Here is my Church Write-Up about the church events that I attended last Sunday.
A. The theme at the LCMS service was the Sabbath. The youth pastor
talked about the importance of recharging our batteries. What was most
interesting about his talk, however, were his comments about whether God
rests on the Sabbath. On the one hand, he said that God rests when we
rest. On the other hand, he said that God is always at work, so we can
talk to God when we rest, and God will work on us or in whatever
situation we bring to God.
I thought of John 5:17, in which Jesus tells the Jewish leaders that
the Father works and he works. This was on the Sabbath, and Jesus said
that in justifying his own Sabbath activity.
Does God rest on the Sabbath? There are repeated affirmations in the
Bible that God rested on the seventh day after creation (Genesis 2:2-3;
Exodus 20:11; 31:17). Exodus 31:17 goes so far as to say that God was
refreshed when God rested on the seventh day.
Is John 5:17 saying, though, that God works on the Sabbath? I
checked some commentaries on Logos. First, I checked the Word Biblical
Commentary, by George Beasley-Murray. Beasley-Murray states the
following:
“The statement ‘My Father has been working until now’ must be set in
the context of Jewish exposition of the Scriptures. The Jews understood
Gen 2:2 as implying that God’s sabbath following creation continues to
the present—his works are finished. But that raises a difficulty: how
can God be said in the Scriptures to be active, if he keeps sabbath? One
answer ran: God rested from work on the world, but not from his work on
the godless and the righteous: ‘He works with both of them, and he
shows to the latter something of their recompense, and to the former
something of their recompense’ (Gen. Rab. 11.8c; see Str-B 2:461–62 for
further examples of this thinking). Accordingly God blesses the
righteous in anticipation of their gaining the life of the kingdom of
God, and brings judgment on sinners in anticipation of their exclusion
from it. Here we see the significance of ‘I also am working.’ Jesus as
the Son of God does the works of God, even on the sabbath. The signs
just narrated indicate that he brings to men no mere anticipation of the
saving sovereignty of God but its reality—life from the dead; and he
declares judgment on rejectors of the word of God which the Last
Judgment will confirm.”
According to Beasley-Murray, Jewish tradition held that God has
continually rested after creation, in the sense that God is not creating
anything new. Still, God works by blessing the righteous and judging
the wicked as a foretaste of the coming Kingdom. Jesus’ works on the
Sabbath, too, gave a foretaste of the Kingdom and related to judgment.
John MacArthur states the following:
“Jesus’ point is that whether he broke the Sabbath or not, God was
working continuously and, since Jesus Himself worked continuously, He
also must be God. Furthermore, God does not need a day of rest for He
never wearies (Is. 40:28). For Jesus’ self-defense to be valid, the same
factors that apply to God must also apply to Him. Jesus is Lord of the
Sabbath (Matt. 12:8)! Interestingly, even the rabbis admitted that God’s
work had not ceased after the Sabbath because He sustains the
universe.”
That part about God not needing to keep the Sabbath because God does
not weary stood out to me. I recall reading Michael Fishbane’s Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel,
and Fishbane argued that Second Isaiah actually polemicizes against P: P
says that God rested on the Sabbath, whereas Second Isaiah states that
God never wearied. P says “Let us make man in our image” (Genesis
1:26), whereas God in Isaiah 44:24 affirms that God alone created the
earth. But what entered my mind in reading MacArthur’s comment was a
Christological issue: Is the implication that Jesus did not get tired?
But would not Jesus, as a human being, get tired? John 4:6 states that
Jesus was tired from a journey. Perhaps one could respond that Jesus’
divine nature does not tire, but his human nature does.
I am sure that there are more commentaries I can check out, but I’ll move on to the next item.
B. The pastor’s sermon reaffirmed a point that he has made in more
than one sermon: that, when we try to be in control, when we try to be
God, we botch things up. This is the case with the Sabbath. We work to
rest: we exhaust ourselves during the week, so we can have that leisure
time during the weekend. Or the Pharisees tried to control the Sabbath
by coming up with lots of regulations, making the Sabbath more of a
burden; the pastor referred to the blue laws that have existed in
America. The pastor said that we should start with Sabbath: resting in
God. When we do that, even our work becomes a way to serve God and
neighbor.
C. The Sunday school class on forgiveness in II Corinthians came to
an end. Many points were brought up: how college students these days do
not want a roommate; how the suicide rate among teenagers is high,
etc. They may feel bad because they are not affirmed on social media,
or because the employment opportunities are not as great now as they
were for their parents. The teacher thought that the themes of
forgiveness in II Corinthians could address those problems: the lack of
interpersonal skills and skills at conflict resolution, and the dearth
of hope among young people. At the same time, he acknowledged that
North American Christianity lacks the love and the hospitality that
Christianity had in antiquity. He referred to his late father’s
statement that it will take another Great Depression before North
American Christianity gets back on track. The father remembered his
time growing up during the Depression as a time when Christians pulled
together and helped others.
I would like to relay how the teacher said that certain elements in
II Corinthians 5 relate to forgiveness. In II Corinthians 5, Paul talks
about groaning in his present body and his hope of being absent from
the body and present with the Lord. He said that we walk by faith and
not by sight. Paul affirmed that when Christ died, all died, and now
Christians do not judge others by a human point of view. Paul also
stated that Christians are God’s ambassadors of reconciliation.
What does this have to do with forgiveness, according to the
teacher? For one, Paul was affirming a hope that was larger than
himself, the Corinthian community, and the problems that were between
them. As the teacher said, we can endure all sorts of suffering if we
know that the suffering will come to an end. Second, the teacher said
that, when Paul said that all died, he meant that Christ died for all.
We can see each person as one for whom Christ died. Calvinists would
probably interpret that differently, with their belief in limited
atonement. Third, Paul’s statement that we walk by faith and not by
sight relates, not only to the eschatological hope that Christians have,
but also to their belief that God is at work in the lives of all. We
can look at the worst stinker, who said something hurtful to us, and
believe that he or she is the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus,
either a brother or sister in Christ or a potential brother or sister in
Christ. (I don’t think that the teacher is a universalist, though he
said that he is intrigued by Origen.) We need God’s forgiveness on our
best and our worst days. The teacher also shared that, after his
children were baptized, they were not much different from how they were
before, but he walks by faith, not by sight: he believes that the waters
of baptism transformed his children.
A lot of this can be unpacked or clarified, but let’s move on to the next item.
D. The “Word of Faith” church had a guest speaker, since the pastor
was away at a prophetic conference. The guest speaker himself is a
pastor, but of a church in another state (Colorado, I think). The theme
recently has been giving. The speaker’s text was John 6, in which
Jesus multiplies the loaves and the fishes.
The main point of the sermon, of course, was that the boy who brought
his lunch was blessed to be part of this miracle, and we can be blessed
when we give to God. There were two parts of the sermon that stood out
to me, though.
First, John 6:6 says that Jesus was asking his disciples how they
could feed the multitude to test them, for Jesus already knew what he
was about to do. The speaker referred to a belief among some Christians
that God does not test people, for testing people implies law, whereas
Christians are under grace. The speaker disagreed with this view. Yet,
he said that God does not test people to see if they will pass or
fail. We fail a lot, yet God is still faithful. Rather, Jesus was
testing his disciples to set the stage for something great that he was
about to do.
Second, John 6:11 states that, before multiplying the loaves, Jesus
gave thanks. Should we give thanks to God in faith that God will do
something? What if God does not do what we are thanking God in advance
for? The speaker said that we can give thanks that God will handle the
situation, even if it is not the way that we want. That does not
entirely sound “Word-of-Faith”-ish. It sounds more like the prayer of
the Lutheran pastor, in which he trusts God with people’s health
problems, as God does what God thinks is best.
Anyway, I’ll leave the comments on in case anyone wants to add some insights.