A Rest Stop

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. The Sabbath. The 7th day. The day of rest. What a great idea God. And thank you, Jewish friends, for teaching us how to keep the Sabbath. We really enjoy our day of rest.

What’s that?

I’m sorry, it seemed like I heard you say something about not taking a Sabbath. Of course, because we are believers, we follow the 10 commandments. We don’t kill or steal, or break the Sabbath. And since Jesus also observed a day of rest each week, we follow in His footsteps, right?

No? Well honestly, I have a hard time too.

When I was growing up, my parents took Sunday and that was the Lord’s Day. We weren’t to work (except for cooking the lunch meal after church and cleaning up after). Can’t clean the house; dust the shelves under my bed, no mowing or raking leaves. Don’t work on the car or sweep the front porch-it’s the Lord’s Day.

Well, what did we do? We went to church and worshiped as a family. We ate lunch as a family. And we spent all afternoon as a family. I remember with great fondness our Sunday afternoons, reading the comics in the living room while my dad and mom read the paper. I remember taking a Sunday afternoon nap. I remember my dad wrestling with my sisters and me when we were young, or shooting basketball out back with me when I was older. And then we went to church again on Sunday night, because that’s what we did. It was a day where my mom’s family would all gather at my grandparents’ house, either in the afternoon or after the Sunday night service, Grandma would put out some serious snacks and the adults would talk and the kids would play.

What was the result of all that time spent hanging and talking on the Sabbath? What was with all that resting and napping?

The idea and the deeper principle behind the Sabbath was that God designed us for relationship. That’s the underlying idea of the day of rest. Let me explain.

If you lived before 2 of the greatest technological moments of all time (the printing press and the harnessing of electricity), what did the Sabbath mean? You couldn’t really read a book or watch TV. Couldn’t play video games or drive your car somewhere to get away. What did you do?

You took a day to work on relationship.

What am I talking about? Well, we as humans are wired from early in the story of Genesis for 2 things. Tasks and relationships. Some of us are wired more for tasks. Those are the logical, “we love lists,” task-oriented types of people. These are the people that seem to hold it all together. These are the really amazing office managers and personal assistants. They can’t wait to make a list and then cross each item and task off after it is completed. It’s like scoring a winning touchdown each time we take a pen and cross out something we accomplished! Those people live for that stuff.

But if they were honest with themselves, they would admit that they wish they had more time to build better relationships. They don’t talk to those they care about enough. They have a clean house and a detailed car, but they wish they had more time to spend hanging with those they love. Maybe just making some new friends.

Others of us are wired more for relationship. We can’t live without being around other people. We hate being alone. Well, that or we just can’t seem to find alone time because everyone wants a piece of our time. We just wish that there could be some chill time somewhere in there! Some time to just relax, quiet our lives and hearts, maybe catch up on a book we want to read or just to spend some time with God.

Thus the Sabbath.

God chose to set aside a day on a regular basis and He asked His people to remove these other things that tend to occupy their time. He asked for no work on that day-so those of us who are task-oriented would have to chill out. And He wants us to keep that day “holy,” which means ‘set aside’ for resting. Set aside for that thing we aren’t doing really well. Set aside to spend with Him.

Imagine 800 years ago, if you observed a day of rest. What would you do all day? We are talking pre-electricity, before the printing press. In our eyes, there’s really nothing to do, except hang out with your family and friends. What kind of community did this develop? What kind of conversations did this bring about? No one had any meetings or appointments to run off to. No one had something better to do. They didn’t have to make a call, or send a text message. They rested from all of that, and they got to just hang out all day.

With each other.

Israel as a nation had the Sabbath throughout the Old Testament; although at times they walked away from observing it. But while they kept it, I wonder, what wisdom did the older and wiser family members impart that day? What stories were passed on to the next generation? Did they laugh together as they remembered what had happened that week? What did they talk about?

The flip side of that....we know that part of the Sabbath had to do with spending time in worship and prayer with God. Resting in Him, in His goodness. It wasn’t just a time to develop relationships with each other. It was a time to spend in corporate relationship with God, for they were His chosen people and He was their God.

Those of us who are task-oriented? We need a chance to rest from our checklists and work on our friendships and relationships. We need to get a break from busyness and realize that our worth isn’t found in how much we get done and accomplish, but in the love we have for one another and God. We need a Sabbath.

Those of us who are built to be magnetized to people? We crave a chance to stop the pattern of needing people around us or having people need us. We have to get a break from busyness and realize that our worth isn’t found in how many friends we have or how many people know our names. We have to get a break to be quiet and take a chunk of time to be with the God we love, and who loves us very much.

The day of rest-the Sabbath. Set up by God for all His people to do together, in community. Not to isolate themselves and be loners, but to build relationships with each other and with Him.

Paul is pretty clear in the New Testament about the fact that a certain day isn’t more holy than others. And it’s also clear that as the Gospel spread outside of the Jewish culture and into other nations and tribes, the day of rest that was a commandment under the Law was no longer required. But the underlying principle of rest is still valid and beneficial-we aren’t to keep the letter of the Law, but instead the Spirit of the Law.

In our busy Western society, where we are so overcommitted and busy that we can’t seem to slow down, this may be just what we need. Let’s return to the pattern God set up for us-let us return to community and to conversation, consecrating a day to spend time with Him and each other. It doesn’t have to be every week, or always be the same day. But take a Sabbath. Take it with some people you love. Don’t email, IM, text, Facebook or Myspace.

Call your parents.
Talk to your friends.
Play with your kids.
Start that book.
Kiss your spouse.
Read the paper.
Spend time with God.

And when you get to hang with Him, tell Him how awesome His idea of a Sabbath really is. And praise Him for it.