Sabbath Rest; Oct 6, 2019 Sermon on Deuteronomy 5:1-21

Rev. George Miller
Oct 6, 2019
Deuteronomy 5:1-21

Today we continue our journey through the Old Testament with our Impossibly Possible God.

We were right there to witness how God created us out of earth and breath.

We were there to hear Sarah laugh, to watch Jacob wrestle, and to see Shiphrah and Puah bravely stand before the king.

Now, we join the Israelites as they listen to a sermon from Moses, being reminded once more of just how much we are connected.

Thanks to his trickster mother, Moses is one of the Hebrew boys who survived the pharaoh’s holocaust.

He has risen to be an unlikely liberator, leading God’s people to freedom, crossing the Red Sea, and surviving the sands of time.

We are now just a step away from entering the Promised Land. Before that happens, Moses wants us to be prepared.

His sermon reminds the people of who they were, who they are now, and all that God has done.

His sermon gives instructions on how to live their best life possible and how to stay connected to God, to the land, and to one another.

How to be a community that flourishes.

The instructions are so simple so clear: don’t tell lies, don’t kill, don’t steal.

Don’t use God’s name as a curse, don’t turn God into a thing.

But there is one commandment that seems to be the simplest and yet the most possibly impossible of all- take one day a week to rest, to not work, and to just….be.

Sabbath.

I have a deep fondness for the Sabbath. Back in seminary I wrote a paper on the sabbath, and as part of my “research” I took every Saturday off for a month.

It was exquisite.

I began each Sabbath by preparing a crock pot with pot-roast and putting it on a timer, cleaning the apartment, and setting aside my assignments.

To welcome the sabbath on Friday night, I’d go to the local synagogue with friends for worship and prayer.

Saturday morning came and I didn’t study, didn’t wash dishes, didn’t go to the library stressed out over the never-ending class work.

Instead I did things like go outside, play frisbee, sit in the sun, watch Gone With the Wind from start to finish.

It was an enlightening experience, learning how to let go, to trust God, to believe that no matter how busy I was, no matter how fast the world seemed to be going, that life would continue with one day off.

This gift of Sabbath has transcended time to my current life situation.

As many of you know, my Mom in AZ has been facing major health problems. The past 4 weeks time has been the most wibbly-wobbly of things.

Literally, I’ve been dealing with 3 different times zones, communicating with people in 8 different states, all working together to do what is best for Mom.

Time takes on a whole new essence when your 9 am is someone else’s 6, and someone else’s 8 pm is your midnight.

So, I’ve been ever so grateful for today’s reading, because this scripture has been my sanctuary and calm in the storm.

Why? Because today’s reading is a reminder that we all need a time of rest.

Because of this reading, I have found a way, each day, to create my own sabbath, be it shutting off the phone for an hour, escaping with a tv show, sitting with a friend, being in the yard, or having a true heart-2-heart with God.

Sabbath.

It is such a valuable expression of faith.

By why? Why would God invite us, to take one day off and to just….be?

If you recall, this commandment was given to the Israelites, who were once slaves. For centuries they had worked under the oppressive rule of the Pharaoh, told what to do, when to do it.

All they had known was hard oppressive work.

That may have been the way of Earth’s King, but the Lord of Heaven wants them to experience something new- the chance to enjoy the beauty of the earth, to enjoy one another, and to enjoy being with God.

Sabbath is a way for the people to rediscover the connectedness they were meant to have when created.

But there is something perhaps most beautiful, most elemental about the Sabbath…and it’s about time.

Time is one thing that belongs to all people, everywhere.

Time is not like space; it cannot be owned, it cannot be bought and sold, it can’t be built upon, which also means it can be torn down.

Right now you are each inhabiting your very own space in this sanctuary. You are there, and no one else. Where you sit belongs to you and only you, exclusively.

But time…time is not exclusive.

We are all sharing this same time, this same moment no matter who we are, no matter if we are old or older, black or white, founding member or 1st time visitor.

We are all sharing this same moment of time as everyone who is here, everyone who is outside our walls, and everyone around the globe.

We can not purchase time, prevent time, or rewind time.

It is the great equalizer; but scripturally it is more than that.

When we study scripture, we discover that it is time through which God acts.

Whereas other gods were believed to be attached to idols or statues, things or individuals, the Israelites viewed God through the lense of time and events.

That’s why Genesis begins with “In the beginning” and not something like “In the garden.”

Time belong to God, and time is a gift from God.

According to today’s reading, if we wish to honor God, we will set aside time each week in which we will let go.

We will let go of the very human need to have and to own, to possess and control, to subdue and figure out.

To just spend time with God; to allow time to be a sanctuary in which we can breathe and be, rest and restore, to listen and to hear what our Creator may be trying to say.

This notion of experiencing God through rest and time set aside is so beautiful and so holy.

And it does something so wonderful.

Think of the things we often associate with faith. We have preachers, we have buildings, we have books, we have tables, we have candles, we have bulletins.

But preachers are just people and they can disappoint, buildings can be blown away, books can become mildewed, and candles can burn down.

But time continues doesn’t it?

Think of the all realities of life. People move, people age, people get hospitalized, go to war, get imprisoned.

Spaces, places and faces can all change in a moment due to an act of nature, an act of the enemy, an act of the economy.

But time? Time continues. No matter what, time continues.

In that notion there is to be comfort in the Sabbath.

Observing the Sabbath means that no matter who we are, no matter where we are on life’s journey, no matter what we face, no matter what we endure, God has established a way in which we can always be connected with God.

And it’s not through a person, place, or a thing. But it is through time.

Which means that no matter what, we have the ability to connect with God. No matter where, we have a way to connect with God.

We do so by setting aside time to just be present with the Lord.

To put away things, to put away the lawnmower, to put away the bills.

To set aside time to just be with God, to connect.

And as long as there is time, it means the people can always experience God.

You can be in jail, you can be in war, you can be in a hospital bed, but if you set aside a moment, that moment can be filled with God.

Today’s reading not only helps us with how to be better neighbors and stewards of the earth but how to keep that connection with God.

This is God, saying to us “It doesn’t matter where you are or what you are going through, if you are wandering across a wilderness, or wrestling with the unknown, or if you have found your Promised Land surrounded by milk and honey…if you can find time to just be…I am there.”

“From Back Bay to Highlands County, from your home here or your home up north, if you can find time to just rest…I am there.”

“You don’t have to possess or own, build or control…You simply just have to be in the moment and allow the moment to be in you, and I AM there.”

This notion creates a great freedom, another way to be connected, and I hope it creates a great sense of comfort for you, as it has for me.

Amen.