In our next preaching series, we’re going to reflect on an ancient practice, the Sabbath, to help us think through a modern problem: namely, restlessness and hurry.
Tired & Busy?
When asked the question “how are you doing?”, I wonder how often we say, or hear others say, “tired” or “busy” or both! I know they are often words that describe my mood and way of life. It’s how many people feel today. Corrie Ten Boom once said that if the devil cannot make you sin, he’ll make you busy!
John Mark Comer* recounts how Dallas Willard was once asked by a very prominent, “successful” pastor who was exhausted and full of tension what he needed to do in order to “become the me I want to be”. Willard answered:
You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from you life… hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day
That is drop-the-mic stuff, if you ask me. But we know that it is true. Modern culture is marked by hurry, and the symptoms are obvious: burnout is on the rise, mental health is on the decline, and the expectations of what it means to prove ourselves and discover the “true and happy me” are through the roof. Our metrics of success mean that we’re quickly trapped in the rat race of performance and achievement. And so in our hurry, we’ve become tired, very tired, and also agitated, irritable, hyper-sensitive and frustrated.
Hurry is one of our greatest enemies. It is the enemy of love, peace and joy; it is the enemy of good relationships, and it is the enemy of godliness. All of those things, and many more, are incompatible with hurry.
Bored & Distracted?
On the flip side, if our hurry is not defined by tired and busyness, bizarrely (particularly in lockdown) it can be defined by distraction and boredom. It’s far more likely that the devil leads us away from God not through us falling headlong into hedonism, but by the endless distraction of the buzzing phone in our pocket, a full-on dopamine addiction to Instagram, or a multi-day Netflix binge.
Studies show that due to our online and social media habits, we’re losing our ability to focus and concentrate. The average iPhone user checks their phone 2617 times a day; we watch up to 7 hours of TV a day (the average Netflix series is consumed in 5 days!). We typically spend 2 hours a day on social media, and “the average guy” has spent 10,000 hours playing video games by the age of 21**. We “skim read” our way through life. The constant noise, connection and distraction means that we’re often mentally exhausted, emotionally numb and relationally unsatisfied.
All in all, our culture is tired and distracted. We want rest: deep rest, pure rest, satisfying rest, relational rest, mental rest, spiritual rest… any kind of rest… but that rest seems so elusive. Even the best holidays in the world don’t give us the deep rest that our souls need.
Enter…
The Rest Giver
In our busy and tired, bored and distracted, restless and hurried world, Jesus says these famous words (Matthew 11:28-30):
28 ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’
Jesus calls those who are weary and burdened (that is, all of us, if we’ll admit it) and tells us that he can teach us and give us a new yoke (i.e. way to live) that is gentle and humble, easy and light. This means we will find the rest our souls long for.
How did this all come about? Well, ultimately on the cross Jesus took all our restlessness onto himself. He experienced a cosmic exhaustion so that you and I could be ransomed, healed, restored and forgiven. Famously, on the cross he said “it is finished”— so we can once again discover the Sabbath rest we were originally for.
Sabbath – rediscovering an ancient practice
Every covenant that God made had a sign. Noah got a rainbow, Abraham got circumcision, Jesus gave his disciples bread and wine… but what about God’s covenant with Moses? What was the sign of the covenant at Sinai? It was the Sabbath. Sabbath was the sign, seal and pledge of the covenant, with the promise land being the fulfilment.
The life of Israel, reflecting the life of God in creation, was divided into sevens— one day of rest every seven, one year every seven and then the year of Jubilee every forty nine years (seven-sevens). And within each year, there were also other key festivals (Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles) that provided moments to remember and celebrate what God had done. The life of Israel was regulated by this idea of Sabbath: rest, enjoyment, community, reflection, worship, celebration and remembrance. Abraham Joshua Heschel* calls it “an architecture in time”. Israel encountered God not just in specific spaces, but at specific times.
Walter Bruggeman* shows that given the backdrop of slavery in Egypt and the “relentless work” required to meet Pharaoh’s quotas, the practice of Sabbath in Israel was an act of resistance and an invitation to an alternative way of life: a life not defined by consumption, achievement, accomplishment, competition, performance or possessions. The Sabbath offered Israel a new identity and therefore a new way to live. Israel had to resist the way of life they had known in Egypt (defined by work, quotas, production, efficiency and progress) and learn a new way of life as they entered the promise land (defined by loving Him and loving one’s neighbour).
Hearts & Habits in lockdown
In our current Covid moment, we are given a good opportunity to look at our hearts and our habits— to see what is driving us and examine our rhythms of life. Do we have the right metrics for success? In this series, we’ll think about the Sabbath as a way of life (an overflow of the heart) as well as a practice (with much more significance than just having a “day-off”). We’ll think about how rest is physical, emotional, mental, relational and most of all spiritual, and we’ll think about some practical habits and rhythms of life that can be helpful.
Here are the various biblical texts that we’ll use during the month of March to help us consider the meaning of the Sabbath as…
- The ruthless elimination of hurry (Genesis 1:26-2:3 & Hebrews 4:1-11)
- The antidote to worry (Exodus 20:8-11, Matthew 6:24-34)
- The secret to happiness (Deuteronomy 5:12-15, Isaiah 55:1-2 & 58:13-14)
- An alternative way to live (Matthew 11:28-30, Philippians 2:3-11)
Do join us every Sunday, 4.30 PM for our online service.
*The three books that will inform the series are these:
- The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry (John Mark Comer)
- Sabbath As Resistance – saying NO to a culture of NOW (Walter Bruggeman)
- The Sabbath (Abraham Joshua Heschel)
**All statistics are from the USA and from page71-72 of The Ruthless Elimination Of Hurry (John Mark Comer)