Sabbath for Dummies

Sermon for Sabbath,October 29, 2011, at North Hill Adventist Fellowship

Texts: Exodus 20:8-11

Mark 2:27-28

I saw a funny cartoon this week about trying to help your mother trouble shoot her computer over the phone.  http://geekisawesome.com/192/fixing-your-mothers-computer/

Part of the reason this is so funny is that it hits close to home. I was listening to a some reporter this week describe his recent trip to Lagos, Nigeria. He used internet cafe's and discovered that within minutes after he left the cafe he would begin receiving classic Nigerian emails offering him a share in millions of dollars that someone had inherited. To avoid this spam he had to “dump the cache.” He had to dump the cache every time he went on line in one of these places. I'm sitting there listening and thinking, dump the cache? How would you do that? What does that mean?

Apparently the interviewer realized there were several other people listening who had the same question, so he said something about “deleting cookies.” Well, I have deleted cookies on my computer, but I don't remember how I did it. And I don't know the relationship between the cache and the cookies.

The reporter thought he was speaking plain English, but it was beyond me.

It's easy for something like this to happen in all kinds of areas of life. Someone tells us something. We understand all the words, but we don't really know what they meant.

When I first started working on my 1974 Volkswagen Beetle 35 years ago, I bought a manual that claimed it was written for the complete idiot. (This was before Books for Dummies.) One of the biggest problems with the book is that it did not have a glossary. And it didn't have many pictures.

So when it told me to do something with the wire that went from the coil to the distributor I was lost. What's a coil? What's a distributor? I hadn't lived in a world where people tinkered with engines.

Karin likes to recount a conversation she had with a young woman who wanted to know the secret of making pie crust. Karin told her, “Start with two cups of flour.”

Girl, “Where do you get flour? What does flour come in?”

Karin, “Haven't you ever made biscuits?

Girl, “Sure, I use Pillsbury frozen dough.”

Karin, “Well, haven't you breaded chicken?”

Girl, “Sure, Shake N Bake.”

It went on like this. The girl had never made anything from scratch. She had never bought flour. Karin had to start truly from the very beginning and get very specific. “Go to the store, go the baking aisle, the aisle where they sell chocolate chips, oil and sugar. There you will find flour. It comes in paper bags. There will be several kinds. Buy a five pound bag of Gold Medal Unbleached flour. Buy Mazola Corn Oil.

"Once you get back home, get a bowl that holds four to six cups. Measure two cups of flour into the bowl . . .”

It can be like this in religion. If you've grown up doing something, it is second nature. You instinctively understand it. But for someone without that background, what is second nature to you may be completely foreign and incomprehensible.

Today, I'm going to talk about keeping Sabbath. And I'm going to imagine that I am explaining it to someone who has never done it. I hope you will have your phones ready to comment and text so we can have a good discussion.

In the book of Exodus we find the famous “Ten Commandments.” The fourth commandment reads:

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. In it you are not to do any work. Six days you are to labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you are not to work. Not you nor your kids, not your servants or your animals or even a stranger visiting in your home. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day. Therefore he blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Exodus 20:8-11

A couple of questions immediately come to mind: 1. What does it mean to keep a day holy? 2. What is work?

In the spirit of Sabbath for Dummies, or pie crust for the Shake-N-Bake crowd, I'm going get very specific. (The more specific I get, the more likely it will be that those who are experienced will disagree, just as skilled cooks will each have her own precise method for making pie crust. Experts are free to do all kinds of experimenting and creative alteration. But for beginners, the best approach is not to learn “the principles of pie making.” For beginners, you want to be very specific and concrete.)

I've created two lists. The list separates roughly into things to do and things not to do. I'm going to call the things to do, “The Holy List.” The things not to do are “The Work List.”

Do these things:

Pray

Eat something special

Drink something special

Visit with people you are related to

Visit with friends

Listen to good music

Watch uplifting movies

Go to church

Read your Bible

Go for a hike

Play with your kids

Visit with your parents

Take a nap

Show compassion

Do good

Visit people in prison or nursing homes

Visit your neighbors

Light candles on Friday night

Especially on Friday evening, SIT DOWN. (i.e. quit cleaning, polishing, fixing, preparing.)

Don't do these things:

Work.

Provide professional services

Punch a time clock

Make the boss happy

Earn a living

Secure your retirement

Do school work

Take tests

Engage in sports

Clean house

Wash the car

Do yard work

Watch television

Shop

Cut fire wood

Rototill

Watch the news

Clean the gutters

Making sense of the lists

Note that all of the activities on the “Don't List” are good things to do. Sabbath keeping is not about avoiding evil. We do not avoid evil on the Sabbath, we avoid good! This is really counter-intuitive for those who are new to Sabbath keeping. Why would you have a whole day every week devoted to avoiding doing good things? Because we avoid the good things to make room for a special kind of goodness.

The activities on the “Do List” are designed to enrich and enhance our connections with God and with other human beings. The point of going to church is not to get “church” checked off your to-do list. The point of going to church is to cultivate relationships with other believers and with God. The point of spending time with your spouse or your parents or children or friends or neighbors is to build relationships. Relationships take time. There is no meaningful relationship apart from shared time. Sabbath interrupts the crazy pace of our lives and orders us to slow down and actually be aware of actual individuals. Sabbath invites us to share unhurried conversation. The point of going for a hike is to experience God in the action of our body. If we hike in a beautiful setting, we experience God through beauty. If we hike with friends we are deepening our connections with them. The goal of every “recommended activity” is the cultivation of relationships.

What do I mean by “work?” Any activity intended to secure my place in the world. Punching a time clock to earn some money. Working on my retirement plan. Studying for school. Taking the LSAT or the MCAT or some other nationally standardized test. Painting the house (to protect my investment). Even the work of caring for my house or car. We leave all that alone in order to give ourselves wholly to the people and the Person who provide the real meaning in life.

Devout, mature Sabbath-keepers will have slightly different lists. That is natural, just as good cooks use different recipes and skilled computer people have different approaches to configuring computers. If you have approaches that work for you, that enrich your life and your relationships with God and the people you love, great. Keep it up.

If you are new to Sabbath keeping, I invite you to try these lists. Do the stuff on the “Do List.” Avoid the stuff on the “Don't List.” Try it for two or three months and see what happens in your life. See if it enriches your marriage and your relationships with your parents and kids. See if it opens a new sense of connection with God.

Sabbath is first introduced in the Bible as God's practice. God keeps Sabbath. Since we are made in his image, it makes sense to adopt in our own lives a practice that God himself embraces. God keeps Sabbath as a sign of his delight in us. When we keep Sabbath, we will move more deeply into our own awareness of God's love. We will experience richer and richer connections with God and people. Life will be better.

A couple of more notes:

There is a whole category of work that not only MAY be done on Sabbath, but, in fact, MUST be done on Sabbath. The commandment is written to the head of the household (a male in that culture) and orders him not to work and not to require work from any of the people subject to  his authority--kids, servants, farm animals. The commandment does not mention mothers or wives because given the role definitions in that culture the essential work of wives and mothers not only is permissible on Sabbath, but is obligatory. The stereotypical nurture provided by wives and mothers--feeding, changing diapers, nursing the sick--is not suspended on the Sabbath. By extension in our world, there is work that is required for the well-being of people. This kind of work must be done on Sabbath. It includes medical care. It also includes public services like police and fire. It includes the operation of utilities like electrical and water service and public transportation. The lines get blurry.

Finally, I invite you to treat these lists as suggestive. I intend no condemnation of people who observe Sabbath differently. However, I would challenge people: examine your habits. Do they enrich your life? Do they build relationships with God and people or are they merely your own version of the American frenzy? God's goal is human well-being. Wise people will seek to form habits that build community and enrich our own and our children's lives.