[By now,] we are all use to “Sabbath Day violation stories” we have heard many of them before. What’s the big deal – we wonder? So what if Jesus healed someone on the Sabbath Day? Who cares?
Well, there was a day and a time when the Sabbath Day was considered to be holy. It was “one day out of seven,” set apart, purposefully. It was sacred. It was special. It was declared sacred-by God-himself. It was to be honored.
It was “intentionally” a day of rest, a day of leisure. It was a much needed, important break from the routines of life. It was “a big deal.”
It was a day of rest for “everyone,” your servants, your slaves, your sons and your daughters, your spouse – everyone was included. Even the resident aliens in your land, were included on this one! Everyone needed the break. All people required rest. Family time – like it or not, was provided for…The Sabbath day made sure of it. It was for “your good” and for “your welfare.” It was meant to benefit “you!”
The day was meant to be spent with God. It was a day for worship and prayer. A day to praise God for all that he has done in your life… A day to be grateful… and a time to reflect…
Over time all kinds of laws, rules, regulations and statutes were imposed to make it all happen. The ordinances were put in place to make it “a certainty.” But that was then and this is now. Things change slowly over time…and not always for the better.
We have turned a deaf ear to any and all talk of the Sabbath Day.
[So much so,] that today many families find themselves overworked, stressed out, with every member of the family going their own way. The family unit itself is being chronically neglected – precious time for “family nurturing” is no more…and we find ourselves physically and emotionally depleted.
Exhaustion and anxiety are everywhere being felt. On average, more family members (both parents and children) are working outside of the home – than even say – twenty years ago. There is no Sabbath Day. People work every day of the week. There is no relief in sight. Any and all free time that exists is filled with a “fleury of activity.” We have commitments. We have schedules. We have time tables. We have places we think need to be.
We are or “have become” an extremely “mobile generation” that is out “chasing around” seven days a week.
We are tired. We are hurting. But there is no time for rest, not today! The old days of “staying put” are long since gone.
A recent survey says that on the typical Sabbath Day most people are: preparing food, cleaning the house, doing yard work, grocery shopping, working a job, going out to eat, watching TV or being on the computer or a tablet or on the cell phone, or else they are attending children sports activities, attending professional spectator sport events, or other forms of entertainment, they are exercising, at a party or social engagement, at a bar or a lounge, visiting friends, watching a movie or a video, reading a book and practicing their religion in that order. You heard what came in “last!”
If something better comes along – we jump at the chance and opportunity.
The Sabbath day has become a “catch up day” for all the various things that we could not attend to, during the regularly scheduled work week.
It is a day of “more work…not less.” More activity. More chasing. More stress…and more compounded exhaustion…
For many people, the Sabbath day is no different than the day that preceded it – nor the day that comes after it.
“Same old, same old,” more work, more activity and a sense of being worn out, fatigued and wearied at its end…
Too many of us try to cram eight days of work into a seven day work week. Profound cultural changes have transformed our Sabbath Days to resemble the other days of the week.
Today we are experiencing radical changes in our Sabbath Day practices.
Over the last two hundred years the Sabbath Day gradually evolved into a day when many other activities (often initially controversial) are accepted as suitable behavior for the Lord’s Day. Today, I guess, anything goes…
Many people work harder on the Sabbath Day then they do during the rest of the entire work-week.
When the alarm goes off on Monday we are still tired and still exhausted.
The disciples plucked a few heads of grain, Jesus healed a man with a withered hand. And you would have thought the world was going to end…
We’ve come a long way, baby- or, have we? Amen.