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quarta-feira, 10 de julho de 2013

How Do Clergy Observe the Sabbath?

How Do Clergy Observe the Sabbath?
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Submitted: Jun 13, 2013
By Monte Sahlin
Last week Alban Institute, a research organization and resource center affiliated with the Episcopal Church, published in its regular newsletter a piece on the Sabbath. It indicates the increasing interest in the topic among Protestant clergy and others. And it highlights some of the ways that other Christians approach the topic differently than do many Adventists.

Which day of the week is the Sabbath is never mentioned in the Alban newsletter. The focus is entirely about the quality of the Sabbath experience. Listening to the recent interview about the 150th anniversary of the General Conference on NPR, I heard a similar perspective from the Baptist historian who joined Dr. David Trim, director of the GC office of Archives, Statistics and Research, in the interview. The Baptist scholar readily admitted that Seventh-day Adventists are correct about Saturday being the seventh day identified in the Bible as the Sabbath.

The Alban newsletter reported on group interviews with support groups for clergy. One of the issues that the researchers asked the groups about was Sabbath-keeping. They asked if the time spent by pastors in these support groups was experienced by them as a "Sabbath" or time of rest. They reported "a debate not only about whether the group time is Sabbath but what Sabbath is, period. Participants identified elements of Sabbath in their time together: It separates them from their work routine. No one is judging anyone else. ... Others hold back from calling it Sabbath because it involves the hard work of exploring and understanding" the topics under discussion.

The authors pointed out that the two versions of the Sabbath commandment in Exodus and Deuteronomy root the Sabbath in two different foundational ideas. In Exodus "the Sabbath command is warranted because God rested on the seventh day of creation. ... In Deuteronomy the command is warranted by" God's freeing of His people from slavery. Adventist theologian Samuele Bacchiocchi has written about this, pointing out that the Sabbath is both a memorial of creation and a celebration of social justice, but most Adventists have sidestepped this analysis and focused instead on the old fight about "which day" and who changed it.

"It may be that no other commandment is more difficult to translate in our culture than Sabbath observance," the Alban newsletter stated. "Translating Sabbath from an ancient agrarian culture into a diverse postmodern one is complicated. While Sabbath is essential ... it is important to honor the complexity of what seems to be a simple command to rest. How could a command to rest be so challenging?" Nowhere are these issues more clear than for pastors. "The Sabbath is the day I worked the hardest," one pastor friend told me long ago. Imagine if your pastor announced, "I am going to stop working on the Sabbath. You will need to get someone else to preach and lead worship from here on out." Would your elders and church board petition the conference to fire the pastor, or step forward to cover the functions needed?

I still remember a man that I once gave Bible studies to. When we got to the Sabbath, he challenged me. "Do you get paid to preach on Sabbath?" I confessed that it was my understanding that if I stopped preaching on Sabbath it was likely that my paychecks would stop arriving. He replied that the same thing would happen to him and asked, "If it is OK for you to work on Sabbath, why can't I work on Sabbath? Is my job less acceptable in God's eyes?" He was a police officer who had night shifts, patrolling the city, keeping the peace and assisting in emergencies. Once every three weeks it included a Friday night. Was I ready to advocate that the city, or at least he, should take the view that God would care for things on the Sabbath?

Another Adventist theologian, Fritz Guy has admonished denominational leaders that it is really not biblical Sabbath-keeping to schedule training seminars, rallies and similar events on the Sabbath. I remember reviewing my notes from college classes that I took from Dr. Guy when I was part of a conference staff committee trying to figure out how to keep people occupied during a seminar until sundown, so we could open the book table and make sales after the Sabbath on Saturday night. I was uneasy, but I confess I did not come up with a good solution that accommodated both the Sabbath and our need to sell books and distribute information.

"Our clergy participants were in a hurry," the researchers reported in the Alban newsletter. "They had long to-do lists and they were pursued by guilt that told them, 'You're not doing enough!' They led congregations that were saturated in expectations of production and progress." Are Sabbath-keeping Adventists less interested in productivity and less focused on progress? Are we comfortable with a slower pace and lower expectations? A young man explained to me once why he had decided to stop attending the Adventist Church, although his father and grandfather had both been pillars in his home church. "It's a workaholic club."

Do you savor the Sabbath? Do you put too many unnecessary expectations on the people around you, in terms of how they dress, spend their time and rest? Do Adventists actually have, in practice (not theory), an exceptional quality of life on the Sabbath? Can people such as the participants in this Alban Institute study come amongst us and taste, smell and see a real qualitative difference about our life together on the Sabbath? Or do most Adventist churches simply experience a copy of what happens on Sunday in most Protestant churches?

I am asking these difficult questions not because I have answers, and certainly not because I want in any way to undermine or downplay the Sabbath. I am asking because it seems to me that all around us (at least in North America and Europe) there is growing interest in the concept of the Sabbath by other Christians, and I am concerned that we are missing a Divine opportunity because we have allowed the quality of this jewel to become clouded because we have fallen into ruts and are not making it relevant to the contemporary world. Now, I know many will jump to the conclusion that what I mean by "relevant" is lowering the standards. Surprise! This is a plea to raise the standard and make our practice of the Sabbath a richer experience and perhaps a simpler one.

The article in the Alban Newsletter is an excerpt from a book by Richard Hester and Kelli Walker-Jones, Know Your Story and Lead With It: The Power of Narrative in Clergy Leadership (2009, Alban Institute). The newsletter can be seen at www.alban.org.
 
44 comments
William Noel
27 days ago

Monte,

As always, you have challenged us to think.

Given the amount of work that a pastor must put into preparing a sermon for presentation on Sabbath, are they really working harder on the Sabbath?  (Unless they are waiting until Sabbath morning to prepare it.)

If presenting a sermon on the Sabbath means they are working harder on that day than the rest of the week, how hard are they working the rest of the week?

Sermons are one of the least effective forms of communication known in the modern world.  Add that the Biblical model for worship is a person's expression back to God after having an encounter with Him and that a sermon prevents a person from expressing to God, the result of a pastor presenting a sermon is the prevention of worship. So, how is that a pastor presenting a sermon a proper and beneficial activity for the Sabbath?

Elaine Nelson
27 days ago

As long as Adventists continue to practice Jewish Law, there will be difficulty in complete obedience.  Attempts to enforce a law never given to Christians is why there will always be more questions than answers.  It's like trying to enforce 10 mph speed limits in horse and buggy days when we have cars and  highways constructed to function at 60-70 mph.

Refusing to adopt Christianity with its liberty and freedom so clearly taught by Paul who was the first Christian theologian is the crux of the problem as demonstrated above.  Christ set us free from the Law which we were once bound and no longer is Judaism the guide for Christians.  Christians were never given a day as were the Jews as it was intended solely for them.  Can anyone offer a NT teaching for Christians about a special day to be observed?

Jim Hamstra
25 days ago

You might want to start by studying this source:
   http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/sabbaton.html

If you actually look-up each use of the Greek word Sabbaton (borrowed from the Hebrew) in the NT, both in the Gospels and in the Apostles, you will see that the notion of a weekly Sabbath was deeply embedded the culture and language (which is shaped by culture) of the early Christian believers.  The did not explicitly teach it as much as they implictly assumed it.

Granted that Christ and his followers diverged from their Jewish roots in the mode of Sabbath observance, they held in common the same sacred day.

I suspect that most readers of this thread desire to follow in the path of Christ and the Apostles, albeit we may not all see that path the same way.

Monte Sahlin
27 days ago

William, my understanding of Christian worship is that includes four equally important elements as outlined at the end of Acts, chapter 2: the prayers, the teaching of the apostles, the fellowship and the meal. Various streams of Christianity have over the centuries tended to elevate one of these above the others and focused more on it than the others, in some cases to the point of making one or two of the four items almost the only thing. The bishops of the Medieval era focused on certain version of the meal and made it such a focus that things were clearly out of balance. The Protestant Reformation tried to re-balance worship by focusing on the teaching (Bible study via preaching, the only viable technology of the time) and it has probably swung things to a different imbalance.

Adventist practice comes out of the Protestant concept of worship with the modified concept that the Wesleys developed (the "class meeting" or small group Bible study where preaching is balanced with discussion, an approach to fellowship). In the early decades Adventist worship was not centered on preaching as much as it is now. Most Adventist gatherings for worship were only a few people with no professional preacher in attendance, and people sat in a circle and studied the Bible together. (If you would like to see documentation of early Adventist worship in its normal form, read the article by Ellen White entitled "How to Conduct Meetings" in the Review & Herald.);  As the church grew, a concern for "order" began to compete with the original urge for authenticity and various mechanism were introduced that remodeled the Wesleyian format into the standard Protestant Fundamentalist model (developed by Moody and others), where concern about proclaiming correct doctrine is uppermost. Today we have the received version of this and tradition has set in; more and more Adventists believe that the Church Manual or some authority dictates a particular liturgy in spite of the fact that James White and Joseph Bates would be horrified with that concept if they came back from grave today.

Long way around to say, I think you right. A sermon-centered form of worship is not mandated in Scripture, it comes from history (tradition). As best Biblical scholars can reconstruct it, if we were to go back to the form of worship in the first Christian gathering started by Paul and others, it would include the following: (1) Meet in a home on Friday night. (2) Eat the evening meal together--a normal meal. (3) Share the bread and grape juice at the end of the meal in the example of Christ in the Upper Room. (4) Pray together in a participatory way. (5) Sing some psalms and songs together. (6) Listen to the reading of a portion of Scripture and then discuss what it means for each of us in our lives and in our life together as a group. (7) Hear the testimony of those in the circle who have something significant to share from their lives and ministry. There is no hard evidence about the order of these elements except the example of the meal in the Upper Room when Christ instituted the ordinance of the bread and wine. The normal meal comes first and the "desert" is that "done in rememberance of Me." It would also be appropriate to take from that story the washing of feet as people arrive for the meeting.

One theological principle that can be seen in the Biblical material is that worship is intended to be multi-modal, richly textured, experiential, interactive and wholistic. I do not think the problem is preaching itself as much as it is elevating preaching above the other aspects as if it were more of a sacrament than the other items. One of the communication deficits of preaching is that it cannot convey some of the feelings and textures that are communicated by eating a meal, serving one another, washing feet, eating symbols of the body and blood of Christ, or even interactive discussion.
 

William Noel
27 days ago

Thank you for your insights.  Our churches would beneft greatly if we got back to practicing according to the model instead of tradition.  Good teaching is always more effective than preaching.

Nathan Schilt
26 days ago

I don't know, William, that I agree with you. Both teaching and preaching are important gifts. Most preachers I have heard don't really preach the Word. They have no idea what expository preaching consists of. In my experience, Black preachers have a much better sense of what Spirit-filled preaching is all about than do White preachers. Randy Roberts, senior pastor of the Loma Linda University Church, is one of the few White preachers in the denomination who truly preaches, and does it week in and week out more effectively and inspirationally than any preacher I have ever experienced. Good teaching speaks to the heart through the mind; good preaching speaks to the mind through the heart.

William Noel
26 days ago

Nathan,

Tradition has given us such a rigid model of what a worship service should be that we have a hard time seeing the Biblical model.  There is no example in the Bible of preaching being part of worship. 

I think you've touched on a couple significant items.  The first quality of teaching.  If we're going to do something for God we need to do it well.  One of the major results of a person being gifted by the Holy Spirit is that they do whatever God has enabled them to do very well and much better than they could have done on their own.  Applying this to preaching it would seem evident that not many pastors are gifted preachers.  I've made observations matching the cultural differences you described.  While it may seem logical to attribute that to the working of the Holy Spirit, I think it is more the product of culture. 

Second, preaching remains the least effective mode of mass communication in the modern world.  If when we're working for God we're supposed to be doing things well, why are we retaining such allegiance to what works so poorly?  Sometimes a period of silence can communicate more and be remembered longer than a sermon!  I've taken informal surveys after worship services at several locations outside churches of various sizes.  On one SDA college campus that will not be identified, eight of ten of the students in attendance could remember the speaker's name 30 minutes after the service ended, but seven in ten could not tell you even one Bible verse that was used or their subject!  At one church with just under 300 members the numbers more people could tell you what the children's story was about than the subject of the sermon.  In all cases information retention was much better for the Sabbath School class with the biggest difference appearing to be whether it was interactive or a lecture.  Interactive classes had more than double the information retention.

Your wrote that "Good teaching speaks to the heart through the mind; good preaching speaks to the mind through the heart."   I vigorously disagree.  Both are modes of teaching with the differences being the setting, method of presentation and effectiveness.  Our objective in spiritual teaching is to touch the heart with God's love so a person will want to learn directly from God through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  You can appeal to a person's logic and a few will follow (as evidenced by the few who respond to traditional evangelistic sermons), but if you appeal to a person's heart most will follow--including most of the people whose minds were just convinced in another direction.

The one worship service that stands out in my mind as being the most meaningful in my entire life was on May 1, 2011.  That was three days after a mass outbreak of tornadoes swept across our area doing horrible damage and leaving a family in our church homeless.  We were still without electricity and some roads were still at least partially blocked.  About half our members got the text message on their phones that we would be meeting that morning.  We powered the A/V system with a generator.  We shared stories and pictures of how God had led and protected us that day.  We sang songs of praise thanking God for His protection and how He was leading us to help our neighbors.  Our prayers were filled with thanksgiving.  It was very non-structured and the most meaningful worship service I think I have ever experienced.  We felt the power of God in the room as our hearts were joined together in His love.  It was amazing.  Just remembering it turns my heart to praising God.

Nathan Schilt
26 days ago

This is very interesting and challenging, Monte. I have, at various times in my life, led Sabbath School discussion classes. I have also participated heavily in the musical life of various churches. I know these activities are not the same as preaching. But I would have to say that they greatly enriched Sabbath holiness for me over the experience of simply being a consumer of Sabbath School and Church services. Whenever one puts his heart and soul into a worship-related activity, it may be emotionally tiring, but it should also be spiritually energizing. One would hope that the pastor has done his work in sermon preparation during the week, and that Sabbath morning is the time for the Spirit to fill him with energy as he spiritually feeds and challenges the congregation.

Sabbath appears to have been a pretty active day for Jesus. The energy of laboring for ourselves is quite a different matter, it seems to me, than the expansive, renewing energy expended in encountering God, and actively remaining in His presence, in sacred time.  I think our anthropomorphic image of a God who needed to rest, because He was exhausted after six days of work, has led us to see Sabbath as primarily a hammock day, when we are to remain effortlessly suspended in time. Christ's example and teaching should have dispelled that image. But our Sabbath keeping is still haunted by an orthodox legalism that frowns on anything which requires work or economic activity. Of course these are important issues, because work and economic activity can very easily move us from the realm of sacred time in God's presence to profane time attending to the demands and desires of the physical, material realm.

earl calahan
26 days ago

It was my experience of over 20 years SDA church attendence that in each conference there were but a very few pastors able to preach the love of God with power & persausion. Most had a Sabbath theme constantly embellished with cue card statements from EGW, and the Spirit of Prophecy. Often i recall the pastor saying "Bear with me on this, i have just a few more important statements from Sister White". Some women in the church were squirming in the pews because they didn't have automatic ovens, and they were having company for the Sabbath dinner. Frequently when the preaching was extra long (considered overtime) you would see some scampering out with haste. Some pastors don't have the empathy to know when they'ed lost their sheep. There was a rule of thumb that the service start promptly at 11 AM & end promptly @ 12 NOON (2 or 3 minutes cushion, no more!!). When one pastor was told of the under current of this desire of many in the congregation, he said, if they don't want to hear me out, i will gladly leave, he did. Generally, i enjoyed the interaction of the individual S.S. classes over the preaching, except when guest pastors of ability were present. As mentioned above, the most honest inspiring presentations i've experienced were by Spirit filled black pastors. The church family of large churches is always cliqueish, and each family finds its comfort zone. my family  attended, over the years, different groups, after sabbath worship, indoor & outdoor, dependent of weather, potlucks, & dinners, and an afternoon of study & sharing. This practice was all year round, and greatly loved.
 

William Noel
26 days ago

Earl,

Which statement comes closer to describing your feelings about worship services?
1. God requires it so I have to go.
2. It is my duty to attend.
3. I'll be there because my spouse wants me to be there with them.
4. I want to attend.
5. It is such a blessing to me and such a highlight in my week that I don't want to miss it.  

earl calahan
26 days ago

William, i haven't attended a church service since 1999. The above rendering was in respect to my residence in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, from 1965-1983. This was the happiest time of my life. i loved the Sabbath day experience. My profession as a company officer, and my total immersion in many roles in the church (teaching S.S., Elem. Sch. Bd. Pres., Sch Bd. Bldg. Plans Chair., 1st Elder, Ch. Bd.Chair., Exec Commit., Conf. Constit., Visiting, Ingathering, Bible Studies etc. etc. Yes,  it was the HIGHLIGHT of my week. i love the Sabbath. HEART & Soul involvement. With my reduced vitality, am incapable of any active role. Just to review the above is tiring.

William Noel
25 days ago

Earl,

I pray that the church is reaching out to minister to you during this phase of your life.  Obviously the Sabbath has been very important to you so I hope you are still finding joy in God's love in spite of your physical limits.

earl calahan
25 days ago

Thanks William for your thoughtful concern. i have a daughter close, and we share a lot. With 15/7, i have much time for my pursuit of learning God's love and history. i derive a great degreeof satisfaction with the communication here at ATODAY. With the empathy of each here, i sense your individual talents & personalities, and i am blessed.

William Noel
25 days ago

My father found a new ministry opportunity in his latter years when he became disabled: doing on-line Bible studies.  It was a great blessing to him and others. 

John Bunting
26 days ago

What would be nice is for the minister to promote Sabbath School as an intigral part of worshipping God. Or in some cases even tell new converts about Sabbath School before they are baptised (I joke not).
What would be so nice is for the minister to arrive at the beginning of sabbath School and not just before the preaching service.
What would be nice is for him (or her!) to join a class as a church member and share in the study as a fellow Christian (telling those elders who wish to discuss church business with him that he is there to worship with his brothers and sisters not discuss church business).
What would be nice would be to see a minister be a fellow worshipper worshipping as part of God's flock and not just a priest there to lecture or minister to his own flock.


Monte Sahlin
26 days ago

John, I agree with the general direction of your statement .... but to be fair, the main reason why many Adventist pastors show up only in time to preach is because they have to preach at two, three or even four churches each Sabbath. As an administrator and as a consultant, I have discussed this situation with congregations and pastors on many occasions. Generally, everyone wants their worship to be at 11 a.m. and they want the pastor to be there every week. That simply is not a sustainable reality for 75 percent of Adventist local churches; the incoming tithe cannot fund that level of staffing. So, when faced with that reality, then the fall-back position for most churches is that the pastor must preach on Saturday morning.

If a pastor has a number of churches (as I once had) he could spend quality time with each congregation and go to almost all of them each week if they were willing for one of them to worship on Friday evening (which is just as much part of the Sabbath as Saturday morning is in God's eyes), one of them on Saturday morning and one of them on Saturday afternoon. When I suggest that solution, some people tell me that they know a Bible text or an EGW quotation or a section of the Church Manual that requires Saturday morning. (Although, in fairness, no one has found those passages as yet.)

I apologize for being defensive, but I have had to grapple with this problem and been criticized for essentially not knowing how to be in two places at once. Actually, in today's world another solution is to connect churches by the Internet and use live-streaming. Maybe the new generation of pastors will be saved from this dilemma.

 

William Noel
25 days ago

Monte,

We're so spoiled!  If we can't have our pastor at a specific time of our selection we think he's not doing his job properly.  In a lot of places around the world the members are thankful if the pastor is able to show up, whatever the day or time.  I've been told of places where a pastor has so many churches over such a wide area that he may get to a particular one only two or three times a year.

I'm part of a lay-led church where our pastor shows up once a month and basically is a guest speaker.  This gives us great variety, but more than anything requires the members to step into leadership positions.  Some discovered they were not gifted for certain roles they had performed in the past while others discovered they were gifted for those roles.  We have been greatly blessed as a result. 

John McLarty
26 days ago

Monte, I strongly agree with the idea that the world around us is increasingly hungry for an experience that is most readily available in the Sabbath. We have something to offer. Most  contemporary books on Sabbath-keeping are, in my opinion, rather vapid (excepting books by Adventists and Jews). These modern writings on Sabbath offer poignant descriptions of the writers' hunger for Sabbath, but since the writers are not rooted in Sabbath-keeping communities, the "sabbath experiences" described are fleeting and whimsical.

At the risk of being utterly presumptious, I'll post links to two presentations on the Sabbath I've done recently. They were warmly received by jaded, skeptical Adventists. I think they might appeal to non-Adventists as well.

http://liberaladventist.blogspot.com/2013_05_01_archive.html. Title: The Summer of God

http://liberaladventist.blogspot.com/2013/05/sabbath-park-in-time.html. Title: Sabbath, a Park in Time.

John

Margaret Jackson
26 days ago

Actually, Carolyn,
When 5 of us very involved laypeople started the North American Division's sponsored Simple Church a year ago to our great surprise the word that described how we each felt was "free!" We discovered as we sat in a circle and studied the Bible, ate haystacks together, and shared our lives all the busyness of "church" melted away. No one had to rush to help with potluck or Sabbath School or lead music or.... or...or... The relief was big. I can only imagine who a pastor would feel who had the opportunity to worship with his/her people in this way on a weekly basis.
 

hush...don't say that:
25 days ago

Thank you Elaine Nelson
Reply
a day ago
 for summing it up cogently, "As long as Adventists continue to practice Jewish Law, there will be difficulty... " PERIOD.

Ray Smith
25 days ago

Following along Elaine's line of thought.

1. Genesis 2 only speaks of God's rest, never of a weekly Sabbath. Why is it that it is almost impossible in Adventism to sustain a meaningful discussion on God's rest based on the new covenant and especially Hebrews 4?

2. Neither of the versions of the fourth commandment prove that man was to follow a weekly sabbath cycle of rest from Eden onwards. Why does 2 Corinthians 3 not hold a prominent position in the Adventist discussion of the Sabbath as the fourth commandment of the decalogue, written by the finger of God?

3. The fourth commandment of the decalogue talks of rest. On what basis do we make worship the central issue?

Christ's reference to working on the Sabbath in Matthew 12 declares that the priests were blameless although they desecrated the Sabbath with the extra sacrifices that had to be made. The work of the sanctuary took precedence over the Sabbath because the Son of Man, speaking the words, was greater even than the temple - because He is our temple.

If Adventism spent anywhere near the energy studying God's rest of the new covenant as we have done with the Sabbath of the old covenant, what blessings would have come our way?

 

William Noel
25 days ago

Isaiah 58 also talks a lot about the things God wants us to be doing so that our works will be honorable and acceptable to Him.  It is all framed inside a discussion about how we keep the Sabbath.  I find it very challenging to consider that God has great works for us to do on the Sabbath. 

Nathan Schilt
25 days ago

Exodus calls Israel to celebrate the Sabbath symbol as a memorial of creation. Deuteronomy calls Israel to celebrate the Sabbath symbol as a memorial of freedom. The Children of Israel had been slaves in a land which was in turn enslaved to the created order - a land that worshipped as gods the celestial bodies that ruled their lives, and the creatures that either threatened or sustained their well-being. As slaves, they had no hope of rising above the natural order of Egyptian life.

In the two Sabbath commands, God gives Israel a deeply profound symbol to both remind them of the natural order that He created, and to free them from that natural order. Is it perhaps more than coincidental that Sabbath - which frees us from the natural order - is placed fourth in the Commandment chronology, just as the entities which the ancients saw as  governing the natural order - sun, moon and stars - were placed fourth in the creation chronology? We miss something very profound when we see Exodus and Deuteronomy as offering two alternative, parallel rationales for the Sabbath.

So to Elaine, and others who want to persuade us that we really don't have to keep it, congratulations that you have outgrown the need or desire for a powerful reminder that invites you to love and worship the transcendent personal God who both created the natural order and transcends that natural order.  But I love the Sabbath. Like a prism it reveals never ending depth and beauty about the reality of who God is, and who I am in relation to Him and His creation. The Sabbath shouts: "GOD CREATED YOU AS PART OF THE NATURAL ORDER; BUT REMEMBER - YOUR NATURE AND DESTINY CAN BE FREED FROM THE NATURAL ORDER. "

Ray Smith
25 days ago

I wonder then what Paul outgrew in 2 Corinthians 3. The new covenant is not of the letter... for the letter kills, Paul tells us. The letters Paul is talking about are the letters engraved on stone, given to Moses and the people could not look at him because of the glory. Paul could not be more specific. The letters are the decalogue written by the finger of God and delivered on Sinai. The seventh day weekly Sabbath was part of this law.

Yet, Paul clearly says the letter kills. The old covenant 10 commandment law is a ministry of death. It is a ministry of condemnation. True the law was given in a blaze of glory. But Paul continues, what came with glory now has no glory because the glory of the new covenant surpasses it. The ministry of the Spirit under the new covenant is of far greater glory than the ministry of death in the old covenant of which the Sabbath commandment was a part.

Paul could even say in his day that whenever, Moses, the old covenant, the letters engraved on stone were read, a veil lies over the heart. The only way that veil can be lifted is whenever a person turns to the Lord.

It is the cross, Christ, our atoning sacrifice for sin, not the Sabbath that sets us free. The weekly Sabbath was at best a symbol, a shadow. The reality is Christ. It is Christ who has promised to give us rest, not from our weekly toils, but from the condemnation of sin. The real rest we crave is the rest for our souls that only the crucified and risen Christ can give. The invitation of the gospel in Hebrews 4 is for us to enter God's rest, not the physical rest of the weekly Sabbath, but the unbroken eternal rest that can only be found in Him.

I am not unmindful of the wonderful blessings claimed for the weekly Sabbath but Paul reminds us that to enter God's rest, His eternal rest is of far greater glory. Christ is our true Sabbath because only in Him can we find rest, rest for our souls.
 

Jim Hamstra
25 days ago

Three times in the Bible narrative God declares a work finished.  God rests not becuase He is tired but because He has completed what He set out to accomplish.

First (Genesis), Creation is finished and God rests.

Then (Gospels), Redemption is finished and Christ rests.

Finally (Isaiah, Revelation), Restoration is finished and Christ and His creatures enter into eternal rest.

For the Jew the Sabbath looks back to Creation and Redemption from human bondage.  And it looks forward to Redemption from spiritual bondage and the Restoration of all things.

For the Christian the Sabbath looks back to Creation and Redemption from spiritual bondage.  And it looks forward to the Restoration of all things.

False worship seeks to gain God's favor or avert His wrath.  True worship is our response of gratitude for Creation, Redemption and Restoration.  To diminish any of these three is to diminish our worship.

Doctorf
22 days ago

Nathan,

God created me as a part of the natural order and yet frees me from it? How does that work? It looks to me that none of us escape "natural order." Death is assured and Christs return and eternal life are simple theological tenents with zero data to lend credulity to such notions.  I am amused at all the different comments here suggesting what is meaningful sabbath keeping and what is not. Saturday and Sunday are days of which I can engage in all things. Work if necessary, taking a break, watch some golf, go to church or take my three grandsons to an air museum. The day belongs to me as a gift and I will use it according to my needs. If I wish to go and attend the theology SS or church on Saturday I will do so. If I wish to attend a Catholic service on Sunday when my spouse goes then I will do that. Or we will wake up look at the clock and simply go back to sleep and rest from the long week.

In terms of what I am reading here, yes, I am one of those who has cast off the theological and rule oriented tyranny of the SDA and Jewish Sabbath. It's so easy to free oneself from such nonsense, just do it.

greg prout
25 days ago

monte,
i appreciate your views regarding the sabbath, but once again our focus seems to on our behavior and performance. james, the author of the book by the same name, would be pleased. we adventists are always immersed in the matrix of 'what i must do' and the like to get it right; the implication is God is not pleased when we don't. we talk of grace and behave like legalists. i understand God would not be pleased if we were serial killers or anything that is negative and destructive, so i get behavior has its place, but sda's are experts in discussing our relationship in terms of what we can do to make God smile. i find that unfortunate. i am certain that was not your intent or point, but the fact of your article still displays our obsession with our deeds. we seem to be always gazing at our navel and hoping God sees our incessant efforts to win His good pleasure. Jesus set me free from such burden and love can only exist in such a context: His love of me and mine for Him. Let's see the sabbath as day to be free to figure it out and be who we are knowing we have His full acceptance and approval. our performance pales in light of His. our focus should be celebrating  the seventh-day as a remembrance of what He has done for us (me). perhaps this is a minor point, but i don't think so. thank you for your article.

William Noel
25 days ago

Greg,

I love your observation.  I am challenged by the story where Mary is spending time with Jesus and gets admonished by Martha because she isn't doing the things expected of a woman in their society.  No, she's spending time with Jesus.  She's soaking-up the attention.  They're enjoying being together because they love each other.

You are so on the mark by reminding us that the Sabbath is about spending time with God instead of doing this or that to "get it right."  How many ways can we spend time with God?  Many.  Do they all require being in a worship service of some description?  Absolutely not!  What is preventing us from enjoying such time with God far more than we have before?  Because we value tradition more than a relationship with the Holy Spirit, whom God promised will be in all who believe.

22oct1844
21 days ago

William Noel wrote: "preaching remains the least effective mode of mass communication in the modern world"
--------
Dear Mr Noel (please fill in the blanks☺ - clue: someone very important of whom you often speak of)

For someone who regularly speaks about being led by the ________, I find it odd that you would say this, especially since preaching depends largely on the power of the _________, right from the initial preparation to its delivery.  Pentecost is a good example of preaching being empowered by the _________.  It is exponentially a powerful tool of Christian ministry and is very relevant and effective even in our modern day hustle and bustle world.  I would concede that feeding the five thousand is entrenched in the work of the gospel and will further add that it readily accompanies preaching.  In fact, it is preaching which brings conviction in many instances and thereby motivates us to feed the five thousand when we receive and are led by the __________.

William Noel
21 days ago

Effectiveness is measured in results.  Look at the growth pattern for the church in North America and it should be obvious that preaching has become seriously ineffective.

How many gifts does the Holy Spirit give to believers?  Since each of them exists for the purpose of building the church, why do we ignore them in favor of just preaching?

What did Jesus tell people to do after they had been healed, demons cast out of them, etc.?  The demoniac at Gadara wanted to come with Jesus, but was told to go back to his village and tell them of the mighty works of God.  The next time Jesus was in the area the entire village came to be touched by the power of God.  Testimony is far more powerful than any sermon because it is the report of a person who has been touched by the power of God.  So, if we want the church to grow we need to quit preaching, let God touch us with His power and then share with our neighbors about how God has changed our lives.

22oct1844
21 days ago

Are you saying that even Noah's preaching was not effective because the 'results' were only eight?  Is growth (in terms of placing emphasis only on numbers) the only measure of effectiveness or success as compared to a media marketing exercise?  Our mandate as Christians is to go into all the world and preach the Gospel.  All the many other ministries work together in harmony thereby complementing and supplementing each other towards fulfilling the Great Commission.  Jesus is the Master Preacher.  To only focus on other forms of ministry, by intentionally downplaying the dynamic role of preaching, is just as dangerous as not involving the other ministries at all, which I might add, is seldom the case.

William Noel
21 days ago

No, because Noah didn't preach.  I just reviewed the story in Genesis.  I find where God told him to build an ark, but no command telling him to preach anything to anyone.  The story is entirely about God's working to save Noah and his family from the destruction that was to come because the world had become so sinful.  The times Noah is mentioned in the New Testament talk about how evil the world will be when Jesus returns and the surety of His coming but make no mention about Noah doing any preaching. 

Please remember that the Greek word translated "preach" means to proclaim.  There are many ways to proclaim.  Modern Christianity has put such an exclusive emphasis on preaching as the primary, if not exclusive, method for spreading the Gospel that it is stifling the Holy Spirit, who wants to empower us in a variety of ways.

No, Jesus was not the master preacher, He was the master teacher.  Translators added the title "Sermon on the Mount" to Matthew 7, not the authors.  Nowhere in scripture do we have any example of Jesus or any of his disciples making a presentation even remotely resembling the modern concept of a sermon. Peter's proclamation in the Temple on the Day of Pentecost probably comes closest, but it is very different from the model pastors are taught about how to preach.

The Apostolic model we have in scripture is actually the opposite of what you describe because the many ministries worked together to proclaim the Gospel.  I don't find "preaching" on the list of spiritual gifts given by the Holy Spirit.

Now, all this is not to say that God does not bless preaching.  I am continually amazed that God is able to bless human efforts dedicated to building the Kingdom of God.  If God has called you to preach, then do it with every fiber of your being.  But that is only one of a long, overlooked and ignored list of things God wants us to be doing.  Having graduated from the Theology program at Southern and having been a pastor for several years, discovering the ministry God wanted me to do came as quite a surprise.  Do I want everyone to do what I am doing?  No.  But I try to encourage everyone I can to discover the empowerment of the Holy Spirit so they can get involved in ministry and be as blessed as I have been from that experience.

Elaine Nelson
21 days ago

Entirely too much is assumed in Scripture.  The story of the flood never mentioned a word about Noah "preaching."  There is also not a word about all those who were lost that someone warned them of a flood and that they should repent of their sins.

People, stop adding to the Bible and let it read as it is.

22oct1844
21 days ago

2Pet 2:5 says: "And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;"


22oct1844
21 days ago

Matt 3:1; Matt 4:17, 23; Matt 9:35; Matt 10:7, 27; Matt 11:1, 5; Matt 12:41; Matt 24:14; Matt 26:13

These verses from the book of Matthew alone are clear evidence that preaching is very much a major part of the Christian Church (among the other important ministries). If you need any more verses I will happily oblige - and there are plenty.

William Noel
20 days ago

The Biblical and modern defnitions/concepts of "preach" are as far apart as the sides of an ocean.  The Greek word translated "preach" simply means "to proclaim."  It carries no implication of particular place, setting, or form of presentation.  In contrast, the modern definition of "preach" is very specific.  It is a formal presentation on a spiritual theme prepared and delivered by a trained member of the clergy class who delivers it from an elevated pulpit in a meeting room dedicated to the delivery of such monologues and decorated using artistic and architectural motifs illustrating spiritual concepts.

There is no issue about Noah being a proclaimer of righteousness.  Genesis does not tell us how he did it, so assuming he preached in any manner resembling the modern definition is imposing a concept on the story without basis for doing so.  Still, consider the contrast he and his family presented to the world.  God sees so much evil in the world that he determines to destroy it.  Then He finds Noah and his family, the only righteous people among all that evil.  So God determines to save them and tells Noah to build an ark so he, his family and the animals can be spared.  If anything, God makes Noah the object of incredible ridicule.  Why would someone be so utterly crazy as to build an ark to escape a flood when it has never rained?  To the world he is a complete and total lunatic.  It is the righteousness God has seen in him that stands in contrast to the sinfulness of the world.

Elaine Nelson
20 days ago

Did Noah forewarn of the flood?

William Noel
20 days ago

How could building an ark NOT warn of the flood to come?

Picture yourself in Noah's shoes.  It hasn't rained, yet God has come to you and told you to build an ark so you and your family can be saved from the coming flood.  So you're out there building it.  The thing is so big it can be seen for quite a distance.  You barely have to tell one person why you're building it before the word spreads about this crazy person who is building a huge boat to save people from a disaster no one can imagine happening.  So I don't think there is any issue about if Noah forewarned about the flood to come.  The real issue was whether anyone would believe him.

William Noel
20 days ago

How could building an ark NOT warn of the flood to come?

Picture yourself in Noah's shoes.  It hasn't rained, yet God has come to you and told you to build an ark so you and your family can be saved from the coming flood.  So you're out there building it.  The thing is so big it can be seen for quite a distance.  You barely have to tell one person why you're building it before the word spreads about this crazy person who is building a huge boat to save people from a disaster no one can imagine happening.  So I don't think there is any issue about if Noah forewarned about the flood to come.  The real issue was whether anyone would believe him.

22oct1844
20 days ago

RE: Elaine Nelson - "Did Noah forewarn of the flood?"
-----------
The answer is an implicit yes. Firstly, he is called a 'preacher' in 2Pet 2:5 which was given under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Secondly, the Bible warns of the earth's eventual destruction by fire. Jesus commissioned the Christian Church to go into all the world and 'preach' the Gospel of Salvation before the earth is destroyed by fire [Mark 16:15]. In Noah's day, therefore, it is implicitly understood that the impending doom was forewarned, just like at the time of the end, when the gospel shall be preached and warnings given, before the world is destroyed by fire [2Pet 3:7]. Noah was indeed a 'preacher of righteousness' and one will have to also note that nowhere does the Bible say that Noah did not preach or forewarn the antediluvians during the time the ark was being built.

A preacher of righteousness will stand in opposition to unrighteousness and call sinners to repentance and acceptance of God’s grace.  Noah would have done just that.  It is implicit.
 

22oct1844
20 days ago

RE: Elaine Nelson - "Did Noah forewarn of the flood?"
-----------
The answer is an implicit yes. Firstly, he is called a 'preacher' in 2Pet 2:5 which was given under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Secondly, the Bible warns of the earth's eventual destruction by fire. Jesus commissioned the Christian Church to go into all the world and 'preach' the Gospel of Salvation before the earth is destroyed by fire [Mark 16:15]. In Noah's day, therefore, it is implicitly understood that the impending doom was forewarned, just like at the time of the end, when the gospel shall be preached and warnings given, before the world is destroyed by fire [2Pet 3:7]. Noah was indeed a 'preacher of righteousness' and one will have to also note that nowhere does the Bible say that Noah did not preach or forewarn the antediluvians during the time the ark was being built.

A preacher of righteousness will stand in opposition to unrighteousness and call sinners to repentance and acceptance of God’s grace. Noah would have done just that. It is implicit.

William Noel
20 days ago

You're having a hard time capturing that the Bible word translated "preach" actually means "proclaim" and the significant difference in meanings between the two.  Preaching describes a particular method but "proclaim" is a command to go and do without specifying a particular method other than using the empowerment of the Holy Spirit   

A preacher may call a person to repentance and acceptance of God's grace, but there are many ways to do that very effectively without preaching.  Because of our modern concept of preaching it is easy to do as you have done and conclude that 2 Peter 2:5 says Noah preached sermons.  Except the verse doesn't say that so there is no evidence to support your conclusion. 

Jesus told us to go into all the world and PROCLAIM the Gospel.  He never told us to preach sermons and there is no record anywhere in the New Testament of anyone speaking in a manner resembling a modern sermon.  

If we're going to become more effective at proclaiming the Gospel we've got to shed our limited and inaccurate concepts about what methods we are supposed to be using and instead pursue the empowerment of the Holy Spirit so we can proclaim in more ways and with greater power.

Kevin Lake
13 days ago

I think that Monte Sahlin's insightful article on the quality of Sabbath for Christian Seventh-day Adventists is an invitation to positive reflection among our community of faith. Some of the points that Monte mentioned in his article are some of the very things I have been wrestling with myself. I have served as an elder in the past and have felt that the Sabbath was more of a busy day than a restful experience. What then makes the difference between this day and the 6 others? I believe to a large extent that the institutionalization of the church, beginning in the early common era, made religious experience for believers overly delicate, overly precise, and simply overly "serious". Roman influence on the church contributed to religious processionals, delicate ways of providing communion, baptism, and more. So if I add all of this up together... sure enough, sabbath will be like work! It will because everything has to be done in such a presentable and liturgical manner. If probably the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, returns to a more informal way of doing "church" (like small groups), then believers and group leaders (who would be pastors and other lay leaders) would find the Sabbath more relieving than burdensome. Meeting in a home for a meal, a brief worship, and fellowship can be a restful experience if the unnecessaries are taken out. I believe that it is important to be aware of how far we take institutionalization within our faith culture. Of course, if leaders attempt to make a change using this approach, they will have to consider redefining the role of the clergy and believers and the use of the many local churches we have erected (since they would not be of regular use, at least on Sabbath). They (including myself) would have to answer the individual question: How bad do I want rest? How bad do I really want it?
 

Elaine Nelson
13 days ago

Many here have probably attended  the largest SDA congregations where there is a long list of associate pastors, youth pastor(s), musical directors, choir leaders, organists, and much more.  All these are busily employed during the week and on Sabbaths to create a memorable worship service.  We appreciate and enjoy these services where the finest are leading out.

This is a problem of growth, which results in following the Great Commission.  But the congregants in these large churches are largely composed of professionals working in the ancillary institutions. retirees, families who choose to live near their children's education, and the clustering which occurs around very large church-affiliated institutions.  This growth is not necessarily from evangelism.

Humans like to be surrounded by others like themselves which is not conducive to evangelizing non-members.  The sad truth is that being and Adventist in a largely SDA community precludes socialization with others, and follows the long-taught message that we should not associate with "outsiders" reach non-SDA books, listen to non-SDA speakers in the church.  Who created this predicament?

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