True Delight - David H. Lauten

 

True Delight

Five thousand to upward of fifteen to eighteen thousand gather to enjoy market festivities each Saturday in the center of the city where I live. Fresh produce, fabulous meat, home-spun leather backpacks, and delicious kombucha are among the items which line the streets for would-be buyers along with their many furry friends. The tastings, browsing, chatting all make the market great fun. A market friend recently described her day atthe market as a “delight.”

God invites us to find our joy in him. The prophet Isaiah (58) knew that the cure for the “gloom” of the people who lived in “scorched places” is tethered to their finding their pleasure in their relationship with God. That we may know him and enjoy him, God has given us a special weekly gift, the Lord’s Day. Isaiah calls the people to rejoice in the Sabbath Day, to call it a delight (58:13). 

This day is set aside from ordinary work for worship, rest,and service to others. This weekly pattern of work six days a week and rest on a seventh goes back to creation when God Almighty “rested” on the seventh day. God gave his good instruction to Moses, and all who call upon him, to remember the Sabbath Day. For many years this day of worship, rest and mercy ministry was on Saturday, the last day of the week.

When Jesus who is Lord of the Sabbath arose from the grave on the day following the Sabbath, the day of worship changed from the last day of the week to the first one. On the day of Resurrection, Sunday, we begin our week resting and remembering Jesus’ resurrection. We live out our normal everyday endeavors the rest of the week in the strength of that day. Our one day in seven for worship and rest and mercy has moved from the day of “rest” to the day of “resurrection.”

Reflecting upon the value of the Lord’s Day for our lives, J.C. Ryle comments, “The Sabbath was made for man – for his benefit, not for his injury, - for his advantage, not for his hurt…[it was] never intended to interfere with charity, kindness and the real needs of human nature.”

         Our spiritual forebears saw the day of worship as a great market day for the soul where we taste the spiritual delicacies of God’s Word. On the first day of the week, we take in the sweetness and strength of the friendship of God’s people. Resting from the cares of the workaday world we are renewed as we sing his praise and pray with his people.

This world holds out big promises to those who will follow in its ways. But the husks of this world never satisfy. C.S. Lewis brings this out in his sermon, “The Weight of Glory,:” 

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

        As it comes to the celebration of the Lord’s Day, we are too easily pleased. We long for renewal and revival in our land and in the world. And that is good to do. We also pray for it. Recently, I have considered how the Chrisitan Church either rises or falls with our observance of the gift of the day. I need daily reminding to find my delight in God. By my bedside are the words of Matthew Henry, “The streams of all Christian religion run either deep or shallow, according as the banks of the sabbath are kept or neglected.”

         A previous Pastor of our Congregation would frequently end his sermons with a reference to the final lyrics of the hymn “Glorious Things on Thee are Spoken” – “Solid joys and lasting treasure, none but Zion’s children know.” May we find our solid joy and lasting treasure in communion with God in the joyful celebration of the gift of the Lord’s Day.