Apostles Church

“I have visited the large offices of wealthy donors, the crowded rooms of social service agencies, and the small houses of the poorest families. Remarkably, within this mosaic there is a universal refrain: I am so busy. It does not seem to matter if the people I speak with are doctors or day-care workers, shopkeepers or social workers, parents or teachers, nurses or lawyers, students or therapists, community activists or cooks…As their work all piles endlessly upon itself, the whole experience of being alive begins to melt into one enormous obligation. It becomes the standard greeting everywhere: I am so busy.” – Wayne Muller in Sabbath: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest.

I would add that we are tired; exhausted; depleted and that shared state becomes a connecting point with people. Illus: Conversation at Staples: I am so tired. Running from one thing to the next. When we take a break, our minds keep going, thinking about what we are not getting done. Breakneck speeds, pushing ourselves to the limits, denying ourselves the necessity of sleep and propping ourselves up with caffeine. “Everybody working for the weekend.” This is not the good life and it is not the life that God envisions for us. God has commanded that rest be woven into the rhythm of our lives. He calls this rest Sabbath. The fourth in the list of God’s 10 commandments is a commandment to rest, to observe Sabbath (the word literally means “rest.”

Ex 20.8-11 ESV ““Remember the Sabbath day, to keep 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, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11) For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

Notice that the text says that God made that day holy – he consecrated it, he set it apart from all other days. God commanded his people to have a day in their week that was unique from all other days; a day set aside for rest, no work was to be done on this Sabbath. We understand Sabbath somewhat living in NYC. For the Jewish people it is Sundown on Friday to Sundown on Saturday. No work is done, shops are closed and the people rest and worship. That is Sabbath. It is a day set aside that is consecrated for a special purpose; it is sanctified time, time set apart. It is time that is to be treated differently than any other time.
    The text also says that God blessed the Sabbath day. He put his special favor upon that day so that that day is loaded with blessing for those who will befriend it. I think of what God said to Abraham, “I will bless you and you will be a blessing.” When God blesses something, He loads that thing with a great capacity to bless and enrich the lives of others. This day is special; it has the special blessing of God upon it and for all who will befriend this day, it will enrich and bless their life.
    The problem in Jesus’ day was that the Sabbath had become a burden instead of a blessing. The commands regarding Sabbath said work was not to be done on the Sabbath, but it did not fully define work. The Mishnah (rabbinical commentary on the Hebrew Scripture) expanded that and gave 39 classes of work that profane the Sabbath (normal work and other things like tying/loosening knots; sewing more than one stitch; writing more than one letter). Could not do any work unless someone’s life was in jeopardy. Could not set a dislocated foot or hand; if a building fell, you could clear debris but only enough to know if their were survivors and if so, you could save them - if there were people killed, you had to leave their corpses there until after Sabbath. Rabbinical teachings became very rigid when it came to keeping the Sabbath. The Scripture seemed a little vague, so they filled in the missing gaps with a lot of regulations that ended up becoming a heavy burden on the backs of the people. They made the commandment an instrument of tyranny. So, our passage says that Jesus was walking through a grain fields and the disciples who were hungry, picked the grain and ate the heads of grain. The Jewish leaders were angry – harvesting. But Jesus says, man is not made for the Sabbath – it is not as if the Sabbath is a master to which we must submit and report. It was not to burden man but a blessing to man. The Sabbath was made for man. It is a blessed day, a gift from God. It is not to be so strictly defined that it becomes a burden; it was given to us as a blessing. Sabbath was made for you – what will Sabbath do for you?

It humbles and heals us. Sabbath humbles us by telling us, “You are not God; You are not invincible. You are clay, decaying and destined for dirt.” You must rest and be renewed physically. The pace that many of you live by is unsustainable. Mark Buchanan in The Rest of God. “All things not God, all things made by God need rest…And maybe especially us. Because, unlike goats and beetles and flies and lizards, we try to outwit and outrun our limits. We think we’re the exception, the one for whom busyness will translate into fruitfulness. We think, because we’ve figured ways to build impossibly tall, lithe building and dig immensely deep, broad holes, to spy on babies in the womb, to tease out strands of DNA, to send whole computer files from New York to Nairobi in a split second – we think because our industry and ingenuity seem boundless, we can also figure a way around our God imposed need for stillness. We can’t. The need is not conjured away by medication, technology, discipline, cleverness, sheer willfulness. It always comes back to take its due.”

    Sabbath was made for you so you could experience renewal. When you Sabbath, you cease from what is duty (not talking about feeding your kids or showing love to a friend – but your job, your laundry, your grocery shopping, everything that is necessary) and engage in what brings you delight and breathes life into you. Rest, play, feast; resist achieving and enjoy being. Enjoy family, friends, food, drink, the beauty of a museum, a city stroll, a broadway show, or the simplicity of good espresso, and above all engage and enjoy the God that gives these gifts. Rest. The God of the Universe gives you permission to sleep in or take a nap. You are getting nervous. I know because I do to. If I am not working, what will happen? I struggle with this. Even when I am not working, I am thinking about working. I lay my head down on Sunday night thinking about my sermon for the next week. When I take a Sabbath day, I do not have a Sabbath heart.  Chinese character for busyness is a combination of two characers, Heart and Killing. Busyness exhausts me. It wearies my mind and body and it is sin. It is a lack of faith in God.  The text roots Sabbath in God’s rest. He rests as a example to us, like coaxing a young child to take a nap by lying down next to him. Six days he finished his work of creation and joyfully sat down to rule and reign over it. Sabbath is a call to acknowledge God as the present God who rules and reigns over his creation. The call to Sabbath is acknowledge that God is the source and sustainer of all things. Will you not entrust everything to me for a day? Do you believe I am able and good?

The real issue of Sabbath is this: When it comes to the ultimate issue of life, being fully forgiven and accepted by God, our only hope is to cease from our work and trust in His work for us in Jesus. We are not saved by our efforts; we cannot earn our acceptance before God. Our works are not sufficient. We must cease from our efforts and trust in God's provision. We must rest in Christ and his finished work for us. If we can rest in Christ for the ultimate issue of our life, can we not rest in Him for a day?