Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Colossians 2:13-17
Pastor: Pastor Berg
Sermon Date:  June 2, 2024

Who would have ever thought that reality TV would become the juggernaut that it is today? And we’ve all been bitten by the reality TV bug whether we want to admit it or not. From Survivor, which is still going, to the Amazing Race, to Mountain Men or Forged in Fire, all of us have been touched by reality TV. And there’s not necessarily anything wrong with that. What’s funny, though, is that name is a misnomer. They call it “reality TV” because it’s supposed to be real people in real life situations. But while they may be real people, those shows are far from unscripted. They are often a far stretch from reality. 

As the Apostle Paul writes to the Christians in Colosse, they had their own version of the “reality TV” phenomenon. It was their worship life. Worship for the Jews had become outward formalism, a focus on the shell of worship that missed the content. It was supposed to be real, but it was far from it. So where could they find real worship? Let’s explore with them. 

So how had the Jews lost their focus? How had they lost the reality of the Sabbath? Our Gospel for today provides a great illustration. Listen again:  “Once on a Sabbath day, Jesus was passing through the grain fields, and his disciples began to pick heads of grain as they walked along. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath day?”” What had the disciples done wrong? According to the Pharisees, they were “working.” By simply snatching some heads of grain as they walked through the fields, which by the way they were permitted to do by God’s law, the Pharisees said they were working. And work was forbidden on the Sabbath. That word, Sabbath, means rest. On the Sabbath, God’s people were to rest from their labors. They weren’t to make meals; they weren’t to carry out their normal daily tasks. They were to rest. They were to worship. They were to focus on the rest that God had promised in the coming Messiah. 

But these Pharisees had turned even rest into work! The Old Testament Sabbath and Ceremonial laws had become a burden for the people because of this perversion. It was never God’s intention that the Sabbath rest be so rigid that you couldn’t eat or that you’d be breaking the Sabbath if you physically exerted yourself in an emergency. Look at what Jesus says in our Gospel: “He replied to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry (he and his companions)? He entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest and ate the Bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for anyone to eat, except for the priests. He also gave some to his companions.”” It was the spirit of the law, not the letter of the law that God was concerned with. It was the focus on the rest that God was giving. That was the key, not the obedience that man was giving to God. Again Jesus says, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” 

“Do I have to?” Anyone deal with that question this morning? Anyone feel like uttering it yourself? I wonder if the empty formalism that plagued the Pharisees and the Jews at the time of Jesus and Paul doesn’t find its way into our own worship lives. What is your attitude when you come to worship? Is it one of have to? Do you feel like this is just another thing you need to do in order to please God, so you can go to heaven? Do you dread coming to church and having to jump through the liturgical hoops every single week? Has worship become work rather than rest? I think we’d all have to answer yes to some of those questions some of the time. Certainly, if you’re fighting with a toddler during the service, worship seems more like work than rest. And we’re not talking about the kind of rest some of us have gotten in church because we were up too late the night before. But honestly ask yourself this question: Why do I go to church? Do I go to church to do something for God or do I go to church so God can do something for me?

In Colosse, the Pharisaical regulations placed on worship had made worship something the people did for God. Here, Paul shows them  that’s not how God intended this to be. This is not reality. “Even when you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ by forgiving us all our trespasses. God erased the record of our debt brought against us by his legal demands. This record stood against us, but he took it away by nailing it to the cross. After disarming the rulers and authorities, he made a public display of them by triumphing over them in Christ.” Everything about the Old Testament Sabbath regulations ideally pointed people to Jesus. It pointed them to the Messiah who would not rest until he had made sure their salvation was won. And that’s exactly what Jesus did. That record of our debt that recorded all of our failures and inability to keep the legal demands, God erased that record of our debt, he took it away and he nailed it to the cross. Because of Jesus’ life and death, God forgave all of our trespasses. Because of Jesus’ life and death, he made us alive with Christ even when we were still dead in our sins, through his life-creating Spirit. And over all the forces of evil, both visible and invisible, Jesus triumphed over them as he publicly died and the cross and visibly rose again to life to prove that God’s plan had worked, that his sacrifice was acceptable, that our salvation was complete!

“Therefore, do not let anyone judge you in regard to food or drink, or in regard to a festival or a New Moon or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were coming, but the body belongs to Christ.” The Christians at Colosse were being pressured into continuing to keep those Old Testament Sabbath and Ceremonial laws that Jesus had already fulfilled perfectly. They were being tempted into making the rest that Jesus had provided into a work once again. They were being told what to eat and what not to eat, when and when not to worship. They were being tempted to throw away the gift of rest and pick up a burden. They were in danger of having worship become just another “have to!” But that’s not real worship, Paul says. No, these were just pointers from the past. These things were symbols that were meant to point you ahead. These were never meant to be the permanent reality. No Paul says, “These are a shadow of the things that were coming, but the body belongs to Christ.” 

How do we find real worship? It’s not found in an empty formalism, a mere going through the motions with a “have to” sort of attitude. IT’s not found in your obedience to commands or what you can offer to God. To some people, that’s real worship, but that’s not the reality. Real worship is found in what Christ has done for us! Real worship receives what God has done for us. Real worship is first and foremost God doing, God inviting, God giving. Real worship is receiving Christ, receiving new life, receiving the forgiveness of sins, peace for eternity. Real worship is real rest. Not a physical rest for the body, but a spiritual rest for the soul. Real worship is receiving what God gives us in his Word! Real worship is hearing again and again that we are sinners who deserve punishment, but that Jesus took that punishment for us. Real worship is hearing again and again of God’s love as he sent his Son to die for us. Real  worship is hearing again and again that God continues to love us by providing for our every need. Real worship is receiving Christ himself as he gives us his true body and blood. Real worship is found only in Christ and what he’s done for us.

In Matthew’s Gospel, just before the account of Jesus’ disciples in the grainfield, Jesus spoke these words to his disciples: “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” All too often, I think we believe that by keeping God’s commands, like his command to worship him, that we are somehow doing something for God. But that’s backwards. And when we can understand this, we can understand what Jesus means when he says: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” All of God’s commands were given, not for God’s benefit, but for ours. When God commands us to remember the Sabbath day, he’s directing us to the true rest we find in Christ. He’s pointing us to peace. God’s commands are not burdensome because we’re not doing them to earn salvation, to please God. We’re doing them to say thank you. We’re doing them to show our love for God for giving us Jesus. For Christians, true worship is found in Christ. It’s not a “have to”, it’s a “want to.” And that’s the reality. Amen.