Exodus 16:21-30; Acts 20:7; Rev. 1:10
7/17/11 Ten Commandments- 4th- Remember the Sabbath
We live in a society
where so many are functioning without much rest.
We’ve had a number of babies born in our congregation- and some are
blessed with babies who never cry, never wake up at the wrong time.
There are some who are
taking care of a spouse or an elderly relative who is up all night.
Others have health problems that keep them awake.
Gallup indicates the number who sleep 7+ hours a night has declined from
84 to 56% since 1942
Sleep deprivation studies show we are not as healthy without sleep.
We are not able to remember as quickly.
MRIs show that our brains race more but we are not able to think as
clearly. A 2001 study by the
Chicago Medical Institute says that those who lose sleep are more likely to be
depressed and unhappy (I always thought of the Seven Dwarfs Sleepy and Grumpy
were close together). Sleep
deprivation is correlated with type 2 diabetes, heart disease and certain
mental disorders. Sleep
deprivation also affects growth hormones, human sexuality, and the
ability to heal from wounds.
Long term sleep deprivation has caused death in experimental animals.
Scientists speak of Circadian rhythms which is a biological
light-dark cycle built into us. All
this is to say- we are not machines.
We are made to rest. God has
given us a certain rhythm of rest. Sleep, and Sabbath for our good.
I. THE NEED FOR REST. Historically
there were three great social experiments:
During the
French Revolution the Christian Sabbath was abolished by France.
One day in ten was substituted for one day in seven.
Voltaire rightfully said, “We cannot destroy Christianity until we
first destroy the Christian Sabbath.”
But it was a disaster- horses broke down, people broke down, and they
reinstituted the Sabbath
Russian
Boshevik Revolution- Marxist materialism meant to say the only thing
valuable is what you see, what you have, and your work.
The state could be seen, Lennin could be seen; Stalin could be seen- so
eliminate religion. No need for
rest, for goodness is found only in productivity and work.
Worked 7 days a week; But machines, animals, families, health breaking.
The Revolution was in danger of falling apart in a new rebellion. So they
reinstituted a secular day of rest.
Today the West-
and particularly America is in the middle of a huge social experiment.
In the 1970s Europeans had more working hours than Americans.
Now Americans work 30% more than Europeans (35% work weekdays
and weekends). One reason is we have
slowly but surely eliminated the Sabbath.
In our day, in our time there is tremendous pressure to eliminate a
corporate Sabbath. Let’s shop and
work seven days a week. But study
after study has shown that sales do not increase by opening seven days a week-
it only costs the shop owner more payroll and more overhead.
The work week in America has increased dramatically.
Now retirement is moving farther and
farther away. When we live for
things we go into debt- which is one of the causes of the recession we are in
now, and a threatened default of our government.
Debt enslaves us to more work and things.
The Sabbath is a sign of escape from slavery.
We have a problem with not valuing people as people unless they are
working. That is not the
Christian way. People are valuable
whether they work or not for they are made in God’s image, and Christ came and
died for people- even those who do not work.
Work is a gift, but we need to be careful that our employers and
our government and our machines do not make us slaves to our work.
Remember the reason to
keep the Sabbath given in Deuteronomy was to remember that the people of God
were slaves in Egypt, but have been set free.
The Sabbath was a symbol of freedom.
It still is. We are not slaves to our work, to our machines.
Simply because we can work all the time doesn’t mean we should.
II. THE NEED FOR RHYTHM
In our passage the people were being taught at the very formation of their
existence as the people of God- that they need to have a rhythm to their
lives. They could pick up manna six
days a week. But it didn’t fall on
the seventh day. They were taught
to pick it up daily- daily bread if you will- except on the day before the
Sabbath when they were taught to pick twice as much up.
God was teaching them practically to work and to rest.
This is a visible symbol of our ideal still today.
Once when
mules were used in great numbers in coal mines, a visitor passing through
the coal mining area of Pennsylvania asked why so many mules were out in the
pasture. They were told to keep
them from going blind. They said,
if we do not take our mules out of the darkness one day in seven, they will go
blind. Having one day in seven to
catch our breath keeps us smelling the roses, relating to others, worshipping
the God who made us.
I can remember
industrial psychological studies that I read when I was at Clemson confirming
that people were more efficient and have a better safety rating if they
get a ten to fifteen minute break every four hours of work.
If you do not rest or sleep it affects your driving, and allows
you to be easily distracted.
We are not fine
tuned machines. We are made to
sleep and rest some. To
struggle against that is to struggle against the nature of our being.
Maybe you want to be a machine that never rests or sleeps or takes
vacation. Then I would ask you,
“Why?” If our work is so very
important that we cannot let go of it, pride comes.
III. THE DAY WAS CHANGED- For
Christians our Sabbath is Sunday.
We have lost touch with the Sabbath so much that we have forgotten why it is
Sunday. It is Sunday because the
early Christians saw it as the Christian day- the Lord’s Day.
The language for Sunday was changed in the resurrection.
Every Sunday is a celebration of the resurrection of Christ.
Death, sin, enslavement do not hold us- Christ arose.
Paul said we are to set aside a sum each first day of the week in
worship.
Ignatius- a friend of the apostles, and martyred in Rome said "Those who have
come to the possession of new hope, no longer observe the Sabbath (seventh day),
but living in observance of the Lord's day, on which also our life has sprung up
again, by him and by his death. He calls the Lord's Day "the queen and
chief of all the days." (Epistle to the Magnesians 9).
Epistle to St. Barnabas says, "We celebrate the eighth
day with joy on which, too, Jesus rose from the dead."
Justin Martyr (d. 140 AD)- "On the day called Sunday is an
assembly of all who live either in cities or in the rural districts, and the
memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the prophets are read, ...because it
is the first day on which God dispelled the darkness and the original state of
things and formed the world, and because Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the
dead upon it." (Apologies 1:67 Dial. v. Tryph). "Therefore it remains the
chief and first of days.
Christianity was
illegal up until the time of Constantine- so there could be no great gathering
or collection. Constantine's immediate predecessor sought to burn all
Bibles and kill all the clergy. Constantine gathered the Christian leaders
from all over the world together in 321 at the Council of Nicea. His
famous edict said, "All judges with the civic population, together with the
workshops of artisans, should rest upon the venerable day of the sun."
All thirteen
colonies
had laws regarding the Sabbath and it was written in the colonial constitution
and current constitution of our state.
The Supreme Court has ruled at least three times that the idea of a
corporate day of rest does not go against our federal constitution.
Choose the Sabbath.
The world will not choose it for you.
When I was growing up- you didn’t even run a lawn mower on a Sunday out
of respect for others.
Yet today there is
tremendous pressure to free us from the “inconvenience of the Sabbath.”
But the Sabbath is meant for our comfort and true convenience.
Iv. GOD’S GIFT TO US- This command
is not meant to burden us, but to bless us.
It is a gift- a holiday- given to us by God- if we will take it.
It is a present of time- a breath of fresh air in the polluted,
super-busy, crammed full days in which we live.
Jesus said, “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I
will give you rest unto your souls.”
Restlessness is solved in the rest of God. Hebrews 4:1 says, “There
remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.”
It is a day
that God has given us to come back to Him.
There is a warning for you in our community who are parents and your kids
and coaches are pulling at you to stop church in order to play.
There is a time for work, a time for play, and a time for rest and
worship. I am not opposed to sports
on Sundays- I think it can be a part of our rest.
But it should never crowd out our worship.
If you are out of town on a sporting weekend- I invite you- encourage
you to stop and have worship of some kind- if possible with the people of
God. I am in the rotary club
and we are big on attendance. We
encourage our members to “make up anywhere- that there are clubs all over the
world.” So when we went to Greece I
made up on the boat. When we went
to Peru I made up with the group there- and it was an enriching, memorable
experience. So I would say find a
church- doesn’t have to be Presbyterian- to worship in.
The Sabbath is a gift to us that we might listen to God, thank Him
for the time He gives us every day, put ourselves right- catch our breath for
the rest of our week. Don’t be so
busy sawing with a dull saw that you don’t have time to stop and sharpen it.
George
Washington in the American Revolution, Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis
during the Civil War, and Woodrow Wilson during the first World
War asked that the work of the army and navy be restricted on the Sabbath to
necessity and all battles were to be avoided if possible on the Christian
Sabbath Day- meaning Sunday. It was
literally a day of peace. To some
this makes no sense. But I will
take one day of peace over no days of peace.
The Sabbath is meant
to give us peace. Jesus expanded
its meaning to involve peace to the body- so healing and deeds of mercy were
allowed (even encouraged) on the Sabbath by Christ.
Seek Peace. Seek the Prince
of Peace- the Giver of the Sabbath. In a noisy, super-busy world- spinning fast
without direction- I invite you to find your rest in Him who gave the Sabbath.
2007 study by VOX