7/27/58

Scripture: Mark 2: 23- 3: 5

For many years, our two churches, the Congregational and the Methodist of Wisconsin Rapids, have worshipped together during the summer months of July and August.

Beginning with the summer of 1950, and continuing to the present time, two services of worship have been arranged for each Sunday of these two summer months. There are those who like an early service of worship, especially in the summer time. The early morning hours are fresh, cool and beautiful. Like the young folk who have kept early morning watch at summer church conferences, those who come to church early are lifted in spirit, and refreshed in the beginning of the day.

Of course some who come to the early service do so at that time because, by attending then, they have a longer day for family plans, trips to see friends, or for recreational activities. Some who have responsibility for very small children or for shut-ins, divide family forces, part of the family attending the early service and part the later service.

There are others, apparently more in number, who like an unhurried rising on Sunday, a leisurely breakfast, and attendance at the second service on these summer Sundays.

For all of us, I think it is well to remind ourselves that this dual service arrangement is not a concession to selfish or secular attractions, but an attempt to underline the importance of the Lord’s Day. With two services available, it has been clear that more people, judging by total attendance, are present at worship than was the case when a single summer service was held each Sunday. And this fulfills one of the purposes of a Sabbath Day as a day of worship and renewal. I want to dwell upon this for a little while this morning.

No benefit which we have should be taken for granted, or accepted thoughtlessly. To have a day of rest from vocational labor, with the opportunity to worship, an important part of that rest and renewal, is a blessing which should be matched with dedicated purpose to worship. This is far from being the kind of “duty” that is imposed by some party leader or dictated by dogma. It is a blessed opportunity, denied to some, but freely open to most of us in this land. It is short-sighted and spiritually stunting to neglect it.

Here is a young man on his tour of duty with the armed services. He is stationed hundreds of miles from his family. But he keeps track of the time that they will be at church back there in his home town. He tries to synchronize his own worship with theirs, and feels strength in the knowledge that they all seek the presence of God, though many miles apart.

Here is a man who knows beyond a doubt that his mother prays for him every Sunday of her life. Knowing that his needs, his sins, and his promise of serviceable manhood, are held before the throne of grace at the same time he himself is at worship, is a source of unfailing strength and renewal to him each week.

Here is a woman who is particularly lonely, without family of near living relatives, and with few real friends. Yet she relies on the grace of God to keep her ways, and to make vital the friendships she does have; and to illuminate her work, as she worships regularly.

Here is a young husband and wife, only recently bride and groom, full of the joy of their life as a new household, building their home together at regular worship in a church service and taking in the strength to meet the testings as well as the bliss of household responsibility.

All sorts of folk, with all sorts of need, are to be found at worship. And all of us, without exception, have our own need for worship. Further yet, others have their need of us. For every worshipper who attends adds his or her own contribution to the significance of corporate worship. In reaffirming our belief in the Christian Sabbath as a day of worship, we are not advocating any stiff and “blue law” kind of Sunday. Some of the severe requirements of Sabbath observance are more characteristic of the Pharisees than of our Lord.

It was the requirement of Pharisees that one might walk only so many steps on the Sabbath without transgressing the law to keep the Sabbath holy. Jesus went where it was necessary to go, and when, in order to observe the spirit, as well as the letter, of the Sabbath.

Among the spiritual ancestors of the American people are the Puritans of New England and the early settlers of Virginia. The Puritans, especially, have been given a reputation for joyless severity. And there are far too many who are willing to join in “three sneers” for the Puritans! They may have had ways that seem to us somber and severe. But they had something that we need today, as fully as they needed it, and had it --- namely moral backbone! And this was much of their joy!

I would hardly advocate their 3-hour sermons! (--either for the one who should prepare them or for the congregation that had to listen to them.) Even thirty minutes may seem long to present-day churchgoers.

But a lot of teaching, as well as exhortation, went into those Puritan sermons. It was a form of schooling for those Colonial folk who had little enough opportunity for learning. And it was deemed important enough so that everyone ought to pay attention.

Do you remember, from your history book, or from some picture of Colonial life, how there was a “tithing man” at Puritan worship whose duty it was to see that no one slept or even nodded during those long sermons? He stood at the back of the room, and was equipped with a long pole. On one end of the pole was a solid knob and at the other end a feather. If the “tithing man” should see some man or boy nodding with drowsiness during the long sermon, it was his duty to give that one a fairly solid awakening rap on the head with the knob on the end of his pole. And this he did! If it were a lady whose head began to bob in drowsiness, the tithing man would tickle her face with the feather.

I’m glad that we have a better use for the services of ushers and deacons in our church. And yet our admiration goes out to those old timers. They had principles and disciplines that they would not compromise.

The early Virginians might pass around a box of snuff when someone got sleepy in the church. But they expected to pay attention during long sermons, too. It seems quaint to us now, but it was a part of the sternness which they imposed upon themselves and which gave character to their lives. And they did have moral backbone!

It must be recognized that many of the Scribes and Pharisees had a deep determination to do right and to be right. In fact they lost their way in the mechanics of that endeavor.

Not so our Lord Jesus Christ! He rescued the Sabbath from its negative misuse and made it over into a glad, positive kind of day.

To the Pharisees, one could hardly eat on the Sabbath, because eating involves a certain amount of effort or work, which was forbidden on the Sabbath. To Jesus, it was all right for his followers, if they were hungry, to eat some kernels of grain, even though it did involve the modest effort of picking the kernels of grain in the field on the Sabbath.

To the Pharisees, it was work to help or heal one on the Sabbath. To Jesus, it was a blasphemy to withhold the mercy of healing simply because the appeal came to him on the Sabbath. And if a man’s ox fell into the ditch on the Sabbath and couldn’t get out, it was not necessary to leave the poor beast there until the Sabbath was over. But one could rightly help it to get out. Jesus was actually angry with the Pharisees for their narrow strictness at this point of Sabbath observance.

When his critics spoke against him for healing the sick on the Sabbath, he explained that “the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”

In fact Jesus transformed the Sabbath -- re-formed it through his own victory over death. And so, today we keep it not on the seventh day of the week as was the Hebrew custom and requirement, but on the first day of the week as a memorial of his resurrection.

It is his gift to us, not to be thrown aside or ignored, but to be rightly used. It is not a day for idle gossip, nor yet for sitting around with piously-folded hands. But it is a day to be used for rest, for re-creation, for worship.

There have been times in the past when this day was at stake, when the opportunity to use it rightly was neglected and lost, to the moral and spiritual detriment of people. It is at stake in the modern world as well.

Dr. Leslie Weatherhead, preaching in London, pointed out that hardly 10% of the English people attend church regularly. And he warned his hearers in these words: “Unless we take a moral stand for this day, our children will have no Sunday worth talking about.”

We may well sober ourselves with the same kind of reminder and warning. Shall we surrender Sunday to all manner of selfish whim and neglect? Or shall we use it for assembling in the house of worship, for the witness and the practice of our faith, for rest from our regular labor, and for moderate, wholesome recreation?

There is a rhythm of living which requires periodic breaks in, or changes from the tension of our jobs. Body, mind, and spirit need alternate work and rest in every 24-hour period. Indeed we need variety in shorter intervals than that. And we need the spiritual rhythm of one whole day of rest in seven.

It was not a clergyman, but a businessman, who remarked that “anyone ought to be able to see the common sense value of keeping one day in seven for rest, recreation and worship. If we lose our nerve,” he said, “and are so cowardly that we do not stand up for this day any longer, then legislation will need to be passed in order that one day out of seven be set aside for other than material pursuits.”

We need to recognize the need, in everyone, for a Sabbath in which the “light, or torch, of Jesus Christ shows the way.”

And it is well for us to recognize that those who would scuttle and invalidate and compromise Sunday are not our friends.

You know who and what takes over when we lose our moral nerve and let go of the Christian Sabbath. Secular pursuits of every sort presume to use the day. Towns become “wide-open.” Law observance suffers or goes by the board, eventually even property values deteriorate, because people want to live and raise their families in an atmosphere of moral responsibility.

It is easy to let the secular “camel’s nose” get into the tent of Sabbath observance, and keep coming, until the day is filled with everything else except the worship and rest for which it was given. And people need another day to “rest up” from the exhaustion and ill-use of a mis-spent Sunday.

And even when you travel, or move, you can take the Sabbath with you. One of the men who joined the push toward the west in the days of the gold rush, found himself part of a covered wagon caravan that halted on a Saturday night at one of the outposts of civilization. Sunday morning other men in the group proposed that they spend the day in gambling, for the fun they could find in it. This man said, “O no, I will not do that. This is the Sabbath.” A chorus of laughter greeted him. “What do you mean, the Sabbath? You know as well as we do that there is no Sunday out here in the wilderness.” “O yes, there is,” came his reply, “I brought it with me across the mountains.” And while others gambled it away, he invested in the opportunity of the day by taking out his Bible and reading it hungrily, thoughtfully, and gratefully.

You can take the Sabbath with you on that move, or on that vacation. Which leads us to another observation: that mankind needs not only the rhythm of tension and relaxation each day, and the regular restoration of one Sabbath day of worship and rest one day in seven. But he needs an occasional vacation for restoration to fitness.

Some of us find the best vacation in the realm of nature where mountains or streams or lake and trees help to restore our strength and re-compose our overwrought nerves. Others head for the city with its music, theater, and other cultural offerings -- or golf or baseball. Some travel extensively by air, or rail or highway or on the sea. Others find a good place to “stay put” and rest.

But whatever one chooses by way of vacation, it ought to be a time of refreshment, of renewal, of re-fitting one’s body, mind and soul for the continuation of his chosen duty. He can give his Lord a chance to “restore his soul” in contemplation of the creation and Creator, refresh his body with healthful surroundings, refill his mind with what is not required, but interesting.

Some families, in effect, learn the geology, and geography of their state or nation as they move about on vacation. Some make history vivid by seeing and inquiring about historical sites. One fills his eyes on examples of fine architecture in the towns and cities visited. Another expands his knowledge of wild life.

Some pay particular attention to churches along the way.

Whatever may be your interest, I hope that you, when you have a vacation, can make it a time of renewal and growth. And one sign of growth is to forsake not the opportunity to worship, wherever you are, with those who gather in the house of the Lord, or elsewhere on the Lord’s Day.

For the deepest needs of human nature are not satisfied alone by the freshness, the beauty, or the rigors of nature, but by contact with the Father of all spirits who alone can quiet the overwrought heart, forgive and heal the troubled spirit, give courage to the downcast and downtrodden; cast our sins into the deepest sea, and make us whole.

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, July 27, 1958 (union service).