Every Day a Sabbath

Every Day a Sabbath

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy” The Third Commandment

Wouldn’t it be great if every day were Sunday? What if every day we could sing our favorite hymns, and hear God’s word spoken and proclaimed; to hear of the forgiveness of Jesus extended to us each and every day? Not only that, but what if each and every day could be a laid-back day of rest and holiness as our God showed us by example by his rest after creation? What if each day was a day in which we simply could reflect on our Lord, his gifts and our response?

What’s holding us back from that dream? Well, certainly our sinful condition, inherited from Adam and Eve dictates that each of us must work for our living, or go to school so that we can prepare for that eventual life of work. Most of us simply cannot spend every day in God’s house giving him worship and praise. God knows that and that is why he sets aside one day of the week for focusing on him.

But this commandment is not just about showing up on Sundays, it’s a commandment teaching us also to “remember” the Sabbath, in addition to keeping it holy (set-apart from the rest of our days). By now, school has started for most, if not all of our families, and you might be feeling the time crunch as you juggle schedules, and perhaps you haven’t gotten back into the Sunday worship routine, let alone home devotions or personal Bible study. But this is precisely the time when this commandment is helpful to us. Luther’s comments on this commandment are very helpful for us in this regard.

What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and his Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.

In this short instruction Luther is encouraging each of us to go beyond being in the presence of the word (Sunday attendance in church), and instead hold it up as something special. God’s Word is not just words. It is the very lifeblood which gives us eternal life and when we have that perspective we cannot help but seek it out and desire to learn more about it.

Now you might be saying to yourself, “But Pastor, reading the Bible is so boring and bible study is so dry and I have so many important things to do.” To which I ask you, “have you really tried to ‘hear and learn it’ as Luther teaches us?” I would guess, (from personal experience) that most of us haven’t. There are lots of things in life we know we should do, but we lack the discipline to do it and Bible study often tops our list of things never followed through on.

We know that losing weight would make us healthier and live longer, yet we don’t do it. We know that going to bed at a regular time and getting a full 7 or 8 hours of sleep will make us a better, more productive employee, but yet studies show the average American is only sleeping 6 hours a night. We know that our kids are very vulnerable to un-godly images and ideals on the television each night, yet we continue to watch shows with them which are not healthy for their spiritual and emotional welfare.

The third commandment is not one of the “Thou shalt not do X” commandments. Rather, it is a command to “do” something which is necessary for our faith. But more than a command, its God’s free gift to us to spend time with him in his word, to learn more about him and grow in our relationship with him.

We no longer live in a society which expects a 6-day, 12 hour/day work week. We live in a time when discretionary time for the worker is at its highest. Yet, we say we have no time for God’s word in our lives. I would like to challenge each of our families and each of our members to discipline ourselves to seek out God’s word as often as possible and to do our best to remove all distractions from that time with our Lord. Whether you decide that your time in the Word is weekly, bi-weekly, daily or twice-daily, make sure your time with God is consistent, free of distraction and that you are open to his calling, because it is only through the Word that the Gospel can change lives; whether that life be yours, mine, or another’s.

My prayer for each of you this month is that we would all make every day a Sabbath day by remembering God’s Word, reading his Word, and applying that Word to our lives for that day.

Your fellow bond-servant for Christ, the Word made flesh,