Loving God, we remember your love for us through Jesus today, and we give thanks. Fill our hearts and minds with your Spirit this day, and renew us in your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

            This, of course, is Thanksgiving weekend. Today we also focus on the covenant that God made with Israel at Mount Sinai – a covenant that includes the 10 Commandments.  The thing is, though, that the two might just be connected.  For the covenant begins with remembering and giving thanks.

         The short version of this is at the very beginning of the ten commandments.  “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Ex. 20:2).  The covenant always begins with who God is and what God has done. The people are invited to remember how God freed them from slavery and rescued them at the Red Sea. They are invited to remember and to give thanks.

         A similar thing happens in the verses that we heard from Exodus 19 today.  The people are reminded that God not only brought them out of Egypt but bore them “on eagles’ wings” (v. 4) – like a mother eagle teaching her children to fly.  The people are also reminded that the whole earth belongs to God.  However, they will be God’s treasured possession and a priestly kingdom and a holy nation (vv. 5-6).  They will be set apart for God.

         Think about that for a moment, not as if it applies to someone else, but as if it applies to you. After all, some of these same words are used in the New Testament to describe those who believe in Jesus.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).

Because of Jesus, this also applies to us.  We, too, have been set apart for God and are invited to remember and to give thanks.

         In our case, we weren’t brought out of slavery in Egypt, but have been set free from slavery to things like sin and death and the devil and the Law.  It is through our baptism into Christ that we are brought from slavery to freedom and from death to life.  When we remember and give thanks, we are remembering how Jesus came to live on this earth for our sake – living and serving, dying and rising.  We are remembering the depth of God’s love for us, and the freedom that forgiveness brings, and how God has taken us in baptism and made us God’s very own.  We are remembering the gifts and the blessings of God, and giving thanks.

         Really, this is what we do every time we gather together for worship, and especially when we gather at the Lord’s Supper.  It is good for our spiritual health, and it nurtures our relationship with God and with one another.  This is also part of remembering the Sabbath and keeping it holy.

         Out of all of the commandments, this is the one that seems to generate the most discussion.  This was true in Jesus’ time, and it is true now. Many of the discussions that Jesus had about the Sabbath were about what was allowed on that day and what was not. In his estimation, the Sabbath should not prevent people from being healed or set free or restored.  It was instituted for the well-being of God’s people, and not in order to oppress them.

         Today the discussions seem to revolve around things like Sunday shopping, and people who have to work on Sundays, and Sunday sports.  However, both Jewish and Muslim people have been dealing with these things for years and have had to figure out how to observe their Sabbaths on Friday or Saturday.  There are going to be things that are beyond our control, but each person still needs to figure out how they will observe the Sabbath.  Ultimately, the main thing on the sabbath is not a whole bunch of rules about what you can or cannot do.  Rather, the sabbath is about having time for rest and for worship.

         Everybody needs at least one day a week to rest and recover, just as the land needs to lie fallow every seventh year.  Remembering how God created all things and then rested is part of this observance, as is giving thanks for all that God has done during the week.  This is part of nurturing our spiritual, physical and mental health.

         The people who have the most trouble with this these days are the ones who don’t get even one day off. Some choose not to have a sabbath, but others don’t really have a lot of choice in the matter, and their health suffers as a result.  The challenge is still to find a way to carve out some sabbath time – perhaps once a day or once an hour or once a minute. We all need the sabbath rest and to nurture our relationship with God.

         One other thing that catches people’s attention in today’s reading is the part where God punishes children for the iniquity of the parents to the third and fourth generation (Ex. 20:5). It is really important in this instance to read all of verses 5 and 6. Otherwise, we totally miss the steadfast love that is given by God to the thousandth generation of those who love God and keep God’s commandments.  When the rabbis talk about these verses, they conclude that God’s love is at least 500 times stronger than God’s anger.

         Surely this, too, is important as we remember and give thanks, for according to Jesus’ summary of the law, it is all about love.  The two tables of the commandments are about loving God with our whole heart and soul and mind and loving our neighbours as ourselves.  This is how Jesus filled full, or realized, or completed the Law. Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Pentecost 20 / Thanksgiving Sunday                  Exodus 19:3-7; 20:1-17

October 7, 2018                                                       Matthew 5:17

St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church

Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2018 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved