Isaiah 58:9-14
I had lunch with Pastor Terry this week at the new Bistro on 7th St.
Terry, being Terry, engaged the lady who owns the place in a conversation about the Sabbath.
She shared that part of her family was Jewish and part 7th Day Adventist.
So for her the Sabbath was Saturday, not Sunday.
And when Terry told her how we had combined work and worship last week on our Sabbath she was shocked.
“You do not work on the Sabbath. The Sabbath is for rest!” she said. And she frowned and looked at me with great disapproval.
To which I replied, “Well, I really don’t take things as literally as all that.”
She didn't stick around to hear the rest of my answer because she had plenty of work to do.
If we really believed that about the Sabbath --- No work! Only rest! Then how is it that we are comfortable with making us, pastors, work on the Sabbath?
No. The question of the Sabbath is at once far more complicated and far simpler than the “get some rest” mantra.
The Sabbath is the call to stop chasing your dream long enough to catch onto God's dream for you and for the world.
Isaiah in verse 13 says, you trample the Sabbath when you pursue your own interests.
You trample the Sabbath by doing what you want, whether its work or play or even rest.
The Sabbath is to be a delight, a day of celebration, a day when we put aside ourselves to learn how to love God and neighbor.
Walter Bruggeman says that, “Sabbath is a curb on self-indulgence for the sake of the community.”
What I have seen on our work ‘n worship Sundays is just that, people who have put aside themselves for the sake of the community.
So, sorry, Bistro lady, I love your food and your restaurant, but I’m not buying your theology of the Sabbath, nor your condemning look.
And we’re not moving our worship to Saturday, either!
We’ve got two more work ‘n worship days coming up --- next Sunday, August 30 and the Sunday before the presbytery meeting, Sept. 13.
I’m sure there will be more to do for this old building after the presbytery meets, so I hope that we don’t abandon work ‘n worship Sundays altogether.
Our work ‘n worship days are great opportunities to learn the deeper meaning of Sabbath.
On those days we learn to become “handy men.”
We work together for a common good that is bigger than
my life,
my home,
my family,
my future.
And we pause to worship and share a common meal and it’s all free.
All of it, the work, the worship, the meal, it’s all free to those who come.
Remember what Isaiah says in chapter 55:1-2,
1 "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;
and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
The Sabbath is a delight – a chance to break away from the desire to exploit or ignore your neighbor.
Last week we talked about becoming “handy men” for Jesus as opposed to DIYers (Do-It Yourselfers).
A handy man stands ready to help his neighbor, even help a DIYer who has gotten in too deep.
Ours is a do-it-yourself culture.
I, far to easily, give in to it.
Last spring I was painting DeDe’s office and was on a deadline.
I needed to get it done by Monday morning and it was Sunday afternoon at lunch downstairs that I was complaining about having to go straight from church to DeDe’s office and probably pull an all-nighter to get the work done.
I remember complaining to Greg about it during lunch that day.
I also remember Greg offering to come and help me get it done.
I also remember rejecting Greg’s offer to help.
Why? Because I got myself into that mess and by God I was going to get myself out of it even if it killed me!
Greg was practicing Sabbath on the Sabbath, and by rejecting him, and the help that he offered, I rejected the Sabbath.
I said, “No thanks, Greg. I can do it myself. This isn’t your problem.”
But Greg, practicing Sabbath, was saying, “Your problem is my problem. We can do it, Jesus will help.”
These promises in Isaiah 58 aren’t promises about free grace.
The cost of living a Sabbath life is the cost of community.
God’s presence becomes available to us when we open up to each other and to our community.
If this passage from Isaiah is true, then neighborliness is the precondition of access to God.
If you want God in your life, then you darn well better be treating your neighbor well --- rich, poor, black, white, asian, latino, young, old . . .
If you are praying all the time and fasting all the time and you still feel far from God, then maybe you should check your relationship with your neighbor.
What does this mean for Grandview Park Presbyterian Church?
I believe that we have been in “handy human” training for about 120 years.
At various points we have been a good “handy humans.”
At different times over those 120 years we have “curbed our self-indulgence for the sake of community.”
At other times we haven’t practiced Sabbath living so well.
This is one of those times when we are tempted to focus on ourselves.
We have a bad economy; the bank account is drying up here at the church.
Maybe it’s time to focus on taking care of us.
Maybe its time to rein it in, to turn inward.
Maybe its time to stop all this costly outreach.
No. You know better. I know better.
God’s demand for Sabbath living is no less demanding for us together as the church than it is personally.
It is perhaps more demanding that we as the Body of Christ be “handy humans,” ready at a moments notice to put our self-indulgence, our self-interests aside.
We have done a lot of things for the children and youth in our community.
And whenever have reached out to the youth and children it has given us life.
But if you look at our neighbors, you can see there are a lot more things that we could be doing.
There are lots of jobs for handy humans here in our community.
There are lots of opportunities for good, neighborly Sabbath living in our community.
If you are wondering where God is in our church financial crisis . . .
I can guarantee we are not going to find God hiding in the boiler room trying to weather the storm.
God is already out there, trying to fix what is broken.
Lives, homes, schools, neighborhoods.
If we want God to be with us, if we want God to give us what we need, if we want to live Sabbath lives, then that’s where we need to be.
“A Dios orando y con el mazo dando.”
Pray to God and swing a big hammer.
Yes, the Sabbath is about worship and prayer and rest.
But that’s not all its about.
True Sabbath is about giving up our little self-interests for the sake of large delights.
True Sabbath is God’s Handy Humans at the ready.
Ready to give and ready to receive.
Ready to work and ready to worship.
Ready to be handy people and not do-it-yourselfers.
We can do it, Jesus will help.
Isaiah 58:12 You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
