“Finding Rest in God: Part 1” Gen 2:2-3 and Exodus 16: 23

This is a sermon just as much for me as for anyone else. As I write it, I am full of anxiety and stress. I worry about people in this church and my family. I didn’t sleep much the night before - tossing and turning. I am in need of rest. Of Sabbath rest.

Are you feeling rested this day? Or do you feel like your life is one endless run on of things to do and places to be? Our days just seem too full. How are we to rest when there are chores to be done, kids to be feed, work to attend to? Do you have enjoyment in your days? Do you have enjoyment in God? 

I don’t think many people would proudly declare that they broke most of the commandments. We don’t find Christians who find joy in the fact that they murdered someone or took the Lord’s name in vain. Yet, there is one commandment that many Christians seem to find such comfort in when they break - the command to keep the Sabbath. 

Pastor Mark Buchanan wrote a book I read while in college that changed my view of Sabbath rest entitled The Rest of God. The pages of the book are filled with colored markings and questions I posed to myself as I read through the pages. The basic question that is asked of each of us in this: how many of our problems stem from not honoring the Sabbath fully?

The idea of Sabbath rest traces the whole way back to the book of Genesis, to creation. God created the world, putting the stars in the sky and creating the fish of the sea. God put each flower and animal and blade of grass on the earth and declared it very good. Then good created the finest masterpiece yet - human beings - a mixture of flesh and bones, breath and blood. Made in the very image of God. Then when God had finished and declared that everything was very good, God rested. 

We don’t talk about God resting very much. Perhaps because the idea isn’t one we like. That God wouldn’t just busily move on to the next thing when there is so much more to do in the world. We don’t like the idea of God resting because it makes us come face to face with our own need for rest, the Sabbath rest that God modeled for us by declaring that the seventh day was holy - set apart, not to work but to just be. 

We are a purpose driven people - moving from one thing to the next and finding our worth by how busy we are. How often has someone asked how you are doing to which you replied “busy” or “tired”? According to spiritual author Jane Rubietta in her book Resting Place, constant activity - even when it is good activity - can damage us, damage our bodies and wound our souls. 

We recognize that constant working was not good for the Israelites when they were slaves in Egypt. They were under the direction of the pharaohs to build great things for Egypt’s glory. But as the people of Israel grew in number, the Pharaoh started to fear their insurrection more. So he made them work every day of the week. With less materials and demanding more productivity. When they could not produce they were punished. When God brought them out of the land of Egypt one of the first things he provided was a day of rest - holy, Sabbath rest, when they stopped toiling for productivity and instead rested in the Lord. 

There is nothing wrong with working. Unless we let our work consume us. When let work become our personal god instead of worshipping the God who gave us the ability to both work and rest. According to Pastor Buchanan, “The opposite of a slave is not a free man. It’s a worshiper.” Are we a slave to our work or a worshipper of God, because according to this particular pastor it is very very hard to do both, as they are at opposite ends of the spectrum. 

The truth is if we are on the go all the time, always working, we lose pleasure in our work. We need a place of respite. Sabbath allows us to reorient our time towards God and remember whose we are and who we are. Sabbath sanctifies time. Without it, we feel like we can get just one more thing done in order to prove ourselves to be worthy instead of finding our worth in God alone. 

We know that we are made to be people with a purpose, but the true question is - what purpose is that exactly? Is it to work all that we can? Or is it to fall in line with God’s rhythm for living, which involves rest. Sabbath offers us a gift to simply be still. To simply be. And to become alive under the rest and care of our Creator, who made us to be more than simple work horses. During that time we open ourselves us not only to re-creation, but to listening - to listening to the voice of God stirring in our spirits. Its a time to play, to remember that we to are called to create in so many different ways. Above all, sabbath is a time to cease from doing what is necessary.

So what does that look like exactly? I think its different for each of us because we each rest differently. I have even changed how I embrace Sabbath rest at different times in my life, but let me tell you what it looks like for me now. I prepare for Sabbath the night before - making sure all of the dishes are done and the house is clean, so I won’t be tempted to tidy up a mess the next day. I have a cup of slow brewed full leaf tea. Often I soak my feet in a foot bath and curl up with a good fiction novel before going to bed. The next morning I sleep in, not setting my alarm. When I wake up I have a small canister next to my bed with different spices that I open up, to remind me to use my senses different on Sabbath. I light different candles. I eat different foods. And I do everything more slowly. I let the day dictate what I will do, listening to what my body needs on that particular day. This is not a day for doing laundry, or cleaning, or getting groceries. It is a day to have lunch with friends or dinner with family. A day to talk to those I love. Its a day to be fully me.

Sabbath time is different then the time the rest of the week. By doing things differently, I physically mark that this day is different, set apart. Jane Rubietta states that such type of rest is a death - where we allow ourselves to die to ourselves and our agendas and to learn to let God love us deeply right where we are. Brothers and sisters, that is a hard lesson. One would think that resting would be easy, especially with so many of us on the brink or exhaustion, but its not, because it requires us to set how we perceive ourselves aside in order to let God fully love us. 

Will you join me this season on trying to embrace Sabbath? Trying to live into the commandment? Maybe you’ve been going at full speed for so long that the idea of an entire rest seems too hard for you. Can you start with a half day? Or could you not fill in your schedule when God gives you glimpses of reprieve? Can you let yourself simply be for a few hours one or two days a week to start? What could Sabbath renewal do for the state of your body and soul? Amen.