​Sorry to be so irregular in getting blog post out these days! Every once in a while, when my forehead is healed up and my wife has got all the drywall residue out of my clothes, I engage some Sabbatarians in conversation/debate. (I’m sure they feel the same way about having discussions with me!) On the off chance that you don’t what I’m talking about – the debate has raged on now for over two thousand years – Why don’t Christians keep the Sabbath (at all or specifically, on Saturday?)
Although pigeon-holing never really accurately captures the truth of a thing, I find Sabbatarians to fall into two major camps – Adventist and Jewish Roots Christians. The core of the argument for either group may be expressed like this – God gave ten commandments and we (Christians) strive to keep nine of them but ignore the command to remember the sabbath and keep it holy. If murder, theft and covetousness are still wrong under the New Covenant, If we are still to worship the One True God and Him alone, if dishonesty and dishonor of one’s parents is still seen as problematic, if we still regard adultery as contrary to God’s will.…Where do we get off ignoring the Sabbath?
We non-Sabbatarians offer more than one answer but a good starting point is – The other nine commandments are repeated in one form or another in the New Covenant Scriptures but the Sabbath commandment is not. Sabbatarians generally counter with one of two arguments – sometimes both.

1. It isn’t enough to say the command is not repeated. Giving it up would require it be repealed. Where in Scripture is it repealed?
2. Jesus (as our example) kept the sabbath and that is as good as repeating the command. We ought to do as He did.

Well, as to the first argument: Colossians chapter 2, in the discussion of the ‘certificate of debt that Christ took out of the way, nailing it to the cross, says in verse 16 that we should not let anyone judge us according to food, drink, festivals, new moons or a sabbath day. Verse 17 adds that such things are a mere shadow of what was to come but Christ is the reality. Verse 18 continues by telling us that to be persuaded to trade the substance for the shadow is to be defrauded of our prize. I think I take Paul’s point about the law in general. It is, as per II Corinthians 3:7, ‘The ministry of death in letters engraved on stone’ It is further – a glory that has faded away in the true light of Christ. Why would we trade the greater glory for the lesser? So, Paul asked the Galatians who had bewitched them that they should revert to the idea of salvation by works of the law and being perfected by the flesh. (Galatians 3:1-3) Paul concludes in verse 4 that this would be to have suffered so many things in vain.
Sabbatarians respond – ‘You have fallen into the II Peter 3:16 trap! Peter says Paul says some things that are hard to understand and which the unstable twist to their own destruction. Paul wasn’t speaking about the Jewish kosher laws in Colossians 2 but about the pagan practice of eating meats sacrificed to idols and when he said not to let anyone judge you according to a sabbath day, he wasn’t speaking of the Jewish Sabbath but about pagan (Sunday/Sabbath) worshippers who maintained the Pagan Sun Worship practice (Sunday – get it) who were judging the poor Colossian Christians for their totally appropriate practice of worshipping on Saturday!’
I reply that the issue for Paul – who did speak elsewhere about eating meat sacrificed to idols but in the context of the Jewish law finding it unacceptable – was actually responding to the  problem of pagan converts being pressured by Judaizers to keep the law. Read Acts 15.
As to point B – Yes Jesus kept the Sabbath – and celebrated the Passover – and, I suspect, avoided pork. Jesus fulfilled the law. This is to say – Jesus fulfilled the terms of the Mosaic Covenant – SO THAT HE COULD ALSO FULFILL THE PROMISE OF THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. The point of Jesus fulfilling the law is not that I should avoid pork – or cheeseburgers. (Here the Jewish Root Sabbatarians split from the Adventist Sabbatarians – ‘It is so!’)
I have only begun the usual course of this conversation and I am already picking plaster from the creases of my forehead. Again – I am sure the Sabbatarians feel the same way. Understand this – I am good to worship God (individually or corporately) any day of the week! But I am not willing to trade the Lord’s Supper for a return to the Passover – or to reduce the blessing of the Lord’s supper by relegating the experience to the keeping of a command(ment). Nor will I trade the true Sabbath rest of Hebrews 4 for the foreshadowed version that was part of the ministry of death in letters carved on stone. As to other commandments – I don’t kill or steal because the love of God lives in my heart. If I have to reduce such a basic level of righteousness to a matter of commandments then I truly am back to the Old Covenant and then I would have to wonder just what exactly, Christ died for. 

​Less of an actual blog this time – more an explanation of the goals for 2022.
 

1. 1 million pounds of scrap. Lest you think I have lost my mind, I do not mean to gather a million pounds of scrap in 2022. But if we gather 87,670 pounds we will reach a million pounds since we started keeping records on scrap ten years ago. To gauge how much scrap 87,670 pounds is for our program, the least weight we collected was 27,605 pounds in 2012 and the most was 160,322 pounds in 2020. The average weight over the ten years is 91,233 pounds. The scrap ministry helps people get rid of unwanted metal items (we have cleaned up farm dumps, cut up old cars that sat in the fields or woods for years as well as taking folk’s food cans and bent nails), keeps materials out of the landfills, and raises money for the work of the congregation ($14K in 2021).
2. 2 tons of food items for the pantry. These are canned/boxed food items people pick up when they do their own shopping and bring to the church. They are added to fresh vegetables from the church garden, meat donated by local farmers, and other items purchased with designated cash gifts. Each month we schedule a grocery give away (people in need also come to the church between scheduled give aways) so folk experiencing food insecurity may be helped. Through our bulletin and newsletter we make suggestions of items so that the parcels we give out contain at least three complete family meals (including meat) plus a few extra items.
3. 2 thousand dollars for a water well in India. We have ties to a missionary in India who, among other things, gets bore wells drilled in remote (often jungle) villages. It is almost impossible to overestimate the change in quality of life that comes with a reliable supply of safe drinking water. These wells cost $2000 @. If we are successful, this will be the second such well we have sponsored.
4. 1 thousand dollars worth of walnuts. A few years ago I learned of buyers for black walnuts. Two years ago we took an experimental load in and made $100+ which was donated to a local feeding ministry in Canton. Last year we worked a little harder at it and took in a few loads raising $900 – also donated to other local ministries. So, this year the walnuts make the goal list! Buyers take walnuts from October 1 to November 15. When that time rolls around we will keep a trailer by the barn for folks to drop off bags and boxes of walnuts raked from their yards, gathered from fields, etc. Folks not able to gather the walnuts themselves can contact the church and we’ll make an arrangement to come get them. To help you visualize – each black walnut is worth about a penny.
5. 7 hundred pairs of glasses. We gather used eye glasses (prescription, readers, and sun glasses) which are given to the Cross Eyed Mission. These glasses will be transported to third world countries where they will be fitted to people in need of vision correction – most of whom would never receive such correction otherwise.
6. 5 hundred pairs of shoes, these shoes (used or new) will be donated to the Heart and Soles Ministry and distributed to folk in our area in need of them.
7. 4 hundred dollars in pennies. All pennies donated toward this goal will become part of the VBS offering and go to bless a mission selected by the VBS committee. Pennies will be received each session of VBS but can be brought in to the church office at any time. Just give them to Eric or Terry and they will be saved till the big VBS tally. If you have a jar of pennies serving as a doorstop, here’s a good cause for them.

 

• If you add up all the bold underlined numbers they come to 22. 22 Ways to glorify Christ in 2022!

Those who follow our annual goals will note some conspicuous absences.
We usually feature a garden goal.  The main garden patch is on sabbatical this year. Partly because Terry plans to take a six- week sabbatical during garden season and partly because garden soil needs an occasional break.  The main garden patch is currently sown in wheat. A local farmer who helped us by planting the grain will harvest it. We will bail the straw and sell it – money to be donated to local feeding ministries. The upper garden patch will be planted in non-cucurbits – probably peppers and/or cabbage – as a matter of fungus control. These vegetables will still go to local ministries and the church pantry but won’t make the goals list this year. In the Fall, both patches will be sown in rye which will be turned under in Spring of 2023 and the garden will be ready to go back into full production.

• We also usually feature a paper recycling goal. We will still be recycling paper without including it in the 2022 goal list. Paper, newspapers/magazines, cardboard can still be brought to the dumpsters in the church parking lot of the dumpster at Lowry’s restaurant in East Canton. The funds from all paper recycling will be used to help purchase food for the church pantry.
• Other things we continue to do cycle on and off the goals list. We are still gathering prescription pill bottles for an Ohio based ministry that uses them to ship medical supplies to the mission field. We are still gathering pop tabs which are used to support Ronald McDonald House, St. Jude’s, and other medical ministries. We still gather school supplies which are made available to teachers to distribute to students as needed. We still gather old cell phones which become 911 devices for battered women in local shelters. We still take in used household items for the ladies barn sale. We still take in egg cartons which are used by local home egg sellers and as craft items in handicap programs. All of these ministries continue but only so many can make the goals list every year!

In all these ways we continue to fight the ‘throw away’ culture, reduce hunger, and bring blessings to our brothers and sisters and glory to Christ. Feel free to join us in any and all of these endeavors.