10 June 2018                   Workto Love – Love to Work                 MartinBaker

Introduction

A couple of weeks ago  I introduced our 4 week series on the TenCommandments

A few points.

We can think of the Ten Commandments as fence posts or boundarieson a sports field, or even a picture frame.

They surround and protect the life, vitality, creativity andfaith of a community. They make what happens within that framework, possible.

Remember, that first of all the 10 commandments are forpeople who know freedom.  They are givento people on their way out of slavery.

 “I am the Lord yourGod, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” “Ibore you on eagles’ wings.”

And the second point is that the 10 commandments need to beseen as a whole. They are all interlinked. Loving God and loving our neighbourare all part of the same deal.

Paul said in Galatians: “The entire law is summed up in asingle command: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’”

Our reading today is on the first 5 commandments

Exodus 20:3-11

3 you shall have no other gods before me.

4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in theform of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, orthat is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them orworship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children forthe iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those whoreject me, 6 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation[b] ofthose who love me and keep my commandments.

7 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lordyour God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

8 Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9 For six daysyou shall labour and do all your work. 10 But the seventh day is a Sabbath tothe Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter,your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is inthem, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath dayand consecrated it.

Let Us Pray….

We hear that the Ten Commandments were written on twotablets of stone.

They are all interrelated, but one of the ways we can look atthe commandments is to think of the first 4, the first tablet, the ones we heardtoday, as being the vertical commandments. About our relationship withGod.  And the second 6, which we willlook at next week, are the horizontal ones. Our relationships with one another.

The way we relate to God (tablet one) shapes the way werelate to each other.  In other words,faithful worship of God leads to proper love of other people.  For example, having "no other gods beforeme" means that things we could make god,  money, sex, power, for example,  will not be the source of worship in ourlives, and so will not be used to exploit others

You shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself an idol ... you shall notbow down to them or worship them.

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord yourGod.

And, remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy ... youshall not do any work -- you, your son or your daughter, your male and femaleslave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.

This morning I’d like us to think especially about thecommandment to keep the Sabbath Holy – because it’s a commandment that is aboutthings that are very real to us in the decisions we make now. We don’t talk aboutthe commandment very much, but one of the biggest changes in my lifetime hasbeen around how we use our time.

If I drive into town this afternoon there will be a cue ofcars on the Mt Wellington off ramp all going to Sylvia Park.  We are busy 7 days a week in a way weren’t, orcouldn’t be, in a previous generation.  Sunday is the only day we’ve got off to get toSylvia Park. I need to work on Sunday to pay the rent or the mortgage. We lovepeople coming to church on Sunday morning, but if they are not there, couldthat be more to do with a lack of time rather than a lack of interest? 

Keeping the Sabbath Holy. It is a command to the wholecommunity.

I talked a few weeks ago about changes in communicationstechnology.  People here over about 40 Iguess, will remember mobile phones coming into common use. They will remember atime before the internet. Children like mine, born in the 1990’s can’t imaginea time when there weren’t mobile phones. They are perplexed about how we managed back then. They may never havemailed a hand written letter to someone.  How many of us feel some anxiety if we forgetour mobile phones, or loose coverage or internet access. Just think, it wasonly 20 years ago that none of us worried about any of those things.

But think of the other things.  Think about how our notion of being busy haschanged.

Having lots of time for holidays and leisure was seen as asign of success. Now, quite often, the people we view as being most successfulare also the people who we think of as being the busiest. Important jobs gaveyou time for golf and tennis and long lunches, now important jobs are often thejobs that demand longest hours at work and mean we have the least time with ourfamilies and friends. ‘She’s really busy’, and what is the opposite of that?  

My children will probably not know a time when earning  1 wage was enough to pay the mortgage andsupport a parent at home committed to raising a family.    Thatwas what my own parents assumed.  Weoften find a split here in our values. On one hand the importance of spendingtime with our children and families, and on the other, living in an economywhere that has become so difficult for so many.

But we also find in scripture that looking back has its owndangers.  It can even be a sign offaithlessness.   In Exodus, the Hebrewpeople when freed at great cost from slavery in the desert still, at timeswanted to go back. Sure we were slaves, back then, but at least we knew wherewe stood.  We knew our place.  But God calling us into the desert promisingus a future. We can’t go back to those days.

Whatever our view of the past, we believe God still callsus, still promises us. Jesus kept saying follow me.

And here we have today with all we know, all we’ve experienced,a command to keep the Sabbath.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been thinking about what thismight mean and I’ve been collecting a few quotes here and there which I’vefound quite helpful

From the Economist

Leisure time is now the stuff of myth. Some are cursed withtoo much. Others find it too costly to enjoy. Many spend their spare momentsstaring at a screen of some kind, even though doing other things (visitingfriends, volunteering at a church) tends to make people happier. Not a fewpresume they will cash in on all their stored leisure time when they finallyretire, whenever that may be. In the meantime, being busy has its rewards.Otherwise why would people go to such trouble?

The American writer Sebastian de Grazier said:

Lean back under a tree, put your arms behind your head,wonder at the pass we’ve come to, smile and remember that the beginnings andends of all our great enterprise are untidy

“I have so much to do today that I’m going to need to spendthree hours in prayer in order to be able to get it all done.” — Martin Luther

The reason we keep the Sabbath, according to Deuteronomy, isthat our people used to know what life was like when we had a lord namedPharaoh who did not allow days off.

So this morning, put yourselves in the feet of the Exodusgeneration. For years they served Pharaoh, a burdensome master who gave no daysoff and when complaints arose.” God graciously intruded into that reality andsaid to the people, “You will no longer serve Pharaoh, you will serve me. Andto serve me means that once every seven days, you, your children, and yourworkers, even your animals get the day off.”

So as you think about your time, how busy you are and whatit means to honour the command to keep the Sabbath, I’d like to leave you withthese points:

First honouring the Sabbath elevates us above our work.  We are more than what we do. We are more thanour jobs.

The commandments begin with a reminder that the people wereonce slaves in Egypt. Having a day in which we are no longer subject to theweight and obligation of work affirms a freedom.  We are not to remain slaves to our work.

We have obligations to those responsible to us.   We think about those people who serve us. Oftenon low wages, working long hours. We think of those who work in terribleconditions so that we can buy cheap shoes and clothes.   Thecommand tells us that even those who serve us have rights. Honouring theSabbath brings a concern for justice to the way people work.  What does it mean for us to be especiallyconscious of those who are paid the least? 

Honouring the Sabbath is also about strengtheningrelationships, family and social ties - We need to make time to focus on yourrelationships with family and friends. How much time are we going to make forthose relationships this coming week?

Interestingly, the command also reminds us of livestock andthe animals in our care.  It affirms thecare, dignity and good treatment of animals.  We have to care for and be mindful even of theanimals that work for us

We’ve got so much on. So busy. But here this morning.Something greater to which we are called. To pause and reflect on our lives. Weare commanded to love each other. That’s what the Sabbath is about.  And that’s the most important thing to spendour time doing.

AMEN