Honoring the Sabbath Exodus 20: 8-11 June 29, 2014 Summer is our Sabbath season. It is a season when life slows down, when schedules are wide open, and we rest on our porches and drink lemonade. Yes, and no. What can be maddeningly frustrating about summer is that we have high expectations for restfulness and that rest can be elusive. Recently, I asked one parent of young children how her summer has been going and she said immediately, It s crazy. The calendar is out of control. I spend all of my free time arranging for car pools for my children so they can get to and from all of their camps and activities. My demands at work don t stop, but in the summer I have to be an activities coordinator for my children as well. I m afraid that I m going to drop the ball and my children will be stranded somewhere waiting for a bus that isn t coming. I shared that our calendar at our house is crazy too. We re always juggling a few more balls in the summer time, squeezing in a few additional activities. Getting everything done before going on vacation. Digging out after being on vacation. One or two more things doesn t seem like it should be that big of a deal, but if you know how to juggle, juggling three balls is plenty and adding in just one more makes the task impossible for most people. I was sharing this conversation with another parent and he said, When I was a kid summer felt like this big void. It was this huge expanse of time and nothing could possibly fill it.
All I remember is playing with friends, all the time. What happened? And then we talked about how in our work summer is the dumping ground for all the things that we need to do and that we don t have time to do during the school year. We say, Oh, I ll get to that in the summer. Then we get to the summer and we re overwhelmed by all that we were crazy enough to think that we were going to do. Both of these conversations were opportunities to tell the truth and hear the truth about what life is like. And both conversations left me feeling more anxious than I felt before. I felt this sort of tightening, clenching feeling. I felt stuck in this world that is spinning faster and faster. And then, one I night I was reading an article that quoted Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau said, I think I cannot preserve my health and spirits, unless I spend four hours a day at least - and it is commonly more than that - sauntering over the hills and fields, absolutely free from worldly engagements The walking of which I speak has nothing in it akin to taking exercise, as it is called, as the sick take their medicine at stated hours...but it is itself the enterprise and adventure of the day. My heart was instantly lighter when I read that quote, and I thought, Really, someone did that? Four hours a day, often more? When I read Thoreau saying that you cannot preserve your health and spirits unless you have time absolutely free from worldly engagements, I thought, Yes, I know. I ve forgotten. Thank you. Thoreau s wisdom is a beautiful reminder that life is to be enjoyed, daily. We re invited to be soaking in this beautiful, amazing gift of life. We re to be wandering around, free. Life needs this freedom. Life isn t only this blissful disconnected freedom, but Thoreau is telling us that life also can t be without it. And the command to honor the Sabbath day is telling us the same thing.
The Bible s command to honor the Sabbath is a command that is supposed to internalize a practice of remembering God s generosity, God s ability to provide, God s grace. This command tells us that one day a week all work should stop. It can stop. And the world will keep right on going. Because God s in charge of the world, not us. It s not our efforts and worries that keep everything going. We re not that central. We can stop for 24 hours a week, and breathe deep and enjoy, sauntering about the fields, and rest. As we do, we ll remember that life is pure gift. As we do, we ll be recreated in that moment. As we stop and rest, we ll carry that joy and lightness with us into the next week, and it will transform the rest of our time. The command to honor the Sabbath is a response to Pharaoh s Egypt, where the Hebrews were slaves, exploited for their labor, never given time off, and they were used up and thrown away. The Ten Commandments as a whole are focused on creating a nation and a people where human beings will not be exploited but instead will be honored as the sacred creatures that they are. The commandments intend to create a healthy and whole community. The commands to give allegiance to Yahweh, to turn from idols, and to respect Yahweh s name and power keep us grounded in this God of justice and life. The commands that come after command number four (honor the Sabbath), honor your parents, don t murder, commit adultery, steal or lie, are commands that protect the vulnerable, and they tell us that exploiting others for our own gain is not acceptable. This exploitation will destroy community. And the final command, Do not covet, is related to the command to honor the Sabbath. Both commands invite us to trust in God s generosity, God s ability to provide, in God s grace. I ll talk more about the command not to covet next week, but that command is directed at our restlessness, our fidgety need to acquire for no particular reason. The antidote to our need to acquire more for no particular reason is trusting in God. As we trust that God has already
given us what we need, we ll have less desire to acquire more. Similarly, the antidote to our anxious worrying about all that we must do, in the dwindling number of hours that are available, is trusting in God. As we trust that God is God, and we are not, we might begin to trust that we can stop our working and striving for 24 hours and that somehow, by some miracle, God will keep the earth spinning on its axis. And we will start practicing enjoying this gift of life. We will feel our heart lighten. We will take steps towards finding balance. We will learn how to live with more joy, more often. This is even a message for our bleeding hearts for justice and peace. It is no secret that there is so much work that needs to be done in the world, and God is calling us to do justice. But the Bible is clear that God also calls us to enjoy life. It is not either do justice or enjoy life, it is both/and. In the Exodus story, Yahweh wants the people freed so they can celebrate a festival to God in the wilderness. I take this to mean that taking Christianity seriously shouldn t wring all of the fun out of our lives. Rather, giving ourselves to the God of the Exodus will increase our joy, increase our delight. Sara and I have been watching the show Mad Men over the last few months. Any Mad Men fans here? We ve just finished season three, so don t tell us about season four and beyond. If you can t say anything nice then don t say anything at all. For those of you who don t know the show, it is set in an advertising agency on Madision Avenue in New York in the 1960s. The main character, Don Draper, is an artistic director who has everything: wealth, power, a beautiful house, a beautiful wife, beautiful children. But he can t enjoy any of it. He covets, in all sorts of ways. I ll talk more about that next week too. And he s wrestling with and running from the demons of his past. Ultimately, he s trying to hold a crazy life together, a life that, for him, includes keeping horrible secrets.
There s a scene in one show where Don is driving along the ocean. It s a beautiful night, the stars are shining, the waves are breaking. We hear Don say, I can t feel anything anymore. Now Don has lots of issues, and we can talk about those at length, as long as we talk about seasons 1-3, but the work of trying to hold crazy lives together can pull us into a tunnel where we don t feel anything anymore. God doesn t want us to go through life not feeling anything. God wants us to enjoy this gift that we ve been given. Stopping our work, our striving, our scurrying for 24 hours, once a week, trusting that we can let God hold things together for a while, this will allow us to rest in grace and live with joy. This sort of practice will help us feel again. At the Conference Annual Meeting, my Hebrew Bible professor from United Seminary in the Twin Cities led a few Bible Studies. She told the story of a Rabbi friend of hers who said, Every week the Sabbath reminds us that the creation doesn t depend on us. Instead, we depend on God. Remembering this and honoring this can save us. May it be so. Amen.