PILGRIM LUTHERAN CHURCH
  • Home
  • About Us
    • What We Believe
    • History
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Photo Gallery
  • 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 Just because we have an Old Testament, it does not mean that we call it the 'Outdated Testament'.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!

November 7th, 2020

11/7/2020

0 Comments

 
We are back to having Old Testament readings on this Sunday, the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost. And the text for this Sunday is from the so-called ‘minor’ prophet of Amos [5:18-24]. But you might say that he brings up a ‘major’ issue.
​

In the middle of this Sunday’s text is the following significant statement of Yahweh (verse 21): ‘I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies [English Standard Version—hereafter ESV; copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles; used by permission].’

What is meant by that? The times that Israel gathered together for a religious festival were Yahweh’s idea in the first place. If his people were doing those feasts and those solemn assemblies, how could he hate AND despise them?

Yahweh is against those feasts and solemn assemblies because he calls them ‘yours’ and not ‘his’. In the verses which follow, Yahweh speaks out against Israel’s burnt offerings, grain offerings, peace offerings, the noise of songs and the melodies of harps, and every one of those things is described as ‘yours’ (Israel’s) in some way.

Then there is verse twenty-four, the last verse of our appointed text: ‘But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream [ESV].’ The point of this verse is to compare the justice and the righteousness that people have to the justice and righteousness of Yahweh. He has perfect justice and righteousness, and he has those things in a much fuller supply.

The verses which follow the text help to clarify this distinction between what is Israel’s and what is God’s. Here are the verses which follow verse twenty-four and which go to the end of the chapter and section:

Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You shall take up Sikkuth your king, and Kiyyun your star-god—your images that you made for yourselves, and I will send you into exile beyond Damascus, says the LORD, whose name is the God of hosts [ESV].

The simple action of sacrificing animals and giving offerings is not the important thing; the children of Israel did not do that for forty years when they were in the wilderness. The problem is much bigger than that. Yahweh says that they will ‘take up’ other gods which they made for themselves. That goes to the heart of the problem—idolatry.
The true God lifts us up and carries us, as he does for all creation. False gods are made up and then lifted up and carried around by people.

Please do not get distracted by the names of the gods that are used in the above text. The important thing to note is that people make gods for themselves. Here, again, the focus is on ‘you’. The multiple references to ‘you’ in the following sentence are amazing, given its short length: ‘But YOU shall take up Sikkuth YOUR king, and Kiyyun YOUR star-god—YOUR images that YOU made for YOURSELVES.’

A point could be made that the stars and sun do rule, in a way. They are above us, in a sense. There needs to be some order in the universe, or there is chaos. If everything is equal, then there is mass confusion. Does that sound something like the year 2020?
In the first creation account, God begins to create things, and on the fourth day, God set the greater light to rule during the day and the lesser lights to rule at night. Then man was set to rule over the animals—although this is a different word for ‘rule’.

It should not be thought of as a coincidence that the thrones of those kings in that area of the world had symbols that were similar to some of the constellations that were in the heavens. A king in that part of the world could have sat down on his throne, and he could have seen the images of a man (Aquarius), a lion (Leo), an ox (Taurus), and an eagle, and he could have thought of the constellations in the heavens and the One who put them there in the first place. Or that king could start thinking about how great a person HE was. There is a huge difference between the ending places of those two lines of thought.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    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
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Photo Gallery
  • Pastor's Blog
  • Bulletin
  • Contact