Rest Now!
Exodus
20:8-11 and Deuteronomy 5:11-15
Buddy Summers, Christ Church Uniting,
Introduction
What Really Matters:
Searching for Wisdom in
I’m not just saying that because of some the thirty miles I walked in pilgrimage Wednesday, Thursday and Friday participating with John, Marion, Estelle, Gene and a host of other good people in the around the island Walk-The-Talk For The Homeless.
Martha’s in the kitchen. Mary’s in the front room, listening to Jesus. Martha says, “Jesus, tell Mary to come back here and help me get dinner ready.” Jesus said “Sorry Martha. Mary picked best”, Mary picked what really matters.
Attention everyone in the kitchen! Stop what you’re doing. Come sit at Jesus’ feet. (But then, who will see to dinner, dishes, laundry, hospitality?) Listen to the Word? Do the Word? Listen. Do.
But even here Jesus (or, at least, the gospel writer/story teller) neglects to mention one other thing that really matters (and something that Jesus took really seriously): I mean rest.
Remember this scene? Storm tossed fishing boat. Disciples screaming “all hands on deck” and Jesus was where? Asleep among the nets. Like Father, like son. Rest is fundamental. Creation is hard wired for Rest. God did it. God commanded it.
A few weeks ago, some of us heard a preacher say, and I quote---myself:
“In contemporary terms, the Biblical vision of salvation includes public safety, meaningful employment with living wages, access to health care, nutrition, shelter and Sabbath rest.”
It was inspired---that part about the Biblical vision of salvation in contemporary terms including Sabbath rest. Not sure anybody noticed, even though just about everybody is needing some---rest.
So, like a bad penny, except that this really matters, it comes back today. The Fourth Commandment, God’s Gift of salvation in Sabbath rest.
The Fourth Commandment
The Fourth Commandment found in both Exodus and Deuteronomy is this: “on the Seventh Day, nobody works: not you, not your family, neither your slaves nor your livestock, not even the alien resident in your town (e.g. not the gentile, not the undocumented worker). Get it? Nobody works.”
The Exodus and Deuteronomy versions of the Fourth Commandment have different rationales and state the commandment somewhat differently.
In Exodus, God says “Remember the Sabbath. 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. Follow this pattern: work six, rest one, work six, rest one.
The Hebrew word for remember is Zacho.
The sense of it is “On the
day of rest, you will need to do something positive when you stop and
chill. (No, it’s not about saving on the Bronze Age equivalents of tranquilizers and
heart medications.)
Specifically, you will need to reflect upon, celebrate, and live in the light of God’s goodness, the goodness and abundance of God’s creation. Work, Sabbath, work, Sabbath. Walk in God’s ways. Rejoice!
In Deuteronomy, God says, “Observe
(or Guard) the Sabbath. You were a slave in
The word for guard or observe is Shamor. The emphasis is upon the not working part, upon the not doing of anything that would obscure the true meaning of Sabbath which, according to Deuteronomy, is remembering that God rescued slaves from Pharaoh’s labor camps and that their worth is and will be determined by God alone rather than by productivity, value to the task masters, or any other socially determined measure.
The Fourth Commandment Sabbath call is to settle down regularly and with periodic intentionality to becalm ourselves routinely, to remember God as the source of true worth and as the one who creates abundance out of a little faithfulness, a few loaves of bread and, to be precise, two fishes.
[Matthew 14:3-21]
The commandment is to stop, cease
and desist from work, for a little while---which was the one thing the Hebrews
could not do while under Pharaoh’s thumb.
Impossible to Imagine
And, it seems to be the one thing we cannot easily do. Practicing Sabbath in almost any form is nearly impossible for us even to envisage: periodic deliberate work stoppage (even 7-11s and many Safeway’s are 24-7, and you know what I mean), a regular practice of inner calm(seen the news lately) and (in the face of oil depletion, housing shortages, and failed pension schemes) the contemplation of a generous universe (dream on). And I don’t even know anybody who has slaves and livestock. Do you?
These things are beyond the grasp
and imagination (but not necessarily the fantasy) of most people in our life
setting. For us, there might be the trip
to
There is the lottery (maybe) and
the real relative calm of utter exhaustion and collapse. And there is (always) death----but while we
(upper middle class North Americans) live and breath…it’s (pretty much) hi ho, hi
ho, off to work we go.
Scripture contains over 150 references to the Sabbath. Supposedly, in Moses’ time, Sabbath-breaking incurred the death penalty [Ex 31:15]. One man was stoned to death for gathering sticks on a Sabbath day [Num 15:32-36].
We know from experience that lack of rest can kill, cause mechanical failure, pilot error, even drive creation into chaos, but it’s not sanctions, real or imagined, or consequences, that concern us this morning. Ask you family physician or a soul doctor if you need more on the complications of non compliance. Rather it’s Rest, specifically, the possibility of Sabbath Rest that interests me this morning.
Jesus and Sabbath Rest
Jesus said, 28“Come
to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give
you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for
I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For
my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” [Matthew 11:28-30]
“Rest” in Hebrew is “Sabbath.” It’s not too much of a stretch for me to hear Jesus saying,
Come to me all you incredibly productive North Americans, all you above average Disciples and Presbyterians, and I will give you Sabbath.
What, haven’t we come to you already? We confessed you Lord and Savior---Is there more?
Come to me you reasonably well off, intelligent, and extraordinarily well intentioned Presbyterians and Disciples in Kailua, you who have so many good choices that your nights and your children’s weekends are booked from now through Christmas, come unto me and I will give you rest, a Sabbath rest.
But we don’t have--- you know, Jesus--- we don’t have time for anything else. What good things (and by the way we thought
you sent us all the good things) what good things would you have us leave off?
Take my yoke upon you, learn from me, put down your obsessive, compulsive, almost comical common sense of good fortune. Stop trying to stay afloat and ahead of the curve, and I will give you Sabbath. Lower your defenses, and I will give you security. Open your hearts, and I will give you life. Learn from me. I am gentle and humble of heart. My yoke is easy. My burden is light.
You’re kidding right? This is
When Jesus’ disciples were criticized for picking grain on the Sabbath, [Jesus] said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” [Mark 2:27]. Maybe he really meant “man.” Nah.
Regardless, I don’t think Jesus was saying that he, or his disciples, or we in the twenty first century, suddenly have leave to turn our back on the Fourth Commandment (God’s offer salvation in Sabbath), or snicker, or consider it irrelevant or unattainable.
Wasn’t Jesus saying in that context that Sabbath is not something to be approached in frightened and groveling subservience to someone else’s agenda?
Wasn’t Jesus saying that Sabbath exists to serve humankind, is intended as a blessing for humankind, is given and is to be received as a gift from God, that Sabbath Practice is intended to be a real time experience of salvation---for those who make a place for it in their lives, a place for Sabbath?
Yes. That’s what I think he was saying.
Participation in the activities of the faith community and Sunday worship is not the same as having a Sabbath Practice. Surprised? Not surprised.
The good and challenging work that
Christians are called to do in faith community is often anything but
restful. It can be exacting and
exhausting. Even so, for those who want
to develop their personal or household Sabbath Practice, help may perhaps
be found in the corporate experience of
faith community.
In worship, we model practices that can be helpfully incorporated into a
personal Sabbath Practice.
When we sing gathering music or chant scripture following a sermon, when
we center and focus while a child brings in the light, we model what it means
to be intentional in calming ourselves before God.
When we sit together in stillness before God and when we gather monthly
for the Taize service, again, we are practicing the sort of stillness that is
important and appropriate to a personal or household Sabbath Practice.
When we sing God praises, bring our offerings, put food under the
communion table, and embrace offering Christ’s peace, we model what it is to
reflect upon, celebrate, and live in the light of God’s gracious abundance.
(And, it could be said, that in so doing, we offer a liberating gospel
grounded alternative to the myth of scarcity to which so much of our culture is
bound.)
When we treat each other and our children with infinite respect without regard to calculations of rank, corporate values, or contribution, when we see Christ in the stranger, when we take time to be with each other, and when we set aside otherwise good and meaningful agendas to make time for homeless families, as some of us will do one week in every thirteen this coming year to support the Family Promise ministry, when we do these things, we are modeling actions which may be helpfully incorporated in a personal Sabbath Practice, showing what it is to remember that it is Loving God, Generous God alone who determines our worth, ministries and mission.
Although, when we gather in work and worship, we model practices that could appropriately and helpfully be incorporated into an individual or a household Sabbath Practice, “coming to church”, even as a family, isn’t the same as keeping the Sabbath holy.
Each of us, each household, if we intend honor the Sabbath, needs to experiment with and work out a personal and faithful Sabbath Practice---one that involves regular intentional down time coupled with the soul renewing work of remember God’s abundant love and sole authority to determine our worth.
It bears keeping in mind (and this is another sermon all by itself) that your personal Sabbath Practice affects not only your household but a host of others, even though they may not be your children, slaves or livestock.
Conclusion
As gift from God, Sabbath Practice can be a real life experience of
God’s saving grace, of Salvation--- in real time.
To the recently liberated Hebrews, Moses said, “I set before you Life
and Death. Choose Life!”
As I see it, as I now have some experience in seeking to honor the Fourth Commandment, a personal and household Sabbath Practice makes life possible, makes the choice of Life possible.
In Luke’s version of Jesus’ hometown inaugural address, Jesus said (and Jesus was speaking not just about Sabbath Rest, but about Jubilee and Salvation, the whole enchilada),
“It’s not about tomorrow. It’s about Today. Today this prophecy has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
So I say,
Choose Life.
It really matters.
Honor the Sabbath.
Rest Now!
