How's Your Sabbath Going?
Matthew 13:1–9
July 12, 2026
Scripture: Matthew 13:1
That same day Jesus went out of the house
and sat beside the sea.
Sermon
That same day /
Jesus went out of the house /
and sat beside the sea. ///
O ye of the Emerald Coast, /
ye of white sandy beaches, /
ye of Jimmy Buffett strummin' his 6-string
on the front porch swing at the Flora-Bama. ///
Don't you think Jesus would fit right in, / here? //
Maybe not at the Flora-Bama. //
Although, /
Our Lord did enjoy the company of fishermen and seafood. /
And wine. /
And he really did wear robes and sandals. ///
Today's scripture is about Jesus taking a Sabbath. /
Jesus enjoying THE Sabbath. //
Well, / let me correct that. //
He's TRYING to enjoy the Sabbath. /
TRYING to take a day off. ///
And he's doing it the way many of us do, /
the way the tourists do: /
a simple, / relaxing vacation, /
getting out of the house
and sitting at the beach. //
A holy place. /
A holy time. ///
Where is YOUR holy place? /
When do you take time to find the holy? /
And how religiously do you protect your holy Sabbaths? ///
AND OK, / here's another question: ///
How religiously do we honor Jesus's Sabbath time? /
How often do we give him time off, /
to rest on the shores of holiness? /
How do we protect even HIM
in this age of non-stop work, work, work
and non-stop talk, talk, talk? ///
—
Work, / work, / work. /
Nobody works like Jesus. /
Is this a good thing? ///
We think of Jesus being with us 24/7, /
365 days a year. /
He never closes. /
Like Waffle House. ///
Think about it. /
We get mad at him if he shows up late… /
get grumpy if he leaves early. //
He's a good worker. /
Nobody works like him. //
But oops, /
we're shorthanded, /
here at Our Waffle-y House. /
Especially when the WORLD CUP fans show up. /
Sorry, Jesus, /
but we need you here.
I mean, Lord: have you seen what’s going on these days?
We need Jesus, real bad. ///
—
Today's scripture is about one day, /
one long day.
It starts in chapter 12. ///
It’s a Sabbath. When the law literally says “Thou shalt not work, under penalty of death.”
And Jesus has been working like nobody else.
We pick up today's reading. /
Chapter 13 starts
with the very simple statement: /
"That same day
Jesus went out of The House." ///
Doesn't say Waffle, /
but the analogy holds. ///
It says, /
Jesus went out of The House
and sat beside the sea. ///
Alone. /
By himself. /
Away from the five thousand hungry people
demanding their loaves and fishes, /
scattered, / smothered, / and covered. ///
Jesus went out of the house. /
And sat beside the sea. ///
Sabbath. /
Sweet Sabbath for Our Lord.
Down at the white sands, the emerald green sea. ///
—
I love going down to the beach at sunrise, /
down toward Ft. Pickens. ///
Early in the day, /
before it gets hot and crowded, /
it's so very, / very peaceful. /
So quiet. ///
All the fisher-men and fisher-women
with their poles in a line. /
Shell-hunters. /
Sweet older couples holding hands, /
strolling in blissful silence. ///
People set up precisely aimed chairs
so they can just stare at the Gulf, /
the gentle waves, / the clouds. /
Seated just at the margins, /
so every few waves
their toes are gently baptized. ///
It sounds to me like Psalm 65. ///
You silence the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
the tumult of the peoples.
People are so tumult-y. ///
Mornings at the beach are my holy time. /
My worship. /
My Sabbath. ///
It's my place to sneak out of The House, /
Try – try – to shut my bossy brain off, /
and listen to nothing but the whispering surf, /
the calling seagulls, /
and — / if I'm very quiet —
time to hear God. ///
If going down to the sea
is the one thing I can do
as well as Jesus did, /
then at least I've got that going for me. ///
The Bible says the shore
was a holy place and time for him, too. /
His sanctuary. /
His Sabbath. ///
Like Son, / like Father. //
God created the world and all that's in it in six days, /
and then on the Seventh, / God rested. //
Because God knew
working 24/7 isn't healthy for anybody. /
Even for the Almighty himself. ///
Keeping the Sabbath
is one of the Top Ten Commandments for a reason. /
It's good for us. /
Spiritually, / physically, / mentally. ///
And although we're not going to get the death penalty
if we don't keep Sabbath, /
demanding constant productivity
with maximum efficiency in minimum time
isn't going to prolong our lives. ///
Sabbath keeps us alive. ///
—
I saw a great quote the other day. /
It goes, ///
"I told God I'm overwhelmed. /
He said, /
then stop trying to do my job." ///
One of the ways we preserve our Sabbath time /
is by respecting the division of labor
God has set up. ///
We might feel like we're carrying the weight of the world
on our shoulders, /
we might take pride in carrying the weight of the world
on our backs. /
"Behold my awesome strength!" ///
We impose gravity on our lives. /
We take on so much responsibility. /
So many yokes on our shoulders. /
Our jobs. Other peoples’ jobs. Maybe even God’s jobs.
It's work. /
Unending work. ///
Of course, /
we have to bear our responsibilities. /
We have to care for our families, /
and pay the mortgage, /
and not forget the kids at swim practice again. /
We have to plan for the future. ///
But there's a difference
in planning for the future, /
and being its Almighty Manager. //
Jesus went out of the house. /
And he sat beside the sea. //
The crowd finds him
and drags him back to his job, /
which is, / in their estimation, /
serving them. /
But he keeps a distance. /
He gets in a boat. ///
Think about what that does. ///
Jesus went down to sit and stare at the ocean. /
Now, /
he's positioned the entire crowd
to be doing what he was trying to do. /
Staring out at the ocean, /
listening, / peacefully, /
LISTENING for God's word. ///
And what's the first word he says to them? /
He says, /
"Listen!" ///
Listen to what?
Listen to him? /
Listen to the waves? /
Listen to the seagulls? /
Maybe all of the above? ///
We don't know. /
It's just, /
"Listen!" ///
And then, /
see how artfully he does this? /
On this Sabbath, /
he tells them a story of a sower going out to sow. //
The seeds land on different soils. /
Some grow, / some don't. //
But at that point, /
the seeds are out of the sower's hands. /
Now, / God takes over, /
Letting the earth do it’s work, /
and the seeds do theirs, /
and the weeds, /
and the rocks, all doing their own work. /
It's no longer the sower's job. ///
Do you see how God uses the division of labor? ///
Anxiety is worrying about the future. /
We can plan for the future. /
But we get anxious, /
we can get sick, /
we can worry ourselves to death —
to death —
when we exceed our job description. /
When we have no Sabbath. ///
I can't say for sure, /
but I think Jesus is saying, /
"Listen!" /
He's asking, /
"What do you hear?" /
He's saying, /
"I'll do my job. /
You do yours. /
Don't ask me to do your job for you." ///
At least a few hours or minutes every week,
We need to follow Jesus to Sabbath.
And we do that by letting ourselves listen. ///
Listen to the earth. /
Listen for God's voice. //
A voice that —
as the psalm says —
echoes off the rocks, / and trees, / and skies, / and seas —
that comes from quiet walks, /
holding hands with a love, /
building sandcastles with kids, /
breathing out. /
Breathing out. /
Breathing out. ///
—
So, /
back to the original question. ///
How's your Sabbath going? ///
Maybe it's on Sundays, / here at church. /
Maybe it's at a group gathering. /
Maybe it lasts 24 hours. /
Or one hour. /
Or the length of a song. ///
I have this vision of Jesus appearing beside us
during those times. /
Leaning over with an elbow and asking, /
"Isn't this great?"
“Isn’t all of this so very good?”
Like my Father said? ///
I don't know if Jesus needs Sabbath as much as we do. /
Sure seems like he used to need it pretty badly
When he was getting chased around the earth
In human form. ///
If keeping a little Sabbath
is something you can do
almost as well as Jesus, /
well, /
you've got that going for you. ///
Listen for the sounds of Sabbath. ///
Enjoy it. /
Do YOUR job.
Follow the rules.
Keep the Commandments.
And then let the Commandments keep you.
In the house.
Out of the house.
And down by the sea.
///
