Exodus 20:1-17
And God spoke all these words:
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt
"You shall have no other gods before me.
"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the
form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters
below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your
God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the
third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a
thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
"You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your
God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath
to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your
son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the
alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the
earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.
Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
"Honor your father and your mother, so that you
may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
"You shall not murder.
"You shall not commit adultery.
"You shall not steal.
"You shall not give false testimony against your
neighbor.
"You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You
shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox
or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."
Do
you know that there is one thing in particular that can drive people nuts?
There
is one thing in particular that can drive the most sane person insane.
There
is one thing in particular that makes people nervous, anxious and
uncomfortable.
And
I’ll tell you what it is.
It’s…
silence.
Waiting.
Nothingness.
Being still.
We don't like to be still and do nothing.
It's bad enough when we know that we will
have to wait, and we are prepared with "things to do." A book we read while waiting in the doctor’s
office. Papers to work on while waiting
for our plane to land at the airport. CD
music piped into our ears while we wait for the teacher to finish the class.
But to wait with nothing to do, almost drives
us to insanity.
It is guilt that makes us feel
uncomfortable. Somewhere we have learned
that we need to be busy. If we are
living the full life, that must mean that we are busy. If we are living a productive life, that must
mean that we are busy. If we are serving
the Lord, then we must be busy.
And if we are not busy, then we must not
be serving the Lord. And we must not be
very productive. And there must be
something wrong with me.
Most of us feel like we need to be active
every minute of the day.
A generation or two ago, the life of the
family was going to be revolutionized by the automatic washing machine. Up
until then, washing the family's laundry literally took an entire day. People
referred to one day of their weekly routine as wash day.
Then technology came through with the
washing machine, and you could throw the clothing into a machine, and then
leave it and go do something else. What a time saver.
So what happened? Did we get more time to
relax? No, we filled our time with other duties.
The computer was the same way. It enables
us to do more our work in a lot less time. But do we get off work early? No. We
simply do more work.
There is something within us that compels
us to fill up every moment of our time.
Even if we are not talking about work,
our families are stretched to the limit with activities as we go from ballet
classes to soccer to outings at the beach to concerts to this and to that.
It is as if we are afraid of what might
happen if we would just be still for a moment.
The Old Testament book of Psalms says, “Be
still, and know that I am God.” (Ps
46:10)
Be still, and know that I am God.
Be still.
In the New Testament, there is a
wonderful story about Jesus visiting the home of his friends, Lazarus, Martha
and Mary. Jesus comes to their home.
Mary is content to be still and silent, and to be with the Lord. Martha can't
do that. She has to be busy. In the words of the New Testament, she becomes
"distracted and upset at many things."
And so it is with us.
Jesus is in the midst of our life.
But we become distracted and upset at
many things.
Our world is so busy, our lives are so
full. Wouldn't it be nice if we could slow down just a bit, and be still, and
simply experience the presence of God in our lives.
There was a time when people had a time
to be still. To be quiet. To rest.
To pause.
It was called Sunday.
Or more appropriately – the Sabbath Day.
I remember as a child growing up that
there was nothing open on Sundays.
Do you remember that time?
The grocery store was not open.
There were no community sporting events
for youth.
Even the pharmacy was closed. If you really needed some medicine, you had
to know the pharmacist’s home telephone number and meet that person at the drug
store.
Today, the only place that is closed on
Sunday is Chick Fil A.
A few years ago I had the opportunity to
meet the founder of Chick Fil A at the company’s national headquarters, which
is located on the fringe of Atlanta ,
Georgia
He is also a Sunday School teacher, and
has taught class for over 50 years. His
faith permeates his business. On the
front of the corporate headquarters is an engraving in stone – it is the
company’s official mission statement, declaring that Chick Fil A exists “to
glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us and to
have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick Fil A.”
The Chick Fil A stores are always closed
on Sundays in obedience to the Ten Commandments.
Truett Cathey once said, “Our decision to
close on Sunday was our way of honoring God and directing our attention to
things more important than our business.
If it took seven days to make a living with a restaurant, then we would
need to be in some other line of work.
We live in a society that has lost touch
with that sense of the Sabbath. There
was a time when all of society took a Saturday off. As Christianity grew, the Sabbath became
observed on Sunday.
It never really worked for all of society
to take a day off on the same day, at the same time.
Even decades ago, when all of the grocery
stores were closed on Sundays, and all of the drug stores and shopping centers
were closed on Sundays, you still had hospitals open, and fire departments operating.
Come to think of it, how many churches
ever closed on Sunday?
But we live in a society that desperately
needs to take some form of day off.
A day of rest.
Sunday?
Saturday? Whatever the day, every
seven days, there needs to be a day for you to rest. To pause.
To reflect.
It was a century or more ago that in the
deep jungles of Africa , a traveler was making
a long trek. Natives of the area were hired to carry the loads. The first day
they marched rapidly and went far. The traveler had high hopes of a speedy
journey. But the second morning these jungle tribesmen refused to move. For
some strange reason they just sat and rested. When asked about the reason for
this strange behavior, the traveler was informed that they had gone too fast the
first day, and that they were now waiting for their souls to catch up with
their bodies.
There are times when our lives move so
fast, that we need to slow down and let our souls catch up with us -- not
literally, but figuratively.
“Six days you shall labor and do all of
your work, but the seventh is a day of rest.
On that day, you shall not do any work.”
What is it that God is giving us here? A day of rest. A day to relax. A day off.
God made the universe in six days, and He rested on the
seventh. Throughout Scripture, we are
called to pattern our conduct after God's and thus we are to do our work during
a certain period, then rest.
In the Ancient Near East, no other society had a day
off. This was a radical concept. They would work six days, then on the
seventh, they would work some more. And
unfortunately, that is the pattern that many of us have. We don't take any time to rest. But it is God's desire for us to work, and at
certain intervals, to rest.
Let's not get bogged down in what constitutes work and what
doesn't. For one person who works at a
desk throughout the week, rest might be found on the tennis courts in a time of
physical exertion. On the other hand, a
person who works at physical labor throughout the week, rest is found on the
sofa or in an easy chair.
This may be the most personal of all the Commandments. How we interpret what is rest and what is
work comes down to the individual life style.
There must be a cycle of work and rest, but we have to be careful. If we become too legalistic, the Sabbath
becomes a burden. But if we allow
ourselves to do anything and everything, then the Sabbath becomes like any
other day. Each of us, however, has some
form of middle ground in which we find that cycle of work and rest.
God gives us a gift in the Sabbath. Let's enjoy the gift.
Copyright 2016.
Dr. W. Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights reserved
Ministers may feel free to use some or all of this
sermon in their own ministries as long as they do not publish in print or on
the Internet without ascribing credit to the author.
