Good morning. If you have your Bibles, you will want to open up to Genesis 2:2-3. That will be our reading for today. Before we actually discuss that verse, what I would like to do is go back to Genesis 1:1 and read through the first chapter just to give you a little background on this particular verse. What we are going to do is read from Genesis 1:1 all the way to Genesis 2:3. (Scripture read here.)
If you have been around here for any length of time, you know we have been focusing on what we call our four core values of worship, discipleship, outreach, and community. Actually, what we are doing is focusing on those values since about last August. I think it was August 26th when I gave the initial sermon kicking off the values. I decided it was time to move on to a potential new series. That is what we are going to do starting next week so I thought I needed a transition-type sermon. What I was planning to do today was simply spend some time capping off those four core values, some of the positive things we learned from it, some of the things that happened because of them or possibly even do some last-minute twisting of arms to ensure that each of us are embracing those values. I finally decided that most of you already understand the importance of these values and if you don’t, to be honest at this time, one more sermon is not going to push you over the edge, so I decided I am not going to focus on those four core values.
Instead, I am going to focus on the one value that didn’t make the cut. In other words, the value that wasn’t included with these four values. When I began to think about becoming a value-driven church versus a program-driven church, I began to think about the values that were most important for the church. The first three were relatively easy: worship, discipleship, and outreach. Those three values have pretty much been a part of this church for the last eight or nine years and that is a good thing. What I struggled with was what to do with the fourth value. I didn’t know exactly what value should be the number four. Originally it wasn’t community. Originally the value that I came up with was the value of rest. In other words, just like there would be a week devoted to worship or a week devoted to discipleship or a week devoted to outreach, there would be a week devoted to nothing but rest. You may think what would that look like in the church. Really, it wouldn’t look like much because the whole week would be empty. Not a thing. There wouldn’t be a deacons meeting, an elders meeting. There wouldn’t be any committee meetings. There wouldn’t be any Bible studies. There wouldn’t be any home groups. There wouldn’t be any service projects. The calendar would be completely clean that week. Doesn’t that sound nice? I hear a number of people saying “yes.” You say that you would like it, but I anticipated that if I tried to actually do it (i.e., do nothing), I would be fighting people all week long because they would be emailing me saying I want to do this event or whatever and I would have to say no. We can’t put anything on the calendar. And you would say what do you mean? I have to have this meeting. I have to have this event. I finally decided I am not going to fight the people who insist on having something on the calendar, so I came up with a compromise and really the compromise is the value of community. Because to be honest, I felt like even though it is not the same thing as rest, usually if you do community well, it is going to incorporate some degree of rest.
I was thinking about it today and even though the value of rest become a value in the church, it should become a value of every Christian’s life. The reason being is that as we consider these two chapters, it was important for God to rest, so it should be important for us to rest. The idea of resting on the seventh day was a gift to us. Thinking again about that first chapter and the first six days of creation. There are all sorts of questions that rise up when you consider those days of creation. First of all, was it a literal six days of creation, a literal 24 hours? When God said “Let there be light” what language was he speaking in? Was he speaking in Hebrew or English or Greek? When it said that the earth was formless and void, what did that look like? What could that possibly look like? Those are questions that we really don’t have answers for, but one thing is clear. On that seventh day what did God do? He made sure that that day was special. He made sure that that was a day of rest. Reading from Genesis 2:2-3 again it says “By the seventh day, God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work and God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” The seventh day was a day of R&R. It wasn’t necessarily rest and recreation, but it was a rest and reflection. Rest and a reflection on the creation before him. You say well how did he rest? Did he pull up a big recliner, grab a remote, turn on the TV, and then take a nap? I don’t think that is what was happening up there. There is a passage in Psalm 121 that says the God of creation, the God over Israel he doesn’t sleep, he doesn’t slumber, he doesn’t rest. So we can know that even when we are resting, he is pretty much awake. It does mean that he ceased from his creative activity. He ceased from the creation of the universe and making it sustainable from the moment of time all the way up to today. He was so excited about that that he actually sat back and said this is not just good; this is very, very good. On the seventh day he rested and reflected on that and reflected on what he had done and he really left us a gift. He left us a gift of that one day a week where we can really kind of enjoy and delight on his creation just as he delights on the creation. One day that he has set aside from the other six days to really enjoy him and allow us to cease from our work.
That was so important for him that he had it carved on the stone tablets that contain the Ten Commandments. Now how many of you know that the Sabbath is considered a commandment? Nobody. That is sad. What commandment is it? Fourth. Very good. To be honest, I forgot it was the fourth one. I had to go and look it up, but it was the fourth commandment. We see that in the book of Exodus chapter 20:10 where it says “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God.” Again, it was a commandment given to the people to step aside to their benefit. He gave it to Moses to hand down all through the Jewish history. They were given an entrustment to make sure the people would continue to set the seventh day aside as holy. They did a pretty good job but as we know, over time, especially when Moses left and then Joshua left, the people began to fall into corrupt ways. The religious elite began to corrupt the very laws of God. They began to manipulate them for their own agenda or their desire to control the people. We know when Jesus came to earth he began to call out the religious leaders for the way that they had distorted God’s law. I think in all the gospels there are like eight instances where Jesus calls out the Jews on their manipulation to the laws and especially the law of the Sabbath.
One story beginning at Mark 2:23 he really nails them. Apparently, Jesus was walking through some grain fields and I guess the disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them. Apparently the Pharisees got really upset about this and said this is the Sabbath. Picking grain is work and you shouldn’t be doing that. It is about that time that Jesus really nailed them and explained the real purpose behind the Sabbath. He says in 2:27 “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath; so the son of man is lord even of the Sabbath.” What he is saying here is again the Sabbath is here to serve man; to serve man’s need for rest; to serve man’s need for reflection; a devoted day of reflection on his or her creator. That is what it is there for. As a side note, the Jewish people’s Sabbath ran from Friday night until Saturday night. You may be thinking, then why do we come on Sunday? After the resurrection after Jesus was raised from the grave and the early church got kick started, the church made the shift from Saturday to Sunday. Sunday became resurrection Sunday but it also became the Sabbath for Christians. Even though the day on the calendar has changed, really the purpose behind it has not changed at all. Again it is simply a matter of ceasing from our normal work activity and spending time reflecting on our creator and all of creation.
Really, Christians have done a pretty good job of celebrating that or making sure that the Sabbath has remained holy. In fact, they were so concerned about it that they instituted some laws a long time ago that would preserve the integrity of the Sabbath. Does anybody recognize the name Blue Laws? Does anybody know why they are called Blue? I had heard because they were written on blue paper. That is all I know. We don’t know why they are called Blue Laws, but basically they were laws that were designed to enforce religious holidays and religious tradition to keep the Sabbath. That meant that on Sunday you could not go out and engage in commerce. It means you could not go and purchase wine or beer. It means you couldn’t even purchase groceries in many places. It definitely meant you couldn’t go to shopping centers and shopping malls. You couldn’t buy cars and that sort of thing.
Over time what happened was those Blue Laws that were actually pretty good became unenforceable and they became unconstitutional to some people and basically they went away. Now, as we know, on a Sunday pretty much you can go anywhere you want to buy what you need with few restrictions. I guess you can’t buy liquor in some places in Pennsylvania but I guess there are some places you can. I heard that car dealerships are still not open on Sunday, but I am not sure about that. Generally speaking, you can pretty much engage in any commerce that you do the rest of the week on Sunday. The sad thing is that people are okay with that. Both Christians and non-Christians. They are perfectly comfortable with using Sunday as some sort of a catch-up day to get the work done that they weren’t able to get done on the other six days. To answer the emails. To update their Facebook status because they are so important to do and that sort of thing. To go through that pile of bills and pay them. To catch up on the work that they didn’t get done at their workplace so they have to bring it home because they are afraid of offending their boss. Now we know that even Sunday service is competing with so many other activities on Sunday. Now it is sports, soccer, tailgate parties, all those things compete with Sunday services. If the trend of the church or the trend of America continues to go the way it is going where America seems to be disengaging from any sense of God, pretty soon it is going to be where Sunday is no different than the rest of the days of the week. All the days just kind of blur together. There is no one sacred day. That is sad. That is sad for all of us because every day will be all the same and just flow one day into another.
If you think about if the Pharisees were here today what would they think about especially if they were upset by the fact that the disciples were picking grain on the Sabbath? What would they be upset about today? In fact, what would Jesus think if he was walking around today and seeing all this commerce going on? Better yet, what would he do? One thing I know that he wouldn’t do is he wouldn’t go out there and try to reinstitute the Blue Laws. He wouldn’t go out there and try to set up a bunch of new rules and regulations to make sure that the Sabbath is enforced. Ultimately what Jesus knows is that the keeping of the Sabbath is ultimately a heart issue. It is an issue of what is going on in your heart. It is an issue of affection. If you have a situation where you have somebody that just loves Jesus and cannot wait until Sunday to just worship him and just enjoy and delight in him throughout the day, the laws don’t matter. You don’t need laws for those types of people. If you have people that have no interest in pursuing God and chasing after their creator, putting laws into effect is not going to prevent them from doing the things that they want to do. They will figure a way to get around those laws. That is a shame because again the Sabbath was created for our benefit to ensure that we have rest. Really to ensure that, although we worship an infinite God, we are finite beings. We have limitations. We are not Superman. We are not Superwoman. To think otherwise is to invite what? It is to invite illness, burnout, heart attacks, and death.
What is funny is that when we choose not to embrace the Sabbath, life has a way of giving it to us anyway. Doesn’t it sometimes? Sometimes you find yourself suddenly in the hospital for an extended stay that you weren’t thinking about and that you weren’t expecting or maybe bedridden for a period of time or possibly unemployed. Those are kind of Sabbaths that are forced on you. God I think uses those times to say listen to your life. Maybe you need to slow down a little bit. Again, the Sabbath is for your benefit. The Sabbath is to serve men and women’s need for rest. It is also again a time to really engage in worship, to really set apart a devoted and extended period of time that you are able to worship the God that created you. I think most of you try to have some sort of a quiet time during the week. Has anybody struggled with that? I do a lot. Because you get up in the morning and you like to get going. You like to do your devotional and you have a plan to read your Bible or whatever it is and all of a sudden those things start coming in. You see the computer and you want to answer emails and you want to get going. The kids are waking up and everything else and it never happens. If you do happen to have a devotional or time with your word, it becomes like going to a fast food restaurant. You go through the drive through and get a quick bite but there is no nourishment to it. That is what happens to your quiet time. God says I will give you this gift. You have one day where you can just enjoy me. So what you missed the other six days. You have a whole day. The whole day to be in the presence of God. What an awesome, awesome thing.
Again, it is for rest, but it is also reflection on your creator. It is also a reflection on his creation and the one who created you, the one who redeems you, the one who loves you. Really it is not that complicated. All God is trying to do through this is get you into a rhythm of work and rest. Work six days, rest. Work six days, rest. The body responds well to good rhythms. There is an author I really like to read. Her name is Ruth Haley Barton. In the book Sacred Rhythms she writes this “The point of the Sabbath is to honor our need for a sane rhythm of work and rest. It is to honor the body’s need for rest, the spirit’s need for replenishment, and the soul’s need to delight itself in God for God’s own sake.” That is an awesome definition of what the Sabbath is for. It is to honor our need for a sane rhythm of work and rest. Then the soul’s need to delight itself in God for God’s own sake. Not for our sake but for God’s own sake. That is what it is all about. He gave us a gift of work and rest. A rhythm of work and rest.
Some of you are thinking well, you have kind of sold me Chuck and now get on with things so I can get out of here and enjoy my holiday. I get that. So what do I need to do? If you are thinking what do I need to do, then you are not thinking correctly because you don’t have to do anything. What you have to do if you have to do anything is you have to make space in your life to practice the Sabbath. You may be thinking well does that mean I have to go to church? Well, if I said you did have to go to church then that would be going back to legalism. That would be going back to almost the Blue Laws. That would be forcing you to do something. I can say no you don’t have to go to church but it’s not a bad idea because if you have a heart that is turned toward God and you are becoming a God-chaser so to speak, then you are going to want to make sure you have carved out an extended period of worship at least one day of the week. As most of you know, it is Memorial Day Weekend so we always have a light attendance. I don’t know why it is. I guess because people travel. They go out camping. They go mini vacations and spend time with family. I suspect that when they are out and about wherever they are going, some of them don’t make time for God. Some of them don’t make church a priority. The reason I know that is because even when people went away to somewhere else they would go to church wherever, but we would get all the other people coming to Pittsburgh and they would all be going to church and everything would equal out. It doesn’t happen that way. We always end up with less attendance around the holidays because some people think it is a three-day weekend. The sad thing is they not only take a three-day weekend from work but they take a three-day weekend from God. And really that is not right. God gave you that time off. Yes you are supposed to rest but you are not supposed to ignore your creator. You say I don’t need to go to church to do that. True. But to be honest, how many of you, when you are out camping or out walking along the beach or whatever or doing the things you do out there when you are on vacation, are really focusing on the worship of God. If you are that is great. But really, with few exceptions, I don’t know a better place to experience the real worship of your creator than a church. Whether it is this church or some church over on the beach or wherever. If you don’t have a church nearby wherever you are at, make a church where you are at. Make a church in the campsite. If you are walking along the beach and you are not near a church, put on your headphones and just worship God. Worship the creation. I do it. People think I am crazy but I just love doing it. I don’t care what they think. But again, there is not a better place to worship God than when you are out in his setting so really make it a priority. So again I am not telling you you have to do these things but if you truly are taking the Sabbath seriously, you will find a place in your Sunday to carve out time with God.
The other thing is just again obvious that you would cease your work. That you would stop the normal activity that goes on six days a week. That you would cease to do that on Sunday. In other words that you would not take work home from the office. Or if you work from home and if you have a home office, you would close that door on Friday and you wouldn’t open it up again until Monday. That is all it is. It is making sure that six days is not crowding into the seventh day. If you actually are a homemaker or a mother or a housewife, whatever you want to call it, if you normally do laundry six days a week and cook and clean and all that kind of stuff, don’t do those things on Sunday. Ignore the pile of laundry over there. It is okay. Chuck gave you permission so if the husband complains that he has no clean underwear on Monday, Chuck said it is okay. All kidding aside, leave those things aside. You don’t have to answer the email. Put your vacation setting on email. Say I will get back to you on Monday. You really don’t have to update your Facebook status. People aren’t biting at the bit waiting to know what your kid is doing or to see the next picture. They really don’t care. I hate to tell you. They just don’t care. It can wait. Again, what you don’t want to do, if you can avoid it, you don’t want to engage in any sort of commerce. Stay away from the mall. Stay away from all those shops and those types of things because when you go to the malls what you are doing is not only violating your own sense of Sabbath but you are violating the employees’ sense of Sabbath. There are employees out there that really don’t want to work on Sunday. By you continuing to go to those stores and buy the things you really don’t need, what you are doing is violating their Sabbath. You are hindering their ability to come here on Sunday.
You might think well what about things like mowing the lawn or doing yard work or that sort of thing. Really my answer is it depends. It is up to you. Some people really take great joy in doing gardening or mowing the lawn or that sort of thing. Actually they feel themselves in God’s presence. They enjoy God’s creation when they are doing those sorts of things. If that is you then it is okay. But if it is just another thing to check off your to-do list, don’t do it. Let it wait. It will get done. One more day is not going to make a difference.
Then you may be thinking, what about sports? That is a touchy subject because I really do believe that God appreciates a good sporting match like anybody else. He knows that it is a form of rest and recreation for people. Again, as long as that is not your total focus for the day and that you still find time to spend some time in worship with God, it is okay to occasionally engage or participate in some sort of a sporting event, unless you are some of these people who just seem to get overly stressed when they are involved in sporting activities or when they are watching a sporting game. To be honest, I have been with some of you people and you are not a lot of fun to watch a sporting event with. You get crazy. You get very stressed and angry and then what happens is you bring that stress to the rest of the people in the room and then pretty soon you have violated everybody’s Sunday Sabbath.
Again, I can’t legalize this thing. You know the things that are going to give you that R&R and that is what it all boils down to. Not necessarily rest and recreation but rest and reflection on God. I know this is not going to sink in to so many of you to be honest. It is difficult for me. You are going to leave here and you are going to do your normal routine or whatever you do. You will say that was nice what Chuck said but he doesn’t understand my life. I am just so busy and we have to get it done and if I don’t get it done today, it will never get done because I am so indispensable I have to get this done. Yeah right? What if you drop dead when you leave here? Somebody will just pick it up and do it and you’ll realize you weren’t indispensable. You will be hovering above looking down saying hey they didn’t need me anyway. I could have taken the day off. That is an extra. I didn’t do that in the first service and now I am lost again.
Anyway, when you leave here just try to do something different. If you are normally going to go home and work on your spreadsheets or check the status of the hockey poll or whatever it is, go take a walk in the park with your kids. Walk down to the River walk down there and enjoy God’s creation. When you get back, maybe sit down and have an extended meal with those you love and those you have neglected the other six days of the week. Enjoy God’s creation which is your family and your friends. The devotional book that you have neglected all the week or the Bible passage you have neglected all week, open it up and read it. Spend a couple leisure hours just reading or catching up on the word. Most importantly, make sure you take that good nap. Take that nap. It is okay. Aren’t naps wonderful on Sunday? Why do you think that is? There is no guilt associated with it because God ordained it. God commanded it. That is the best nap a Sunday nap. I can go for three hours. Debbie thinks I am dead. She has to shake me a couple times. But go for that power nap.
In closing, again when we think about this, just like when I preached on silence and solitude several months ago, it is hard. Because you are in these patterns that you are used to doing and you don’t know how to break out of it. All I am saying is you are not going to do this overnight. You don’t want to make it legalistic. There are going to be things that come up that are emergencies and you have to run to the grocery store. You have to do this. You have to throw a load of clothes in or whatever. That is okay. But if this becomes the replacement for Sunday, if this becomes a pattern in your life, then there is a problem. What you are doing is robbing yourself of the very gift that God had given you. What I am saying is when it comes to the Sabbath don’t grab man’s vision of the Sabbath, which is run, run, run, race, race, race, and continue to use it as a catch-up. No. Continue to embrace God’s vision of the Sabbath. A vision of rest and reflection on him. And only you know what the things are you need to do that are going to restore your spirit, restore your body, restore your soul, and actually bring you back to a real sense of enjoyment to God because that is what he promises those who will do that. In fact, the last passage here comes out of the book of Isaiah 58:13-14. This is from The Message translation. It says “If you watch your step on the Sabbath and don’t use my holy day for personal advantage, if you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy, God’s holy day as a celebration, if you honor it by refusing business as usual, making money, running here and there, then you will be free to enjoy God.” That is ultimately what it is all about: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Let us pray.
