Worship for 21 August 2022

by Rev Jacky Quarmby 21 August 2022

Opening Words:  Psalm 100: 1-3 
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth
Worship the Lord with gladness
Come before him with joyful songs
Know that the Lord is God.
It is God who made us and we are his.

Opening Song:   I will enter his gates with thanksgiving

Opening Prayer
Loving God,
We thank you for bringing us here safely into your presence
To show us your love and your hopes for us.
We pray that you will quieten within us any voice but yours
And that your Holy Spirit may open our hearts and minds 
To hear and receive your truth.
In the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen

Responsive Psalm 118
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; 
his love endures forever!

Let those who love the Lord say together,
His love endures forever.

In my anguish I cried to the Lord and he set me free.
His love endures forever.

The Lord is with me and I will not be afraid.
His love endures forever.

I was pushed hard and about to fall, but the Lord helped me. 
His love endures forever.

The Lord is my strength and my song
His love endures forever.

The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things
His love endures forever.

O give thanks to the Lord for he is good
His love endures forever!

Song:  Forever God is faithful (Chris Tomlin)

First Reading:  Luke 13: 10 – 17 

Comment:  Why were the Jewish leaders annoyed?
Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Jewish Sabbath – when he saw a woman in the congregation who was severely crippled and had been crippled for 18 years – she was bent over and could not straighten her back.  Jesus called her over and placed his hands upon her – immediately she straightened up and praised God.

Well, you would think that everyone would have been delighted for the woman – but no, the Synagogue ruler was indignant,  “There are six days for work,” he said, “so come and be healed on one of those – not on the Sabbath.” 

So why was that?  Why was the Synagogue ruler so cross?

Well, it goes back to the fourth commandment …
"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.  On it you shall not do any work, neither you nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.  For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.  Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

So the religious people sat down and they pondered amongst themselves about what this might mean.  And they counted up thirty-nine Hebrew letters in the original commandment and concluded that there must be thirty-nine main categories of work that were out of bounds on the Sabbath day (which for Jews was the Saturday or seventh day of the week).  They then divided each category into another thirty-nine subsections and ended up with 1521 "Thou shalt not do this on the Sabbath" rules.  As a result, on the Sabbath, people were forbidden to lift a pen, to help others in distress or even to pick a handful of corn from a field.   

For the Jewish religious leaders, keeping the Sabbath holy meant obeying lots and lots of rules about what people could and couldn’t do on the Sabbath day.  And one of the things that was not acceptable was “healing on the sabbath”.

Jesus saw things differently and he replies, “You hypocrites, doesn’t each of you lead out your ox or donkey from its stall to give it water on the Sabbath” … in other words, if you can stretch the rules to show compassion to your livestock on the Sabbath, surely it is right to show compassion to this woman who has been crippled for 18 years.

As far as Jesus was concerned, keeping the Sabbath holy, meant doing good, it meant setting people free, it meant saving lives.   On a previous occasion Jesus had said, “The Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath”  Or in other words, the Sabbath is a gift from God  -  it is intended to be a blessing to people not a curse.  It’s not something we’re meant to be legalistic about.

But down the years even Christ’s followers did not quite get Jesus' point.  At the time of the Puritans in the nineteenth century, Sunday was declared by law to be the Christian Sabbath.  For the Puritans, keeping the Sabbath holy meant that Sunday activity was restricted to "worship, acts of charity and piety, and the reading of certain carefully selected books."  As a result, what was meant to be a joyful interlude in a tough working week - became for many a tedious bore!  The Sunday Sabbath did not become the blessing it was intended to be.  The Christians, like the Pharisees had become just a little too legalistic about it.

Well, today, Sunday activity is not at all restricted and life on a Sunday seems to be much the same as it is on the other six days of the week. And in a moment we are going to think about what the Sabbath is really for …

But before we do that – we are going to sing again – a song which asks us whether we are willing to follow Jesus in caring for others and helping to set people free …

Song:  Will you come and follow me?

Reflection:  What is the Sabbath for?
Let’s have a look now at what the Bible says about the Sabbath.  In order to do that, we’ll go back to the original commandment as found in Exodus 20:8-11, that I read at the beginning …"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.  On it you shall not do any work, neither you nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.  For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.  Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

Now the root of the Hebrew word for Sabbath means "to cease" or "to desist".  There is an understanding built into the fourth commandment that men and women "work", which in the broadest possible sense means, that men and women are involved in meaningful activities for the benefit of others as well as themselves.  So "work" includes employment that is rewarded with wages - it includes voluntary service  - it includes running a home.   All these are "work".  What the fourth commandment says, is that we should all refrain from "working" at least one day a week  -  and use the time to do something completely different.  The commandment says, God blessed the Sabbath and made it holy.  In other words  - God says that one day a week is to be "set apart" to become "special"  -  to be a day different from the rest.

So how did God intend us to use this special day?   We get hints about this in the Commandment itself.

Firstly, we are told that the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.  So there is an expectation that some of the day will be used in worship - in deepening our relationship with God and our commitment to other members of the church family.  Luke writes in Chapter 4 verse 16.  “Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he went to the synagogue, as His custom was, on the Sabbath day.”

Jesus made time on the Sabbath day for public worship – worship with others.  It is important for us to find a way to do the same - to meet with other Christians, to hear the word of God and to praise and worship God together.  The Sabbath is a day for worship – for spiritual renewal.  That’s the first thing.

If we read further on, the fourth Commandment refers to the story of God's creation of the heavens and the earth in six days and how on the seventh day God rested.  Secondly then, there is an expectation that on the Sabbath there will be time to rest from the exertions of the working week.  Time to rest, not just for the wealthy and the upper classes - but also for the servants, the children, the stranger - even the animals.  We have talked about the Puritans and their somewhat legalistic approach to the Sabbath.  At the same time however, these Christian reformers also introduced social legislation which restricted the hours of work that was allowed on a Sunday - a fact that was much appreciated by the working classes.  

The Sabbath is to be a day of rest - a day when our work ceases and we do something different – a day in which we escape the rush of daily life – and allow our spirits to catch up – a day to pause and drink in the peace of God.  

Too often, however, our Sundays are not days of rest.  We rush to church - we rush home straight after the service to cook dinner - then we rush off for a quick visit to Cousin Edith who lives in Leicester - then we rush home to mow the lawn and get something for tea.  Then we collapse in a chair and worry about all the things that we must do next week … and before you know it, Sunday is over and it’s Monday once again.  Hardly a day of rest - hardly a day for our spirits to catch up!   

The Sabbath is a day to pause and be still so that we can be refreshed for a new week.  So it’s a day not to plan too much – it’s a day to linger over meals – it’s a day to leave the car in the garage and go for a walk  - it’s a day to sit in a chair in the garden and read a good book  - it’s a day to be still and quiet and to be attentive to God and to all that is around us.  Using secular terminology, it is a day to be mindful.  John Whittier puts it beautifully in his famous hymn, when he prays,
Drop thy still dews of quietness, till all our strivings cease
Take from our souls the strain and stress and let our ordered lives confess the beauty of your peace.

That’s the second thing.  The Sabbath day is a day for rest.|
After God had finished his Creation, we are told that God looked back at all that He had made and saw that it was good.   The Sabbath day is also a day to look back and reflect on the week that is past, before moving on to the next task and challenge.  Thirdly then, the Sabbath Day is a day for reflection.  The Bible is clear that it’s not just what we do on Sunday that matters to God - it’s what we do, how we behave, every moment of every day of our lives.  Our worship will not impress God if the rest of the week, we are taking advantage of people and gossiping maliciously.  And so the Sabbath day is a space to look back over the week that is past and examine it before God.  To say thank you for those things which are good and to say sorry for the things we neglected to do.  And then to ask God for his help to make next week different – to make next week a time when we grow more like Christ.  The Sabbath is a day to reflect.

Rest, worship and reflection - that is the purpose of the Sabbath Day and that’s what it means to keep the Sabbath holy.

The Sabbath is a gift from God designed to renew us in body, mind and spirit.  Jesus said, “The Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath”.  I wonder if we are making the most of this wonderful gift in our lives.

We are going to move into a time of quiet reflection now as we look back at the week that is past and look forward to the week to come. We are going to begin by singing “Spirit of the Living God fall afresh on me.”

Song:  Spirit of the Living God

Quiet Time
Let us take time to reflect on the week that is past …

Let us thank God for the good things  … 

Let us say sorry for the things we left undone …

Let us think about today  - how can we use it to rest  - what spaces can we find to be still? Is there someone we can spend the time with, without rushing?  

Let us offer the day to God and ask God to help us use it wisely

Now, let us ask God to show us what he would like us to do this week

And let us ask for God’s Spirit to help us as we seek to respond to our challenges like Jesus …

Loving God, we thank you for your love and all your many gifts to us.  Help us to worship you today in spirit and in truth, to rest in your presence and to receive your peace. Amen

Prayers of Intercession

The Lord’s Prayer

Sharing of Holy Communion 

Hymn:  I danced in the morning (Lord of the dance)

The Blessing  
The peace of God which is beyond all understanding, 
guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus 
And may the blessing of God Almighty,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
be with you and abide with you always.   Amen