Today we begin with a quiz.  Let’s recite the Ten Commandments.  We just heard them proclaimed…….

Today in the first reading we hear one of the high points of history for the Hebrew people.  God had already proven the covenant that was cut with Abraham when He freed the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt.  God affirmed his care for them when he led them safely through the Red Sea.  Now God has brought them into the desert of Sinai and has called Moses to the top of the mountain to reveal the laws by which Israel is to live.  We now call them the 10 commandments, key demands of any relationship with God.  They cover duties toward God and toward one another, and are limited to 10 for easy to teaching to children who can count them on the fingers.  (The Catholic Study Bible, Donald Senior, editor, p.82)

It interests me that Moses and God spend a lot of time on the first three commandments.  I think that if we can just understand the first three, the other seven will fall into place for us in our lives.

I am the Lord your God, you shall not have other gods beside me.  You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.  Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.

God reminds us that we need to dedicate weekly time to renew our covenant relationship with God.  We Catholics call that time “the Lord’s day.”  For the Hebrews the Shabbat was a day for all to rest from work, for dads, moms, children, animals, slaves, visitors.  To rest is to believe that God will care for us.  If the Lord does not build the house in vain do the builders labor. Or as a farmer in Olpe told me once, “Father, work you do on Sunday you’ll end up re-doing on Monday.”  It’s a good time to ask if we have followed this third commandment of the Lord.  I believe it is more important than ever given our complicated 2009 lives.

“But Father Mark, it’s just not realistic for us” you might say.  “There’s so much going on around us.  And we’re not Israelites.  That’s sooo Old Testament.”

We need Sabbath rest!  And we have to be intentional about it.  No one will create this space for us like it used to happen 30 or 40 years ago.  I can recall riding my bicycle in a shopping mall parking lot on lazy Sunday afternoons.  Everything was closed!  Not so today.  We need to make our own space, and we can do it!
I recall visiting the Holy Land in 1992.  In Jerusalem the Muslims take their holy day on Friday, so their shops are closed.  The Jews take their Shabbat on Saturday, so their shops are closed.  And the Christians take their Lord’s Day on Sunday, so their shops are closed.  The point is that we control the process.  We’re in charge of how many sports leagues our children join, how many activities we undertake, when we do our chores.  The Shabbat, the day of rest, the seventh day, the Lord’s Day, is something that each person has to create for themselves and their family.  It is the day set aside to show that we have only one God, the Lord.  We do this by acknowledging all that is gift for us; family, a home, a shared meal, recreational time with those we love, time away from work.  These are characteristics of Shabbat rest.  When we take a day of rest we are affirming that we have no other gods before our God, not work, not sports, not any particular hobby.

I know the challenges of keeping the Lord’s Day.  Friends, I work every Sunday!  My day of Shabbat rest is Monday.  On Mondays I rest from all my “shoulds.”  I just enjoy the day.  I get together with my family.  If something takes away my day of rest I try to compensate at another time in the week.

Sabbath rest is all about relaxing into God’s love for us.  We can enjoy the benefits that He has chosen us in Christ and will provide for all our needs.  We can rest in the fact that God has saved us and will do for us what is necessary.  When we bask in that grace which is revealed all around us we will be refreshed as disciples.  We’ll remember that God is God and we are not.  We will reverence God’s presence in the world.  We’ll have time for our parents and relatives.  We won’t want to steal.  We’ll be content.  We’ll praise God for the beauty of neighbor’s family.  Our bodily appetites will be in order.  Resentment will dissipate.  Affirmed in our covenant with God, we’ll be able to live our responsibilities toward God and one another.