Vain Obedience ...

How can you obey a command you do not understand?  Your boss hands you a stack of papers 18 inches thick, the type font is small, they are single spaced and double-sided type, and they are written in a combination of Cyrillic, Kanji, and ancient Babylonian.  He says simply to you, do what this says and walks away.  You stare blankly at the papers, not even knowing where to begin.  The task is overwhelming.  But it is not just the magnitude of a challenge that can make it difficult.  Different scenario.  Your boss walks up to you and says … be ready for this afternoon’s meeting.  The command is simple.  The expectation at least superficially understood.  But then, what all might that simple command imply?  Is there some material you are supposed to memorize?  Are you supposed to be ready to present?  Are you just supposed to be ready to get there on time, maybe 15 minutes early?  While the command is very simple in language, duration, and seemingly in intent.  It could mean a hundred different things.  How could you possibly be “ready” for every scenario this might imply?  How could anyone?

To begin to know what to do, could start with a knowledge of your boss.  If your boss is a mystery to you, and does things nearly always in a random manner, you are up a creek.  But if your boss is fairly consistent, and has given you similar guidance in the past, with perhaps more context in those times.  Maybe you could extrapolate your history of life with your boss, to this particular event.  At least your odds of pleasing your boss go up, based on following the pattern your boss may have laid out up to now.  Even then, sometimes it is not just the “what” that we do, it is the “how” that we do it.  When my boss gives me a command it is “understood” by him (and should be by me), that whatever he asks me to do, he intends for me to accomplish it in an ethical and legal manner.  Meeting a sales quota by sniping customers from a team mate is unacceptable.  Goal achieved, but method of achievement negates the accomplishment.  It gets even worse if you resort to fraud, or theft, or some other nefarious means to attempt to meet the assigned objective.

So when God tells us to do something, do we find ourselves in the same boat as when the boss gives us a simple edict without nearly enough context to know what we are supposed to do?  Take the Sabbath as an example.  We are supposed to “remember it”.  Easy enough.  We are not likely to “forget” a day of the week.  But then the remembering was in the context of “to keep it Holy”.  Ut-oh.  Here is where we rapidly go downhill.  Humans are really bad at understanding anything about Holiness.  We are sort of the living embodiment of the opposite of Holiness.  So how do we keep something Holy when we do not understand almost anything about Holy in the first place?  More context is offered.  We are advised not to work on this day.  But not just us.  Not our servants either.  In fact, no one who is within our gates, will be required to work on this day.  This is great context.  It helps us get a better idea of what is being requested here.  But is that it?  Then comes the inevitable question, how exactly do you define “work”? 

Is work something I do for money, perhaps only what I do for money?  Then the husband puts his feet up, and the wife continues to “work” all throughout the day?  That does not seem like the ask.  So then the definition of work must extend past just activities I do for money.  How do I know?  Well, the example of manna that fell in the wilderness over 40 years to feed the Israelites gives us a good indication.  Manna was only good for a single day, until Friday when a double portion fell, and it did not spoil over Sabbath.  That meant on Sabbath no gathering, and no prep.  You could simply enjoy the food made the day before.  Presumably this means mom gets a break too.  Presumably this means the servants can take the day off.  Presumably God wants to relate to everyone on Sabbath, not just those of advantage.  And it would appear God defines work with a broader brush than just what I do for money.  And of course, God defined His own rest, as being a rest from the work of creation He had done the previous six days.  His creation looks more like art to me, though perhaps it is science, or perhaps just genius – but He rested from it and the universe kept spinning.

Enter the Pharisees and Sadducees, both had a keen interest in “keeping” the law.  Israel had suffered war, famine, and slavery for ignoring the law over their history.  Though a closer examination of God’s patience running out usually corresponded to Israel worshipping other gods that required them to throw babies (mostly male) into the fires, while preserving female babies to become temple prostitutes.  The ruining of young lives just seemed to be the straw that broke the back of God’s patience with the people who claim His name.  Consider that as you examine the state of how we treat young lives in our own country and churches.  So the modern church leadership in the days of Christ, had a very keen intent to keep the law so as never to see the wars and slavery they had experienced in the past.  They developed then, an extensive additional set of context around what it means to “keep” the Sabbath.  Their list of rules, eventually devolved into walking only a certain number of steps.  Food preparation must be done the day before, or you went hungry.  And yet despite all these precautions, Rome was still in power, and Jews were still slaves.  However since the Sanhedrin still existed, they reasoned, they had to be doing something right.

Then along comes Jesus.  Matthew begins chapter twelve of his gospel touching on the most important commandment, the primary one that sets the people of God apart from every other religion on planet earth.  Outside of circumcision, and kosher diets, what makes a Jew a Jew is the keeping of the Sabbath.  The Sanhedrin had become confident in “how” they did what they did.  They became confident that they were “obeying” the law, to the extent that the law required, and a good measure further just in case.  So does the modern Christian.  While not obsessed with the law, we are equally as certain, that we obey our Lord, to the extent that He has asked, and a little extra just in case.  But perhaps in our certainty of obedience is nothing more than vanity.

Matthew begins in verse 1 saying … “At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. [verse 2] But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.”  A lot to unpack here.  First, Jesus and crew were walking through a corn field, this act by itself would negate the idea of how many steps one could take before it crossed the line into work which was precluded to do on the Sabbath.  Strike One.  Then, his disciples get hungry, likely from seeing and smelling all the ripe corn right in front of their faces.  It is kind of like sitting in front of the TV watching your favorite show, and after a few advertisements for pizza, you begin to crave pizza.  But no matter, the disciples begin to pick and shuck the corn in preparation of eating it.  This was food preparation, for which there were specific examples in earlier scripture of why this should be prohibited.  Also note, Jesus Himself, was not actually doing this, He elected to go hungry.  But for His disciples, Strike Two.  Then the disciples proceeded to eat the corn (apparently none of them offered ears to Jesus, their Master, clearly an oversight driven by bodily needs).  But legally, eating fruit of the poisoned preparation tree results in, you guessed it, Strike Three.

The Sanhedrin knew the law on this matter.  So the leadership brings this horrible infraction of the law to Jesus’ attention, giving Jesus no credit for refraining from it Himself.  The disciples (people who they did not appreciate) were breaking it.  The patriarchs of the faith however, were people the leadership venerated.  Long dead, Moses, Joshua, Samson, and David, could do no wrong.  They had become Jewish saints if there could ever be such a thing.  So Jesus chooses to use that in His response to them.  Matthew continues in verse 3 saying … “But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him; [verse 4] How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?”

In our day we call this “what-about-ism”.  Jesus does not actually say that what the disciples did is OK against the letter of the law.  But He does make a comparison of people the Pharisees besmirch with the honorable can-do-no-wrong, compared-with-the-heart-of-God David and his crew.  The Jewish saint they venerate, and his men (who in actuality, were all incredibly efficient killers on the battlefield, none other of their skills preserved in Jewish scrolls), went into the Temple.  This was a huge no-no, only the priests are even allowed in there.  Then they ate the shewbread, which is an offering to God, that ONLY the priests were allowed to eat under specific conditions.  Another huge no-no.  Those infractions are also clearly a part of the known Jewish law, at the time of David, until this time.  And scripture records no prayer of David begging forgiveness for what he and his men did.  They just did it.  Net result.  How can the leadership there in attendance criticize the disciples of Jesus for doing something far less an infraction, than the historical leader David did (who they publicly venerate as some sort of saint)?  It would be hypocritical, or rather, it would point out the hypocrisy of valuing people in any sort of caste system, putting them on a level playing field with the very men they “knew” they were above.

Next Jesus really twists their thinking as He continues in verse 5 saying … “Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?”  This one is a true mindbender.  On Sabbath, priests (and in our day preachers) “work”.  They do the “work” of the Lord, but it is still “work”.  Back then, that “work” involved killing innocent lambs as a symbolism foretelling the killing of Jesus Himself.  It was and is shedding innocent blood, for the remission of sins.  Killing too, was prohibited in the law.  The shedding of blood in the Temple was highly controlled, and on Sabbath, would have been considered work.  They “profane” the Temple by continuing a practice driven by the evil in men’s hearts.  But the priests are held blameless.  Working to bring men to God is not considered “work” by the God on the end of that equation.  Even though we pay preachers and priests to do it, and even though “most” of their work is conducted on the very day we are commanded to rest.

Now Jesus has pointed out publicly that the priests who are so critical, have a profession where they work on the Sabbath with regularity despite the incongruence with the law.  The anger brews in the mind of the rebuked Pharisee, for they remain certain in their vain obedience, that correction even from the mouth of God is not met with acceptance, but with hatred.  Jesus continues in verse 6 saying … “But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.”  Now Jesus has gone too far, now He has crossed a line He will never be able to uncross.  The Temple was “the” place where God Himself sat upon the Mercy seat.  It was His holy presence behind that curtain that made all of Israel fear and tremble daring not to peek behind it even for a second, lest the contrast between true Holiness and our state, cause us to die.  Only once a year did the High Priest, after much consecration and prayer, dare to go behind the curtain for a prescribed practice.  Even then, he wore bells on the hems of his garment and a rope around his ankle, so that if the bells went silent, the attendants could pull him out knowing he was dead, and being unable to retrieve his body any other way lest they themselves die in the process.

That was the definition of Holiness to a Jew, it is irony we have so casual a view of it.  And here stood Jesus, claiming to be One greater than the Temple (upon whose seat it was He who sat).  Jesus was now making a clear statement that the buildings dedicated to His service, are NOT as important as the God they purport to serve.  Jesus was saying He can be found outside of Temple walls.  Jesus was saying that being close to His people was and is the most important thing to Him, even when that is in the middle of a corn field on some random Sabbath.  Proximity to Jesus is not about buildings, it is about a desire to be close.  Here was the God they worshipped standing right in front of them, but they failed to see, all the while believing they were in perfect obedience to the law.  And their certainty resulted in the idea that God Himself did not understand or obey His own law.  Literally the definition of error, or hypocrisy, or vanity, all stemming from the certainty of human “wisdom”.

When met with correction, they responded in hatred, for vanity has no room for correction.  And are we even the slightest tittle different than they?  We create “standards” of Sabbath keeping in our minds, and then judge all others by them, while refusing to see the God who so longs to stand right in front of us.  Because we believe in the sanctity of the law of God, and in the continuing proscriptions of Sabbath keeping that started in the Garden of Eden, was given to Moses in the law, and is prophesied to continue in Heaven after this world has passed – we translate our “belief” into our obedience to keep this day.  Yet we know nothing of “how” to truly obey, we have only lists we construct of do’s and don’ts ignoring the God who could put us in harmony with His law.  We take our eyes off of God and put them on what we do against His request.  And irony of ironies, we are rather loose with His direct context of the cessation of work, either working ourselves “for the benefit of our families”, or causing others to serve us “because they were going to be at work anyway”.

But Jesus then cuts to the heart of the matter as He continues in verse 7 (no pun intended) saying … “But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. [verse 8] For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.”  The Sabbath is not about what, it is about Who.  The Sabbath is not even about how, it is about Who.  It was Jesus who “made” a block of time Holy.  Only His proximity to it could accomplish that, the same way His proximity to our earth on Mt. Sinai made a block of ground Holy, that Moses was asked to remove his shoes before he walked on it.  Without Jesus involved, the day is just time, and the earth is just earth.  It was about Jesus who “hallowed” it.  He set aside His time to be with us, in a special way, for an entire day, at the end of every week.  He asked us to put aside our other distractions in order to have time to be with Him.  He asked us to be unselfish and not keep others from having time to be with Him as well.  Being close to Jesus, putting away other priorities is what Sabbath is all about.  Hanging out with Dad.  Playtime with Dad.  That is what the Sabbath is all about.  And because the disciples with Him are doing just that, they were in fact guiltless.  It is up to Jesus to decide what is “keeping” the Sabbath with Him, it is not up to us.  Our ideas do not count, only His.

That is how the incongruent actions of priests back then and preachers in our day on Sabbath still make sense.  They are about bringing people to the Lord of the Sabbath.  That is why the disciples choosing to eat with Jesus on their way to demonstrate the gospel to people in need make sense.  They were already with the Lord of the Sabbath, escorting Him to people in such desperate need of hearing a word from Jesus, the Son of God.  It was more important for them to be with Jesus, than to be in the Temple on this day.  That is why we put away our amusements that take us away from Christ, why we cease working, but also cease thinking about working, it is all to have unrestricted playtime with the same Jesus.  You cannot contain that in a list of do’s and don’ts, no matter how long or how thorough you think it is.  You can only begin to see that in a set of principles.  Where I bring others to God, it is a good thing.  Where I do good unto them, it is a good thing.  Where I ask others to serve me, I cause them to lose time with God on my behalf.  It is mercy, I am to be showing.  It is mercy for others, love for others, that if it was my first motivation, would bring me in better harmony with the entirety of the law, not only the Sabbath, but not forgetting it either.

When Jesus saves us, from us, from our self-love and addiction of the same; He creates in us a love for others, that changes the nature of how we think about Sabbath.  The context changes.  The requirement does not, but the vanity begins to slip away.  A knowledge or belief that we are supposed to keep Sabbath is not the same thing as actually doing it.  Repeating the traditions of our forefathers; going to church, singing, praying and coming home again does not equal Sabbath observance as God defines it in a field of corn on a mission to actually spread His word to those who have never heard it.  The gospel does not only look inward, it looks outward where its mercy is so desperately needed.  

Only the unchanged heart is content to experience the praise of God, holding those good feelings inward, and sharing them only with those who also already understand them.  The changed heart is driven to the dirty, to the sick, to the hungry, to the least of these – because they have the greatest need.  Until we are led to discover what keeping anything Holy really means, we do not understand what was asked of us.  And we must be led to discover it, for Holiness does not originate in us.  Following God, leads us there.  Attempting to blaze the trail based on our accumulated wisdom leads to the path of the Pharisee, to the path of vain obedience based upon certainty and trust in “our wisdom”, that when confronted with what God thinks, responds in hatred and desire to kill God and anyone who truly follows His lead …

And the dispute over this was not over yet …

 

A Cycle of Remembrance ...

Six days of work for our Creator, six days to put together our home, make it beautiful, make it full of life, make it produce everything we would need or want, in only six days. Then something unusual occurred, God rested. He decided to take a day off from His work and rest, set the time aside to be with us in a special way. God blessed this seventh day, made it Holy, and set it up as a cyclical revolution of days so that we would remember and celebrate His crowning work of achievement, His creation of our world.

The first thing to notice about the Sabbath day is that the Lord created it. Man had almost nothing to do with its inspiration, nor with making the day special. It was the Lord who blessed it. It was the Lord who made it Holy. It was the Lord who rested from His own work. It was the Lord who set aside His own time to be with us in a special way. The Sabbath then, like everything else, was a gift to mankind; a gift of time and attention from the God of the Universe to man; a gift of a day in seven to rest from our work, reflect on the beauty of Lord’s gifts, and enjoy our time with Him. Jesus, our Creator, reminded us of this many years later when He said … “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” This was a gift to us, and so we should receive it as such, value it for what it is, and honor it as we honor its maker.

The second thing to notice about the Sabbath is its key ingredient, the absence of work. Now it is important to remember that prior to sin, “work” was not done as a matter of survival. And particularly in God’s case, He did not “work” to earn money in order to pay for rent and food. The Lord’s work was that of running the universe, of creating things that prior to His imagination, did not exist. This was the work He set aside. Our “work” was that of tending to our garden home. We were assigned the task to caring for it, or trimming it, guiding it, and insuring it grew in a sensible fashion and not just out of control. Considering that seasons did not exist in this early world, neither did death or decay in any way, plants like animals and man, would simply grow continually. Insuring that they grew in harmony with each other was the task assigned to man. This was the “work” we were first asked to set aside, to honor the day of rest God had sanctified.

The third thing to notice about the Sabbath, is that it would have been no different from any other day, had not the Lord MADE it so. There is nothing inherently holy in our world, particularly days on a calendar. But when God sets something aside and makes it holy, it becomes Holy through His actions. Even a space in time, even such a thing as a day itself, can become Holy when God makes it so. In our world, we are far from Holy ourselves. Yet at the end of time are the fateful prophetic words of John the prophet uttered in heaven … “let He who is holy be holy still.” We are no more able to make something holy than a leopard can change his spots, or a donkey could start talking, but with Christ, all things are possible. It is Christ who can and will MAKE us holy, if we but let Him. The same God, who set aside time to make it special, can defeat the sin in us, and make us special. What we so desperately need is a God of creation, for we must ALL be recreated to be saved. As the Sabbath could do nothing to make itself special, so we can do nothing to make ourselves holy, but God can fix us, and MAKE holy, what we could not.

Now we must remember that this institution, like marriage that preceded it, was created for man BEFORE the introduction of sin in our world. If sin had never come to us, we would all be living in a garden paradise, married with families of our own, and taking one day in seven aside to be with God as He made it for us. Marriage and the Sabbath were created without deadlines, without time limits, and without the taint of sin. These two institutions were ordained by God Himself, prior to having to make accommodations for the evil we would inflict on ourselves and the inevitable arrival of death in our world. We were told to … “go and multiply.” This first directive was not set against a numbered criterion; this ability was given to us according to the will and plan of God. We were also told to “rest” and honor our creation. This was not done to remind us of sin in any way, it was done before that. Remembering our creation helps man to understand His place in the universe. When we are finally restored to the perfection we were intended for, the Sabbath will once again be a part of our traditions.

Some argue that it is man by his actions or lack of actions that makes the Sabbath holy or not. But as we have seen the creation of the Sabbath, man had nothing to do with it. This was a gift of God to man. We were not created so that we could “keep” the Sabbath, rather we were created and given the Sabbath as a gift from the Creator of all things. The biggest gift any parent can give their child, time and attention. So it was with our God. Some argue that God is always with us, and therefore the Sabbath is or should be, no different. But this is not so. It is true that God is always with us, but the requirements of life keep us working in order to survive. In the garden, work to trim and keep it, had to take place, thus focusing the attention somewhere besides upon the God who is “always” with us. It is our attention that MUST be refocused. It is WE who need a priorities adjustment.

The Sabbath is a humbling concept to modern man. It reveals that we are not self-evident, nor self-sufficient. It reveals we are a “created” being, sprung into existence by the will of an all-powerful God. The Sabbath stands in direct contradiction to those who believe life evolved to its present state. Survival of the fittest is not the mandate of a loving God, but rather the edict of His enemy. The Sabbath bids us to rest from our labor, not intensify it. The Sabbath bids us to remember the gift to us of the special time with our God. When we realize our dependence, when we realize our utter helplessness, it is only then that we begin to understand why our God is so good. He does not leave us in the conditions we begin to recognize. He does not leave us to our weakness. Rather, He redeems us from the pain of evil and sin. As the Sabbath was MADE holy by God, so the weakness of our characters are MADE perfect in HIS strength and not our own. The Sabbath reminds us of a need for a creator God.

When perfection is restored, the Sabbath will continue not as a reminder of sins past, but as a lasting covenant between God and His people of His commitment of spending time with us. Think of it, centuries and millennia from now, week to week, we will still enjoy the company of our God, set aside from all the other pressing demands of running a universe to be intimate with us. One to one, God and man, conversing, laughing, learning, exploring, eating, drinking, singing, and listening: imagine what this precious gift of time will be like. Some treat Sabbath here on earth as a time-out from their otherwise desired pursuits. We act as if Sabbath prevents us from enjoying our time, rather than enables us to enjoy it. We act as if Sabbath is a deterrent to the things we love, rather than pointing us to them.

This is because our hearts have been turned from the God of love, and have been pointed at the god in the mirror. We love only pleasing ourselves as our carnal nature dictates. We spend every waking moment thinking and working in the interests of ourselves. We sometimes squeeze in time for others, perhaps in our immediate circle of family and friends. But by comparison we spend the majority of our lives in pursuit of things thought to please us. Emptiness. Vanity. And without success, are our efforts. But when considering the gift of the Sabbath in perfection, we are pointed back at the things that maintain real value. We are given cause to pause. We are told to be still for a minute, and think, and consider what perfection and rest really mean. Time with God. Time set aside for us to laugh together, walk together, to learn, to live, to skydive or swim with the sharks. Perfection does not mean that we will go around heaven seeking out new entertainment for only our own enjoyment, but it does mean that we will share our every joy with each other, and WITH God.

Like a father who sets aside time to play with his children after a long work week, so God sets aside time to spend with us on re-creative things. The Sabbath may include singing, worship, and lectures from a pulpit in church; but it may also include riding waves on an ocean created for our delight – WITH our God. It may include walking among the Sequoia trees in a forest of His creation. It may include exploring the lunar surface of our moon hand in hand with God, who compensates for the gravity and air we require, while He teaches us of the history of our rock in space. The Sabbath is time off first and foremost for GOD. It is His choice to take time away just so that He can be free to be with us. How wonderful for US. Like the small children who eagerly crave their father’s attention to look at the drawings they made in school, the crafts they made afterwards, and the mud pies baking in the back yard – so we will eagerly await the God of the universe to visit with us week to week, looking at our “art”, commenting on our “offerings of love”, and perhaps politely avoiding the actual consumption of our mud pies baking in the back yard.

So many Christians are content to take an institution created in the Garden of Eden, before there was sin the world, and completely ruin it. They arbitrarily decide that the actual day does not matter, whether the first day, or the seventh, only that WE set aside time to worship God. The Catholic church admits to changing the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday to avoid being confused with the Jews, and to honor the resurrection of Christ. Protestants refuse to accept this man-made change and so argue that Christ Himself changed the day, although there is not one single scripture to identify where He would have done this. And there are many that show He worshipped on Saturday … “as was His custom”. “How” Christ worshipped was radically different than His contemporaries, but “when” Christ worshipped was from sundown to sundown Friday evening, to Saturday evening. Christ honored His own day of rest, that He created in the Garden of Eden, even in His own death – resting again on the Sabbath day. He could have arisen Sabbath morning, and gone about the “work” of our redemption, but instead He lay asleep in the tomb, choosing rather to rest on His sacred day, and do the work on the first work-day of the week.

Muslims who claim to worship the same Father God, understand the cycle of remembrance but they too have decided to alter the day of worship to Friday rather than Saturday. They like the Catholics believe that man has the power to make these changes as long as one day in seven is set aside to worship God. The problem with this thinking is that it is “man” centric. We decide the time and day. We decide when we and God are supposed to rest and get together. WRONG. The Sabbath itself reminds us, that man makes NOTHING holy by decision or fiat, or inaction. Only God can make anything holy including time, and therefore only God can make a day Holy, as He has with the seventh day Sabbath.

Those who believe the Sabbath was nailed to the cross (despite Christ’s own observance of this “law”), forget that the Sabbath was created long BEFORE Moses or the law. The Sabbath was instituted BEFORE sin, and in the Garden of Eden. To nail the idea of the Sabbath to the cross, would be the same as nailing the idea of Marriage to the cross as well. Both had the same origins, the same creator, and were given at the same time. No, those who war against the observance of Sabbath, usually do so because they wish to be “free” to pursue their own desires, without the imposed “sanctions” of Sabbath rest. But one can no more legislate “rest” as they can legislate “love”. And again, polluted hearts miss the blessing of time spent with a God of infinite love.

Well-meaning Jewish religious leaders in the time after the captivity of Babylon wanted to insure they never broke the laws of God again. To accomplish this, they set about trying to conceive of conditions related to work and rest so as to define “how” to properly “keep” Sabbath. Their lists of do’s and don’ts got so long it became ridiculous. Christ pointed out their folly through refocusing on motives and relationships, and meeting the needs of the hurting. His “work” on Sabbath was constantly and only for the sakes of others, never Himself. His example of helping the hurting remains in place today, as people are more important than rules and regulations. Yet He never arbitrarily discarded Sabbath traditions either. He worshipped in the synagogues on Sabbath, often reading from the Scriptures, and teaching those in attendance about His Father God. He rested with His disciples and spent time with them one-on-one teaching them also what they had need to know of. Christ honored his own created day of rest, and was found to be a perfect sacrifice, blameless in front of the laws of God.

Seventh Day Adventists tend to take pride in their discovery of Sabbath truth. But just like their contemporaries in other faiths, they have found a way to make Sabbath “man” centric, rather than “God” centric. Many SDA’s take up professions in the health care field, as working in this field is considered “acceptable” on Sabbath. Without the guilt of working on Sabbath, they then take the additional step of choosing to work weekend shifts for pay differentials, or reduced hours during the rest of the week. Most of these choices are voluntary. Few choose to donate the pay they receive for work of helping others on Sabbath to those in need, this is not even a consideration for most. Rather, they have come to rationalize that since helping others is “OK” to do, there should be no moral problem with it. But they miss the time out God wishes to spend with them, and their families. The Sabbath loses all significance, and just like their less fortunate contemporaries in the world around them, who live working on this day of rest, they stress themselves out over their day to day activities – leaving no time to unwind and reprioritize their own lives. In this line of thinking, they lose out on a blessing designed for them. Gift rejected.

Other SDA’s who make a stand to avoid working on Sabbath themselves, have no problem being waited on by other forced to work. They are free to go to restaurants, or shopping, or any other place where employees are there to cater to their needs. The logic behind this, is that those employees would “be there anyway”. And so they feel no remorse for taking advantage of a resource that is there anyway. But in this too, they participate in activities that do not lift one up to God, rather they keep the attention focused on the man in the mirror. What am I eating, when, and where. What I am wearing, what are my needs, etc.. The focus is on self, and others who do not know the beauty of Sabbath truth, are forced to help them miss the blessing God would have for ALL. It is the shopper who misses MORE of the blessing from God, than the employee who is forced to serve them, by their mere presence. It is the shopper who knows the truth and ignores it, while the employee craves the truth, but will be left in ignorance, as it is hard to witness about the value of rest to someone you are forcing to serve you at the time. All these self-oriented activities, designed to please one’s self, all make the Sabbath a day of “man’s” idea of rest, rather than God’s.

Still other SDA’s design rigid lists of do’s and don’ts that would rival the Pharisees of old. They have meticulous clocks of worship traditions which must take place on prescribed intervals lest they lose their value in tardiness, or extension. They remove any sort of enjoyment from the Sabbath believing without the “discipline” of keeping God’s day there is no real reverence. These people would never be caught dead at a mall on Sabbath, but then they would not be caught in a park, or the beach, or a pool either. Nature is forbidden to them as much as commercialization. And so Sabbath is a burden, not a rest. Rather than being a time they enjoy with God, as He intended, they make it a time to watch your wristwatch and count down the seconds until Sabbath is over. They secretly yearn for sundown, so that they can resume their “normal” lifestyle. And they dread the coming sundown in six more days that will begin the “time-out” again. They too, miss the blessing God intends.

All of these well-meaning SDA’s and Christians have one thing in common – they have lost sight of the GIFT of the Sabbath to man from God. When one allows work, money, self-interest, legalism, or commercial pursuits to come between them enjoying time with God, they miss the blessing He intended for otherwise worthless endeavors. Those who work, even in health care, should make an effort to get time off on Sabbath – so that they too can actually begin to enjoy its value in rest and relaxation. Those who allow the mundane needs of life like eating and shopping and leisure like organized sports, etc. to dominate their rest time – should forego this for a single day per week, and let God spend some quality time with them, undisturbed by these distractions. Those who follow legal lists of do’s and don’ts should throw caution to the wind and bury themselves in the nature God created, to find the beauty He designed for them in what He has made. Those who think that Sabbath is only about making themselves happy, should take time to serve another, and find the real meaning of “rest unto your souls.”

Do something unusual. Make a home cooked meal from scratch on Sabbath and invite over someone new from church, or a neighbor you hardly know. Barbeque something at the beach. Go swim in a lake. Take a bike ride with the kids. Enjoy your church service for a change. Go there with the intent of singing your lungs out, or making comments in the Sabbath school classes, or saying a hearty AMEN every time the pastor says something you agree with. Treat church like an action oriented sporting event, not like a boring game of golf on TV. Get involved. Get a group together, and go to a homeless shelter and volunteer to help out for an afternoon. Go caroling (in season). Go caroling at a nursing home (when not in season, just sing hymns or worship music or whatever), but smile, and visit the old folks afterwards for just a few minutes. Rather than criticize that single mom whose baby makes noise all throughout the services, go talk to her, get to know her, see if you can help her out instead. Do something unusual. Our “normal” activities are too self-centered. The Sabbath allows us to reprioritize.

“Remember” … God uses this word in only one commandment, the one that began with creation, the one that transcends into perfection. Someday I will be sitting to prepare a barbeque with my God on a beach of His making to enjoy a Sabbath meal for us both. I expect my family to be in attendance. I expect to serve all who are there. I expect to cook, clean, and eat with my God. I expect He would probably not take “no” for an answer as He helps me to serve. You see that is the nature of my God. He who alone is worthy to be served, is constantly serving us. And I expect His offer will once again break my heart and bring me to tears, as once again I can see His love has no bounds. The Sabbath is something I cannot wait to enjoy, here and someday in the perfection it was intended to be …

Measuring Results ...

Like anything else, when we try something we want to know if it worked. When we give up control of our will to Christ, we look with expectation to see Him finally conquer something in our lives that we simply could not do. But sometimes in the looking, we affect the outcome, and not well. It works when we truly let go, and to a degree avoid even thinking about the problem we had, allowing Christ to fix it without us looking over His shoulder offering our advice. Our witnessing efforts are similar. We sometimes observe the lives of those we come in contact with, to see if our efforts have yielded a positive result yet. We measure our own success by the amount of perceived change we see in the life of someone we tried to touch. But in the looking, we sometimes affect the outcome, and not well.

So the basic question we face is … what does it mean to be “saved”? Does it mean that we are free from ALL sin, and can only claim salvation when perfection is achieved? Before immediately responding no, consider that those who have forestalled their hopes until they go to heaven, have long held this belief as the ONLY possibility. Does being “saved” mean that we have merely started the process and remain diseased with many sins, only attaching ourselves to the theoretical knowledge of Christ? Before immediately responding no, consider that the Bible states we only need to believe on Jesus in order to be saved (it does not say we need to have accomplished anything with our belief). Or does it mean we have reached some sort of process point that includes an experimental knowledge of salvation, while relying on forgiveness to cover the remainder of sin in our lives? Before responding yes or no, consider that perfection is something that is attained by the righteous few who live to see Christ return.

The idea that we have a hard definition of being saved is clouded by the personal nature of salvation, and the fact that it is a PROCESS more than merely an end-state of being. It is similar to the question of when is a child ready for baptism? Catholics believe we should not prejudge an infant and deny it opportunity to come to Christ in baptism. Protestants believe we need to understand the meaning of the tradition before we can participate in it. But then the debate arises, when is the age of accountability. You can argue it varies with each child, and you would be correct. But then too comes the question of the depth of understanding involved. When I come home and find the dirty napkins from my trashcan shredded on the floor, I look and speak sternly to my dogs, usually the guilty party has her ears go down, tail go down, and head bows a bit to the left as she looks at me and licks the air hoping this will serve as an apology. My dog knows she has done wrong. But she is a dog. How much can a dog really know? Is she sorry I am mad, or sorry she made a mistake, or does she even know what “sorry” really means?

Again the problem with trying to evaluate the quality of our knowledge of God, is that we are attempting to apply metrics from a fixed point in time to a moving event. A devout 5 year old who loves God may be as ready for baptism as a cynical 40 year old who is taking all of this “knowledge” on faith that it is correct. For what I knew about God at five is every bit as relevant as what I know about Him now, albeit I have learned so much since then. But my learning is at His hand. However close to God I may be experiencing now is not due to an achievement on my part, it is has been His work effort, His direction, His leadership that makes this possible. My efforts have led only the wrong way. It is His waking me up to this, that allowed me to give up the idea of control, and finally experience what He wanted for me for years. All of it, His doing, none of it mine. We are not capable of evaluating the quality of a relationship with Christ, EVEN when it is WE who are the subject of our evaluation. Christians cannot even do an effective self-exam.

We are as blind to our own sin, as we are blind to how much He succeeds with us despite our interference with Him. We are like blind referees at an NFL Super-bowl for our souls. We stumble out on the field during the middle of play, making calls that have no basis in fact, or relevance, and calling the whole process “spiritual growth”. We want credit for our accomplishments, instead of realizing we have none. The faith we brag about / cling to – even our faith came from Him first. Our faith, like our salvation, was also a gift. Our ability to choose freely was a gift. Everything about our salvation is a gift from start to FINISH. When even one cherished sin can cause a man to lose his own salvation, choosing rather to embrace evil than be with God Himself one-to-one personally – how do you assign a value to a life free from 3 sins, yet suffering from 2 more? Does the equation change when it is a life free from 10 sins only clinging to one left? Adam lost our entire world over a choice to be with Eve instead of God – no matter what.

The point of this is simply to restate – Christians are not capable of judging (themselves or others). The role of judge was never supposed to be ours, despite our fondness for it. Therefore you cannot ever conclude that your efforts in someone else’s life have succeeded or failed. Your measurement is based on a point in time that may not be relevant to the final disposition of the one you are trying to evaluate. And what is more, your measurement criterion is subjective, based on your own life experiences rather than on the ones that matter to the person under scrutiny. Bottom line, you will simply not know. You are not supposed to know. A person’s salvation is between them and God, as your own salvation is between you and God.

Knowing this can bring you freedom. Sow your seed everywhere. You are not capable of determining the quality of the ground you are planting so plant everywhere you walk. It may look like concrete to you; dry, infertile, hot, arid, with no chance of success – but to God that ground may be ready to be broken up, rototilled by His hands, and your casual superficial seed spreading may be kneaded deep into the soil by His Spirit. You do not need to believe your efforts will work, but do them anyway. Answer the questions of atheists as if they will someday believe. Be kind to conservative religious folks who spout hate in every word, and would mean to do you harm for your knowledge. Love your enemies. For you never know what effect your witness may have when combined with the Master of our salvation. Remembering always that salvation is a road that ALL may travel, few being on the same place at the same time, yet ALL bound for the ultimate prize. Be a faithful witness, and leave the saving up to our Savior.