Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

This morning, as I often do, I’d like to begin the sermon with a story. This story, though, is a story about a church. And I need to first offer a disclaimer, a very clear disclaimer, that this story is not a story about THIS church. This is a very important disclaimer to keep in mind before any of you get unnecessarily upset about this story. You will better understand this disclaimer once you hear the story.

This particular church was located in a very pleasant, though older, suburban neighborhood, surrounded by a shopping strip mall on one side and homes and apartments of the other side. A memorial gift a few years earlier had purchased for the church a carillon – an electronically amplified bell system much like our own carillon. At appointed hours during the day –daylight hours only, of course – the carillon announce the hours. Hymns would also ring out to the community. On Sunday mornings, the bells would also invite anyone who’d like to come and worship. With some frequency, the church received words of appreciation. In particular, elderly neighbors expressed their thanks for the music.

Then one day, the church secretary fielded a less than delicately worded phone call from one of the neighbors. The irate gentleman worked nights and was disturbed during the day by the carillon. He couldn’t get his sleep. He was planning to lodge a complaint with the city. Sure enough, within a week an inspector arrived. His measurements indicated that the carillon was technically in violation of the city’s noise ordinance. It would have to be quieted.

The phone began to ring again: “What happened to the beautiful bells? We loved the music! We can’t hear it anymore.” Neither could the man who had registered the complaint. He could now presumably get his rest, but he would never know that the carillon had been calling him to a much better, a much more complete, a much more eternal rest, his Sabbath rest.

I tell this story because our text this morning is the Third Commandment: “Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy” [Exodus 20:8].

We all learned that commandment and its meaning during confirmation class. For most of us, the study of that commandment during confirmation class ingrained into us an obligation to attend worship every Sunday. When we have not been able to attend worship for whatever reason, most of us have felt guilty. We’ve felt as if we’ve done something wrong. We’ve felt as if we’ve missed something. That’s why, I believe, so many of us here feel obligated to at least announce our absence from worship in advance when we’ve not been able to attend.

“Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy”

I in no way want to undercut that commandment. A commandment is indeed a command, not a negotiable suggestion. A commandment from our God is certainly not something that any rational person wants to mess with.

“Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy.”

I in no way want to undercut that commandment. I do, however, want to maybe suggest a different reason for keeping that commandment. Instead of keeping that commandment because we are obligated to keep that commandment – because it’s something we “have to do” – I’d like to encourage all of us to always keep that commandment because of what it gives to us. Remembering the Sabbath Day enables us to trust God to continue to provide for us, even as we rest from our labors. Remembering the Sabbath Day enables us to allow our bodies a chance to enjoy some down time. Remembering the Sabbath Day provides us a change of scenery, an opportunity to do something different. Remembering the Sabbath Day enables us to remember our God, to spend some time with Him and to allow Him to spend some time with us as He speaks His Word to us and feeds us with His precious gifts of Water and Body and Blood.

In all my many years of dealing with people who have fallen into the bad habit which is so easy to continue once it is started of absenting themselves from worship, I have rarely heard the excuse, “Pastor, I really need to rest.” Usually I hear the excuse that the absent person has many other things that need to get accomplished on Sunday. Sometimes there is a work schedule that cannot be changed. More often it’s a sports event for themselves or for their kids. More often it’s a party. More often it’s another event. More often it’s getting caught up on projects like vacuuming the carpets or scrubbing the toilets. More often – and honestly more honestly – it’s just a desire to merely want to do something else besides church and usually that’s because they felt they were forced to attend church when they were younger so not attending church is a sign of their independence.

What I often find is that people who have fallen into the bad habit of absenting themselves from worship are very similar to that man in our opening story – they’re looking for rest, but they overlook the one place where TRUE REST can be found, rest and refreshment that only comes from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, rest and refreshment that comes from singing His praises, rest and refreshment that comes from hearing His Word read and proclaimed, rest and refreshment that comes from knowing our sins have been forgiven by Jesus Christ.

Remembering the Sabbath Day is not just yet another commandment that “has to” be done or just one more thing we’re “supposed to do.” Remembering the Sabbath Day is a special invitation from our great God – the most important invitation in fact we can ever imagine receiving – to let our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ meet us right where we are, not because we “HAVE TO” but because He wants us to, because He has enabled us a time to rest, a time for Him to give us His own unique rest.

My prayer for all of us during this very busy Lenten season is that our joint times of “Remembering the Sabbath Day,” whether it be on Sundays or on Wednesdays or both days would be times of joy and times of refreshment. My prayer for all of us during this very busy Lenten season is that our joint times of “Remembering the Sabbath Day” would be times when we clearly hear our Savior Jesus say, “Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you My rest” [Matthew 11:28].

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pastor Christopher Schaar
Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena