It’s Personal: You and God
Deuteronomy 5: 12-15
MARK 2: 23 – 3:6
June 2, 2024
Yep, there she was again this morning … Chelsea, my cat. She decided wake-up was at 4:17 or was it 4:19 my eyes were blurry then … it was her appropriate moment in today’s schedule to remind me that she is in charge. Just simply tapping on my peacefully sleeping head … then tapping harder and pawing and doing all that she could to get my attention and have my eyes look directly into her shining green eyes and notice that we have a mutual experience to share … FEED ME …. PET ME … CONNECT WITH ME … PUT YOUR DREAMS ASIDE because I matter!!!
“And the LORD YOUR GOD commanded six days you may work and do all your tasks but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD YOUR GOD. Keep the Sabbath day and treat it as holy. REST!”
Chelsea’s alarm clock varies with her moods, I guess. I know she watches me sleep so perhaps she makes a determination that I need her to get me out of a dream and to demonstrate my love for her. After all, she calculates, I have had several hours of sleep to myself. She actually doesn’t ask for a lot of my time because she is a cat, and cats have a way of moving along through their days without requiring walks like dogs. They just want to ensure that their humans understand who is in charge.
When it comes to God … you remember God, right? The Creator! Have you determined that God is in charge? The God who walked alongside Joshua who declared, “But as for me and my family, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD!”
You know THE LORD. If you can remember last Sunday’s Scripture from Isaiah, we read how Isaiah “heard the Lord’s voice saying, “Whom should I send, and who will go for us?” And Isaiah declared to God “I AM HERE … SEND ME!”
All of you know the stories of RAHAB … DAVID … RUTH … EZEKIEL …SAUL/PAUL and we can never forget Abraham and Moses can we. And, for you ladies out there you can condense your Bibles to the New Testament to hear the history of women in Scripture who changed their paths when God reached out to them. Women were the first to declare HE IS RISEN <<HE IS RISEN INDEED>>. We know how Elizabeth was called by God and brought us John the Baptist … and then Mary … oh my that teenager … after being woken up by God’s angel who told her to rejoice because she had been chosen and that “the Lord God is with you! Mary declared, “With all my heart I glorify the Lord! In the depths of who I am … I rejoice in God my savior!”
Friends, just imagine if God woke you up today … like Chelsea woke me up … to nudge you and convince you that there was a relationship between you and God that needed to be worked on. If every day … every single day … there was the God of the universe physically reaching to touch your shoulder to declare HERE I AM … I AM GOD … and I NEED YOUR LOVE and SERVICE! How would you react? I have no doubt we’d jump up and say YES, GOD, YES GOD … what can I do for you! But truthfully God is already there waiting and waiting for our response to God’s truths.
And are you sitting out there thinking that you ARE READY but carefully and patiently waiting and needing God to speak directly to you from a burning bush perhaps? Are you energetically processing thoughts of how you can use your abilities and talents and experience for God’s church … ONCE … once God wakes you up but until then … well you are busy aren’t you with stuff that overwhelms your time and availability.
You see … in the end it’s personal between each of us and God and God has a plan for every individual … God has given us talents and abilities but also free choice to follow God and use what we have for God or not do anything. It’s just like the self care that God is ready to offer us. Frankly, God, just like Chelsea, is in charge of the important processes in the world around us and God has decided it is up to us to act. We know the lesson of the Garden when free choice was first made evident. God could have prevented Eve’s actions with a swift lightening bolt in the behind, but God left it up to them using the story in Genesis for us to learn from. She chose to act against God but God still loved Eve … still forgave Eve … still included Eve once Eve came back to God.
I searched for some appropriate words related to children today to begin the service and I found that quote from our former First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson. “CHILDREN are likely to live up to what you believe in them.” God expects us to connect the dots as God’s children … but how we react to God also impacts the future.
In Deuteronomy, the same early book of the Bible from the Torah where we heard the strong message from God to “keep the Sabbath day and treat it as holy.” You know … God directions for God’s children … all of us … keep one day a week as a day of sabbath and the Scripture notes that “the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord YOUR God.” That’s personal it’s between you and God but listen to this message from God’s Word that also is so valuable on this particular Sunday morning, “Place these words I am speaking on your heart and IN YOUR VERY BEING. They should be on your forehead as a symbol. TEACH THEM to YOUR CHILDREN by talking about them when you are sitting around your house and when you are out and about and when you are lying down and getting up!”
TEACH YOUR CHILDREN … PLACE GOD’s WORDS on your heart and in your very being!! Talk about God’s purposes … God’s love … God’s expectations … and if you need clarity on what God expects from us just turn to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and the first chapter of Acts because you can find the words of Jesus there. It’s good for us!
It is interesting to note that in today’s Gospel Jesus is referring to self care … to restoration of who we are because as Jesus noted, “The Sabbath was CREATED for HUMANS! Humans were not created for the Sabbath.”
Friends … God does want to get personal with you and me. God does want to care for you and me! God wants God’s love for us to change our lives, but it begins with us.
God’s intent for humanity is for us to have the best opportunities for living our lives with God and to experience joy in that relationship but the choice falls back upon us. Perhaps that’s why God emphasized getting REST through a faith-connected day of Sabbath.
And, just look at us in the 21st century … the SABBATH was CREATED FOR HUMANITY to not only connect with God but to give us a break in our lives. Actually Scripture tells us the SABBATH is to even give REST to our oxen and donkeys for those of you who have a couple of oxen in your yards. In the times we live in we struggle to even find an hour in a week to come to church because as I am often told by members of this church and by my friends … “we have so much on our schedules … we are so busy … the kids have to be at ‘fill in the blank’ …’ and what in the world is happening to that personal relationship with God and Jesus Christ that offers hope, joy, and peace that goes beyond human understanding?
POOF IT IS GONE … and of course we know that once we reach the summer months it is time to take vacation from church and universally church attendance numbers shrink down from the already abysmal numbers that exist in the times we live in.
And, the LORD GOD COMMANDS … “Keep the Sabbath day and treat it as holy!! Don’t do any work on it … REST!”
If we don’t get it … if we don’t value our relationship with God … then how in the world will the next generation even have a concept of having God in their lives? Vacation Bible Schools will disappear (By the way … check out all the decorations already in place for our VBS but are you willing to teach? Invite children to come? Do crafts? Or are you too busy?), Sunday School for children will be relegated to the history books and kids won’t even appreciate the Communion table, one of the sacraments of the church.
So where do you begin? Well, we are connected in worship right now … can we all take a deep breath and honestly pray peacefully to God as individuals before, during and after sharing in Communion? I have always believed that Communion is personal …. It’s between God and ourselves … not to be rushed or simplified but to be magnified in a faith connection.
You should have seen Barbara Hoffman’s face yesterday as she received Communion in her bed. She had to use a straw to drink from the small cup savoring each drop.
Today’s Communion is just an opportunity for a new beginning in our life-long connection with God. We need to find the still waters regularly to restore our souls … for our health both physical health and most definitely spiritual health. Can you go to the river? To the shore? To the mountains? To your backyard? And, are you willing to push the world aside at least on a Sabbath?
Find a personal Psalm to read over and over again (Mine is Psalm 63’s first 8 verses.). Find music of faith that offers you peace and rest. Subscribe to an online devotion … this morning AFTER CHELSEA’s wake up … I opened up my daily God’s Minute and found these words for me from First John,”This is love: not that we loved God but that God loved us and sent His Son. God so loved us and we ought to love one another. Love is patient and love is kind. It does not envy.”
That was my morning wake up … and I could hear the song of my youth, “You, who are on the road must have a code that you can live by. And, so become yourself because the past is just a goodbye. Teach your children well … and know they love you.”
God of Creation loves us … God of Creation wants our love … God of Creation has created a day of Sabbath to rest and connect with God. It’s personal and up to you. AMEN