Rev. Kevin M. Pleas

Mark 2:23-28

April 29, 2007

One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" And he said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions." Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath."

* * * * * * * * * * * *

It's interesting what you can come up with when you start looking around. I was working on the idea of Sabbath this week and tucked away in my files I found an old illustration I'd completely forgotten about. Let me just read it to you the way it was written. See what you think.

The London costermongers told Lord Shaftesbury that their donkeys, which rested one day in seven could travel thirty miles a day with their loads, while those donkeys that worked seven days a week could only travel fifteen miles a day. So you lose seventy-five miles of travel each week by working your donkey every day, and have a sick, seedy-looking donkey in the bargain; while you gain 3,900 miles of travel in a year, and have a sleek, nice-looking donkey, by running him according to the Ten Commandments.

I originally found this in an old book of sermon illustrations. Yesterday, I was having a lot of fun trying to picture a minister, in all seriousness, actually using this story in a sermon. All I can say is, thank God for the commandments. The last thing I would want is a sick, seedy-looking donkey. And by the way, a costermonger was a street vender of fruits and vegetables. Apparently, at one point they had quite a union going, not to mention, presumably, a lot of donkeys.

As hopelessly outdated as that story sounds today though, it actually points out something about Sabbath that is very common in our thinking. We've been taught to understand Sabbath as a day of rest. Most of us take that to mean a time of recharging our batteries so that we can go back to work refreshed and more productive. By giving ourselves some time off, we think, we can expect to haul our burdens around twice as far when we do get back to work, just like donkeys. And isn't that, after all, the real business of our lives?

Maybe it will surprise you to hear that Sabbath was not meant to be that way at all. When we think of Sabbath in these terms, what we are saying is that work is the most important thing, and the business of Sabbath is to play a supporting role in making work happen. That notion lines up perfectly with the old Protestant Work Ethic. The truth is though, if we're really going to "remember the Sabbath … and keep it holy," we need to stand this idea on it's head. It shouldn't be Sabbath that supports work. Rather, work should function to support Sabbath. The way we used to ask the question was this: "Do you live to work, or do you work to live?" Sabbath, real Sabbath, is about working to live.

Two years ago, as most of you know, my local clergy group applied for and received a grant from the Lily Foundation, through the College of Pastoral Leaders at Austin Presbyterian Seminary. In our grant proposal we said we wanted to spend two years together exploring Sabbath, and that's what we've done. Of course, we read a couple of books on the subject. When you're a minister, reading books is sort of a knee-jerk reaction. But right from the beginning, we were all clear that we wanted more than an intellectual exercise. The point was to live Sabbath, not simply to read about it. We were all looking for ways of making Sabbath a more real and ongoing part of our lives.

So, we had breakfast together at the Salt Bay Café in Damariscotta three times a month except in the summer. About every three months we got together for dinner with all of our spouses. We traveled to Austin twice for their national Cohort Group conference in February. Last September we spent four days on Mohegan Island, and of course, we have all just returned from Italy.

Italy was fabulous. This trip will go down as one of the truly great experiences of my entire life. We spent three days in Rome, two in Assisi, three in Florence and two in Venice. We saw ruins and catacombs that trace back to the early days of the Christian History we've all been talking about for years. We stood at the grave of Saint Francis and sang and prayed together. We viewed great artworks everywhere we went. We walked for miles, had some of the best meals I've ever eaten and ate all the gelato we could hold.

I guess we were all pretty typical American tourists. Among the ten of us there was only one person who had actually spent two semesters learning Italian, twenty-five or thirty years ago. I did a lot of pointing, nodding, shaking my head and smiling. It's surprising how much you can get a lot accomplished that way. Personally, my biggest challenge was that we landed in Rome right in the middle of their spring, and my allergies went from zero to sixty just like that. One of the first Italian words I learned was one I ended up using a lot: Fazzoletti. It's their word for Kleenex. I tried not to let my allergies slow us down though. We had a wonderful time and I'd go back in a heartbeat.

Now that we're back, the two years of our Lily grant are finished. I'm sure our group will continue to breakfast together. I've grown quite close to these people and will probably hold them as friends for the rest of my life. But now that we've been through all that we planned to do with our grant, I find myself reflecting on what we've learned of Sabbath. I haven't had time to sort out all of my thinking, but here's what I think so far.

Sabbath is not the same as vacation. Vacation is often about getting away from something. Sabbath is more about embracing something. It's about embracing the wholeness and holiness of life. It's about time set aside to live consciously and intentionally in the Spirit and to celebrate those moments which are ours solely because of that Spirit's grace. Sabbath can be an individual experience, one of meditation, prayer and the reading of scripture. Much of what we do every Sunday in worship is designed to be an experience of Sabbath. But it can also be a shared experience, one that affirms life and friendship. Sabbath happens when we set intentional time aside to honor life's abundance and the God who made it possible, by experiencing and appreciating that life in all it's fullness.

In one of the books we read, The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel, I found a old and beautiful story that captures the essence. It goes like this.

At the beginning time was one, eternal. But time undivided, time eternal, would be unrelated to the world of space. So time was divided into seven days and entered into an intimate relationship with the world of space. With every single day, another realm of things came into being, except on the seventh day. The Sabbath was a lonely day. It may be compared to a king who has seven sons. To six of them he gave his wealth, and the youngest one he endowed with nobility, with the prerogative of royalty. The six older sons who were commoners found their mates, but the noble one remained without a mate.

After the work of creation was completed, the Seventh Day pleaded: Master of the universe, all that Thou hast created is in couples; to every day of the week Thou gavest a mate; only I was left alone. And God answered: The Community of Israel will be your mate. That promise was not forgotten. "When the people of Israel stood before the mountain of Sinai, the Lord said to them: 'Remember that I said to the Sabbath: The Community of Israel is your mate.' Hence: Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it.

I'm not at all sure there is enough holiness, enough Sabbath, in our lives. As much as anything, the reason is simply a lack of awareness, a lack of simply noticing the holiness that is around us all of the time. We set aside specific times and places, like Sunday morning here in this sanctuary, because this is where we focus our intention to share Sabbath. The truth is though, we can experience Sabbath anywhere that we are willing to open our minds and our hearts to the holiness of God's presence. I have been very blessed, privileged, to have experienced Sabbath these last two years with a wonderful group of people, in a wide variety of places. I know more of Sabbath now than I ever have, and I know I will never again think of Sabbath without thinking of the times we have shared.

It may be that we're not all that great at setting aside a single day as our one Sabbath, although it is certainly a good thing to do when we can. But as Jesus said, the Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. Honoring the Sabbath doesn't need to be a rigid and unyielding commandment for us. But Sabbath time is something to which we should all aspire. It is something we should not be too quick to cast aside because we all need it. Sabbath comes to us, not as a duty, but as an invitation and a gift. It lives in the holiness of prayer and silence, but also in the holiness of laughter, the holiness of friendship, the holiness of shared joys and sorrows. It lives in fact, in the holiness of all of life's wonderful experiences. I thank you deeply for your part over the last two years, in supporting this experience of Sabbath.

Amen