PILGRIM LUTHERAN CHURCH
  • Home
  • About Us
    • What We Believe
    • History
  • Pastor's Blog
  • Bulletin
  • Contact

A Sabbath Day's Journey

By: Rev. Paul Landgraf
What is a Sabbath day's journey? First of all, it is a Jewish expression. We measure distances in meters or yards. The Jews had a certain distance that they could walk on Saturday before it would be considered work. So their synagogues that they went to on Saturday could not be very far away. The word appears only in Acts 1:12 and indicates a distance of about three-quarters of a mile.

With that in mind, I think it is important to remember the origins of Christianity. Just because we have an Old Testament, it does not mean that we call it the 'Outdated Testament'. Much of the Old Testament has a literary structure that we are not aware of because of our modern emphasis on chapter and verse divisions. Within many of these blogs, I try to get the reader to see a bigger picture, a larger perspective that often includes the Old Testament and the environment that was present when the New Testament was seeing the Light of the day.

Second, a Sabbath day's journey is intentionally short. These 'journeys' with a text, almost always one of the three readings for that Sunday, are deliberately brief discussions. This blog was never designed to be a comprehensive look at any text. Sometimes a specific word is studied in detail. But, as a whole, a blog entry, by itself, is meant to be quite brief.

Finally, since the term 'Sabbath day's journey' appears in Acts, it is meant to appeal to a wide variety of people. This blog is meant for those who cannot come on Sunday mornings. And it is also for those who do come on Sunday mornings but would also like a further study of the text. It is also for those who live somewhere else in the world (besides Drake and Freedom, Missouri, USA) and would simply like a further study of the text. It was meant to get these different groups of people to start thinking about the biblical texts. Part of the reason for this blog is that I am not able to have a bible class on Sunday mornings with either congregation, and so, to have a blog like this seemed like a good idea. I hope it is helpful for you, in whatever situation you may be.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. And thank you for taking the time to read this!

April 1st, 2017

4/1/2017

1 Comment

 
​'There are twelve hours in the day, aren't there?' That's a more literal translation of the first part of verse 9 in John 11, a small part of the text for this Sunday. It's a question given by Jesus with an expected 'yes' answer.

Obviously there are more important issues, like a man who has been dead for four days--enough to make him stink--comes back to life. But Jesus' question hit me a little harder this year. Perhaps it was because it's April 1st on this Sabbath day, known to many modern cultures as April Fool's Day. I'm not sure what is all behind that, but that doesn't really matter.

So my first thought to Jesus' question was, no, of course not, there AREN'T twelve hours in a day; there are TWENTY-FOUR!

It's interesting how we count the hours. We count ALL the hours. Centuries ago, they counted only the daylight hours, and then they divided them into twelve parts. Having a sundial would help determine how long an hour would be.

Just the thought of having twenty-four hours in the day instead of twelve can be very relieving. You might think, 'I have a lot of time to get this done.' But that's not always true.

I have written this in the past, but it's even more appropriate with this text from the Gospel according to John, that what is done by human hands really comes from the Lord's blessing and not from our ability to do something because, according to our judgment, there were enough things on our part.

Would it have been nice to see Lazarus come out of the grave on that day? A better question might be this: What does Jesus say in response to Thomas' confession of the Risen Christ? Thomas was saying that, unless he saw Jesus, he wouldn't believe.

Jesus says, 'Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe (John 20:29).' There are many people who are being blessed because of those few words. It's much the same thing in Baptism, Confession, and the Lord's Supper.

It's important to remember that blessing is not a feeling. It's not a miracle you can see. Dr. Luther emphasized this many times that the Apostles' Creed says, 'I believe in the ... resurrection of the body; I believe ... in the holy, Christian Church.' We don't say that we see those things.

If there are only twelve hours in the day, that's fine with me. I remember hearing that the day, in Jewish time, started with the sunset of the previous day and went until the sunset of the present day. And I also remember hearing that this particular way of designating a day was a good reminder that a day is primarily about what God is doing and not us. It starts with the night, and God is much more active during the night than we are. He's a bit more important in the whole scheme of things.
1 Comment
Mount Pleasant Plumbers link
7/7/2022 08:54:26 am

Great rread thank you

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About Us
    • What We Believe
    • History
  • Pastor's Blog
  • Bulletin
  • Contact