What to do with Sabbath?

• Twentyfourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

on Matthew 12:1-14, 

in which Jesus draws the ire of the Pharisees 

for his understanding of the Sabbath.

www.FirstChurchBville@gmail.com  @FirstUMCBville  @kerrfunk

• When I meet with couples in premarital meetings I present them with list of ten emotional needs and then I have them each force rank them, order them from greatest priority to least. Force rank does not mean that some are not important it means they're lesser priority.

We're messy living beings and we have to set priorities.

• God has set priorities for folks, even so we both need help narrowing priorities down (what is the greatest commandment?) AND we have ability to set em ourselves, which can be dangerous, and upsetting to some when our priorities do not match theirs.

• Christians are in an odd spot. On the one hand, “Sabbath” is mentioned nearly 200 times in Old and New Testaments. God is a jealous God, very serious about people honoring the Sabbath. And yet on the other hand, Jesus heals on the Sabbath half a dozen times or more, and if he doesn't defy he challenges commonly held Sabbath practices, and the church has honored the Sabbath on Sunday for many centuries, if not back to the first century.

• Pharisees concerned with letter of interpretation of law: make sure you don't do this.
Jesus concerned with spirit of law: honor God. Plan rest.
And when prioritizing, love and compassion come first.

God wants our hearts more than our mindless obedience.

• Little House on the Prairie. Sabbath seemed like Sunday punishment. 

Should be celebration.

• Brother Lawrence (17^th century monk, The Practice of the Presence of God)
lived sacramentally moment to moment... IMO even better than setting aside Sabbath.

“Consecrate all your years to His love; I assure you, if I had known Him sooner, and if the things that I tell you new had been told me, I would not have waited so long to love Him. Believe and count as lost all the time that is not spent in loving God!” (p. 48)

When a monk asked him what he was doing and what was occupying his mind, he replied, “I am doing what I will do throughout all eternity. I am blessing God, I am praising God, and I am adoring and loving Him with all my heart. This sums up our entire call and duty, brothers: to adore God and to love Him, without worrying about the rest.” (p. 55)

• The “word of the Lord” is not cold mindless checklist, but lives (& thrives!) in our hearts
and God requires us to spend ourselves in service and in love, and to not neglect rest.

Sunday prayer from This Day (a prayer book I use): 

God of great deeds: on the first day of the week you wondrously called forth light out of darkness. On the first day of the week you graciously raised Jesus from the dead. On the first day of the week you powerfully formed the church through your gift of the Holy Spirit. By this triple witness you testify to us concerning your covenant love. Grant that all who worship you this day may do so in spirit and in truth, and present to you a living sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; through Christ our Savior. Amen.

• Hymn: The Church of Christ in Every Age