Word Four: Sabbath
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 analyses 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 doesn’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 in to 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 to 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 a part 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 a 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 him 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 anyways. The disciples wanted to send them away but Jesus had compassion for the people, healed those who were sick, and feeds the entirety until they were 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 perfect 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 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 4thgrade 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 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 were 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 had 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.
Sermon preached at First Baptist Church of Austin, Texas by Carrie Houston, Minister to Students on September 1, 2019
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