Second Sunday after Pentecost

Be still and know that I am God.

Before we explore what Jesus is teaching about the Sabbath, we need to go back to the
beginning and consider exactly what God commands on the Sabbath.

Of course, we find the first reference to Sabbath in the first creation story of Genesis. Now, I’m sure you remember:

On the first day, God separated the light from the darkness.

On the second day, God made the sky.

On the third day, God separated the waters from the earth and brought forth all the plants. And God saw that it was good.

On the fourth day, God the stars and the sun and the moon. And God saw that it was good.
On the fifth day, God created all the living creatures. And God saw that it was good and blessed them.

On the sixth day, God created humankind. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.

Finally, the story concludes...
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all their multitude. On the sixth day God
finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.”

After all the creation, only on the seventh day do we hear that God hallows or makes it holy.
God set aside a time of rest, and God sanctified that time. That’s pretty significant. God set aside a time of rest, 14% of our total time, and gave it a special purpose.

But this is not the only time we hear this command. In Exodus, the Israelites are instructed to collect twice as much manna on the sixth day because, on the seventh day, they will rest. Not only are they not allowed to collect manna, but God apparently plans to rest, too, because he’s not going to make the manna either.

In case they should forget, God wrote it in stone in the Ten Commandments:
“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.”
The Sabbath is blessed, hallowed, made holy, sanctified, and consecrated. Y’all, I think it might be kind of important to God.

Be still and know that I am God.

It seems like God wants us to rest sometimes. But more than that, the Sabbath isn’t simply rest; it is holy time. It’s time spent with God, working on our relationship with God and others in community. It is so important that we love God and love our neighbor that God built time into our schedules just for this purpose.

But I’m going to hazard a guess that most of us aren’t setting aside 18 of our precious waking hours each week to rest and spend time with God. And that’s assuming that the 8 hours of the Sabbath would be spent in sleep. Because there is another important point about Sabbath time and rest. It’s meant to include waking hours of resting time, not just sleep.

A recent Gallup poll found that almost 60% of Americans don’t feel like they get enough sleep at night, and another poll reports that 80% of working Americans feel like they never have enough time to get everything done.

We live in a culture of busyness. Busyness has become a status symbol, and not just for working adults. Kids are busy with activities, teens are busy with extracurriculars, young adults are hustling to make ends meet, and stay-at-home parents are constantly running. From an early age, we are continually on the go so much that we no longer know how to sit still. Rest feels like laziness. Yet, our lives get busier and busier as we live each day trying to do more, control more, and be more, fearful that we might miss out on something.
But what do we lose?

When busyness is glorified and encouraged, we overextend ourselves, resulting in Increased stress
Anxiety
Depression
Feelings of inadequacy
Frustration, anger, and guilt
Loneliness,
And ultimately, burnout

And that doesn’t even touch on the spiritual impact. How often do we proclaim the greatest commandments? We are to love God with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind and love our neighbors as Jesus loved us. But when are we actually, intentionally spending time contemplating God and discerning God’s will in our lives?

This is not what God wants for us.
Be still and know that I am God.
Listen closely, and I’ll tell you a secret.
God is love. God is love.
And God wants us to rest in that love. God wants us to spend time contemplating just how much we are loved.

It is important that we don’t let anything get between us and the love of God. Which is where we circle back to the Gospel today.

Jesus wants to restore the right relationship with the Sabbath. If the Sabbath just becomes a rule to be enforced, then it’s no longer about abiding in God’s love. Theologian Debie Thomas writes:

“[The Pharisees] are a stand-in for all convictions, values, traditions, commitments, doctrines, absolutes, proclivities, preferences, and essentialisms — no matter how cherished, noble, or well-intentioned — that stand between us and compassion. In other words, the question this story asks is ..., “What have we — here and now — ossified at our peril? What mortal, broken thing have we deified instead of love?”

Be still and know that I am God.

Before we close today, I invite you to take a moment and rest in God’s love. Close your eyes. Let your hands rest in your lap. Relax your shoulders. Relax your tongue. Let’s take three deep, slow breaths. As you inhale, feel how the breath moves through your body. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

I invite you to let your breathing relax, keep your eyes closed, and listen to these words of
poetry from Edwina Gateley.

Be silent.
Be still.
Alone.
Empty
Before your God.
Say nothing.
Ask nothing.
Be silent.
Be still.
Let your God look upon you.
That is all.
God knows.
God understands.
God loves you
With an enormous love,
And only wants
To look upon you
With that love.
Quiet.
Still.
Be.
Let your God—
Love you.
Amen

The Rev. Mercedes Clements