The Uselessness of Sabbath
According to a Greek legend, in ancient Athens a man noticed the great storyteller Aesop playing childish games with some little boys. He laughed and jeered at Aesop, asking him why he wasted his time in such frivolous activity.
Aesop responded by picking up a bow, loosening its string, and placing it on the ground. Then he said to the critical Athenian, “Now, answer the riddle, if you can. Tell us what the unstrung bows implies.”
Have you ever stopped to think how busy God is? The story of the creation in Genesis tells us. God spent 6 days creating the earth, the animals, the plants, the sun, moon, stars, waters, sky, darkness, and light. “And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.” The Bible tells us clearly that God took time for rest.
What does it mean-that God rested on the seventh day? Let me help you out here, what does rest mean to you? When you rest do you read, watch TV, go camping, take a nap? I don’t think God loaded up his SUV and went camping or kicked back in his La-z-boy to watch “Touched By An Angel”. God rested, but his idea of rest is different.
God rested, that is, he “ceased activity”. He did no more work. Now you might question the verse I just read (above). How can God finish the work he had done AND rest? On the seventh day God finished God’s work. That means the creation was incomplete, unfinished until the Sabbath, the day of rest. The part of creation that was incomplete was the day of rest part.
The balance between work and rest is seen in the creation story. We must have a time of “ceasing activity”, of resting from our labors. We should follow God’s example of resting by resting ourselves. We should observe a “Sabbath time”.
Later, in Exodus 31:17, we read that “in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.” I love that word! God was REFRESHED! If we follow God’s example of resting we, too, can be REFRESHED! Don’t you want to be REFRESHED?!? The dictionary defines refreshed as “to renew the well-being or vigor of oneself”. We can “renew” ourselves or, in other words, become “like new” again through rest.
BACK TO OUR STORY: The man looked at it for several moments but had no idea what point Aesop was trying to make. Aesop explained, “If you keep a bow always bent, it will break eventually; but if you let it go slack, it will be more fit for use when you want it.” People are also like that. That’s why we all need to take time to rest. God showed us how. Loosen your bow and be refreshed.
Genesis 2:3, “and God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.” Sabbath time is not just rest; it is sacred rest. It can be a holy day, according to the Jewish tradition, the seventh day. Or it can be the first day, according to Christians. In addition to a Sabbath day, we can have a Sabbath time, consisting of a Sabbath afternoon or even a Sabbath hour. It can be an event. A walk through the woods, an early morning cup of coffee watching the sun rise. It is when you connect with God.
Sabbath is not just time off from work. It is not a time when we do all the stuff we couldn’t get done during the week. It’s not a time to run to Walmart, pick up the dry-cleaning, shop for little Bobby’s birthday party, cut the grass, change the oil in the car, clean the cat box, and all of our other errands. Sabbath is not a time you take off from work to do more work.
Ecclesiastes 3 tells us, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” In his book, “Sabbath: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest”, Wayne Muller says “Even if we were to leave work behind and seek the comfort and security of a monastery, we would be handed a broom, and told to sweep the walks. Even in monasteries we must cook and clean, build and repair, garden and sweep. But there is a time to sweep, and a time to put down the broom and rest.”
We push ourselves so hard that we become weary. Moses led the people through the desert and, at one point, God tells him, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” In one of our scripture readings for today, Jesus tells His disciples, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Rest is invaluable.
When we think about Jesus and what He did during His life in earth, what comes to mind is His teaching and healing. But He would often disappear. “And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.” (Matthew 14:23) “But now more than ever the word about Jesus spread abroad; many crowds would gather to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. But he would withdraw to deserted places to pray.” (Luke 5:15-16) “In the morning, while it was still very dark he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.” (Mark 1:35)
Jesus didn’t wait until everyone was healed. He didn’t leave an associate chaplain on-call. Jesus knew when it was time to rest and he just stopped what he was doing, went off and entered his “Sabbath time”. He wasn’t just going off to run some errands.
In preparing this week, I found a great question we must ask ourselves, “How thin can I spread myself before I’m no longer there? We are not the Energizer bunny. We can’t just keep going and going and going. Even our times of rest, mistakenly called vacations, are jam-packed, filled to the brim events that are so hectic that we need to go back to work to rest from our vacation. All of our energy is gone and we are weary.
Do you remember the story of Jesus walking through the crowd and a woman touches the hem of His garment? He felt the power go out of Him. This is important. Throughout our day we have many encounters with many people, all requiring energy. We don’t think about the energy usage because we assume we will always have plenty of energy to spare. We don’t think about how each phone call, each meeting, and each little task, drains energy from us. At what cost? There will come a day when, due to our pushing, going, striving, we burn out, we go down in flames. It could be a stroke, a heart attack, nervous breakdown. Then our Sabbath comes in the form of illness.
Sabbath is a time to stop. Stop working, stop making money, stop rushing here and there. Stop and listen to your life. Stop and listen for the still, small voice of God. Stopped is something that can’t be bought. You just have to stop.
But in our society, we don’t value “stop”, we don’t value the Sabbath. We brag about work and our busyness, as if this proves our worth and value. We see this attitude in our commercials.
Wendy’s commercial about new chicken sandwich-woman fighting losing battle against overflowing washing machine. Husband walks in with blissful look on face, stopped to “smell the roses”. She looks at him, mouth open, then says, “Fine, now get back to work”, as she smacks him on the back of the head.
Why are you wasting time? Get back to work. Make yourself useful! That’s what society tells us as it smacks us on the back of the head. Read excerpt from Muller’s book (page 211)
“Remember the Sabbath, and keep it holy.” God consecrated Sabbath time as a special time. Sabbath time is when we stop and remember the holiness of the life in which God has blessed us. We need to stop and smell the roses. We need to stop and remember what is really important in our lives. If we grab a sandwich and a drink on the way out the door, that’s eating. But if we stop, take a small crust of bread, a sip of wine, in the fellowship of others, then it becomes a sacrament.
We experience Sabbath in different ways. We can experience Sabbath every Sunday we are here in Bethel, the house of God. That’s what Bethel means; the house of God. We can also experience Sabbath at different times, places, or ways throughout the week. Sabbath, you see, is when you encounter God. When your focus shifts from worldly things to the presence of the awesome God. When you stop, and you realize that God is right here, beside you.
When I was a child, I lived a few miles north of here on a farm. This farm was located down a country road maybe a ½ mile from highway 39. There wasn’t much traffic on this road at the time we lived there, maybe a car or truck would go by every couple hours. Our nearest neighbor was maybe a ¼ mile down the road. So in the summer it was pretty quiet. I remember, in between riding my bike, throwing the ball against the corncrib, and swinging on the old tire swing hanging from the big tree in the cow pasture, sometimes I’d notice the birds, the clouds, and hear the wind rustle the leaves. Then I would resume the busyness of my summer.
I hadn’t thought much about that until a couple of years ago. I was sitting on our back steps and my summer childhood memories flashed into my mind. I noticed that there was no traffic, no kids yelling, no doors slamming. There was a stillness. I heard the birds singing, saw the butterflies in the garden. I saw the hawk lazily floating in the sky against a backdrop of fluffy white clouds. I heard the wind gently rustling the leaves of the trees and the corn in the field just beyond our backyard.
And I realized……I had entered a Sabbath time. I had stopped. I had encountered God……and was refreshed!
Let us pray:
