. Sadly enough, the Mount of Olives is where Jesus prayed on the night of his betrayal, for at the foot of the Mount is the Garden of Gethsemane.

This Mount was a sacred, Sabbath spot for Jesus. Going there allowed him to regain his energy and perspective. The same is true of our Sabbath time. Taking such a time-out daily can give us energy and perspective for the entire day.

If you want to pray in “world-class” company, there’s no more powerful role model than Jesus. He communed constantly with his heavenly father – and drew away to nature when the press of people became overwhelming. Jesus’ prayer book is what Christians call the Old Testament.

Here’s a basic prayer method you may find useful. It utilizes the Hebrew Scripture. It’s what I used to do on my train commutes into the loop. There are 31 Proverbs & many more Psalms. I kept a copy of the 1st 31 Psalms & the 31 Proverbs with me as well as small slips of paper. If today’s the 15th & I’m on the morning train, I read & meditate on the 15th Proverb & the 15th Psalm. I then jot down the key points I want to remember on a slip of paper & keep that paper in my shirt pocket. I discretely refer to the slip of paper as needed during the day.
The lectionary psalm for today is Psalm 16. We read earlier that it proclaims that in God’s presence is a “fullness of joy, in [God’s] right hand are pleasures evermore.” This can mean that if we take time to rest & re-new, even the smallest actions in our day can be a “fullness of joy” – a pleasure, when energy and perspective are restored.

When Sally Srok Friedes married her husband she agreed to convert to Judaism. Her book “The New Jew” is the story of that conversion. In it Sally says the following about Sabbath: “Sabbath is about play, rest and relaxation. The laws of Judaism encourage people to take a stroll, sing, attend lectures, read, & make love. It is a time to gather with friends & family without distractions & superficialities like shopping, errands & obligations.” What a marvelous definition of Sabbath.

What’s in the Sabbath for us? Hopefully you will take from these words a better view of yourself and the treasure within which is worth protecting by getting the rest you need. The commandment says “Remember to keep holy the Sabbath.” Why? Because it was made for you.

Remember to schedule “down” time. A good nap, curling up with a book, a jog, a drive, time with friends & even 15 minutes of daily prayer or meditation – all these can work wonders. The goal is to try to find some Sabbath time in our day, in our week & in the seasons of our lives.

For the last 14 years of my marriage, my main Sabbath has been the 3-4 days at Thanksgiving when we travel 100 miles south to farm country. That’s where Julie’s parents live. In those few days, there’s no regular routine. There are naps in abundance & good home-cooked food. There is card playing & other sorts of merriment. For me this is my annual Sabbath and I look forward to it all year.
I wish you…a good Sabbath…today…this week & this Thanksgiving.