God rested. Well, why not? After all, He had had a busy week, almost as busy as ours! Some of us have had weeks like that, when we’ve had to build the moon and the stars, separate the waters from the dry land, and bring forth swarms of living creatures, all in one week. Every parent knows what that’s like! So of course God rested.
God rested, but why can’t we? Why is it that we can’t really seem to rest? Why is it that we come to Labor Day, supposedly a time to celebrate our work and get one last break, but we feel pushed and pressured, exhausted and desperate? God rested, but why didn’t we rest? Why can’t we rest?
Is it because God got His work done, but we didn’t? The Scripture says that "God finished the work that he had done." What a great feeling it must be to finish a piece of work! Maybe we don’t rest because we don’t finish our work.
God rested, but why can’t we? Is it because we feel that our work is not good? That we just muddle through and never get it right? The Scripture says that "God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good." God was able to rest because He had done good work. But as for us, we see what we do, and all we can say is, "Good enough for government work!" We just can’t feel satisfied that we’ve done our best, and so we can’t rest. Is that it?
God rested, but why can’t we? Is it that we have not finished, or is it that our work is not good, or, deeper yet, is it that we don’t even know what our work is? We don’t even know if we have a work to do. I’m not talking about jobs; I’m talking about our life’s work, our purpose, our direction. I’m not talking about where the paycheck comes from; I’m talking about where energy and passion come from. You see, God the Creator could speak His "Let there be" with purpose and passion, but we do not even know why we are working! We do not remember what our purpose is! And therefore we cannot rest, deep down in our souls. Is that it?
God rested, but why can’t we? The answer lies in a single word: compulsive. Compulsive. We do not rest because, to one extent or another, we are compulsive. We suffer from the spiritual disease of compulsiveness. And so we do not rest. We do not have peace. And we forfeit much of our joy.
Let me quickly define terms. What do I mean by "compulsive"? What is a compulsive spiritual disease?
To be compulsive is to have to do something. To feel an inner drive that demands that we do something. Being compulsive means that inside me there is a feeling that if I don’t do this particular thing in this particular way, I will be a failure. I will be a bad person. To be compulsive means to feel driven to do something, whether or not it has any meaning.
When I was a boy, I got into the pattern, as kids will, of eating the foods I liked and leaving on my plate the ones I didn’t like. And then I would complain that I was full and couldn’t eat the unpleasant stuff. Well, my father devised a remedy for that; he made me take a bite out of each item in turn, starting up at the top of the plate and going around, clockwise, bite after bite, item after item, until it was all gone. So I learned to eat meat -potatoes-spinach-salad-drink-bread-meat -potatoes-spinach-salad-drink-bread-meat -potatoes-spinach-salad-drink-bread ... got the picture? Do you know I still do that? Fifty years later I still eat that way! And, yes, if I indulge in two bites of meat before I sentence myself to a bite of spinach, I feel guilty! You psychology folk make whatever you want to out of that, I just know it’s compulsive. It’s harmless, but it is also compulsive. Feeling as though you have to do a thing.
You take that to another level, however, and it’s not so harmless. Follow the compulsive approach out and it becomes something dangerous, a symptom of spiritual sickness.
Do you feel as though you have to work, or else you aren’t worth anything? Some folks price themselves on staying busy, never sitting down to relax, listen to music, take some time. What they are doing counts for less than the mere fact that they are doing it. You tell some compulsive people that they have to retire, and you throw them into a crisis, because, for them, work is life. Sometimes people literally don’t even survive retirement. They wither away and die because they feel devalued if they can’t work. The compulsion to stay busy, just doing, no matter what it is, is a spiritual sickness. It needs a remedy. It needs to be cured.
Others imagine that whatever they do, it’s not good enough, it’s not finished, not ready for prime time. And so they labor endlessly on some task, and it never gets done. It has to satisfy some standard of perfection that is beyond the realm of possibility. There are artists whose paintings have never been seen, because they’re not masterful enough, musicians whose songs have never been sung, because they’re not finished; cooks whose meals have never been shared with guests, because they’re not cordon bleu just yet. There are church members who haven’t prayed in public, because they don’t yet have a practiced eloquence, and Christians who haven’t shared their faith with anybody, because they haven’t got the technique down pat. I think that’s called perfectionism. You name it whatever you want, it comes out compulsive. It’s a spiritual sickness. And it needs to be cured.
For that sickness our God prescribes a remedy; for the illness of compulsion, our God offers the antidote: Sabbath rest. Sabbath rest.
The fourth Commandment: "Remember the Sabbath day, and 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; you shall not do any work ... for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day."
Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. The heart of God’s command is for rest. A special kind of rest, Sabbath rest. Sabbath rest is more than a weekly break from the routine. It has a focus. It’s not just rest in general, but a focus on the giver of rest, a focus on God. Sabbath rest will do several things for us.
I
First, Sabbath rest will give us authentic enjoyment. A day of rest will give us true pleasure.
I am convinced that most of us don’t enjoy life enough. Many of us are too serious, too driven, too pressed. It’s one thing to be hard pressed by financial circumstances; it’s another thing to be hard pressed by your own heart. It’s one thing to be driven by a job that is too demanding; it’s another thing to feel guilty because we can’t find refreshment in what we’re doing. When God commands us to remember the Sabbath rest, He is commanding us to enjoy life, to enjoy Him.
Who is having a good time today? Where is the real joy in living?
Joy Davidman, in her little book, Smoke on the Mountain, which is an interpretation of the Ten Commandments, gave me a clue. She imagines a Martian college student who is late with his research report on the cultural habits of earthlings. This Martian student has run off in his flying saucer to visit earth briefly, just for a weekend, and to write a learned report. Parts of this imaginary report go like this:
"Like so many primitive life forms, the creatures of [earth] are sun worshipers. One day in every seven is set apart for the adoration of their deity, weather permitting. Their rituals vary, and each apparently involves a special form of dress; but all are conducted in the open air, and most seem to require the collection of enormous crowds. Some creatures gather in vast arenas, to watch strangely garbed priests perform elaborate ceremonies involving a ball [the symbol of the sun] and ... instruments of wood. Others ... prefer to address the ball themselves with long clubs, singly or in groups of two or four, wandering in green fields. Some, stripping themselves almost naked in their ecstasy, go down to the seashore in great throngs and there perform their rites, often hurling themselves into the waves with frenzied cries … After the ceremonial immersion, devotees have been observed to anoint themselves with holy oils and to stretch themselves out full length with eyes closed, in order to surrender themselves to silent communion with the deity.”
Now, before we laugh too long and hard at the observations of this imaginary Martian hovering above earth and figuring out what our religion is, we need to hear part of the final chapter of his report. It may not be any laughing matter. And maybe you can see why Joy Davidman’s little story gave me a clue about our joy.
After the Martian had finished reporting on all the activities of the sun worshipers, he mentioned something else. "There exists, however, a small sect of ... heretics that does not practice sun worship. These may be identified by their habit of clothing themselves more soberly and completely than the sun worshipers. They too gather in groups, but only to hide from the sun in certain buildings of doubtful use, usually with windows of glass colored to keep out the light. ... It is noteworthy that their faces show none of the ... religious frenzy with which the sun worshipers pursue their devotions. In fact, they usually appear relaxed or even placid, thus indicating minds blank of thought or emotion."
How sad! What a tragedy! I know it’s a little fantasy, but doesn’t it hit home?! Where is our joy? God commands the compulsive to rest and to enjoy. Enjoy! If in this place you find a smile or get a laugh, then you are keeping the Sabbath rest. If in this house on the Sabbath Day you hear more than challenge, more than duty, more than obligation, but you hear good news, then you are keeping the Sabbath rest. Surely one reason we come together for worship is just to stop all the doing and enjoy life in Christ. Sabbath rest is for enjoyment. Sabbath rest is a command for the compulsive.
II
Second, Sabbath rest is for contrast. For contrast. The Sabbath Day rest is to give us perspective on the other six days. When God says, "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy", keeping it holy means keeping it separate. Keeping it distinctive. For if every day is the same, then all days become meaningless. But if you have a day different from all other days, that day will heighten the importance of the other days as well! Contrast.
Painters and photographers use the principle of contrast to make their statements. If they want to highlight something in their art, then they paint in shadows and somber colors elsewhere. The shadows and the darkness make the light stand out even more clearly. The purpose of the Sabbath day is to shed light on the other days. When you cannot find your way in the welter of stuff you have to do; when you cannot make sense of all the frantic activity; when it all becomes an endless cycle, where you don’t know whether you are working-to-live or living-to-work – then Sabbath rest helps us stop and take a look at what we are doing. The Sabbath is for contrast.
I remember how the moment of truth came for one of my students when I was chaplain at the University of Maryland. He had stopped coming to our Baptist Student Union activities, and I looked him up to find out what had happened. "Well, he said, I had to get a job, so I don’t have time for the group any more." Hearing some anxiety there, I asked, "You had to get a job? Financial problems?" "Yes, serious financial problems, " he said. "I need a job to pay for the car." "You bought a car? I know that you live in the dormitory and you got along just fine your first two years without a car. Why did you buy a car?" "Why, I had to buy a car! I had to buy a car to get to my job!" I really didn’t have to say anything; I just looked at him for a moment. "Oh. Oh, I see."
We just need something to make us stop and let truth break in, something to make us look at ourselves and the meaning of what we are doing. Sabbath rest gives us a contrast, so that we can find out whether we are living to work or working to live. "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy," separate, distinct. That’s a command for the compulsive.
III
But most of all, Sabbath rest gives us a glimpse of eternity in the middle of time. Sabbath rest reminds us that while we put in our forty hours and calculate our annual leave and add up our sick leave, there is a world beyond the world of work, there is a meaning beyond the daily drudgery. There is an eternity beyond our jangling alarm clocks and our ever-present deadlines. The Sabbath Day forces us to remember eternity.
God’s command for the compulsive is to "Remember". Remember the Sabbath day, when God rested. Remember that every workday must come to an end, remember that some things are not settled by our energies and our efforts.
Remember that life can be lived only if there is room for grace. Remember. Remember Sabbath rest.
God’s command for the compulsive. Eternity in the everyday, the extraordinary in the ordinary. God’s command to the compulsive shows us that beyond the tyranny of time and our languishing in labor, there is an eternity whose purposes are not yet complete, whose work is not done, but nevertheless, there is rest. Grace. Peace. Rest for God, and rest for the people of God. Remember.
Remember. On this Labor Sunday, come to the Lord’s Table, remember, here meet eternity. Come to this special place, on this special day, and let it interpret all the ordinary places, all the ordinary days. Come to this time which contains all times, come to this sign of the work of Christ, finished and yet not finished. Come to this one who labors still for us, but who has deep and lasting peace to give. Come to this minute, this Sabbath rest minute, for eternity is in it. Pause, reflect, hope, in Christ. Come to this Table, all that labor and are heavy laden, all who are compulsive, and you shall find rest unto your souls.
