The Rest of Your Life (Feb.3, 2008)
bdoTitle: The Rest of Your Life Text: Exodus 20:8-11
Prop: bucket and hammer…
BI Idea: Cease what is necessary. Embrace what gives life…
(Room in the 3rd service)
I have a friend who has a magnet on her refrigerator that says, God put me on earth to do a certain number of things. Right now I'm so far behind that I think I will never die."
So many of us feel that we have an unending list of things we need to do--or ought to do. I’ve been reading David Allen’s popular book, Getting Things Done. He talks about consolidating our “to do” lists into one bucket (get bucket). For most of us, it feels like that one bucket is never going to be empty. That that bucket is bottomless…
But our busyness is not without consequence…
The Chinese character for busyness is a pictograph for that combines heart and killing.
(Show image of character)
The heart is the place where the busy life exacts its great toll.
(show image of the broken heart)
Thomas Merton writes in his book, Seeds of Contemplation is a pervasive form of violence in the modern world….busyness… It kills the root of inner wisdom which makes our lives fruitful.
For the next number of weeks, we will be begin a series on what it means to be wise managers or stewards of our two very important resources that God has entrusted to us: our Sabbath/time and our money.
Darrell led in a wonderful series on being tested.
If we can experience victory in the areas of Sabbath and money, it will make an enormous difference in our spiritual lives. In the realm of our physical life if we can live a disciplined life through good eating habits and exercise, it doesn’t solve everything, but puts ahead significantly in term of physical health…
So in our spiritual lives, if we can gain mastery with Sabbath and money… we’ll benefit greatly… (I use the word mastery intentionally with Sabbath because there is a sense in which you have to work as writer of the book of Hebrews tells to enter rest. Bernard of Clairveux has said that busyness is sloth. Because a busy person is too lazy to gain control of their life.
This morning we are going to be looking at the Sabbath.
Thomas Cahill, the historian (who, How the Irish Saved Civilization) in his excellent also wore The Gifts of the Jews says that the commandment to take Sabbath once a week is surely one of the simplest and sanest recommendations any god has ever made.
If you have your Bibles, please turn to Exodus 20:8 (PowerPoint person: heads us please wait. Do not bring up the text yet on the screen)
As you are turning to Exodus 20:8-11 (2nd book on the Bible, after Genesis), let me just take a moment to set up the context.
The Israelites had lived as slaves in Egypt for over 400 years. They never had a day off (BTW, according to historian Thomas Cahill no ancient civilization prior to the Hebrew had a day off). They never had a stat holiday… No 2 weeks of vacation. They were not regarded as human beings made in the image of God, but as tools (use hammer) to make pyramids for the Egyptians.
As my friend Pete Zcazzero says in his book, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: The Hebrew people were ‘doing machines” in Egypt’ They were seen in terms of what they could do, not who they were as persons.
And though none of us here are technically slaves, there are times when we get so busy that we feel like slaves, we feel like “human doings,” instead of “human beings.” The Sabbath commandment is very powerful and important in that it restores to us our humanness: we are not “human doings,” but “human beings.”
Listen to the Word of God now in Scripture, Exodus 20:8-11:
8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping 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. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
The word “Sabbath” in text and Hebrew Scripture comes from the Hebrew word which means “to cease”, to desist, to stop working.
The Sabbath will not necessarily be Sunday. Nurses, doctors, police officers. The key is to set a regular rhythm of keeping the Sabbath every seven days for a twenty-hour block of time. The apostle Paul (in Romans 14) seemed to think one day would do as well as another.
It is also, perhaps obvious, but important to note, that call to Sabbath is not a suggestion, but a commandment. And it is just not any commandment, but it’s in the Ten Commandments…
Notice in the text it’s preceded in verse 3 by the commandment to not have another gods, i.e. idols before God and followed by the commandments such as you, You shall not murder (vs. 13), You shall not commit adultery (vs. 14). You shall not steal (vs. 15).
The Sabbath commandment to rest is a commandment…
Eugene Peterson, respected Presbyterian pastor says, “Nothing less than the force a commandment has the power to make us stop.”
This fourth commandment to honor Sabbath is by the far the most detailed and specific than all the Commandments.
In it we are called to imitate God. In verse 11 we read 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. And like God, we are to work, but we are also to rest. Stop. Cease from working.
But we before launch into unpacking what it means to stop, to desist, to cease from working, let’s remember that the text tells us in verse 9, “Six days you shall labour and do all your work.” When we work we are fulfilling God’s intention for us. This ennobles our work--whether we are work in a paid capacity or as a volunteer.
In the Ritz-Carleton hotel chains…the management tells the people who are responsible for the menial work making the beds, clean the rooms… “We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.”
No matter how menial our work (whether paid or volunteer) may seem at times, if we know that what we are doing is in response to God’s command, that what we are doing is for God and for people who made in God’s image--then our work is made noble and we can have that deep sense of fulfillment in our work.
In some lines of work, it is easier to make the connection that our work is something we are doing in response to God’s commandment, but no matter what it is that we do, we can know our work is noble, holy…
Prior to working in Christian ministry, I worked for a part of big corporation in Tokyo, then some years later for a big newspaper in Los Angeles and as a younger adult I worked stocking shelves for drug store… even though our work may seem very secular, doing our work unto God, makes it holy and noble.
So, we are to work six days, but on the seventh day we are called (commanded) to stop; we are to cease from working. Six days you shall labour and do all your work. The seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord, our God. On it, you shall not do any work. For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.
Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (“Holy” means set apart for God.) As we have so much to do, to actually stop from our work to Sabbath, involves faith; it involves trusting God will provide for our future…
The commandment says that the Sabbath day is to be a day where we stop and set apart a day for the Lord, it is to be kept holy. It means to be set apart for a sacred purpose.
Vs. 10 we read the Sabbath is holy, a day dedicated to the Lord our God.
Eugene Peterson points out that Sabbath is not primarily about us, or how it benefits us, it is about God and how God forms us. Sabbath is not primarily about self-help (what we get out of it) and what we get want out of it, but honouring God with our life.
But, what exactly does it mean to stop, and then to honor God in our Sabbath?
Pause… reflect… (perhaps one idea sharing with others)
Part of it means to honor God on the Sabbath is to do what we’re doing now… to worship God in community.
Part of it means to honor God on the Sabbath is do things that orient us to God.
But as we honour God with our lives by Sabbath--we ourselves will flourish.
But, not everyone, though associates the Sabbath with flourishing.
At times in history, as we know, people have gotten ultra-micro about the Sabbath. They have become “legalistic” about it. There may a few of you here who have bad memories about the Sabbath. It was a day, when as a little kid, you had to wear a necktie all day when it was fun…or stay in your dress all day. You couldn’t play sports, couldn’t play scrabble, you couldn’t have fun. But is this what Sabbath means?
When my seminary professor, Dr. Haddon Robinson, came here to speak some years ago, I remember when we had lunch at a restaurant.
Dr. Robinson, who grew up in Harlem is very straightforward. He leaned over at lunch and said, “I am going to give you some unsolicited advice. Take a day off. At least once a week, take a day off. Are you doing that?”
I said, “Well, er, yeah, I think so. Like a lot of pastors do, I work 6 days a week for the church. And then, on my day off I may do other work, like I’ll write an article. But, it may for a publication that’s not related to Tenth.” “Sabbath means that you do something on that day that is different from what you have to do the rest of the week. Writing an article on your day off is too similar to the kind of work you do on the other 6 days. You have to take a day for something where do things you that are different from what you have to do the other six days.
Wise counsel.
Mark Buchanan has, a pastor on Vancouver Island says that the Golden rule for the Sabbath is to cease from what is necessary and to embrace that which gives life. 2x
So the Sabbath golden rule is to cease from what is necessary and to embrace that which gives life.
If you read the Gospels, you see Jesus honored by Sabbath and we see that he choose life on the Sabbath, he healed people, he fed people, he supported rescuing animals who fell into wells on the Sabbath.
He honored the Sabbath by choosing life…
Part the way we honor Sabbath is by giving life to others through by using our gifts… which many of you do…
Using gifts of hospitality, teaching, working with children…
Markus Buckingham is his book Go Put Your Strengths to Work when we use our strengths to serve others we feel strong…
BTW, I think a great way to use part of our vacation, not the only way, but a great way to use our is to use it for mission…
We honor by bring life to others and by bring life to ourselves…
Mark Buchanan in his excellent book, The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath, He says that the Golden rule for the Sabbath is to cease from what is necessary and to embrace that which gives life.
“Sabbath… is a reprieve from doing what you ought to do, even though the list of oughts is infinitely long and never done. Oughts are tyrants, noisy and surly, chronically dissatisfied. Sabbath is the day you trade places with them: they go into the salt mine and you go out dancing. It is the one day when the only thing you must do is to not do the things you must.
You are given permission--issued a command, to be blunt--to turn your back on all those oughts.. You get to willfully ignore the many niggling things your existence genuinely depends on--and is often hobbled beneath--so that you can turn to whatever you’ve put off and pushed away for lack of time, lack of room, lack of breath. You get to shuck the “have-tos” and lay hold of the “get-tos.”
What does choosing life look like?
For me to read intense theological books on my day off would be work since that’s so similar to my regular work, but if you are a construction worker and your week is spent in physical labor, perhaps reading philosophy or theology would be a Sabbath because it would be something you don’t have to do, something you “get” to do. If you enjoy that.
Can I cut the grass on the Sabbath? If it feels like an ought-to, probably not, but I personally really enjoy cutting the grass. A lot of my work is more mental and I enjoy all kinds of physical activity. I enjoy cutting the grass at our home, enjoy the informal conversations that emerge out of that time. We have a manual lawn mower and some people ask questions about how it works. In the summer, someone in the neighborhood who was walking by said, “Hey, I am hoping to buy a lawn mower like that. Do you mind if I check it out.” She starts cutting the lawn for me… I say Pay me a Tonnie, I’ll let you cut it all.
Sabbath is about ceasing what is necessary and embracing that which gives life.
What about shopping on our Sabbath? If shopping feels like an “ought to” probably not. But if shopping feels I want to do this…and life giving I think it’s ok
I want to get the chocolate for my friend or I want that little thing for my apartment… it feel like an ought to it’s ok
(If we are have guests for dinner, but suddenly realize we need salad dressing for the dinner—I think it’s ok to get it… Or suddenly we need to buy milk for the baby… it’s ok to get it).
But as I think of my own life, I think I too much ought to “shopping” on my Sabbath… I don’t particularly like shopping, my (not the Bible’s) idea of hell is shopping mall you can never leave… I was telling someone this week, I help govern some fairly complex organizations, I should be able to figure how I can do my “ought to” shopping on days other than my Sabbath…
It’s a good thing that many people have 2 days off each week… One can be a Sabbath and other can be a day for getting things done we need to do: shopping, laundry etc.
The text tells us that in six days the Lord created the heavens and the earth and on the seventh day he rested.
Many commentators have noted that the command implicitly forbids creating. So it is for us. We are called to stop creating on the Sabbath; that is, creating things we have to create.
But the seventh day is the day when we step back and simply enjoy creation.
Mark Buchanan says the seventh day is the day when we stop creating and experience being re-created. Sabbath is not for creating, but for re-creating.
Ceasing that we have to do and embracing what gives life…
So, when we think about honouring Sabbath, making our Sabbath holy to God, I think we ask ourselves, “What is it that recreates us in God? How can we put ourselves in the space where God can recreate us?
J.I. Packer, the respected theologian, says choose leisure activist us closest to God, to people, to beauty and to all the ennobles.
Part of that includes public worship in community, doing that orients us to God…
And then for different people being re-created will look different. I love to spend time outdoors. I remember asking as young pastor a respected author on the spiritual life, named Dallas Willard, if it would it be alright for me, in his opinion, to mountain bike on the Sabbath as part of my day off. I mountain fairly hard for hours. Dallas asked me, “Would the primary reason you mountain bike be to stay in good condition?” I said, “Honestly, no. I run most days to stay I shape”. “Are you training for a race?” “No, I just like a mountain bike recreationally.” “I just love doing it.” Dallas said, I it’s ok…
Look forward
I also love to be in the water. Swimming is a kind of prayerful experience for me. Being on the water…sailing is a kind of spiritual experience for me.
WHAT ABOUT FOR YOU?
Other worship and prayer… what draws you close to God… and restores your soul?
So think about what draws you to God, recreate you in God, these are things that Sabbath are designed for…
So, why do we rest enter the Sabbath rest of the people of God as the writer of Hebrews calls us?
We work to enter the rest of God because Jesus laid down his so that we might enter the rest of God in life and in eternity…
On the night he was betrayed…
On the night Jesus was betrayed he took bread and broke it and said this is my body given for you… this is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins…
For your eternal rest…
Prayer (from the Book of Common Prayer):
Almighty God, who after the creation of the world rested from all your works and sanctified a day of rest for all of your creatures: Grant that I, putting away all earthly anxieties, may be duly prepared for the service of public worship. Grant, as well, that my Sabbath upon earth may be a preparation for the eternal rest promised to your people in heaven.
Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen
(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio)
Prop: bucket and hammer…
BI Idea: Cease what is necessary. Embrace what gives life…
(Room in the 3rd service)
I have a friend who has a magnet on her refrigerator that says, God put me on earth to do a certain number of things. Right now I'm so far behind that I think I will never die."
So many of us feel that we have an unending list of things we need to do--or ought to do. I’ve been reading David Allen’s popular book, Getting Things Done. He talks about consolidating our “to do” lists into one bucket (get bucket). For most of us, it feels like that one bucket is never going to be empty. That that bucket is bottomless…
But our busyness is not without consequence…
The Chinese character for busyness is a pictograph for that combines heart and killing.
(Show image of character)
The heart is the place where the busy life exacts its great toll.
(show image of the broken heart)
Thomas Merton writes in his book, Seeds of Contemplation is a pervasive form of violence in the modern world….busyness… It kills the root of inner wisdom which makes our lives fruitful.
For the next number of weeks, we will be begin a series on what it means to be wise managers or stewards of our two very important resources that God has entrusted to us: our Sabbath/time and our money.
Darrell led in a wonderful series on being tested.
If we can experience victory in the areas of Sabbath and money, it will make an enormous difference in our spiritual lives. In the realm of our physical life if we can live a disciplined life through good eating habits and exercise, it doesn’t solve everything, but puts ahead significantly in term of physical health…
So in our spiritual lives, if we can gain mastery with Sabbath and money… we’ll benefit greatly… (I use the word mastery intentionally with Sabbath because there is a sense in which you have to work as writer of the book of Hebrews tells to enter rest. Bernard of Clairveux has said that busyness is sloth. Because a busy person is too lazy to gain control of their life.
This morning we are going to be looking at the Sabbath.
Thomas Cahill, the historian (who, How the Irish Saved Civilization) in his excellent also wore The Gifts of the Jews says that the commandment to take Sabbath once a week is surely one of the simplest and sanest recommendations any god has ever made.
If you have your Bibles, please turn to Exodus 20:8 (PowerPoint person: heads us please wait. Do not bring up the text yet on the screen)
As you are turning to Exodus 20:8-11 (2nd book on the Bible, after Genesis), let me just take a moment to set up the context.
The Israelites had lived as slaves in Egypt for over 400 years. They never had a day off (BTW, according to historian Thomas Cahill no ancient civilization prior to the Hebrew had a day off). They never had a stat holiday… No 2 weeks of vacation. They were not regarded as human beings made in the image of God, but as tools (use hammer) to make pyramids for the Egyptians.
As my friend Pete Zcazzero says in his book, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: The Hebrew people were ‘doing machines” in Egypt’ They were seen in terms of what they could do, not who they were as persons.
And though none of us here are technically slaves, there are times when we get so busy that we feel like slaves, we feel like “human doings,” instead of “human beings.” The Sabbath commandment is very powerful and important in that it restores to us our humanness: we are not “human doings,” but “human beings.”
Listen to the Word of God now in Scripture, Exodus 20:8-11:
8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping 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. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
The word “Sabbath” in text and Hebrew Scripture comes from the Hebrew word which means “to cease”, to desist, to stop working.
The Sabbath will not necessarily be Sunday. Nurses, doctors, police officers. The key is to set a regular rhythm of keeping the Sabbath every seven days for a twenty-hour block of time. The apostle Paul (in Romans 14) seemed to think one day would do as well as another.
It is also, perhaps obvious, but important to note, that call to Sabbath is not a suggestion, but a commandment. And it is just not any commandment, but it’s in the Ten Commandments…
Notice in the text it’s preceded in verse 3 by the commandment to not have another gods, i.e. idols before God and followed by the commandments such as you, You shall not murder (vs. 13), You shall not commit adultery (vs. 14). You shall not steal (vs. 15).
The Sabbath commandment to rest is a commandment…
Eugene Peterson, respected Presbyterian pastor says, “Nothing less than the force a commandment has the power to make us stop.”
This fourth commandment to honor Sabbath is by the far the most detailed and specific than all the Commandments.
In it we are called to imitate God. In verse 11 we read 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. And like God, we are to work, but we are also to rest. Stop. Cease from working.
But we before launch into unpacking what it means to stop, to desist, to cease from working, let’s remember that the text tells us in verse 9, “Six days you shall labour and do all your work.” When we work we are fulfilling God’s intention for us. This ennobles our work--whether we are work in a paid capacity or as a volunteer.
In the Ritz-Carleton hotel chains…the management tells the people who are responsible for the menial work making the beds, clean the rooms… “We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.”
No matter how menial our work (whether paid or volunteer) may seem at times, if we know that what we are doing is in response to God’s command, that what we are doing is for God and for people who made in God’s image--then our work is made noble and we can have that deep sense of fulfillment in our work.
In some lines of work, it is easier to make the connection that our work is something we are doing in response to God’s commandment, but no matter what it is that we do, we can know our work is noble, holy…
Prior to working in Christian ministry, I worked for a part of big corporation in Tokyo, then some years later for a big newspaper in Los Angeles and as a younger adult I worked stocking shelves for drug store… even though our work may seem very secular, doing our work unto God, makes it holy and noble.
So, we are to work six days, but on the seventh day we are called (commanded) to stop; we are to cease from working. Six days you shall labour and do all your work. The seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord, our God. On it, you shall not do any work. For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.
Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (“Holy” means set apart for God.) As we have so much to do, to actually stop from our work to Sabbath, involves faith; it involves trusting God will provide for our future…
The commandment says that the Sabbath day is to be a day where we stop and set apart a day for the Lord, it is to be kept holy. It means to be set apart for a sacred purpose.
Vs. 10 we read the Sabbath is holy, a day dedicated to the Lord our God.
Eugene Peterson points out that Sabbath is not primarily about us, or how it benefits us, it is about God and how God forms us. Sabbath is not primarily about self-help (what we get out of it) and what we get want out of it, but honouring God with our life.
But, what exactly does it mean to stop, and then to honor God in our Sabbath?
Pause… reflect… (perhaps one idea sharing with others)
Part of it means to honor God on the Sabbath is to do what we’re doing now… to worship God in community.
Part of it means to honor God on the Sabbath is do things that orient us to God.
But as we honour God with our lives by Sabbath--we ourselves will flourish.
But, not everyone, though associates the Sabbath with flourishing.
At times in history, as we know, people have gotten ultra-micro about the Sabbath. They have become “legalistic” about it. There may a few of you here who have bad memories about the Sabbath. It was a day, when as a little kid, you had to wear a necktie all day when it was fun…or stay in your dress all day. You couldn’t play sports, couldn’t play scrabble, you couldn’t have fun. But is this what Sabbath means?
When my seminary professor, Dr. Haddon Robinson, came here to speak some years ago, I remember when we had lunch at a restaurant.
Dr. Robinson, who grew up in Harlem is very straightforward. He leaned over at lunch and said, “I am going to give you some unsolicited advice. Take a day off. At least once a week, take a day off. Are you doing that?”
I said, “Well, er, yeah, I think so. Like a lot of pastors do, I work 6 days a week for the church. And then, on my day off I may do other work, like I’ll write an article. But, it may for a publication that’s not related to Tenth.” “Sabbath means that you do something on that day that is different from what you have to do the rest of the week. Writing an article on your day off is too similar to the kind of work you do on the other 6 days. You have to take a day for something where do things you that are different from what you have to do the other six days.
Wise counsel.
Mark Buchanan has, a pastor on Vancouver Island says that the Golden rule for the Sabbath is to cease from what is necessary and to embrace that which gives life. 2x
So the Sabbath golden rule is to cease from what is necessary and to embrace that which gives life.
If you read the Gospels, you see Jesus honored by Sabbath and we see that he choose life on the Sabbath, he healed people, he fed people, he supported rescuing animals who fell into wells on the Sabbath.
He honored the Sabbath by choosing life…
Part the way we honor Sabbath is by giving life to others through by using our gifts… which many of you do…
Using gifts of hospitality, teaching, working with children…
Markus Buckingham is his book Go Put Your Strengths to Work when we use our strengths to serve others we feel strong…
BTW, I think a great way to use part of our vacation, not the only way, but a great way to use our is to use it for mission…
We honor by bring life to others and by bring life to ourselves…
Mark Buchanan in his excellent book, The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath, He says that the Golden rule for the Sabbath is to cease from what is necessary and to embrace that which gives life.
“Sabbath… is a reprieve from doing what you ought to do, even though the list of oughts is infinitely long and never done. Oughts are tyrants, noisy and surly, chronically dissatisfied. Sabbath is the day you trade places with them: they go into the salt mine and you go out dancing. It is the one day when the only thing you must do is to not do the things you must.
You are given permission--issued a command, to be blunt--to turn your back on all those oughts.. You get to willfully ignore the many niggling things your existence genuinely depends on--and is often hobbled beneath--so that you can turn to whatever you’ve put off and pushed away for lack of time, lack of room, lack of breath. You get to shuck the “have-tos” and lay hold of the “get-tos.”
What does choosing life look like?
For me to read intense theological books on my day off would be work since that’s so similar to my regular work, but if you are a construction worker and your week is spent in physical labor, perhaps reading philosophy or theology would be a Sabbath because it would be something you don’t have to do, something you “get” to do. If you enjoy that.
Can I cut the grass on the Sabbath? If it feels like an ought-to, probably not, but I personally really enjoy cutting the grass. A lot of my work is more mental and I enjoy all kinds of physical activity. I enjoy cutting the grass at our home, enjoy the informal conversations that emerge out of that time. We have a manual lawn mower and some people ask questions about how it works. In the summer, someone in the neighborhood who was walking by said, “Hey, I am hoping to buy a lawn mower like that. Do you mind if I check it out.” She starts cutting the lawn for me… I say Pay me a Tonnie, I’ll let you cut it all.
Sabbath is about ceasing what is necessary and embracing that which gives life.
What about shopping on our Sabbath? If shopping feels like an “ought to” probably not. But if shopping feels I want to do this…and life giving I think it’s ok
I want to get the chocolate for my friend or I want that little thing for my apartment… it feel like an ought to it’s ok
(If we are have guests for dinner, but suddenly realize we need salad dressing for the dinner—I think it’s ok to get it… Or suddenly we need to buy milk for the baby… it’s ok to get it).
But as I think of my own life, I think I too much ought to “shopping” on my Sabbath… I don’t particularly like shopping, my (not the Bible’s) idea of hell is shopping mall you can never leave… I was telling someone this week, I help govern some fairly complex organizations, I should be able to figure how I can do my “ought to” shopping on days other than my Sabbath…
It’s a good thing that many people have 2 days off each week… One can be a Sabbath and other can be a day for getting things done we need to do: shopping, laundry etc.
The text tells us that in six days the Lord created the heavens and the earth and on the seventh day he rested.
Many commentators have noted that the command implicitly forbids creating. So it is for us. We are called to stop creating on the Sabbath; that is, creating things we have to create.
But the seventh day is the day when we step back and simply enjoy creation.
Mark Buchanan says the seventh day is the day when we stop creating and experience being re-created. Sabbath is not for creating, but for re-creating.
Ceasing that we have to do and embracing what gives life…
So, when we think about honouring Sabbath, making our Sabbath holy to God, I think we ask ourselves, “What is it that recreates us in God? How can we put ourselves in the space where God can recreate us?
J.I. Packer, the respected theologian, says choose leisure activist us closest to God, to people, to beauty and to all the ennobles.
Part of that includes public worship in community, doing that orients us to God…
And then for different people being re-created will look different. I love to spend time outdoors. I remember asking as young pastor a respected author on the spiritual life, named Dallas Willard, if it would it be alright for me, in his opinion, to mountain bike on the Sabbath as part of my day off. I mountain fairly hard for hours. Dallas asked me, “Would the primary reason you mountain bike be to stay in good condition?” I said, “Honestly, no. I run most days to stay I shape”. “Are you training for a race?” “No, I just like a mountain bike recreationally.” “I just love doing it.” Dallas said, I it’s ok…
Look forward
I also love to be in the water. Swimming is a kind of prayerful experience for me. Being on the water…sailing is a kind of spiritual experience for me.
WHAT ABOUT FOR YOU?
Other worship and prayer… what draws you close to God… and restores your soul?
So think about what draws you to God, recreate you in God, these are things that Sabbath are designed for…
So, why do we rest enter the Sabbath rest of the people of God as the writer of Hebrews calls us?
We work to enter the rest of God because Jesus laid down his so that we might enter the rest of God in life and in eternity…
On the night he was betrayed…
On the night Jesus was betrayed he took bread and broke it and said this is my body given for you… this is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins…
For your eternal rest…
Prayer (from the Book of Common Prayer):
Almighty God, who after the creation of the world rested from all your works and sanctified a day of rest for all of your creatures: Grant that I, putting away all earthly anxieties, may be duly prepared for the service of public worship. Grant, as well, that my Sabbath upon earth may be a preparation for the eternal rest promised to your people in heaven.
Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen
(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio)
posted by Shigematsu at 5:58 PM
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