Remember the Sabbath
We are at the “Graduation Season” of the year. Here at Beautiful Savior, our 8th grade graduation is on Friday, May 31, at 6:30 pm. From the point of view of a teacher, there are the mixed emotions of being excited for the graduates but also not wanting to see them go because you have enjoyed your time with them and feel that perhaps there is more that you can teach them. Then there is the question of how much they did learn from you and how much will be retained.
The greatest Teacher ever to step foot on this earth was our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Yet while He was teaching, there were plenty of other teachers who contradicted what He taught. This weekend, we’ll hear an example of that regarding what Jesus taught about what it means to remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it Holy. By Jesus’ day, keeping the Sabbath meant following a long list of man-made rules developed over the centuries to precisely define what constituted work and thus would be against God’s Law. What Jesus tried to impress on those He taught was the difference between following the letter of the law because one had to for fear of punishment and doing what God wanted because one agreed with the goodness of His will. For example, I might follow the speed limit because I don’t want to be punished, not necessarily because I want to go that speed. That would be an example of doing something because I had to. On the other hand, I follow the law of not littering because I think that is of benefit for everyone. It’s a good law.
For the next several weeks, the messages during our worship services are going to go Back to the Basics of the faith. This weekend, we’re going to focus on the basic need to be able to understand the difference between Law and Gospel and how this will help us more fully know the joy of the Lord’s salvation. For some of us, we may hear “Back to the Basics” as “same old, same old.” But the fact is, sometimes retaining what we were once taught is not always easy, especially in a world filled with so many teachers.
Please join me in asking the Holy Spirit’s continued blessing upon our family time together as the Word is taught among us and we celebrate our family meal of Holy Communion, gathering in our Lord’s name not because we have to, but because we want to.