Sabbath

A Sermon for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 11, Year B)
July 18, 2021

Text: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

I speak to you in the name of our loving, liberating, and life-giving God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

From the Gospel of Mark: Jesus said to his disciples, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.

I have a really hard time with allowing myself to rest. I rarely take time off from doing work. In fact, the thought of being still and doing nothing actually causes me to stress out. Over the years, I’ve gotten better at allowing myself to rest, but even now, it’s a struggle.

Do you have this problem? Do you have a hard time allowing yourself time for rest?

What I’ve discovered is that, even when I have the time to rest, I manage to find ways to avoid it at all cost. My mind won’t allow me to escape from the endless list of things that must be done. The worst part is that I justify avoiding rest by using the same excuse that so many of us use, time and time again. “I just have too much to do.”

I have too much to do to stop and rest now.

Is this something that you struggle with?

Several years ago, I came across an interesting article online, entitled, “Busy is a Sickness.”  Drawing from a survey conducted by the American Psychological Association, the author of the article suggested that most Americans recognize the need to reduce the amount of stress in their lives but that they’re too busy to address the problem. According to the article, there are two forms of busyness that cause stress. There’s “busyness without control.” This is the type of busyness that’s created for us. It’s the working poor, those who are forced to work multiple jobs to make ends meet, that often suffer from this type of busyness the most. Then, there’s the type of stress that most of us experience on a daily basis, “busyness with control.” This is the type of busyness that we create for ourselves. In other words, it’s “self-created stress.”

The interesting thing about “self-created stress” is that it often feels like something that we can’t live without. Our society teaches us that busyness leads to success, and we convince ourselves that if we’re not constantly working or doing something productive, we’re being lazy or wasting valuable time.

I’m very familiar with this type of stress, and if you’re like me, you wear it like a badge of honor as if being constantly busy is something to be proud of. But, I can assure you that it isn’t.

The problem with this way of thinking is that we need time to rest from our labors. We need moments of escape from the busyness of our everyday lives in order to be renewed and restored. These moments are important. They provide us with the opportunity to reconnect with who God created us to be and to find relief from the burden of stress that so many of us bear.

Rest is a gift given to us by God in creation. It’s also something that God expects us to do.

Think about the story from the Book of Exodus of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments. God says to Moses, “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–you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.”

So, rest isn’t just a gift. It’s also a commandment—part of our covenant with the God who created us.

At the beginning of the Book of Genesis, after the creation of the heavens and the earth and their entire multitude, God completed God’s work of creation on the seventh day.

And what did God create?

God created menuha.  

In English, the word menuha means, “rest,” but in Hebrew, this word means much more than simply withdrawing from physical labor. According to Rabbi Abraham Heschel, menuha is the same as “happiness and stillness, as peace and harmony.” Menuha is the “essence of good life” and the word used to describe the life of the world to come.

On the seventh day, God consecrated the Sabbath and created menuha. God created time for us to be still in God’s presence and to enjoy the lives that we’ve been given.

Imagine what it would be like if we recognized this time as a precious gift and not just something we do if we get around to it. What if we took the time to stop what we’re doing in order to stop and simply enjoy the gift of being alive?

What would that look like for you?

Sabbath time is sacred time. It’s time for renewing the body and refreshing the soul. It’s difficult to define and will look different for most people. Perhaps, the most helpful way for us to describe what our Sabbath time looks like is to identify what it doesn’t look like. We may be unable to say what our Sabbath will be, but we can certainly say what our Sabbath won’t be. For you, Sabbath time might be time away from checking e-mail or taking work-related telephone calls. Maybe it’s time away from the noise of the television or the constant need to update your Facebook status. Sabbath time might also be time away from the endless list of chores that need to be done around the house. Sabbath time, dear friends, is time to avoid those things that cause us to be distracted from rest. According to one author, sabbath is a “sanctuary in time” set apart for us to experience the fullness of God’s love.

In the midst of our relentlessly busy lives, we can’t expect Sabbath time to happen without being intentional. It requires discipline. It’s our responsibility to set aside the time that we need and to make the necessary preparations. No one is going to do it for us. The full Sabbath day remains a strict act of observance in the Jewish faith tradition. Of course, it would be wonderful if we all had the freedom to observe an entire day of Sabbath rest, but for many, it’s practically impossible. The daily demands of work and other obligations tend to interrupt our days. So, it’s up to us to set aside the time we need when we’re able, even if it’s only for a half a day or a few hours here and there. We need that time each week, time to retreat briefly from the stresses of our responsibilities and obligations.

I particularly love the part in today’s lesson from the Gospel of Mark when Jesus says to his disciples, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” There are several instances in the Gospels when Jesus retreated—either alone or with his friends—to rest from the daily demands of his public ministry. To me, it means that Jesus recognized the need for rest, and he had the wisdom to take the time he needed in order to be renewed and restored. He recognized that, in order to continue on in his ministry and to be able to offer compassion and healing to those who came to him for help, he needed to take time to care for himself. He needed to practice self-care, which is something we all need to learn.

During these summer months, as our time during this season after Pentecost continues, I invite you to consider taking more time to practice self-care, more time to escape from the busyness of your everyday lives and to simply rest in the palm of God’s hand. I encourage you to be intentional about making time to be still in the presence of God and to live the abundant life that God has called you to live. Amen.

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A video of this sermon is available below, beginning at the 20:30 mark.