Have you ever noticed that different people have different attitudes about work?
I heard about a congregation who had the same pastor for many years. He resigned and they hired a new young pastor with new ideas about church leadership. The first suggestion he made to the church's ruling body was that they hire a part-time person to look after the church lawn. "I'll have you know, parson," said one of the members indignantly, that our former pastor always took care of the church's lawn himself." "I'm aware of that," said the pastor. "But I called him and he doesn't want to do it anymore."
Different people have different ideas about work.
A lazy clerk fiddled around while his irate boss burned. "You're the most useless person I ever saw," the boss flared. "You don't do an hour's work a month. Tell me one single way the firm benefits from employing you." The clerk pondered, then responded, "When I go on vacation, there's no extra work thrown on the others."
Well, I've known people like that. Their attitude toward work is a little different.
They're like one man who said, "I can't stand an uncut, untrimmed lawn."
A man standing nearby said, "I never cut my lawn. I did once, but it grew back."
"I don't know how you can stand it," answered the first man.
"What's to stand?" answered the second man. "Why are you against what happens naturally?"
"It's not natural to have an uncut lawn," answered the first man.
"Who did the landscaping for the Garden of Eden?" asked the second man.
"God did," said the first man.
"He does mine too," said the second man.
In Tennessee there is a farmer who said that lightning struck an old shed and thus saved him the trouble of tearing it down, and rain washed off his car and saved him that chore too. When asked what he was doing now, he replied, "Waiting for an earthquake to shake the potatoes out of the ground."
One fellow said he was shopping at a supermarket. He was standing near a mother and her young son. The little boy picked up a box of something from a shelf and brought it over to her. "Oh, no, honey!" she exclaimed. "Put it back. You have to cook that!"
People have a different attitude. If you think I'm kidding, there was a letter to the editor of the Los Angeles TIMES concerning work. Here is what that letter writer had to say. "There has been a lot of criticism," the writer says, "of people who do not want to work, especially when they are collecting welfare. Most people prefer to work and that's fine, but others may prefer to sit in the park, go to the beach, or observe the wonders of nature. Now those who dislike working should not be penalized by depriving them of the benefits of our society. There is plenty for all. Everyone does not feel the same way about working. Some have built-in feelings about it that make it very unpleasant for them to work, especially when it is required. Now this could be looked upon as a handicap. We don't punish others with handicaps. Our society provides for them and should do the same for those with a natural dislike for work. Why can't we live and let live with each to his own style?" End of quote. (1)
That's a different attitude. My guess is that it is the attitude of more people than we might imagine. I am not agreeing with the writer of this letter, but I want to begin this morning by making one thing clear. YOU AND I HAVE A RELIGIOUS RESPONSIBILITY TO GOOF OFF FROM TIME TO TIME. It's true. That may sound like a strange point to be made from the pulpit, but it is true. We have a responsibility to take time to rest, to relax, to take off our shoes, loosen our tie, take down our hair and let it all hang out, as they used to say. God did not create us to be busy as bees all the time.
That is a truth incorporated in the very heart of the Judeo-Christian tradition with the idea of the Sabbath. At the heart of the Ten Commandments we read, "Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy." What does that mean? The tradition of the Sabbath in the Scriptures is too rich to boil down to a simple sermon, but let's consider a couple of truths ” one of which is often ignored. THE SABBATH IS TO BE A DAY OF REST. This truth is based on the creation story. God worked six days and rested on the seventh. God said we are to rest one day in seven, too. Our Jewish and Seventh Day Adventist friends celebrate Saturday as the Sabbath. Most Christians celebrate Sunday, in honor of Christ's resurrection. I truly doubt God cares which day is reserved for the Sabbath, but it is to be a day of rest. I don't know about you, but I'm kind of sad to see more and more commercial businesses encroaching on the Sabbath. Sunday has become a major shopping day. It makes me sad not because I am one of those legalistic busybodies who wants to restrict people and make them live according to my standards. No, I am sad because working on Sunday takes many people not only away from their churches but also away from their families. It deprives them of the best opportunity in the week to rest and relax. The Sabbath is intended as a day of rest.
Secondly, we need to note that THE SABBATH WAS CREATED FOR OUR BENEFIT. That is the truth about the Sabbath that is often ignored. The Sabbath was not created for God ” it was created for us. That is a point that Jesus made emphatically in Mark's Gospel, the second chapter. Jesus and his disciples were going through the grainfields and the disciples began plucking heads of grain. They were hungry men ” but this was the Sabbath and plucking grain was considered work. The Pharisees brought this transgression to Jesus' attention. Jesus answered with a Biblical precedent set by King David and then said, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath."
The point is this: YOU AND I NEED ONE DAY A WEEK IN WHICH WE DO NO WORK. None. Absolutely none. God means for us to have one day a week in which we worship and visit friends and relatives and take a nap and go bicycling with our family and do whatever it is that helps to refresh and rekindle our minds, our bodies and our spirits. We need one day a week for goofing off. That is our religious responsibility. That is the first thing we need to see. Here is the second: GOOFING OFF IS NOT ONLY A RELIGIOUS RESPONSIBILITY, IT IS A KEY TO A SUCCESSFUL LIFE.
One of the great myths in life is that the people who succeed in the world are people who forever keep their nose to the grindstone. If you believe that, I am sorry to burst your bubble, but it simply is not true. Hard work, dedication, sacrifice are important attributes in life ” but some of the most effective people who ever lived have spent a considerable amount of time goofing off. We are told that influential men like Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer and John Maynard Keynes only worked two-three hours daily. Their leisurely approach is not widely known because they seldom advertised it. As Ralph Keyes notes in his book TIMELOCK, there is far more prestige in seeming harried and overworked than in being able to get a lot done in limited amounts of time. As a result, history's nonworkaholics have covered up their apparent indolence, sometimes in the most brazen way. "I have, all my life long, been lying [down] till noon," Samuel Johnson once admitted. "Yet I tell all young men, and tell them with great sincerity, that nobody who does not rise early will ever do any good."
Benjamin Franklin was history's greatest source of "early to bed, early to rise" type aphorisms, yet he himself liked to stay up late playing chess or chatting with friends. He whiled away hours tinkering with kites, bottles, keys, stoves. After introducing the first bathtub to this country in 1790, Franklin spent many hours inside his own, soaking and reading. Although he advised us to make productive use even of our leisure time, he himself took long, enjoyable tours of Europe. In this sense, says Ralph Keyes, he was a fraud, far wiser in his actual approach to time than the one he proposed for the rest of us. We've taken Franklin's advice, says Keyes; we should have followed his example. (2)
Now, am I encouraging us to slothfulness? Not in the least. Most of us, by necessity, and some of us by choice, will always work at least forty, and some of us fifty and even sixty hours a week. Businesses today are requiring more and more productivity out of fewer and fewer employees. But we are not robots. We are human beings who need time for rest and revitalization. In today's world it is just as important to work smart as it is to work hard. We need to rest both our bodies and our brains. And over a life-time we will be more productive if we allow ourselves time for relaxation.
Nobody was ever more committed to his work than Jesus of Nazareth. So much was at stake and there was so little time. Yet Jesus said to his disciples on more than one occasion, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." Sometimes, it did not work out like Jesus planned. Often the crowds would not let him alone. But Jesus recognized humanity's need to loosen the strings on the bow from time to time. We all need to get away. We need to rest and relax.
WE ALSO NEED A TIME FOR FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD. Often when Jesus took his disciples off by themselves, it was for a season of prayer. Jesus knew that we not only need to refresh our bodies and to refresh our minds, we need to refresh our spirits as well. That is why the Sabbath has always been a time for worship as well as a time for rest. When we come into this room, we empty ourselves of the strain and toil of the week just passed. And we open ourselves to the new possibilities that God has in store for us. If we truly worship, we should leave here feeling refreshed and ready to face the world.
Two willow trees grew a short distance from a stream in New Mexico. One of them was sturdy and rich with leaves, while the other was smaller and less attractive.
Over the years the owner of the property wondered why the two trees should have such a different quality and appearance. Unable to find an answer, he dismissed the puzzle from his mind. One week while digging near the trees his shovel struck something hard. When uncovering it he solved the mystery of the trees. Years earlier, someone had buried large slabs of a stone wall in the spot. The underground wall prevented the roots of the frail tree from reaching the water in the stream. But there was no wall between the flourishing tree and the water. (3) When we do not give ourselves time to worship God ” when we do not spend time communing with God and having fellowship with God ” then we are like that tree that was shut off from the life-giving flow of the stream.
A writer in a book called BEGINNINGS put it this way. "Some folks in Holland call the Sabbath 'God's Dyke.' A helpful analogy. The dyke is a protective sea wall that holds back the surging waves and allows people to live in areas that would otherwise be utterly uninhabitable. The Sabbath is like that. Just like a dyke keeps the quiet Holland farmlands from being engulfed by the Atlantic, a day of rest can keep us from being engulfed by destructive value systems and the corrosive pressures of contemporary society. Humans are such pliable creatures. Immersed in the push-and-shove of daily living, we are in danger of being squeezed into a misshapen caricature of what God intended us to become. The Sabbath is God's opportunity to remold us into His image."
"Come away by yourselves," said Jesus, "to a lonely place, and rest awhile." Good advice. We need time to relax with our families and friends and we need a time to worship God. That most prolific of all poets, Anonymous, once put it like this:
Take time to LAUGH, it is the music of the soul.
Take time to THINK, it is the source of power.
Take time to PLAY, it is the source of perpetual youth.
Take time to READ, it is the foundation of wisdom.
Take time to PRAY, it is the greatest power on earth.
Take time to LOVE AND BE LOVED, it is a God-given privilege.
Take time to be FRIENDLY, it is the road to happiness.
Take time to GIVE, it is too short a day to be selfish.
Take time to WORK, it is the price of success.
Take time for GOD, it is the way of life.
1. BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR.
2. (New York: Ballentine Books, 1991), p. 194.
3. Vernon Howard, INSPIRE YOURSELF (Grants Pass, OR: Four Star Books, 1975).