Word Four: Sabbath
By
Carrie Houston
A
Sermon on The Fourth Command, Genesis 2:1-3; Matthew 14:22-23
For
the Twelfth Sunday Following Pentecost (10 Words Series)
September
1, 2019
For
the Beloveds of First Austin: a baptist community of faith
For
centuries, families have been gathering at dinner tables, in living rooms, around
campfires, and in caves to share stories of their family’s origins. Our stories give us a context to who we are,
how we see ourselves, and how we see the world. When a young child learns about
the struggles her grandparent endured during the Great Depression, she can be
proud of how her family overcame hardship. At the same time, learning the dark
truths about a family’s slave-owning past can muddy someone’s perception of who
they are?
Learning
the truth of our family heritage is all the rage right now. Modern technology has made it easy to find out
a family’s genetic genealogy, even as elders pass away and stories leave with
them. For ninety-nine dollars, plus shipping and handling, you, too, can spit
your DNA into a tube and mail it off to a company that analyzes your genetic
code while promising to keep your sensitive data safe. So far, 26 million
people (myself included) have sent off their DNA to discover their health and
family histories. It’s estimated that
that number will soar to 100 million in the next two years.
We
want to know who we are, and where we came from.
In
every human culture, humans have been using stories to describe the beginnings
of the world so as to make sense of the world around them. The biblical accounts
of the creation of the world show a God that is active in turning chaos of the
cosmos into a habitable environment. Our
genesis story tells of a God who intentionally created a space for life to
exist and does so in a dynamic way, bringing creation into being over time.
There’s a contrasting rhythm to everything. There is evening, and there is morning. There is land. There is sea. One day. Two days. Seven days.
God
chooses to take time creating, paying attention to the small details of things
like photosynthesis, the chemistry and makeup of the four elements necessary
for life, and the rhythm of the orbit of the sun and the planets. God created
the wombat, and the panther, and the African elephant. God created the sea bass,
the jellyfish and the bigeye tuna. And for a reason unknown to me, God also
created roaches and mosquitos. “Why God?
Why?” I guess this is why they say God is mysterious.
And
then something special happened. God created human beings. And unlike anything God had created before,
humans were made in the image of Godself, in the image of the one who created
them. Humans are earthly replicas of God,
sharing with God the power over the universe to create and care for the earth.
Then,
on the end of sixth day of creation, after the heavens and the earth and all
that lived on it were created, God looked at everything and said it was
good. Really good.
Then
on the seventh day, God rested.
God
didn’t rest because God was tired, but rather because rest is the completion of
creation. The very nature of the universe has its climax and crescendo in that rest.
It’s built into the very fabric of creation. An inhale. An exhale. You can’t
have one without the other. You need both to breathe. Rest allows creation the space to breathe, to
be what it’s going to be, without being controlled and manipulated. Every
living thing is allowed the space to renew itself, to experience freedom and
make peace. This is how God designed it.
Everything
changes though, when sin enters the story, distorting the natural created rhythm
of life. It doesn’t take long for us to find
stories of dysfunctional family relationships, inequality among the sexes,
slavery, deceit, manipulation, sex trafficking, murder. In the short history of humanity, things are really
falling apart.
The
Israelites find themselves enslaved by a ruler who cares about nothing more
than to prove his power and wealth by forcing a whole nation into slavery to
build more cities to stockpile his abundance of grain. The Israelites become commodities that can be
used and abused for the benefit of another more powerful person, for the false Gods
of Egypt. Pharaoh’s endless production
schedule makes it clear that there is absolutely no time for rest. Everyone is
caught up in the grind of endless production: the Gods, Pharaoh, the taskmasters,
and slaves.
More
bricks, more bricks. Just make more bricks.
But
God is a God of liberation. God hears
the cries of fatigue of God’s people, resolves to liberate Israel from the system
that exploits, and recruits Moses to lead the way out of the land of Egypt to
the promised land. Once there, Moses delivers to the people a new set of laws
to follow, God’s laws: principles that are uniquely meant to shape a new way of
living; an attitude of the mind. These
10 words create a spirit of human community and set God’s people apart from the
demands of the world.
Thus,
the fourth command to keep the sabbath holy is a command drawn straight from
the Exodus narrative. The God who rests is the one who emancipates God’s people
from slavery and from the oppressive work system of Egypt. Sabbath is a
reminder that God is active in our own liberation; from brick making, from the
addiction to get ahead, from the pressure to make more money, from the
temptation that more stuff will make you happier. To do more. Get more. Sabbath commands that we take a breath and
rest. To make peace with what we can’t control.
Sabbath
is a word that demands justice for every living thing. It is the reminder that
all humanity is equal, that we are all made in the image of God: ruler and
slave, rich and poor. It’s not just a day of rest because we are tired and need
to sleep in, but it’s an intentional posture of the heart that recognizes the
dignity of every human being not to be worked to death. Everything needs time
to renew itself.
But
the frantic pace of our modern life has left us feeling less productive yet
busier than ever. We even think of our busyness as a badge of honor.
Complaining about being busy is so common that we don’t even notice we are
doing it. We just have so much to do! Work, family, housework, errands, play
dates, after school sports, music lessons, school. We keep adding more and more
things to our plate and just keep feeling like we are falling further and
further behind, fumbling out of step to the next thing on our schedule. “Americans work 350 more hours (or nine work
weeks) more than the average European per year.
The same studies tell us that Americans suffer more from stress, cardiac
arrest, hardening of the arteries and cancer than Europeans do.”[1]
Even
our bodies are crying out for sabbath!
God
has built into the very nature of the world a way for us to be liberated from
the rat race that is our American busyness culture – by living a sabbath life.
Practicing
a 6 in 1 rhythm looks like a life where you work for six days and take one intentional
day to unplug from the things that distract your focus from God so that you can
look at the good and holy that is in this world. A sabbath life asks you to
consciously put away your phone and overlook the piles of unanswered emails, to
step away from the adrenaline hit of the “likes” on Facebook or Instagram.
Sabbath
asks us to put down a project that can’t seem to resolve itself, to say “not
today” to a meeting that would take time away from your family, to step back
for a moment from writing a sermon because spending hours trying to make it
perfect is time spent away from your daughter.
Sabbath doesn’t mean neglecting your work or your family
responsibilities. Sabbath commands that we breathe and rest to focus our mind,
our hearts, and our bodies on God.
We
can learn a lot about sabbath by looking at the way Jesus lived his life. Jesus
is very intentional about how he spends his time with others in ministry, and
how much time he dedicates to God alone in prayer. We see this in the story of Jesus feeding the
five thousand. After days of teaching and healing and traveling, Jesus
withdraws to a deserted place to get away. A crowd follows Jesus anyway. The disciples want to send them away, but Jesus
has compassion for the people, heals those who were sick, and feeds the
entirety until they are full. After his
work was done, he then sends the crowds away and also the disciples so he could
go to the mountain to pray, alone.
Jesus
is at the peak of his ministry here! People were seeking him out because they
knew of this man who could heal and perform miracles. The temptation to do more, to heal more, to
get more famous, to capitalize on this celebrity was real! Why is he retreating?
Now is the time to start a website, create a marketing plan, and design swag to
sell online. But Jesus doesn’t fall into this temptation, for Jesus knows the
heart needs rest so that it can return, refreshed and ready to do more of God’s
will. It’s the rhythm of rest and work
that Jesus has perfected so well.
Living
a sabbath life teaches us that we need to stop and be proud of the work we’ve
already accomplished, even if the work is not completely done. It takes
discipline, practice, and a whole lot of trust.
Practicing the rhythm of sabbath can be hard when we first start out
because we will feel tempted to keep pushing and working and making bricks, because
the guy beside you isn’t resting and might make more bricks that you do and you
don’t want to fall behind.
But
what if “not doing” was just as important as “the doing?”
Built
into every strength-building program are days of work, and days of rest.
Without rest, you won’t see gains. The same is true in other disciplines. Want
to get more done? Walk away from it for a day.
Want to be more creative? Don’t create, and instead go for a hike or
walk your dog. The rhythm of sabbath can be found everywhere!
Progress
and creativity and beauty and celebration and fullness of life happens in the
spaces of pause and rest.
I’ve
been a musician for 25 years, even more, if you count those elementary school
lessons on the recorder. At the end of
my 4th grade year, Ms. Heinze, the high school orchestra director,
came to my elementary school to recruit new players for her after school
beginner string program. I walked timidly into the music room, not sure what to
expect. Instruments lined the room for us to hold and try on.
Which instrument
should I pick?
What’s
that huge one in the corner? The bass? There’s no way I, a 10-year-old, was
going to physically be able to cart that huge instrument to and from lessons.
Pass.
What
about the cello? Tempting. I could sit down and play. But then I tried
picturing myself getting a cello on and off the school bus. Not going to
happen.
So,
I made my way to the table where the smaller instruments were. I bypassed the
table with the violas on it, because even at a young age, I had the foresight
to know I did not want to play the viola. I picked up the violin, put it to my
chin. Yes, this feels right. Not too big, not too small. Easy to hold. I can easily see where I need
to put my fingers to play the right notes.
I’ll take it.
And
thus, my violin career began.
I
learned the note names and where they are on the fingerboard of the
violin. Some instruments like the violin
read in treble clef, and others in bass clef. I learned that different notes have
different rhythms, or time values. I learned that rests are an interval of
silence notated by a different symbol. What I know now is that when you play
the violin in an orchestra and miss a note, usually no one notices. Play a note on a rest, and everybody knows it
was you. Rests in music create more than just a separation between notes. Rests
create a mood, an atmosphere, an attitude. They create depth and emotions,
shape and body to the complex sounds. Without rests, a piece can feel chaotic,
clumsy, overwhelming or just busy and loud.
Let’s
experiment with that right now:
Paul
will play a familiar piece of music for us now.
Pay attention to the notes, the movement, the emotion, the shape of the
music.
{cue Paul to play}
Now
listen to the same exact piece but with the rests removed.
{cue Paul to play}
The
same notes are still there. He played
all the same chords. But when the rests
were removed, it changed the song completely. It’s almost unrecognizable. It’s clumsy. And messy. It’s downright silly. The composer of the
music intentionally created rests and pause in the music for a purpose. The piece isn’t the same without the delicate
dance between the rests and the notes.
The
same is true for us. We experience the fullness of life when we look to God to
restore the balance and serenity and sanctity the sabbath offers us. May we
acknowledge that the space between the notes is just as important as the actual
notes themselves. Not doing is just as important as doing. May we strive to find a life full of meaning
and celebration by seeking that delicate rhythm of rest and work: a sabbath
life.
*artwork: God Resting on the 7th Day, public domain image
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