The Rhythms of Rest

The Rhythms of Rest

 

August 28, 2021

Larry R Evans

 

I’ve outlined today’s study into four sections:

1.     Wholeness Before Brokenness

2.    A Brokenness that Leads to Wholeness

3.    Remaining Whole in a Broken World

4.    The Dawning of a New World of Wholeness 

 

Introduction

 

During the past few days, the news has drawn our attention to a place called Afghanistan.  For over 20 years we have seen how nations have fought to regain power over the land occupied by the Taliban. In part, the obsession came with an attitude of revenge. It sought retaliation for what happened on 9/11.  A discussion about this tragedy can easily drift into political debates. Today, we need to be concerned with a much greater issue.  Note how Abraham Joshua Heschel describes it.

There is a realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own but to give, not to control but to share, not to subdue but to be in accord. (The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man. Prologue)

Heschel is opening the door to help us understand the meaning of the Sabbath. He continues,

We must not forget that it is not a thing that lends significance to a moment; it is the moment that lends significance to things.

This week our study is focused on “the rhythms of rest” and specifically the Sabbath rest. The Bible gives much more focus to time than to geography.  It refers to generations and to events more than to countries. History is of greater interest than geography. The timing of our study comes as our own country retreats from a country far from here. What can the Sabbath possibly say to us as we struggle with the tragedies of wars or even disease?

 

When we think about it, isn’t it strange that Christians who symbolize their religion with a cross are quick to ask, “Why?” or “Why me?” or “How much longer must this go on?” When we become stressed out, it is easy to conclude that we ought to have some kind of “spiritual rights” to avoid what we are going through. We deserve better.  God should have done more for us. Surely, brokenness could not be God’s plan for His own people. We have become obsessed with what we have, what we might lose or even who we might lose.  Are there lessons from the gift of time, Sabbath time, that would help us face our present-day difficulties?  Perhaps it’s time to refocus, as Heschel suggests, on becoming more than on having.

 

Brokenness comes in many forms, but today we will direct our attention to what “time” can do for us or perhaps more accurately what time can do “with” us. I am reminded of how C.S. Lewis illustrated how easily it is to miss seeing the bigger picture when we direct our attention to only our unfortunate experiences.

When I invited Jesus into my life, I thought he was going to put up some wallpaper and hang a few pictures. But he started knocking out walls and adding on rooms. I said, ‘I was expecting a nice cottage.’ But he said, ‘I’m making a palace in which to live.’”

As strange as it may seem, the cross is the symbol of wholeness through brokenness.  The cross is a moment in time that brings value to life regardless of what we may be facing. The Bible, however, doesn’t begin with brokenness but rather with a radical kind of wholeness. 

  

Wholeness Came Before Brokenness

Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. – Genesis 2:3

We sometimes read quickly through the Genesis Creation story without taking into consideration how carefully God prepared the world for those who would bear His image. The nature of His work made the way for both our work and our rest.  The climax to the creation week is not the creation of man but the time man and God came together.

 

Consider the work that led to “rest.”

1.     God created space – separating water from dry ground and both from the sky 

2.    God created time and time had special value for the life to come evening and morning

3.    God fills the space with life—living creatures

4.   God created community—fill the earth

5.    God’s creation was diverse and harmonious but needing rest—the Sabbath.

6.    God created man with the intention of honoring space, time, life, and rest and the Sabbath brings all four dimensions together.

7.     Solomon said it well in Ecclesiastes 3:10,    

He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

When God created man, He did so with the Sabbath in mind.  It was then, during this sacred time, that the “eternity in the human heart” came to life in a new way.

A Brokenness that Leads to Wholeness

 

When sin entered this world, everything changed. There was no more direct communion with God. Births were painful, work was hard, relationships were not only broken, in some cases they became oppressive.  God’s own people became slaves.  When freed God helped them regain their original purpose with the gift of time. 

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping 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, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:8-11)

This gift of time was anchored in creation which supersedes any national origin. Ellen White emphasized, 

“And since the Sabbath is a memorial of the work of creation, it is a token of the love and power of Christ.” (Desire of Ages, p.281)

Remaining Whole in a Broken World

 

Freedom, without purpose, could have easily been abused and led back into a form of slavery.  For decades God’s people lived in an Egyptian culture whose deities were associated with places and things. Once freed from Egypt they were still surrounded by peoples whose worship was not of the Creator, but rather the “things” He had made.  It is no wonder that the 10 Commandments were introduced with an emphasis on the event or time of God’s intervention.

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Exodus 20:1

Freedom from God was not and will never be a lasting freedom. Regardless of where God’s people are, time was with them. No captivity, no foreign land, could take away that “temple of time.” 

When the world began there was only one holiness in the world and that was the holiness of time—the time God spent with man. Sin tried to interrupt that moment, but the Sabbath was a reminder that our greatest possession is not what things we have, but the time we have with our Creator-Redeemer.  It was and is God’s way of keeping us whole while living in a broken world.

 

It is an easy lesson to forget when living in a world where the physical things matter more than the spiritual ones. At the very heart of Israel’s camp was the sanctuary. It was the center of life. When it came time to provide physical food, Exodus 16 is a practical illustration of how God sought to illustrate how the spiritual gave value to the physical.  Mana fell every day of the week except Sabbath.  Twice the amount could be gathered on Friday, and some kept for the Sabbath.  Once again, as Heschel has pointed out, 

We must not forget that it is not a thing that lends significance to a moment; it is the moment that lends significance to things.

The moment happened when the liberating God gave special value to the physical food. So, it is today when we ask the Lord to bless the food we are about to eat. The blessing is for both the physical food and for God’s presence as we partake of the meal He has provided.

 

Perhaps one of the biggest challenges to remain whole in a broken world is when a new generation appears on the scene who have not experienced that oneness with God. It is for this reason that we have the book called Deuteronomy or the second time the law was given. 

 

The creation of the world is a central reason for keeping the Sabbath but there is another as shown in the Sabbath commandment found in Deuteronomy 5:12, 15

Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. . .. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

The Dawning of a New World of Wholeness 

 

In our hectic world of busyness, it is easy to even get “God’s world” turned upside down.  As Heschel says, 

“The sabbath is not for the sake of the weekdays; the weekdays are for the sake of the Sabbath.” (p.14)

In other words, the Sabbath isn’t meant primarily as a time to rest up so we can be efficient in our work.  Rather, our work is done with the idea of benefiting our praise of God and especially on the Sabbath. 

 

The psalmist speaks of the attitude or perspective that we carry with us throughout the week.

It is good to praise the LORD

and make music to your name, O Most High,

proclaiming your love in the morning

and your faithfulness at night, (Psalm 92:1-3)

 

For you make me glad by your deeds, LORD;

I sing for joy at what your hands have done.

How great are your works, LORD,

how profound your thoughts!  (Psalm 92: 4,5)

 

Isaiah 58:13 not only speaks of the carefulness by which we should observe the Sabbath but of the joy to come.

“If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath

and from doing as you please on my holy day,

if you call the Sabbath a delight

and the LORD’s holy day honorable,

and if you honor it by not going your own way

and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,

then you will find your joy in the LORD,

and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land

and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”

 

The Sabbath becomes a delight as we celebrate the Sabbath’s meaning.  It is living out what Solomon said when he observed that God had “set eternity in the human heart.”  Even now, today, we rejoice in the joy of the dawning of the promise new world of wholeness.

 

Closing Reflection

What would be a world without Sabbath? It would be a world that knew only itself or God distorted as a thing or the abyss separating Him from the world; a world without the vision of a window in eternity that opens into time. (Heschel, p.16)

Harvard recently selected an atheist for its chief university chaplain.  His responsibility is to lead more than 30 chaplains who represent “many of the world’s religious, spiritual, and ethical traditions. These chaplains work closely with students both in groups and individually, acting as mentors and counselors. 

The new chief chaplain said, “We don’t look to a god for answers. We are each other’s answers. . . “There is a rising group of people who no longer identify with any religious tradition but still experience a real need for conversation and support around what it means to be a good human and live an ethical life.” [https://dailycaller.com/2021/08/26/harvard-atheist-university-chaplain/?__s=kggxdopa76ki5odmzyzq

 

Is there a better description of what is happening in our world today—a world that mostly lives without the Sabbath? A generation has come that defines what it considers good and ethical and there is no consistency in their ethical beliefs. It has become its own god.