Words of Worship Archive

It’s 11:03 on Monday as I begin typing this message.  I like to have them done by 9:00 Monday morning, so as you can tell, I’m running a bit behind today.  I imagine you’ve had days that have begun similarly to mine.  Maybe you’ve gotten to the office and had some voicemails that have been sitting on the machine for a couple days, and you need to respond to them.  Perhaps you’ve had appointments fill up your calendar and you get lost in the busyness of the tasks at hand, your normal activities take a backseat to the pressing.

This leads me to another commandment – the third (or fourth) “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”  The original hearers of this commandment, Exodus-traveling Hebrews, would have had no trouble comprehending what God was saying to them:  “Remember how I rested on the seventh day of creation?  Keep it holy by doing likewise!  Rest is my gift to you.”  One day a week, take it off, and remember God – your center who has created you.  This worked well, until the Pharisees began to make laws about what could and could not be done on the Sabbath, making the day a day of difficulty, a law unto itself, instead of a day of rest and God time.

So, what about you, me, and today?  As Christians, we are no longer obligated to keep the Sabbath.  The early church treated Sunday as the new Sabbath, as that’s the day that Jesus was raised from the dead on.  Sunday then became, as much the Sabbath had, a day where we could do certain things, but not others (Remember the blue laws?  That’s where they came from!) because we needed to remember to rest.  I’m not convinced that that is the best interpretation of the commandment either.  Let me propose this:  the third commandment means “that we should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and his word, but hold it sacred, and gladly hear and learn it.”  That’s how Martin Luther presented it in the 1500s.

What then of rest?  Well, first, it clearly still matters – God did it, commanded us to do it, and has given it to us as a gift.  So take time to rest, that way when the busyness of the week comes, be prepared.  I originally meant to have this message take a “time management” bent, but I see I’ve gone elsewhere.  Let me suggest refocusing our whole days, and weeks (also called Sabbaths) around the gifts of God, including time.

With the Lord begin your task; Jesus will direct it

For His aid and counsel ask; Jesus will perfect it

Every morning with Jesus rise, and when day is ended,
In His name then close your eyes; Be to Him commended.  (LSB 869)

Quick, let’s play a game of name that verse: “God helps those who help themselves.” Well that’s easy, right? That’s in…G, J, L, um…the Old…no, wait, New…um…

Well, the answer is that commonly heard phrase is nowhere to be found in the Bible. The common perception is that the Bible is a how-to book, or a book of great principles, useful sayings, truisms for helping you live life as well as you can. Perhaps we see the Bible as a self- help book. Often we look to the Bible for principles to help engage in activities as varied as
starting a business to the conservation of nature. We then apply the new knowledge gleaned from the Bible to the knowledge we gathered in the classroom or the school of “hard knocks” in order to understand where we are, and how to get to where we want to be.

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“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

So began a new era which saw 13 colonies of Great Britain unify and form the United States of America.
Seldom in world history has such an important shift of worldview taken place! Behind strong leaders, brave soldiers and a fervent reliance upon Almighty God, the course of world history was changed forever. In the 235 years since the Declaration of Independence the abhorrent and longstanding institution of race-based slavery has been destroyed in the world’s largest and most developed nations, innovations from the assembly line to the internet have increased our standard of living beyond levels which previous generations couldn’t even dream of, and we have the ability in a matter of days (driving), hours (flying), or seconds (internet) to see the most beautiful scenes from either coast, or anywhere across our fruited plain, or even Alaska or Hawaii (though you still can’t drive there).

All of this is a byproduct of the freedom which humans have been granted by God, and which this country was wise enough to build itself upon. But the question must now be asked: Have we taken our freedom too far? Have we sacrificed ourselves on the altar of “The pursuit of happiness”? St. Paul writes: “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13)

There’s a little known song which seeks to define freedom:
Some say freedom’s the power to do as one pleases
You can live like the devil, but hold onto Jesus,
I’ve found the one thing I was born to do,
Girl that’s why I’m running back to you.

As we freely pursue the fullness of the life that God can give us, remember that the truest happiness is never found in stuff. Instead, it will only be found in relationships: Husband to wife, parent to child, and
above all others God to you. Take time for those relationships, and happiness will never be far away.

Pastor Michael Hanson,
Grass Lake Lutheran Church
grasslakelc@gmail.com

Our community finds itself facing the hard fact that we have failed as a society to teach our younger generation to live.  There are too many of them that are ending up on dead end streets.  Alcohol and drugs are robbing us of these young people.

As a pastor, it is not easy to sit in a visitor’s booth at the county jail and talk to an eighteen or twenty year old behind glass. This  is someone that you have watched grow up in the community and who has attended church functions.  It is even a sadder day when you have to stand by a casket of an eighteen, twenty, twenty-five, or even a thirty year old. You look down upon that lifeless form and ask yourself, “What could I have done?” 

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April 1, 2004 is a day that I will remember forever. But the question is, was it because of the announcement of one of the coolest experiences of my life, or one of the greatest practical jokes ever played on a group of “April Fools”?

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The other morning as I was driving to my dentist appointment, I was talking to God, thanking him for dry roads, the frosty Michigan morning and the beauty of the pale blue winter sky. In an effort to distract myself from thinking about the upcoming dental procedure, I found myself questioning the nature of faith.  Why do some remain skeptical, never putting faith in God?

I was remembering that the writer of Hebrews said, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone that comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him,” when a deer ran across the road ahead of me. 

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