Podcast: Behind the Scenes: The Sabbath, God's Gift to Us; (Mark 2:23-3:6)

Good day, and welcome to North Raleigh United Methodist Church Behind the Scenes Podcast, where we sit down weekly and discuss this week's scripture and sermon.

My name is Kevin Bell Hall.

I serve as your host and moderator.

And joining me today is one of the senior pastors here at North Raleigh, Kevin Johnson.

Hi, Kevin.

Hey, Kevin.

Thanks for uh joining me today and welcome back.

Laura was here last week as we got you guys teamed back and forth.

One switches in, one switches out.

I love the rotation.

It gives us a different perspective sometimes and but the same perspective at the same time as well.

Very centered on the uh on the message of Jesus and the Methodist Church and the message that you put out is uh awesome.

And I appreciate you joining us for the podcast as an opportunity for me to sometimes ask questions, throw some hard questions at you.

I haven't been able to stump either one of you.

Well, I'm not doing my job.

I'm not doing my job.

But last week Laura and I were talking uh well, kickoff Sunday was this past Sunday, and she was uh preaching on uh Here I Am.

And well, let's talk about Kickoff Sunday.

How was it?

Well, it was a great day.

I I know we had uh quite a good turnout and a lot of folks learning about a lot of the ministries and missions of the church and ways to get plugged in this fall.

So we're really grateful for that.

Really grateful for all the hands that helped put it together.

Um and I know that it was uh it was a different lift and that we had all the services in the sanctuary that morning, but I think it really went well and um it was a it was a good day.

Yeah.

Outstanding.

Growth continues for the church here, which is a good thing.

Absolutely.

And so if you're able to uh join us on uh Sundays, and if you're not, we do live stream as offer that as an opportunity as well as this podcast to sit down and learn a little bit.

We're gonna continue on with uh discussing uh it's September 1st, and you're gonna talk to us a little bit about the Sabbath, God's gift to us this coming Sunday.

And um we'll ask some questions and more of an open discussion today, a little bit of what is kind of happened to the ritual of the Sabbath in today's world, maybe.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think it's a really important question for us.

And so I want to we really want, I mean, these scriptures are specific to being about the Sabbath and really the heart of it.

And um they're not the toughest scriptures in the world to understand.

They might be a lot more hard to implement, and so I think I I want to focus there.

Yeah.

Okay.

We're going to be in uh Mark and the early parts of uh Jesus' ministry in uh Mark chapter two, but how about a word of prayer first?

Yeah, let's pray.

Oh Lord, we ask that you would guide us as as we think about this topic of Sabbath and we reflect on it.

Uh help us to be able to trust you enough to be able to rest in you.

That's in Christ's name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

So Mark's gospel, a little bit um fast-paced, I would say, short to the point versus some of the other gospels.

Yeah, well, that's what we're gonna be studying this fall on Wednesday nights and on and for Tuesdays with the pastor.

We're gonna be doing a walkthrough Mark.

So we're gonna be doing nine weeks straight, read the whole gospel of Mark this fall.

So thanks for setting me up.

My pleasure.

I I I didn't even know I was doing it.

There you go.

Well, there you go.

And good host.

We are in the early parts of Jesus' ministry.

And Mark, what's going on here?

It's um right about the time Jesus is called the disciples.

Yeah, I mean, uh it's we're really just getting early teachings from Jesus, right?

I mean, we he had some early healings right after um right after he called the disciples, and then we're getting kind of these examples of Jesus teaching, and and already like at the end of verse, at the end of chapter or at the beginning of chapter two, we already have opponents to Jesus, some legal experts and Pharisees start to be opposed to him, right?

So that that that happens really, really early in Mark's gospel here.

Um in some in some of the other gospels, it might it might take a little bit longer to get there, but the opposition mounts, you know, chapter two here.

Immediate.

Yeah.

Immediate, yes.

Mark rushing to get to the uh point of uh of near the end of Jesus' ministry and covers the beginning part uh fairly quickly, but he does mention this passage of about the Sabbath and how the Pharisees uh question and literally uh accuse and ridicule him and his disciples for breaking the law.

So we're gonna talk about just what is the law.

And so we're beginning in uh Mark chapter 2, verse uh 23 through uh uh uh chapter three, verse verse uh six, right?

Mark 2 · chapter mention

Is that correct?

Okay, great.

Jesus went through the wheat fields on the Sabbath.

As the disciples made their way, they were picking the heads of wheat.

The Pharisee said to Jesus, Look, why are they breaking the Sabbath law?

He said to them, Haven't you ever read what David did when he was in need, when he and those with him were hungry?

During the time when Abiathar was high priest, David went into God's house and ate the bread of the presence, which only the priests were allowed to eat.

He also gave bread to those who were with him.

Then he said, The Sabbath was created for humans.

Humans weren't created for the Sabbath.

This is why the Son of Man is Lord even over the Sabbath.

Jesus returned to the synagogue.

A man with a withered hand was there.

Wanting to bring charges against Jesus, they were watching Jesus closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath.

He said to the man with a withered hand, Step up where people can see you.

Then he said to them, Is it legal on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?

But they said nothing.

Looking around at them with anger, deeply grieved at their unyielding hearts, he said to the man, stretch out your hand.

So he did, and his hand was made healthy.

At that the Pharisees got together with the supporters of Herod to plan how to destroy Jesus.

Well, so just for I don't know what their interpretation of just breaking the law on the Sabbath, we already want to start plotting against Jesus.

So let's talk about just what law did they break by just walking through the field and picking some grains of wheat.

Right.

So it you know, we've got in the Old Testament, right, we obviously have honor the Sabbath and keep it holy.

Right.

We have that in Exodus 20, given as one of the Ten Commandments.

And then what we really have in the breakdown of Exodus and Leviticus, right, is a lot of the case laws.

There's 616, I believe, is the number.

Uh and that's how many particular laws are there.

Uh so it might be a description about you know what types of foods you can eat or what types of clothes you can wear, or particular Sabbath practice.

But then we after that, right, what what the rabbis developed was what they called the Mishnah and and or the Midrash, right?

And they would they would teach on those things.

And essentially, like below the line of the Bible, they would have all their teachings that this rabbi said, well, this means this way, almost like their continual conversation about it.

And what some of the religious leaders in those days were doing, and some of these groups, almost like almost proto-denominations, right?

You have these Pharisees and Sadducees, you had kind of different groups interpreting different ways.

And um and a lot of these legal experts were making sure that all of whatever this rabbi said was followed through, and that whatever this one's, you know, and and so they were making sure it wasn't just what Exodus and Leviticus said, but it was even after that, right?

So I don't know if we have a particular law per se about the plucking a head of grain on the Sabbath, but they might have an example where it talked about harvesting your fields, and then some rabbi might have said, and even you shouldn't pluck a head of grain, or something like that, right?

Under it in the midrash or whatever he's writing about it.

Right.

And then it becomes the practice and culture, right?

So that I mean that's kind of how it probably developed.

Yeah, well case you say case law.

Literally, that's how it works in today's.

We write to the Constitution, laws are written by the federal government, state government, and then as everyone challenges those laws, a new ruling comes out and it gets added on to the interpretation of how that law is supposed to be carried forward.

And this is probably what has happened through the generations in Jesus' day versus Exodus when the first Moses first brought the law out.

Yeah.

Thousands of years to add, to change, or to figure out how what does that mean for our lives now.

When this technology develops, what does that mean with how we do this?

You know, it's the same way we ask ethical questions today, um, and we go back and forth and pro like have conversations about it, have disagreements about it, and all sorts of things.

Uh, that was exist that was that was part of Jewish life was disagreeing about your interpretation about how these things work.

Um, but apparently Jesus was doing that the wrong way.

Well, he he tries to get them on the right path to understand what's going on and talks about what is it to do evil or to do good.

But first of all, he says that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.

It got to the point, I think, to where they were just going through the rituals of making sure that they obeyed every possible part of the law versus understanding what those teachings and laws were first given to them in the first place.

Sure.

What yeah, what's the intent, right?

And that's what Jesus turned, you know, the Sermon on the Mount, you could argue, is like the greatest example of Jesus saying, What's the intent of the law?

You've heard it said, you know, don't kill.

I say to you, if you call your brother, you know, a if you call your brother a fool, then you're in danger of the fires of hell, right?

If you said, don't commit adultery.

Well, I tell you, if you look at a woman lustfully in your heart, you might as well have gone to bed with her, right?

Like that's so Jesus is reinterpreting all over the place what the what the law is, and he's going deeper into what the heart of the law is.

And I think that's hugely important for his ministry and how he is.

Well you said, well, what was the intent?

So what was the intent of the Sabbath?

What do you think God intended us when he says keep the Sabbath holy?

What was the intent, the original intent?

So I think you know, the the sermon title is God's gift to us, the Sabbath.

And I I think I think the intent was, you know, there's two reasons given for the Sabbath commandment.

One is in Exodus 20, and then when the the law gets repeated in Deuteronomy six, another version is used, or in Deuteronomy 5.

So in in Exodus 20, I believe it's um because on the seventh day the Lord rested at creation.

And so to a certain degree, it's we're made in the image of God, even God rested, so therefore we should too.

Okay.

In Deuteronomy, the reason given when the Ten Commandments are repeated is six days you should labor and do you all do all your work.

But the seventh is a Sabbath, Lord your God.

Remember, you were slaves in the land of Egypt.

And basically, you don't have to live like slaves anymore.

Yeah, sure.

Sure.

The the the tradition had it that Egypt was not on a seven-day calendar, it was on a ten-day, and they never had a day off ever.

And it was work, work, work all of the time.

Um and so really I I I think that you know the Sabbath is for us, is that God invites us to live into a pattern of life that is sustainable.

God invites us into a pattern of life that realizes that we are not only what we produce or make, um, but that we are allowed to rest and to enjoy and to to have fun and to flourish in that like all of those things and to worship.

Do they go hand in hand, the rest and worship?

Yeah.

I believe so.

I mean, I think that's that was God's intent, right?

And I don't think that means that thou shalt be at church for 24 hours uh or something like that, or even that you're necessarily like in prayer for that whole time.

But I do.

I think rest fuels worship.

I think rest enables you to, you know, whether that means for a lot of us like connecting with nature and being outside and kind of reconnecting with like the fact that we're people of of the earth, you know, and um or just having a chance to um to move our bodies and take a walk, or it's also taking a nap in the middle of the day or something like that.

Like some things that we, you know, our our kind of go-go-go culture really opposes, right?

And um, well, we say we live in a 24-7 kind of society to where not only are we uh not really observing the Sabbath very well, we're we're not even um giving time off for the holidays.

Uh God gives us holidays, festivals, celebrations, tells us to celebrate on these days.

Remember uh at a time.

Remember the Passover and your and the first harvest, first fruits, and the different uh holidays and celebrations that God uh literally puts in for the everyone to rem take the time to remember and to celebrate.

So it it puts in not only a time of rest, but a time of celebration, that it is not just always work, work, work, work, work, work.

Why and why has it changed to where it seems like it is work, work, work, work, work seven days, 24 hours a day.

We physically can't do that as humans, can we?

No, and so I think there's a couple things in play, right?

So one of them, I'm I'm reading this book and I've got it sitting here, and I told Kevin I had to go get it before.

Um it's it's called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, and it's by John Mark Comer.

Um, and he borrowed that phrase from someone, and he wrote this book in 2019.

And I had purchased this six months ago and honestly just took it with me on a trip this last weekend and started reading it, not thinking about it being sermon preparation, and then sometimes the Lord works, and there's a connector there.

But I was honestly just reading because I'm like, I'd be interested to read this.

It doesn't feel very worky, and I can read it while I'm on my trip and everything like that.

And lo and behold, I was like, Oh, I'm preaching about the Sabbath, and this is completely related.

Um, and I've got some other Sabbath books and things I've read, but um I so I think part you know, he he uses an example in this book of like in the 50s, the picture of like a person who was really rich in advertising world was like someone taking a vacation, someone being like they had the leisure to put their feet up.

So like an advertisement for a really high luxury item was of someone doing that.

And whereas today, when we see, you know, an ad for a you know, a crazy priced watch company or something like that that runs when the US opens playing or something like that, that ad is like of an exec in a boardroom running something.

That like we we equate in our minds in our culture, success is busyness, right?

And then we essentially busyness becomes almost like a badge of pride and a badge of honor.

And we've been like we've been lured into that type of world that says that that is success, that I have to be putting myself ahead, that I like, and we just get into this, frankly, like a rat race, right?

And what's crazy is that when we've had all sorts of technological innovations, there there were thoughts in the 60s and 70s when more and more household products were coming out that were gonna help um help human life, you know, when dishwashers were more on the market.

When all these kind of things, right?

Easier, make things easier.

Things easier.

Um the thought with all the, I mean, there there were conversations in Congress in the 50s and 60s that were like, what are we gonna do when the American Work Week is go down to 25 hours?

Like, how are we gonna do it?

And it's just the opposite.

You used to live on one income on those days.

Sure, you live in the year.

Work was nine to five.

Sure.

Now there wasn't a way to get 12 hours a day and it's a good thing.

And there wasn't a way to get a hold of you after it, right?

And there wasn't the expectation that someone's gonna respond after hours, right?

Unless you were a doctor on call, right?

But like but now a lot of us live in a world where there's that expectation and where and and or we feel like we should, and therefore we we respond to it.

Um and I just think that like we we the this death of Sabbath, you know, sometimes we talk about like you know, there's people you might remember some of it in your life, but definitely people older than you, Kevin, who remember blue laws and everything like that in strong existence, which aware in some places heck, there was nothing open.

Right.

You know, there's nothing open on a Sunday.

And and you know, sometimes I laugh at the like people calling out for the good old days.

I don't in this way.

I'm kind of like, let's go back, like take me there.

Uh, you know, and um and and and it wasn't just about not being able to shop, but it was also like there wasn't the expectation that you would do anything else other than you know, be with family, have some type of leisure, all that kind of stuff, right?

Um very much more competitive world, it seems today, of do you say the rat race.

Some people were it's a rat race just to stay alive, survival.

Uh use there's a huge wealth gap going on, and it seems like so many of us are just working just to get by.

And then there's the competitive issue of it of everything is a contest that we need to win.

And it's even pushed into Christian nationalism that our country has to be better than your country, my God has got to be better than your God, my religion's better than your religion.

Uh we have to fight and scribe for everything versus just try to enjoy one day off of just peaceful existence.

Sure.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, it it's interesting.

He quotes this article from Andrew Sullivan in this book John Murray Comer does, and he says, when he's talking about the Sabbath, the Jewish institution co-opted by Christianity was a moment of calm to reflect on our lives under the light of eternity.

It helped define much of Western public life once a week for centuries, only to dissipate with scarcely a passing regret into the commercial cacophony of the past couple of decades.

It reflected a now battered belief that a sustained spiritual life is simply unfeasible for most mortals without these refuges from noise and work to buffer us and remind us who we really are.

And I'll tell you, I mean, so last summer, last summer Laura and I had the privilege of taking a sabbatical, um, a renewal leave, and before we started with you all here, and and then today's the official we we've been here a year at the church, um, because we started September 1.

And um, you know, we had this planned camping trip, which some of y'all have heard about.

We've talked about being away for you know over six weeks and stuff, and um, but but even when that sabbatical started and we were just preparing to go on the trip and everything, the first week or two were difficult for me to live without like I I live I I was done with my last church.

I didn't have those obligations of care for peop, you know, I didn't really have responsibilities there or at the new place yet.

And I was that so I wasn't defined at all by my work and by what I was accomplishing in that way.

And for the first little bit that was hard.

I got over it pretty quick.

Uh and and so by two weeks in, three weeks in, it was literally a delight to live.

And you know, as as we took this trip and had the I mean, you know, it's not like every day was perfect and there weren't challenges along the way, but it was also such a reminder of like who I am and and how I'm connected to God and to my family, and that that needs to be predominantly the space I live.

It was sort of like I had one big Sabbath.

I mean that's where sabbatical comes from, right?

And and I I'd say I'm still living out of that now, even a year into here.

I I I'm I know I'm a far better husband and father because of it, and I think I'm a better pastor.

Because some of the tyranny of the urgence is a little bit that noise is a little bit less to me than it used to be.

Now, not everyone that is listening to this has the privilege to be able to go and take a sabbatical opportunity like that, right?

And in our tradition, the United Methodists haven't been very good at taking it either.

And so, like, we had to kind of scrap and claw to make it happen.

Uh, but I would recommend any of my colleagues that they do it.

Um, because it it really it really refreshed me and reminded me a little bit of why this concept of Sabbath is so important.

For us, like in my life, that ain't gonna happen on Sundays, right?

Sunday's a work day for a pastor, it's just the way it is.

I love the work I get to do with y'all.

It's great.

It's a work day.

Um, so for us, that falls largely on like Friday into Saturday.

It's how we kind of live our lives.

Um and and and sometimes what we try to do is to try to make Friday our get stuff done day.

Because that's the thing.

You gotta do the stuff.

You gotta do the laundry and cut the grass and go to the grocery store and all the things that everyone has to do so that we can kind of move Friday into Saturday as a as a Sabbath, right?

As a time to actually rest, as a time to recharge, time to be with family and everything like that.

Well, if you think about the Sabbath, actually the seventh day is Saturday.

We as Christians celebrate the Sabbath on a Sunday.

Sure.

Going back to the intent.

What was the intent of the Sabbath?

Some people have to be working on Sunday.

Sure.

And they tried to move and take your Sabbath, your day of rest, on a different time.

Sure.

And so that's staying within the letter of the law versus no, the Sabbath has to be on a Sabbath.

From sundown, you know, on Friday till sunrise.

So we can see how things can evolve and change and grow.

100%.

But we still somewhere have lost the line, completely lost it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, it's the weirdest thing.

You know, there's a couple days that happen a year where I mean, gosh, there's not many of them now.

Maybe Christmas Day is one of the few where you can't just go to any store.

It used to be that Easter got protected like that, and not even very much anymore.

And I know that sometimes our family, like, we really, really try on those, on some of those days and like at our best to like make sure that like I even like try to make sure my car's got gas ahead of those days so that I don't have to go and make like I want to make sure I don't make anyone work if I don't have to on that day.

But I also recognize I probably hop online and I'm probably making someone at some data center somewhere like fix a computer problem by what I'm doing, right?

So it's really hard in the 24-7 type of world to fully live like like off of that.

Um, but I do think that the the intent does matter.

What matters for me the most is is the idea of like it's not just about that one day, it's also within this book, one of the conversations that he has continually is about how like we get so like we're we're so tied down by the technology that we live in, so that like our our attention spans are less, we're not even able to like be fully present in spaces because we're so used to things like our smartphone and stuff being there, and um we rest less than we used to.

He uses this example that before before Edison invented a light bulb in 1879, that the average person slept 11 hours a night.

Um and and and now you know the average American sleeps seven hours a night.

And I'm not saying we should go back to eleven.

Um, but man, it's a fight to get to like eight sometimes when you're in when you're in working life and stuff like that.

It's really hard.

Um and and it it's just crazy to think of how like how much out of rhythm we live in our daily lives sometimes.

Um, we also talked about the distractions, the phone, everything is at my fingertips, banking, email, everything.

I should make life easier, gives me I can get my work done faster, sooner, quicker, should get me more time off.

But it's it's a chain.

It's a it's holding me back.

And some people are addicted to the social media, can't turn it off, face.

Well, I think I think almost all of us are addicted to the phone in some degree, right?

So, like when we start to study brain science and what happens, like, you know, these things are programmed so that like, I mean, you know, it dings.

We're like Pavlov's dog, right?

Like we we can't help, but like, and even if it dings, and I'm like, I'm gonna ignore that for now, then in the back of my mind, I'm still thinking about how there's this thing there that I haven't checked yet, and I need to go check it, right?

I think there's a statistic in here the average person touches their iPhone over 2,000 times a day.

Oh yeah, probably.

Like, and and then if it's and that if it's in the room with you that it has like a power, it's just some crazy stuff.

And I'm not saying like, hey, let's go back and all have landlines and everything like that, or let's just, you know, let's go Luddite or let's just become Amish.

Um So what are we supposed to do?

Yeah, I think what we have to do is act, but I I think some of what we need to do is question our relationship with these things and also make some decisions in our lives about how we might live into this Sabbath command.

I mean, I think all of us would say, hey, the Ten Commandments are really important, right?

It's really good to love the Lord your God, right?

It's um it's really good to not have any idols and not put anything else before God.

Uh it's really good not to kill or to commit adultery or to steal, all those things.

Probably good not to covet even, to like long for what our neighbor has, all that stuff.

We'd say yes.

And and one of those darn c commandments is honor the Sabbath and keep it holy.

You know, we made the ten.

And and and yet we're we're so quick to throw it out.

And it's because I think it's the hardest one to do right now.

Okay.

So I think what we have to do is ask some questions in our lives that say, what would it look like for me to do a better job or for our family to do a better job of taking Sabbath?

What does that mean for us?

Maybe that means that we commit three hours on Sunday afternoon to being together, to not being in front of a screen, to not like, right?

Maybe we just start there, right?

Or it's we intentionally are going to make sure we're out in nature sometime on the weekend, right?

Maybe eventually that graduates to hey, we're gonna try to take 24 hours where um well, we're not like just doing housework trying to catch up on everything.

And and maybe that's too lofty of a goal for some and we can't get there right away, but I do think to take steps towards like how can I return back to the rhythm that God has for me?

To live into this gift that God has given.

And I I think that's a start.

Um it's not meant to be like a it's not meant to be a condemning type of word, it's meant to be a freeing one that says like you're not what you make, you're not what you do.

And and frankly, like the amount of you know, the amount of folks that have heart issues and all those kind of things, and they're not all tied to stress, but a darn lot of them are.

Um I could attest to that, but well, I didn't know if yours were family related and all those things.

Bad for your circadian rhythm, your f your physiology, the stress sometimes of the job and anything else, and anybody else can feel it in different uh facets of of of work.

And so it almost sounds like uh are you gonna give us a challenge on Sunday for your sermon?

It's like a New Year's resolution.

I challenge you to are you gonna challenge us to get back to the intent of what the Sabbath was?

Absolutely.

Yeah, I think I will.

I I don't know exactly what I mean, but but also to understand like God wants the best for us.

And and and we just settle, you know, C.S.

Lewis when he talks in Miracle Shannon, he talks about, you know, God offers a holiday at sea and we're content making mud pies in the slum, right?

And and and and that's what God's doing.

God's saying, like, live into this rest.

Live into it.

You know, and when you're a kid, the pictures of like heaven as kind of like a restful place sound really miserable.

You're like, how what am I gonna do?

But but when we're an adult and we recognize like rest doesn't have to just mean like taking a nap on the couch, like rest can also just be like enjoying life and being present with the people that I love and being like appreciating a good meal and things like that, that that that's also restful, but it's just being mindful and present where I am and I'm able to worship in that kind of space, like that's a gift.

And and why why do we like we make our lives like so much more miserable and then and then we're content looking at the little at the little screen as if that's fulfilling something and it's not.

And so so yeah, I think there will be some challenge in there, or at least some some form of self-reflection.

Aaron Powell Well, I look forward to it.

Uh Kevin's going to be preaching uh this Sunday.

This uh Sunday is the weekend of Labor Day, supposed to be a day, a holiday given to the masses for a chance for rest and recuperation.

I thought it was for sales.

I'm sorry.

No, that's Thanksgiving.

That's for Thanksgiving.

I think we have sales for everything.

Yeah, some mattresses.

Yeah, so maybe uh the challenge if you hear this before uh uh Sunday is to actually take a break this Liberty weekend.

Yeah, do it.

Yeah.

Go to the pool or something.

Put your feet up by the lake.

Sounds good.

Enjoy the it's just it says enjoy the last day of summers, but so often we consider it.

Watch a baseball game.

Whatever, right?

All these things.

How about last cookout before you put the grill away?

Absolutely.

Well, don't put that.

Well, North Carolina, it stays out until November.

So yeah.

It's all good.

So hopefully you can join us this uh Sunday, and if not, um catch the sermon online.

So we'll sign off with that and we'll be back next week.

So may the love of Christ be with you always.

Goodbye, everyone.

Bye.