top of page
Writer's pictureRev. Izzy Harbin

Exodus 20:8-11


8 “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10 But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son, or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it.


Matthew 12:1-8

NRSVUE


12 At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” 3 He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 How he entered the house of God, and they ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and yet are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”


The concept of “keeping Sabbath” is not new to us. We have talked about the Sabbath in the past and looked specifically at God’s mandate to the people to not labor on this day of rest. There is, however, more here than we first discussed, and Jesus, in the Book of Matthew, offers us even more insight into the ideas and customs regarding the Sabbath day and its requirements for rest.


The question arises, even among Jewish sects, “What constitutes work?”


Early in the history of Orthodox Judaism, they developed categories of activities that were considered “work”. They are as follows:


o Agricultural Responsibilities

o Food Preparation

o Clothing Manufacture

o Animal Maintenance

o Writing

o Building

o Lighting or Extinguishing Fires


In the Book, The Jewish Experience, Steven Jacobs writes, “For Jews who take seriously the religious understanding of the Sabbath as refraining from all manner of work, the challenge remains to contemporize these historical categories into modern parlance, especially for those whose residence is urban rather than pastoral/agricultural. What constitutes work?”


We find that many individuals of Jewish faith have had to rethink these categories and look at these prohibitions differently, especially since it is near impossible to adhere to the “no work” tenants of the faith without going to extraordinary lengths. Jacobs goes on to say, “Thematically interwoven themes make this premier holy day a true symbol of the Judaic religious tradition: First, it is that reminder of imitatio Dei, imitation of God, resting from work as God rested from work. Second, it is appreciation of the descendants for the liberation from Egyptian slavery by God. And third, it is understood by many to be a foretaste of what life will be like when, at long last, the long-sought-for messiah of the Jews makes his appearance.”


In light of this understanding of what Sabbath means to the Jewish people, strictly or more loosely observed, Jesus brings a new teaching that in some ways lays the ground work for a more loosely observed Sabbath. What might appear at first as Jesus acting like a petulant child, “well, so and so did it, so why can’t I,” that isn’t exactly the point he is trying to make. Jesus offers the religious leaders of his day a clear precedent within their own faith for gathering and eating that which one gathers, even though the law states that this is a prohibited activity. By pointing back to the time when David ate bread from the Temple, which was not his to eat, Jesus is redefining what is acceptable and unacceptable. Oddly enough, David eating of the bread didn’t have anything to do with the Sabbath but had to do with eating that which is deemed holy.


Jesus, in using this illustration to make his point, reminds the religious leaders of his day that everything made by God is holy, it always has been holy. There was never meant to be a prohibition against eating grain on the Sabbath. It isn’t the act of picking grain, or eating grain, that is the problem. From the beginning, God is setting aside the Sabbath, a day that is holy, for all things holy, rest included. What makes “work” unholy is when ANY activity takes you out of the restful, worshipful space that one needs to occupy in order to rejuvenate oneself.


If Jesus and his disciples were asked to harvest the whole field – that clearly constitutes work that is neither worshipful nor restful. Eating a little bit of grain because you are hungry is about taking care of your physical needs as they arise.


Jesus then does something with this passage that I think is profound. After defending those who came before him who also exercised questionable behavior, Jesus drops the mic with this statement, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” Ouch!


What we realize several millennia later is that the sacrificial system established by God for the people of Israel became like many things that we do repetitively, we become immune to its effects. Throughout the Hebrew Bible we see an evolution in the nature of God, not because God changed, but because the people were growing and changing, and becoming what they had never been. So, when Jesus tells the religious leaders of his day, “But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless,” he was calling them out for their lack of growth, their lack of holiness.


When God instructs the people of Israel to be Holy as God is Holy, he doesn’t expect them to get it the first day they leave Israel. They wander in the desert for 40 years in an effort to change enough to be considered Holy enough to enter into the covenantal promise God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is, perhaps, one of the hardest journeys we will ever take in life, from that place of not feeling worthy of God’s attention to knowing we are part of the divine artistry of all of creation.


Holiness is everywhere if we are willing to see it for what it is. The rest that God is calling us to enter into on the Sabbath is necessary for us to be able to see the Holiness of God. Without resting in God, it is hard for us to see God.

5 views0 comments
Writer's pictureRev. Izzy Harbin

Exodus 20:7

NRSVUE


7 “You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.


Matthew 5:33-37a

NRSVUE


33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’ 34 But I say to you: Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’.


In the church of my childhood, I always heard the 3rd Commandment preached as an admonition to not cuss at God or to say derogatory things in the name of God, such as the popular “OMG”. After a deeper study of this passage, however, I must agree that this passage is not nearly as concerned with how often we type OMG in a social media post as it is with how often we clam to represent the very being of God, when in fact, we have no idea who God is or how God works in the world.


There is a clear difference between being made in the image and likeness of God and creating God in our own image. But in some sense, this is at the heart of this commandment. We have become experts at anthropomorphizing God or making God into human form and all its many guises. We give God all of our human traits but forget that God wants us to be holy and righteous, which we are not, most of the time.


Philip Gulley put it this way, “You know that you have created God in your own image when God hates all the same people you do.” There seems to be a genuine disconnect between the God we create in our minds versus the God who created us – and no matter how hard we try to conflate the two, they can never be melded together.


No, the 3rd Commandment isn’t just about talking smack, it is about the role we assume when we pretend to know the mind of God. So, how does this relate to our passage from Matthew.

In the ancient world, swearing a vow to God was as good as a signed contract in the present day. If someone vowed to turn over possession of a piece of land and swore to God that it would happen, then the intent was that it would happen. However, by swearing falsely, you make yourself and God out to be a liar. These two passages are linked in that God doesn’t want any kind of misrepresentation going on, whether it is misrepresenting God or one’s self. At the heart of this issue is that when we misrepresent God, people will look at us and be immediately turned away from God because of that mischaracterization, or they will have high expectations regarding something that God never promised. When it doesn’t happen, then we’ll be seen a untrustworthy and not a great emissary for God.


On the other hand, if we speak the truth in love and only guarantee those things which we know we can do and under no circumstances speak for God, our lives will be much less chaotic. This is where Jesus proclaims, “Let your word be ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ We don’t need to complicate the equation with a lot of flowery language. Nor does Jesus tell us we need to explain ourselves to death. When asked a question or when promising to do something, we need to bring our answer back to the bare-bones-minimum, yes and no.


Ultimately, this is about intent. We have a saying in our house, especially when I say, “I didn’t intend to,” (usually something less than stellar), and the reply is always, “Yes, but you also didn’t intend NOT to.” As much as we would like to believe that we get it right all the time, we don’t. We make mistakes. We don’t complete things on time. We fail to follow through on all kinds of issues. At the outset, we are often looking for ways to get out of the task rather than lean into it. Image, though, if we could be more honest about what we are and are not willing to do. Our honesty, our ability to say yes OR no could make all the difference in the world in how we function in society.


We are setting clear intentions with the hope that our actions will follow rightly.


This is huge. It cuts through all the clutter and noise that usually surrounds some of the decisions we make. We are better able to actually follow through with what we commit to without making any kind of false statement. Especially when it comes to speaking on behalf of God—even as a minister, I do not want that responsibility of trying to read or interpret the mind of God. Scripture provides me with the accounts of many who came before me who wrestled with all the same issues we do. They understood just like we need to that God is so much more expansive than we can imagine. I cannot even begin to wrap my head around the enormity of God and the intimacy of God.


When I preach, I provide commentary and teaching on the written words of scripture, my own lived experience, and the lived experiences of others. Sometimes I catch glimpses of the reality of God, but my language is woefully inadequate to ever articulate what those glimpses are. I believe, as a matter of faith, that God is compassionate, loving, kind, a creator, and so much more. But none of us should ever attempt to define God or put God in a box with any kind of authority.


One day, hopefully, we’ll see God face to face and be saturated with the knowledge of who God is; I imagine being flooded with the love of God to the point that I cannot contain it. That is my hope and prayer – and that is the best I can do.

6 views0 comments
Writer's pictureRev. Izzy Harbin

Where to begin – I suppose at the beginning.


When I first received a phone call regarding my profile, I was a little stunned because First Congregational Church in Elkhart wasn’t even on my radar. But I knew after our first Skype session that this was the church for me. There was no doubt in my mind. I hoped and prayed that God was leading me to this place because it felt like the perfect fit.


The day I got the phone call that they wanted to call me to be their pastor, I almost didn’t believe it. I called Pastor DiNino (my mentor) immediately to let her know. We did all the stuff that you have to do to quickly organize an ordination service, and then everything happened at once.


I celebrated my 50th birthday on August 8, 2015.

I was legally married to my long-time-partner, Ouida Lampert, on August 15, 2015.

I was ordained as a minister on August 16, 2015.

I moved to Elkhart, IN on August 19, 2015.

I preached my first sermon as a newly ordained minister on August 23, 2015.

I was installed at First Congregational Church on November 23, 2015, the anniversary of my mother’s death.


Now, here I am eight years later, and it feels like very little time has passed at all.


I will admit that ordained life isn’t what I thought it was going to be. Even though I took worship classes and preaching classes, these are skills that I now realize develop over time. I have discovered that I LOVE writing liturgy. Finding the right words to convey a particular message is a challenge a enjoy facing every week. And while we were taught certain practices in both worship and preaching, I have since discovered that each one of us develops our own system for getting these things done every week.


Another area that I think I struggled with in the beginning is “pastoral care.” Clinical Pastoral Education in a hospital setting, nor having a masters in social work truly prepares you for the kinds of things people come and talk to you about. Nor do these skills help you develop what I now call “ministerial presence” which enables you to go to someone’s home, knock on the door, and invite yourself in for a visit. I would never go unannounced and have improved in my ability to do home and hospital visits, but this is one aspect of the “job” that may always be difficult for me. I do, however, like writing cards, so I always have that to lean on.


There is also the challenge that is facing all denominations right now, that of church attendance decline. It is frustrating. I grew up in the South and church attendance was non-negotiable. Today, though, there are so many school and extra-curricular activities that happen on Sunday, many families opt not to attend church. What I have learned, though, is that small churches can be vital churches. We still manage to do a lot of good in our community and beyond. Would I like our church to grow? Sure, I would. I believe that what we stand for, what I preach, and what we have to offer in the way of communal support is vitally important to our community. But I believe that every person needs to make their own decision regarding participation in a Community of Faith.


The work that I get to do for First Congregational Church, UCC is wonderful on its own, but it is also enhanced by my active participation in our Association and Conference. I have been blessed with opportunities to serve the wider church, all of which have made me a better minister. Writing the worship liturgy for our Conference Annual Gathering is always one of the top highlights of the year for me. What a gift.


As I think about what the next 8 years will hold, I am excited about all the possibilities. There are mountains of theology to still study and discern. We have much to discuss in Sunday School as we try to solve the world’s problems. There are more people to help, more school facial tissue to purchase, and more love to give to one another. I am hoping to graduate with my Doctor of Ministry degree in May of 2025. I know after completing that I’ll need a break, so I’m hoping for a sabbatical at that time. But then it is right back to work.


It is my hope and my prayer that you will stick with me and that as a congregation you will continue to grow and be changed by the work we do together. Perhaps in our efforts to be more like Jesus, we can radically change Elkhart into a City that lives its tag line: A City with a Heart. Maybe, just maybe, it is up to us to teach others what true compassion is all about.

23 views0 comments
bottom of page