Today, we’re going to delve a bit into our imaginations. I want you to imagine for a moment that you are in your favorite place –that place where you feel relaxed and calm and refreshed and happy. Can everyone think of a place like that?
Is it by the sea? In a garden? In the mountains? Maybe for you it’s a real place, or maybe it’s an imaginary place. But I want you to take time and imagine that place right now.
What are some of those places for you? [Give people time to answer.]
Okay, now close your eyes, and go to that place. [Wait a minute.]
How do you feel?
Do you feel more relaxed? More at ease?
You just experienced what might be called a psychological “rest stop.”
A rest stop is a brief reprieve from the stresses and roller coaster of life. It’s a time of relaxation, refreshment, and joy in which for a brief time, you can put your troubles aside, and breathe.
For some of us, that might mean a bite of chocolate cake……a little bit o heaven.
We all need something that breaks our stress, interrupts our pain with a little bit of pleasure and joy, something that breaks our “fasting” with a little bit of peace. We all need a “selah,” a peace pause, a “rest stop.”
In a way, it’s just like a “rest stop” on the road. It’s “time out.” Break time. Relief time, even if just a little while.
How many know what we’re talking about? You know, when you go traveling and you’re going by car, driving for hours, and you really need a pit stop? Maybe it’s a bathroom break you need, or a fresh bottle of water, or a snack, or a brief nap. Or maybe you need to stretch your legs, because you’ve been cramped up in a bucket seat for a really long time. Or worse, maybe you’re almost out of gas! How many have experienced that one before? That feeling of exasperation and panic, worry and anxiety when that gas gauge is all the way down to the bottom, and you’re scraping along just “knowing” you could end up by the side of the road out of gas in a strange place in the middle of nowhere with no filling station in sight for miles.
Then you see that sign on the road that reads: “Rest Stop 1 Mile.” You heave a sigh of relief. Made it!
You’re exhausted. You’re tired. You’re parched. Your stomach is making grumbly sounds. You can just feel those hunger pangs starting to gnaw at your peace of mind. Then that rest stop comes, and you climb out, get some refreshing water, get some kind of food in your stomach, and stretch those aching limbs. It’s almost a feeling of heaven.
That’s the kind of feeling of satiation and simple joy that comes with getting a needed “rest.”
And you needed it! ‘Cause it’s hard to keep your eyes on the road when you’re weary from traveling. It can feel long and hard and tedious and can tear away at your nerves, especially if you’re in long lines of traffic or a stressful 5 lane highway.
Rest stops were created for this kind of necessary break.
Day been long? Road been hard? Life been tough?
Take a break. Pull over. Relax. And refresh.
Stop and rest.
In the Jewish tradition, we call that “sabbath,” named by God, who after six hard days of labor in creating the entire universe, decided to take a little rest. But “rest” is a tricky kind of word.
You see, we’ve kind of misconstrued that word in our culture today with the idea that taking a “rest” means taking time for ourselves just to do more stuff! Or sleeping in instead of going to church! But here’s the problem with that. That’s not the kind of “rest” that God intended with God’s idea of the sabbath.
Sabbath is not a break FROM God. Sabbath is a break WITH God!
Some of you know what I mean. Imagine you’re married or you have a partner and you work hard all week and barely see each other. And then you get to the weekend, and all you want to do is enjoy each other’s company, revel in relaxation together. It’s all about the relationship.
Shabbat is a “rest of the heart.” The word is used hundreds of times in the scriptures to signify the “peace” of God. You observe sabbath “to” or “with” God. And during that time, God “releases” us from our heavy load or burden. From our days of toil and trouble, we are given rest, reprieve, renewal, refreshment. In other words, sabbath is time to take a breath. But not just any breath –a breath from our master rejuvenator, the Holy Spirit.
This is why Jesus told us, “Come to me, all you who are weary, and I will give you rest.” Jesus is our Sabbath. He IS our break. Sabbath is a time when we allow Jesus to refresh us, heal us, renew us, and rejuvenate us before sending us out again into the mission field to follow him into long and sometimes difficult places filled with hurting and agnostic people.
Jesus is our resting place. Not yet our “final resting place” while we are here on this earth, although someday He will be. But in this time and place, Jesus is our rest –our “relationship of peace and joy” in which we commune with God for a while and get a “taste” or “foretaste” as our communion liturgy tells us, of God’s heavenly kingdom.
Jesus is our breath. And sabbath with Jesus is a little bit o heaven. Especially during holy communion.
Sabbath is not nap time but take a breath time. But it’s a time when we remember that each breath we take is a gift of life from God.
For us on the discipleship road with Jesus, that journey can sometimes feel like an endless and hard one sometimes. That’s why we have worship. Worship is our rest stop on the way through the mission field to our destination of glory.
The mission field can be hard. But worship is our refreshment stop. We sing, we praise, we pray, we smile, we celebrate holy communion, and we release all of the trouble and tension we’ve been holding in our bodies all week long. We stretch our minds and hearts, breathe in deeply, and allow ourselves a good, deep God kind of “rest.”
Sabbath “worship and praise” is what keeps us going from week to week. Most of all it’s what keeps our faith fresh from week to week, so that we can get up and keep on walking that discipleship road again.
God’s rest doesn’t mean you completely get off of the road. You don’t back out of the journey. You don’t give up on your course or your passion for the road. You stay on course to your destination. But you pull over for a moment and take time to refresh your spirit and load up on nourishment for your journey ahead.
And there’s no one more nourishing to a tired spirit than Jesus.
Worship is your rest stop on the way to eternity.
Sabbath worship is a time to revel in your relationships, especially your relationship with God. And it’s a time when you renew your strength and get ready to make a new start.
Our ancestors were nomadic. They were nearly always on the road. A “rest stop” for them was a great relief –time out from being on the road, time to pitch a tent and put down some roots, stay for a little while. Time to build an altar and to worship as Jacob did in the hills of Israel.
Sabbath was God time. And during God time, the heart was at rest. You were at peace. And for a little while, your home became a place for a new beginning.
Covenant after covenant began with God giving people a new start. And perhaps the greatest of these stories is the story of Noah.
The word “noah” in Hebrew is “noach” –it means a place of rest, a resting place, a place to start anew, a renewed covenant if you will. His name is a play on words, for when Noah’s ark reaches Mt. Ararat and the waters recede from the lands, God gives Noah, a new “resting place” –a place of rest from the turbulent waters, transitional travel, and long, hard days of turmoil. And a new start, a new covenant in a new place, to build a new world for God’s people.
This is what we do every time we come into worship with God our creator, renewer, and Lord.
In worship, our hearts are given a new resting place, peace from worry, relief from sin, refreshment from the journey, and a brand new start, a fresh beginning in our faith and in our lives.
Sabbath is not a time to “check out” of worship, but a need to “check into” worship! That’s where the refreshment “stand” is. That’s where the living water fountain flows. That’s where you eat the food of holy communion and are rejuvenated in the power of the Holy Spirit. Worship is where you gear up again for the road and the way and the journey still to come.
Cause if you don’t refresh, you will burn out. Those burned out in mission have not stopped for that refreshment in the “watering hole” of the week.
Holy Communion today is a reminder that without Jesus’ living Spirit indwelling within and filling us up like a gas tank to go the way, to endure the journey, things will seem a lot rougher than they have to and you may find you run out of steam, just before you reach your destination.
Worship is your resting place, and faith is your fuel.
Let’s take time now and breathe that Holy Spirit breath. Fill up your reserves with the bread and body of Christ, the juice and blood of Christ, the Holy Spirit of Christ.
And you’ll find when you do that you will go out into the world renewed, with a fresh sense of mission and a renewed joy for service. For the vineyard is ripe….and the workers are few.
Come to worship. Come to Jesus.
Based on the Story Lectionary
Major Text
God’s Creative Power and Rest / All Things in Relationship (Genesis 1:1-2:3)
Psalm 92: The Song of the Sabbath
Jesus Breaks the Sabbath, Calls Himself God, and Answers Questions from the Pharisees (Luke 5:33--6:11)
Do You Live by Rules of Faith in Jesus [Who Gives You Rest]? (Paul’s Letter to the Galatians)
Minor Text
Keeping the Sabbath (Exodus 16:22-20; 20:8-11; 31:13-14)
Psalm 23: God’s Rest
Psalm 104: God’s Creation
Blessings to Those Who Keep the Sabbath and Delight in it (Isaiah 56:1-8; 58:13-14)
Warning and Promise Concerning Keeping God’s Sabbath (Jeremiah 17:21-27)
Warning and Promise in Keeping God’s Sabbath (Ezekiel 20 and 36)
Job’s Confession of Faith in the Creative Power of God (38-41)
Jesus Breaks the Sabbath and Answers Questions from the Pharisees and John the Baptist’s Disciples (Matthew 9:14-17 and 11:2-12:21)
Jesus Breaks the Sabbath, Calls Himself God, and Answers Questions from the Pharisees (Mark 2:18-3:12; Luke 7:17-35; John 5)