The Sabbath is one day, right? What about the other six days? Yes, they matter as Isaiah teaches and as Jesus pushes back against token, meaningless spirituality.
If you haven't got a solid foundation, then the rest of the structure is going to have big problems. (Okay, our own 115 year old sanctuary was built on Florida sand and has to be periodically re-balanced every few years, for example.)
Some think that you can disconnect devotional spirituality from the real world, as if such spirituality can be a thing all in itself. In fact, without real-world engagement, you end up with a token spirituality that God finds insulting. God gets ticked.
Isaiah declares God's word to God's people, comparing the still-wrecked city of Jerusalem to the state of the peoples' faithfulness (or sinfulness). Their devotions ring hollow since the society is filled with oppression, poverty, and injustice. They haven't done the work of God, but think that if they pray or fast or observe the Sabbath, then they will have fulfilled God's will. Not so, says the prophet. On the topic of the Sabbath, you can't be faithful on one day and sinful on the other six and think that God's will has been fulfilled.
Jesus is on a similar track in Luke 10. While teaching in a synagogue, Jesus spontaneously heals a crippled woman. He draws the ire of the synagogue ruler for breaking the Sabbath prohibition on labor. Jesus minces no words in reply, calling him (and his buddies) hypocrites. He calls attention to how they would act to minister to a farm animal and yet criticize him for healing a "daughter of Abraham." Ouch.
The same teaching applies to us. If we think that attending worship on Sunday, or doing our regular devotionals, while ignoring the gospel's radical calls for equity, justice, and peace all the rest of the time are somehow pleasing to God, we've missed the foundation of God's priorities. We make our puny spirituality no more than a token substitute for what God seeks from the faithful. Our faith structure lacks a solid foundation and collapses.
Get the whole story in the sermon below.
If you haven't got a solid foundation, then the rest of the structure is going to have big problems. (Okay, our own 115 year old sanctuary was built on Florida sand and has to be periodically re-balanced every few years, for example.)
Some think that you can disconnect devotional spirituality from the real world, as if such spirituality can be a thing all in itself. In fact, without real-world engagement, you end up with a token spirituality that God finds insulting. God gets ticked.
Isaiah declares God's word to God's people, comparing the still-wrecked city of Jerusalem to the state of the peoples' faithfulness (or sinfulness). Their devotions ring hollow since the society is filled with oppression, poverty, and injustice. They haven't done the work of God, but think that if they pray or fast or observe the Sabbath, then they will have fulfilled God's will. Not so, says the prophet. On the topic of the Sabbath, you can't be faithful on one day and sinful on the other six and think that God's will has been fulfilled.
Jesus is on a similar track in Luke 10. While teaching in a synagogue, Jesus spontaneously heals a crippled woman. He draws the ire of the synagogue ruler for breaking the Sabbath prohibition on labor. Jesus minces no words in reply, calling him (and his buddies) hypocrites. He calls attention to how they would act to minister to a farm animal and yet criticize him for healing a "daughter of Abraham." Ouch.
The same teaching applies to us. If we think that attending worship on Sunday, or doing our regular devotionals, while ignoring the gospel's radical calls for equity, justice, and peace all the rest of the time are somehow pleasing to God, we've missed the foundation of God's priorities. We make our puny spirituality no more than a token substitute for what God seeks from the faithful. Our faith structure lacks a solid foundation and collapses.
Get the whole story in the sermon below.
| 08-25-19-sermon.mp3 |
| 08-25-19-ff-answers.pdf |
| 08-25-19-not_a_one_day_sabbath.pdf |