BROKEN COMMANDMENT

Maybe you don’t think of yourself as a sinner. Maybe you do. No matter what YOU think, God knows the truth. He knows you so very intimately and personally that you really can’t get away with anything. Maybe, like the rich young ruler who came to Jesus wanting to know what HE should Do – foolish, when Jesus has done everything and we can DO nothing – to inherit eternal life (Luke 18:18 and following). Jesus responded with the 5 commandments that have to do with how we treat other people. He did not speak to him about the commandments that have to do with how we treat God. How do you treat God? Like the rich young ruler, is money more important to you than God is? Do you make money your idol? Money, it seems to me, is the United States’ national idol. Everything we do, every decision we make revolves around ‘money’ in some form or another. How sad! So many people, like the children of Israel, break the first commandment almost every day. (Exodus 32:1-14). I think Jesus already knew that this rich guy had broken the first commandment.

But how about the FOURTH commandment? Don’t most of us break that one? It is found in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. In Exodus, God tells us to keep the Sabbath day and in Deuteronomy He says to observe the Sabbath day. Why? Well, God gave it to us as a GIFT. He did not rest on the seventh day because He was tired, God doesn’t get tired and He never slumbers nor sleeps as the Psalmist tells us. The Sabbath day of rest – one day out of seven – is God’s idea. No other religion has it. It was meant to be a sign to the rest of the world that God was who He said He was. No other peoples were given this wonderful gift. God rested on the seventh day and was refreshed – which means He breathed out when He spoke the worlds and living things into creation and then He breathed in – stopped and took a breath – on the 7th day. Don’t we need to do the same? Christianity chose Sunday over Saturday (which the Jews observed) because that was the day Jesus rose from the dead and they wanted to honor Jesus.

When I pastured churches, I worked on Sunday, but chose a different day of the week as my Sabbath. God doesn’t care what day you REST, just so you do. Take one day and remember God, Jesus, read the Bible, sing praise songs, honor Him and all that He has done for you. When we were farming, a neighbor would never work on Saturday because that was his ‘sabbath’. All the other farmers worked in town and used Saturday as a catch-up day for farm work. He would’t. Some of the others got mad, but he didn’t care. You know what? His crops got in the same time everyone else’s did, his work got done just like everyone else, his animals were cared for as well as or better than everyone else.

The reason we don’t keep the Sabbath rest is that we don’t trust God! It is as simple as that. We think, like the rich young ruler, it all depends on US and what WE DO. It doesn’t. It all depends on Jesus and what HE HAS DONE. IT IS FINISHED! And He is able to complete what has been begun. You can trust Him with your life, your goods, your money, your property – He gave it all to you in the first place and it belongs to Him, not to you. You are a steward of another Person’s things. Trust Him to aid you.

Rev. Joyce Kaplan, M.Div., Retired United Church of Christ Pastor.