A Sermon Preached by Pastor Paul on June 1, 2008
Title: "Sabbath Rest"
Text: Exodus 20:8-11

Most all of you know that today is my last Sunday prior to starting a three-month sabbatical tomorrow. That means that the church is granting me a leave of absence for the summer months of June, July and August. I will be back in September.

In the meantime, Pastor David will be shepherding the flock here, and the Deacons and Trustees and other leaders will be doing their respective parts to keep the Body, not only functioning, but moving joyfully forward.

And Jesus is the Lord of us all, and so I have no doubt that He is fully able to watch over this period of temporary separation, just as He always has watched over us before.

But today, I want to remind us all just what this sabbatical is so that even a temporary time of separation is something that we are doing together.

The word "sabbatical" obviously comes from the biblical word "Sabbath". So let's go all the way back to the ten commandments in the Book of Exodus, and read again the fourth commandment about keeping the Sabbath holy. Exodus 20:8-11.
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Sabbath rest. The practice of resting on the seventh day of every week is actually something that God commands of His people. It's one of the big ten! It ranks right up there with not murdering people. And the commandment is repeated numerous times in the books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. And each time it is mentioned, just like here in Exodus, it has the longest and most detailed explanation of any commandment God gives.

I mean check it out. The commandments against murder and adultery and stealing have no explanation at all. But Sabbath-keeping gets a whole paragraph in the ten commandments.

Maybe it was because God knew that humans would be most likely to cheat on this one. There was an article in the Boston Globe on Friday about a Jewish bakery in Boston that doesn't close on the Sabbath. The Rabbis are threatening to take away its Kosher status. As a business, it's hard to close the bakery on Saturday. In this culture that's a great day for selling baked goods.

And we Christians aren't any more likely to really rest one day a week than the Jews. And Pastors like me aren't any more likely to really take time to rest either.

But God commands it here. And the explanation given is that we are to rest because in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore He blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

And notice, too, that in the commandment this day of rest is not prescribed as a leisure time for the wealthy. No. It says, this is for you and your sons and daughters, and your man servants and maid servants and the non-Israelite foreigners who dwell among you, and even for the animals! It's for everybody.

You see, it's not like the wealthy are to take a day of rest and their servants are to still wait on them hand and foot. No. Everyone was to take a day of rest from the least to the greatest. And they do so, because God modeled this rhythm of work and rest Himself in creation, and then He commanded it as a pattern for His people to follow.

A pattern, by the way, that God then built right into the whole Exodus from Egypt. You remember how God fed them those 40 years that they wandered in the wilderness on their way to the promised land? He gave them manna from heaven. But He gave it to them only six days a week. On the seventh day they were to rest. But He gave them enough manna on day six to last through day seven.

Again, God was modeling for His people a rhythm of rest that He wanted built into their lives from day one.

Well, I remind us of this commandment, and of this pattern of life that God desires us to follow, because this is what the whole idea of a sabbatical is built upon. Only a sabbatical takes this rhythm of work and rest to a yearly level. The idea that every seventh year, God's people should take a year off to rest and be refreshed.

Now that sounds like a great idea, doesn't it? Work six years, take the seventh year off? The trouble is, we can't even seem to take one day off a week to really rest and be refreshed. You think anyone ever really takes a year off?! You think employers anywhere in the world are going to buy into this idea? You think farmers or politicians or hospitals or social services or plumbers or fireman and policemen are just going to take a year off anytime soon?

Well, most pastors aren't going to either. In 25 years I have never taken a sabbatical of any sort, and taking this three-month sabbatical has taken two years of planning and a good bit of coercing by my wife and a few of our Deacons, all of whom know I have a hard enough time taking a day off each week.

So why are we doing this? Well, first this summer marks my 25th anniversary of coming here to Forestdale as your pastor. It was in the summer of 1983 that I began ministry here, and from the beginning of planning this sabbatical, it was meant to be a gift from the church for the 25th anniversary.

And I appreciate that very much, and receiving it as a gift is part of what enabled me to actually consent to do it. And so I thank you, even now, before I have actually begun it. It is a great gift to me, and a gift I would never have imagined possible.

And secondly, we are doing this because after 25 years, the church at Forestdale needs to learn that you can get along without me, and I need to learn the same thing. I need to learn that I am not indispensable to God's work here and so do you.

We need to learn together that the Body of Christ here has many vital parts which are equipped to function as a team together, and my part is just one of those parts. So part of this sabbatical is giving us all the opportunity to step up and be the church together.

And thirdly, we are doing this sabbatical because I need to learn what Sabbath rest is all about, and maybe if I would learn it, I would be able to be a better pastor and equip more of you to learn it as well.

What do I mean by that? Well, let's go back to the Bible. The commandment here is to "remember the Sabbath." And in the Hebrew world, "remembering" is more than just recalling something to mind. It also involves placing yourself in the experience of the event you are remembering.

In this case, the event is specifically the seventh day of creation when God rested. We are not just to recall to mind the fact that God rested, and then go about our daily business. No. We are meant to "join God' in His day of rest. We are to enter into the experience of God's rest.

To remember the Sabbath is to actually cease from our labor as God ceased from His labor. It is to look back over our week and reflect on it to see if it was good, just as God looked back over His week of creation and reflected on it and saw that it was good. You see, remembering the Sabbath is about "ACTING" on that day like God acts on the seventh day of creation.

And secondly, the commandment says we are to remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. And holy means "set apart". It is not some mystical attribute about the day. It means that this one day of the week is supposed to be different from the other six days.

And primarily, the seventh day is different in the cessation of labor. Not that work is bad. No, it is good just like the six days of creation were good work that God did. But the seventh day is different. It is set apart.

And it is set apart for rest and refreshment. There are two Hebrew words used throughout the passages in the Bible that speak of the Sabbath. The first is "shabat" which is the word Sabbath, and it literally means "cease". As in, on the seventh day God ceased from His labor. The second word is "naphish", which literally means "refresh oneself", as in, on the seventh day God "rested" or "refreshed himself".

For instance, both words are found in Exodus 31:17, where it says, "For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he "shabat" ceased from work and "naphish" refreshed himself."

So if we are to remember the Sabbath by acting like God acted on the seventh day of creation, then we set apart that seventh day to cease from labor and refresh ourselves. That's what makes the day holy.

We are to rest with God.
We are to restore our souls.
We are to refresh ourselves.

And my friends, this is what this sabbatical is meant to do for me. It is not just a vacation. It is not a time to be filled up with a whole bunch of leisure time activities. It is meant to be a time of resting with God. A time that is set apart for actually being restored in soul.

A time for reflecting on the past 25 years of ministry to see if it is good. And to see what parts were very good, and what parts were just pretty good, and what parts were not very good.....and why? A time to also reflect on the next 25 years, and ask, how might I use my time more effectively for God's kingdom in the future knowing what I know now? It's a time to do some assessment. A time to listen to that still small voice. -A time to cease from the work of ministry, in order to actually reflect on that work and prayerfully consider it.

It's a time also for me to learn something about Sabbath rest. And perhaps to learn to obey this commandment as part of my weekly life upon my return.

I need to learn to build this kind of rhythm of rest into my life on a regular basis. You are all giving me this Sabbatical as a gift. I believe God wants to give all of us the gift of Sabbath rest....every week.

He commands it here because He knows we won't do it on our own without a forceful push. But He intends it as a gift. A gift of time, and a gift of time with Him.

I want to learn to receive this gift, from Him and from you, and then come back refreshed in spirit, to re-gift it back to you.

Now in the mean time, while I am away, I have three little requests for all of you.

1. Pray for me. I mean it. I will be missing you, and I am not even sure how to be person if I am not being a pastor.

2. Secondly, be the church. Don't step back or stop coming or stop serving because you think the church is on break until I come back. No. Jesus isn't on break, and I am not the church. You are the church. So be the church.

3. And thirdly, love and support David like you have loved and supported me for 25 years. To tell
you the truth, that is the greatest gift you can give me....to treat David like you have treated me. You have been so good to me and my family, show the Eriksons how awesome it is to be the pastor of the Forestdale Community Church.