Summer time is that wonderful season when
you really work very little and are always at the beach. Historically, New York and Washington were so hot in the summer that everyone tried to get away to the Catskills or the Jersey shore. Dr. Moore, the former pastor
at Community Church, took a month off to go fishing in August. His predecessor spent the summer at Chautauqua.
Air conditioning changed New York society. Employers now don’t see why you can’t work as much in a 90 degree week like this last one as any other week. The Catskills keep closing resorts because nobody goes there and the people who are at the Jersey shore live there and commute to the City.
So while we look forward to summer and time outside, it doesn’t change life as much as we expect. We’re like the guy who wants to bbq, never has time for it, and finally leaves work early, races home with a steak and starts the grill. Its already getting late as he frantically getting the coals started.
Today, we are going to look at the Bible’s answer for weariness, stress, and even illness. If you are having trouble coping, the recovery of health may be closer at hand than you think. The service today may change the week you are about to experience. Let’s worship
There has been so much talk about placing the 10 commandments on courthouse lawns as though we were placing magic charms around the nation to protect the courts. But the 10 commandments are not followed much even by people of the Book and the commandment today to keep the Sabbath is a key example.
The theme of rest is felt through the all the fabric of creation. About 1/3 of every day we spend sleeping. If you are 90 years old, you have literally spent 30 years sleeping. The theme of rest carries over into the animal kingdom. Every animal pauses in some way for rest.
I have become so interested in flowers and plants from the progress of the Prayer Garden. And when the leaves fall and the plants go into hibernation for the winter, it looked like the money we spent last year was wasted. A few dry twigs were all that we had to show for the money spent last year. Its astonishing what the plants have done with that time to rest. The plants are substantially larger in just one year.
Why did God build creation so that it runs down every day? We are like an old style watch that constantly needs attention. God wants us to acknowledge that we are not all powerful. We are dependent on the refreshing grace of God. We eat three times a day for refreshment, we drink 8 glasses a day, and we sleep and recreate. All of these activities are moments of worship where we accept God’s sustaining role in our lives.
In our money, we are to give a tithe or 10 percent of what we receive. One purpose for the tithe is to give to the point that we remember that we rely on God’s grace. God wants us to remember daily the source of our strength. Likewise, we are to tithe the week and place one day apart – in addition to the sleep periods, meals, and fun in daily life.
We get praised for being able to work longer and take more responsibility and the commandment commends us instead for relaxation and moments where we acknowledge God’s control and liberation of the world. We are slowly moving towards a global economy where the world never sleeps. There will be no opening bell for the stock market because it will never close.
Christians need to protect the Sabbath experience. This is important. If you and I were writing the commandments, I don’t think that one of us would feel that this commandment should be included. Take a day off each week. We would sure think of Thou shall not kill. But would we even consider, Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy?
Holy. Holy means dedicated to, set apart for a reason. Now the Sabbath was the seventh day and we worship on Sunday which seems to have been established in the time of Constantine about 325 AD by a law. The point is not to get caught in the controversy of when to have Sabbath, but to make sure we have one. We usually pray before we eat as a reminder that God has provided and to give thanks. But it is also a great idea to pray as we go to sleep each night and to pray as we go to the park or the beach – a word of thanks and recognition that our strength and the joy of life comes from the Lord.
Daily rest, healthy eating, exercise, prayer, sleep, games, and diversion all have a refreshing effect on the soul and body. When I am rested, I find that I have ‘Aha’ moments where new thoughts for the ministry come to me. Some of those have been critical in my leadership and I can’t get them if I don’t have enough Sabbath.
The Sabbath feels like too much time off. I realize that in preparation for this sermon, I cheat the Sabbath. I estimate how much time I need for rest, but I don’t plan for emergencies. When the unexpected need happens, I don’t have the extra energy that the Sabbath provides. A couple of years ago, I was in Guatemala and scheduled the return so that I flew right on to Los Angeles for the Cambodian Caucus. So I had a day of travel and I arrived in LA at 10pm to go to a hotel where I had never been and then find the meeting the next morning. As the time drew closer, I realized that it was a really stupid plan. There is emotional wear and tear to travel with customs and immigration. There was a change of time zones. There was uncertainty since I had to find my way once I got to California. I was not physically or emotionally equipped for the schedule because I was too occupied with figuring out if it was technically possible.
On an average week in the summer, you should come to Sunday worship feeling like you had a little too much fun this week and that it was wonderful. The Sabbath experience gets you too relaxed. That lowers your blood pressure, reduces your hunger, adds to your emotional capacity, and gives you the pleasant sense that God is providing for you. Some of the illness that we experience has been in our bodies for many years in a dormant fashion. Stress and trauma act like triggers that take a potential illness and suddenly make it happen. The Sabbath keeps those triggers from going off.
But the Sabbath is to be observed even when we are in the heat of the battle. Exodus 34 speaks again about the Sabbath and that it is to be kept in times of planting and harvest. In an agricultural society, planting and haying are two times when all other work ceases. Frances Waring told me that the men would go out to harvest as soon as there was enough light to see. They were racing to get the haying before a rain came. Her job was to prepare food for them to take to the field. And then late in the day, they came back for supper. She literally spent the day cooking to make sure there was enough. She marveled at the amount they would eat after such a day of exertion.
And God is saying – even in such intense times, you cannot neglect the Sabbath. This forces us to be creative because there are times when the pressure is on us from school or from our employer or even just the demands of life.
We are in the midpoint of summer. Perhaps you have already missed some Sabbaths. If you haven’t been to the beach, haven’t been to a game or a park yet, then the Lord is saying, this week is the time to start your Sabbaths.
