Make Good

Did you stuff all the good you could into yesterday?  Did you drink up a day filled with the best of the best?  Maybe it was a small step in the right direction - a cup of coffee in the morning light, a snuggle with your littlest one that you truly savored, a drive to church with delight at all the awaited you there.

Last week I asked the question "What do we DO on the Sabbath" and wrote about the Genesis answer: enjoy the good.  Today let's dive into the Gospel answer: make good.

Ok, show of hands.  How many of you felt a little deflated when you read "Sabbath is the day for the best food, the best wine, the best sex, the best literature, the best art, the best of our relationships, the best of who we are"?  I know some of you read that and thought: 

-The best food?  Sounds great, but our budget is so tight, we are scraping by.  No luxuries.

-Books?  Yeah, if you could pull of reading in the craziness that is my home life give it a try.

-Best of our relationships?  My relationships are broken, tired, at a dead end, non-existant. There is no "best".

Maybe you read about sex and shook your head, because you miss your spouse something fierce/haven't found one yet/have lost so much connection with your spouse that sex is the least of your worries or desires.  The best of who we are?  If you're like me, that sounds like nothing but uphill.  

If you read "enjoy the good" and thought "What good?" you're in luck, because there's another way to celebrate Sabbath.  

The Gospel "DO" for Sabbath is: MAKE GOOD!!!

  Remember that list of what Jesus did on the Sabbath?  The Gospels tell us that on the Sabbath Jesus was busy making good:

• Harvesting food to feed himself and his disciples (Matthew 12)
• Healing the sick (Matthew 12)
• Teaching (Mark 6)
• Casting out demons (Luke 4)
• Eating with Pharisees - those who don't "get it" (Luke 14)

There's a lot to notice in this list.  First, Jesus was busy.  He did rest on the Sabbath from doing non-kingdom things, but the things of God, of making good, were in full force.  He joined the Creator in continuing the creation of good things in a fallen world.  Healing the sick, casting out demons - making good. 

How can you join God in creating, making good? 

Matthew 5:23-24 says: Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. 

Maybe one of the ways to "make good" is to start in our own homes.  What if on the way to church you just tossed some reconciliation around the car before you came to worship together?  What if you led the charge and made the apology rounds from back seat to front, reviewing your relationships over the past week and making some good?  Wouldn't that be healing?  Wouldn't that be casting out some bad?  

Jesus ate with Pharisees.  

How many of us are caught up in the "Sunday is family day" lie?  It sounds really good.  Family time is important, most of us don't get enough of it.  Tell your neighbor that Sunday is family day and they'll nod their heads - totally get it.  So you go to church and then hole up with your family and rest. Watch out - slowly but surely, you're making the day about you, and Genesis tells us that it's not our day - we have 6 of those.  The Sabbath is the Lord's.  It's his agenda.  If your life is so hectic that you don't have quiet time with your family - do something about it, but don't elevate your family agenda above the Kingdom's.  

Jesus spent his Sabbath eating with his enemies, with those who would later crucify Him, with those who didn't get what He was about.  He spent the whole meal teaching them, sharing the truth, sharing God's agenda, God's love with them.  Inviting them into the kingdom        

Who will you eat with?   

Maybe your enemies are in your own house.  Maybe those who "don't get it" are under your own roof - so by all means, share a meal and use Sabbath as a day to fill up your house with kingdom invitation.  

If it's next door - be there.  If it's your coworker, plan a dinner.  If it's your baseball coach - throw a party.  Use the day that you have permission to set all your other work aside to focus on eternal labor and sow some good seed.  

Jesus taught on the Sabbath: in the synagogue and in personal relationship with his disciples.  

What will you teach? 

If you're a long-time church goer - you know the routine - you serve somewhere doing something forever and then say, "You know what - I already did that for 10 years, it's time for me to be fed."  Jesus was teaching all week long, he could've easily said that Sabbath was supposed to be his day off - but it wasn't God's, so to work he went.  He didn't excuse himself from his calling on the Sabbath simply because it already consumed alot of his time.  

Sabbath is a unique time that we all get to set our usual labors aside and labor FOR and WITH one another.   What a treat!  What a gift!  God's been teaching me things all week - all decade - that I get to pass on to you and of course, it works the other way around.  If you think Sunday is a day for you to come to church and be fed - great, it is!  But it's also a day for you to do some of the feeding.  Maybe it's in personal relationship over a coffee, with your son on a walk, with your neighbor across the fence.  Maybe it's year 6 of slicing donuts so that you have a moment to linger with someone new and invite them in to the kingdom.

~

Can I tell you something?  My Sabbath routine goes a little something like this: Church, Pjs, Movie, Cocktail, Small Group.  I like my routine.  I know that as soon as I walk in the door post-church, I'm changing into something super comfy, eating some kind of chocolate eventually, watching some BBC with my old-man-at-heart DH and enjoying a quiet house.  Then we tack on some small group to round out the day.  

The idea that Sabbath, of all days, is the day to visit the hospital and spread some joy

-that Sabbath, of all days, is the day to cook a great meal and enjoy the bounty of SoCal

-that Sabbath, of all days, is not the day to watch a murder mystery, but the day to truly engage with THE GREAT MYSTERY

...to be honest, it makes me a little anxious.  It makes me feel protective of my downtime, but no matter how much I need that downtime, there is no real reason why it can't be Saturday - or Monday, even, so that Sunday can be a day where we enjoy God's good to the fullest and, through Christ in us, continue creating good.   

What if we raised our kids to enjoy good and make good on the Sabbath?

What if you call your college kid on a Monday to find they blew off their classes because they were up 'til 4 on the Sabbath sharing Christ with their roommate?  

What if your kid doesn't finish that project because you spent Sunday afternoon visiting someone in the hospital?  

What if your kid issued reconciliation with his siblings on the way to church because - hey - it's Sabbath!

What if your daughter insists the whole family go to the older sibs game on Sunday afternoon because that is your family's Pharisee dinner. 

What if your bold eight year old invites the UPS guy to Sunday dinner because HE GETS IT!

That's why I didn't write:

- make good -

I wrote:

MAKE GOOD!!!

This matters!  This is urgent!  We MUST get this!  We must dive wholeheartedly into who we will FOREVER be.  So start thinking of your next Sabbath and MAKE GOOD!!!