Weekly Sermon

"Finding Time for Rest, Renewal, and Restoration" - October 3, 2004

The Reverend Anne Benefield

Deuteronomy 5:12-15; Mark 2:23-28

Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 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, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female salve, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath. Mark 2:23-28 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grain fields; and as they made their way His disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to Him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" And He said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions." Then Jesus said to them, "The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath." Prayer: Blessed art Thou, O Lord, our God, King of the universe, who sanctified us by Thy commandments and commanded us to kindle the Sabbath lights. Amen. It has been a busy and sometimes difficult few weeks here at Geneva. I found myself way behind on preparing my sermon. On Thursday afternoon, I gathered everything up and went home to work in the relative quiet. I got everything spread out on my bed-it's a big enough space and somehow I like working there-and I promptly fell asleep. I think that says something about me and we might have it in common. We are sleep deprived. Our whole culture is "running ragged" as my mother used to say. The estimates vary, but by the lowest count, 25% of us are acutely sleep deprived, which means that given the chance we would and could fall asleep just about anywhere, including church! If I drop off, just give me a nudge. We are in good company. Julie Ward Howell, who wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic said one day as she slumped into a chair, "Oh, I'm tired. I'm so tired. I'm tired way down into the future." I like that phrase, "tired way down into the future." To overcome such deep exhaustion, the Lord has given us the greatest gift: the Sabbath, a day to rest, a sanctified time to do nothing. In an article in the magazine Perspectives, Eugene H. Peterson, writes: The most striking thing about keeping the Lord's Day is that it begins by not doing anything. The Hebrew word, Shabbat, which we take over as is, untranslated, into our language, simply means, "Quit; stop; take a break." As such it has no religious or spiritual content: "Whatever you are doing, stop it. Whatever you are saying, shut up. Sit down and take a look around you. Don't do anything. Don't say anything. Fold your hands. Take a deep breath…" I don't see any way out of it: If we are going to honor the Father, we must keep the Sabbath. We must stop running around long enough to see what He has done and is doing. We must shut up long enough to hear what He has said and is saying. All our ancestors agree that without silence and stillness there is no spirituality, no God-attentive, God-responsive life. [Eugene H. Peterson, Perspectives, June-July 2000] So how can reclaim God's gift of the Sabbath? It is hard for us to appreciate the significance of the Sabbath to the Jews. Of course, it was one of the Ten Commandments, but it was even more than that to the Hebrew people. It was one of the things that marked them as different from their pagan neighbors-one of the things that reminded them that they were God's people. It wasn't a moral commandment that they observed to earn merit or favor with God; it was a sign that they belonged to the true God, the creator of the world, who had Himself rested on the seventh day. [Tom Wright, Mark for Everyone, (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), 27] To reclaim the gift of Sabbath, we must set aside time for rest, renewal, and restoration. There is a story that Hebrew families tell their children to help them understand the commandment to keep the Sabbath holy. It is called "The Sweetest Sound" and it is a story of King Ruben. King Ruben was always asking questions. "Where is the hottest place on earth?" "Where is the place that the snow falls deepest?" One day, he asked his advisors, "What is the sweetest melody of all?" His wise men rubbed their chins and searched their books of wisdom, but they could not find the answer. "Why not have a contest to find the sweetest melody?" They suggested. So the king called all the musicians of his kingdom to come to the palace. Early in the morning, they gathered under the king's window with flutes, harps, violins, horns, bells, drums, banjos, bugles, chimes, cymbals, gongs, triangles, lutes, lyres, and trumpets. Their tuning, scarping, and testing awoke the king. Smiling, King Ruben jumped up, believing that today he would discover the sweetest melody in all the world. Throughout the morning, the king sat on his balcony and listened. By noon, he had listened to all the sounds imaginable that could be made by plucking, tinkling, blowing and banging. By afternoon, the king had heard all the melodies, which could be made by whistling, jingling, shaking, sawing, buzzing, and pounding. Then the advisors asked their king, "To your ears, which melody is the sweetest?" King Ruben had listened, but he could not tell which sound was the sweetest. One of his advisors suggested the he should have all the instruments play together, at the same time. "A wonderful idea," said the king. All the instruments rang, bonged, blared, pealed, strummed, and whistled together. King Ruben wrinkled his face and listened with all his might. The noise was so great he could not think. Just at that moment, a woman dressed in her Sabbath best pushed to the front of the crowd. It was now late on Friday afternoon. "O, King, I have the answer to your question," she said. The king was surprised because she did not even have an instrument. "Why didn't you come earlier?" the king asked. The woman replied, "I had to wait until just before the setting of the sun?" Sure enough the sun was setting in the west. The musicians were still puffing, blowing, chiming, and strumming. But again, there was so much noise the king could hardly think. He raised his hand. "Stop!" he said. And all the musicians put down their instruments. Taking two candles and placing them on the balcony railing, the woman lit them. Just as the sun was setting, the flames of the candles glowed. She lifted her voice and prayed, "Blessed art Thou, O Lord, Our God, King of the universe, who sanctified us by Thy commandments and commanded us to kindle the Sabbath lights." Then she took her hands away from her face. "He that has ears to hear, let him hear," she said. The king raised his head; the advisors took their hands away from their ears. The people in the crowd stood still. The king was whispering, "What? What is that?" He could not hear a sound. "What you hear is the sound of rest. And isn't the peace that the Sabbath brings the sweetest melody of all?" [John A. Stroman, Thunder From the Mountain, (Nashville: The Upper Room, 1990), 53-55] The sweetest sound of all is the sound of rest. We must reclaim it. We must open ourselves to the renewal of the Lord. How do we do that? I think renewal comes when we take quiet time to study the Bible, to pray, to serve the needy, and to share communion. Jesus' words remind us, "Come unto me, all you that are weary, and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest..." [Matthew 11:28-30] Through rest and renewal comes restoration. Some of you may know that I like to refinish old wood furniture. I'm not really talented, but I have patience. Because of my limits, I only work on furniture with pretty straight edges, but some years ago my sister Lolly called me to ask if I wanted some furniture that needed refinishing. It was quite a bit of furniture that had been in her husband's family for years. As a matter of fact, with the crash of '29, the furniture had gone into storage in basements and attics for 6o years. I said I would be delighted to have it, but when it arrived it was obvious that this ornate, Victorian furniture needed more than my humble talent to be restored. Over the next seven years, I paid for it to be refinished, piece by piece. All the pieces now stand proudly in our living room. The most interesting response we've ever had was from my sister Lolly's daughter, Lucy. She came to visit and Lolly pointed out the furniture. Lucy absolutely refused to believe it was the same furniture. She remembered it covered with mold and 14 layers of upholstery over horsehair padding. In that condition, the beauty was hidden. The world can do that to people, too. We can become covered in worldly accessories and fashions. We can start to lose track of our own nature. Our inner beauty can be lost. Only through Christ can we strip away the layers of adjustments we've made. Only Christ can cleanse and polish our souls, so that His light shines in us. The rest, renewal, and restoration comes to us when we pause at His table and break bread with Him. Amen.