“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 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. 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. (Exodus 20:1-11)
In our fast paced lives it may be hard to find time rest when we have so many responsibilities at work, home, and to our fantasy football teams. Here is an excerpt from Pastor Parker’s sermon this past Sunday that should help us to Remember the Sabbath. You can catch the whole sermon on YouTube!
As I sleep, the Keeper of Israel is working through biological restorative processes to strengthen my body and heal my mind. Throughout the night, whether I’m tossing and turning anxiously or resting in His loving care, God is at work sustaining His creation, bringing new babies into the world, and welcoming weary saints into His eternal rest. God works when I sleep and when I wake up it’s not the beginning of the story; when I wake up and begin my day, it’s simply an opportunity to participate in what God has set in motion. Sabbath—resting—ceasing—stepping back from the rat race for restoration, re-creation, and re-newal is an opportunity to bring our lives into that divine, creation rhythm. The 4th command is an invitation to participate in a weekly reminder that God is God and we are not; a weekly reminder that God is the Creator and Sustainer who is alive and at work in His world; a weekly reminder that God has worked to save us in Jesus Christ and given us what we could never earn or repay.
It’s important for us to spend time doing things that restore us and to consider what faithful Sabbath keeping would look like in our own lives. What would it take for us to regularly spend some well-wasted time in God’s presence? Are there some things we need to give up in order to create some margin in the pages of our story? Are there some priority shifts that need to be made to ensure that we really are seeking God’s kingdom before everything else? Are we willing to stop and quiet our minds regularly so that God can remind us that He really does have everything under control and won’t let our world crumble if we leave things in His hands and stop worrying about them?
We need Sabbath, perhaps more than ever before in this world where so many people can honestly say, “I am dangerously tired right now.” We need Sabbath in this time that is more defined by burnout than vocational satisfaction. We need Sabbath in this age when our cell phones and laptops make us accessible more than ever before and enable us to extend the workday into our daily commute to and from work, into the time that used to be reserved for dinner with our families, and well past what used to be bedtime. Remembering the Sabbath is important because it keeps some important truths at the forefront of our minds. The Sabbath reminds us that we serve the God who worked six days and then rested. The Sabbath reminds us that we follow the Savior who frequently slipped away from the crowds in need of ministry to pray and have fellowship with His disciples and friends. The Sabbath reminds us that we live our lives under the watchful eye of the Good Shepherd who makes His sheep lie down in green pastures so He can restore our souls. When we Remember the Sabbathit helps us bring our days in line with God’s evening-morning rhythms and to remember that it’s God’s work and not ours that saves and sustains and that our work, at its best, is an opportunity to participate in what God has already set in motion!