David E. Gray
“Works Without Rest: Sit Down You’re Rockin’ the Boat”
Rev. Dr. David E. Gray
Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church
September 27, 2009
Matthew 8: 18-27, Psalm 131, Matthew 11: 28-30
Our adult education program is currently focusing on stress and anxiety. Who among us is immune? I enjoyed dialoguing with many of you on that subject there last week and so in support of our adult education program let’s talk about anxiety and the antidote of rest this morning.
Today we conclude our sermon series on faith and works in the world. We know that we are to engage in good works, but as the fall gets into full gear we realize that our problem is that when we work we often work too hard. And when we are between jobs we are often unable to enjoy the time because of financial and person pressures which challenge our faith.
Mostly during this sermon series we have talked about our work in the world. But this morning in our second lesson from the 8th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, we read about Jesus’ works. In Galilee, Jesus performed a series of miracles, good works that caused many people to gain faith and to join Jesus’ community. This morning I’d like us to think less about what Jesus did than about how he did it. Reading now from God’s holy word.
Let us pray. God of the storm and God of serenity, illuminate your word for us this morning. Help us to seek your peace and help us to find peace in you. Amen.
Have you ever thought about what we can learn from God’s inactivity? That’s not something we often think about. Christians usually talk about God’s activity. After all, the church has spent much of its history trying to convince people not only that God exists, but that God is active in the world. An emphasis on an active God is particularly important to the Reformed Tradition. Our tradition emphasizes the sovereignty and providence of a God who is active in our lives. John Calvin and John Knox believed firmly that we should try to live in response to God’s actions. The Bible is full of stories of God acting towards God’s people. For example, when we teach Genesis 1 and 2, we typically focus on God’s active creation. Moreover, our second lesson this morning is part of a series of stories of Jesus acting in performing miracles.
But there is inactivity afoot as well. In the creation story at the beginning of Genesis, when we read of how God acted to create the world, think of what God did next. Did God publicize God’s work, continue immediately to refine them or move onto another creation? No, God rested! God’s inactivity matters as well.
What about Jesus’ actions in our second lesson? Matthew chapter 8 records what must have been a terrifying boat ride for Jesus’ disciples. Jesus beckoned them to join him in the boat. They began to sail when a mighty storm arose. On the Sea of Galilee, the Golan Heights and western hills can keep a sailor from noticing a storm until its right upon a person. The wind whirled and began to thrash the boat around. 2000 years ago the boats were not as stable as ours today, so the disciples must have been quite scared.
And where was Jesus? At the helm guiding the boat? On the boom, holding the sails tight? No, he was asleep in the back of the boat. Matthew records that the disciples had to go to him and wake him up.
I highlight this passage not to imply that God is somehow not involved in our world. God is. But if God’s activity was all that mattered, why would the Bible, from Genesis to the Gospels, describe God’s resting and Jesus’ sleeping at critical times? Because resting and sleeping are critical actions.
The question is, are we neglecting them? Ours is a society where rest has become a four letter word, and not just literally.
James Gleick writes in his book Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything, that Americans today have become a people who rush from one activity to another. Mobile technology keeps us in constant contact with our offices and responsibilities. This promotes productivity but not relaxation.
I read about an advertisement recently for an edible product targeted for people "who don’t have time for minute rice." Talk about fast food.
The comedian Steven Wright has joked in watching the Indianapolis 500 car race that they “should have started it earlier and then they would not have to go as fast.”
A recent U.S. News and World Report cover story on adult attention deficit disorder found that we Americans are spun in so many directions that we’ve developed an aversion to not being stimulated and feel guilty resting. As if staying still was a phobia we needed to address by moving onto the next activity quickly.
Part of our hard charging attitude goes back to American history. American hustling could have started with Benjamin Franklin. Franklin himself was not very religious but Franklin’s father was a devote Calvinist who was a great influence in his son’s life. He shared ideas about John Calvin’s focus on the importance of work as a calling. Obviously, initiative and hard work helped Ben Franklin, and humans from history to the present, become successful. We are meant to use our gifts actively in the world. We are also called to try and change the conditions of the world that are problematic and inconsistent with how we understand God’s will. God expects us to take our selves, our gifts and our commitments seriously. But not more seriously than the God who created us.
When we step back and look at God’s creation, there is a balance to it. The creation story in Genesis is all about balance, as God created light and dark, earth and sky, man and woman. And it ends with a balance of work and rest on the 7th day. We see that balance reflected in plant life today. If certain plant species do not lie dormant for winter, they will not bear fruit in the spring. If this continues for more than a season, the plant begins to die.
Where do we reflect that balance and rest in our lives? Have we taken the time to even ask ourselves that question?
My grandfather used to say that the “Art of relaxation is the most difficult of all arts.” And under-appreciated. Given all the distractions of life, it takes purpose to do inactivity well. I must admit that I struggle mightily with this. I admire those people who have mastered the art of relaxation and seem to have a nonanxious presence about them. Jesus was one of those people. Rest is not a four letter word to him. He went to quiet places to pray and he lived with a sense of calm that encouraged others to rest. Jesus said, “Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”
From Jesus’ example and wisdom, let me lift up three ideas for us to think about this morning in relation to rest. First, our rediscovering Sabbath. Secondly, the importance of prayer. Thirdly, our not taking ourselves too seriously.
First, rediscovering Sabbath matters. God does not get tired the way we do. So after creation, God didn’t need to rest on the 7th day. God could have ended God’s creative work at the end of the sixth day, because it seemed at that point that God had provided everything humans needed for life. So why did God rest on the 7th day? Because God had not given us all that we needed for life. Humans needed rest and God created it. God even carved out a special weekly rest– the Sabbath. God blessed and sanctified the Sabbath as time for rest and spiritual growth.
As you have heard me preach before in talking about Sabbath, I don’t only mean one day of the week, though that is important, I mean some time each day for Sabbath rest.
While many of us are weary this September, we feel bad or guilty in this busy time taking time to rest. That is why rediscovering Sabbath and having rituals of calm, exercise, family time, reading, and rest are so important. For people who need to be doing something in order to be doing nothing Sabbath gives us that permission because inactivity can be purposeful. A Washington Post crossword puzzle I saw recently contained the quote, “the time you waste is not wasted time.” The theology of Sabbath inspires us to purposeful inactivity.
The theology of Sabbath reverses our expectations and priorities. We too often rest on Sunday for the sake of week, so we can do more work on Monday. The idea of a Sabbath is just the opposite. The theology of a Sabbath holds that we work during the week for the sake of what we do on the Sabbath.
Secondly, I lift up the value of prayer.
Close your eyes, rest your heart and open your soul. One translation of the Hebrew word for prayer means "to come to rest."
We know when we are weary. Our longing for rest teaches us something about ourselves and what we need.
Prayer also teaches us about God. God’s self includes rest. Prayer remind us that God has invested in a lot in creating and recreating us and God wants to protect God’s investment by making sure we care for ourselves.
Thirdly, we should try and avoid taking ourselves too seriously. Think of the calm way Jesus acted in the face of pressure in Matthew chapter eight.
Much of our lack of rest comes from some spiritual pride – that we think we are indispensible and need to do it all ourselves. Self-justification is a dangerous idea that will invariably leave us disappointed. We do better to rely on colleagues and on God. Jesus asked his disciples, “why are you afraid, you of little faith?” How often does that apply to us?
Think of the Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.” There is acceptance and humility that leads to serenity.
Think of the wisdom Psalms from our first lesson, “I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.” The psalmist is not taking himself too seriously. Instead, he writes, “I have calmed and quieted my soul…my hope is in the Lord.”
Relaxing at some level requires humility. There is something about faith that can help us look past works to the joys of existence, to just plain being. We too often think of our lives as the sum of our doings. Sometimes it is important to just “be” and not “do”. After all, we humans are “beings,” not “doings.”
It makes me think of the theological T-shirt which reads:
“To be is to do"--Socrates.
"To do is to be"--Jean-Paul Sartre.
"Do be do be do"--Frank Sinatra.
This summer was our son, Andrew’s, first time sailing. When we were up in Cape Cod and the boat began to tip a bit he wanted to scoot over to where I was. I had a vision of Andrew himself learning to sail someday. That is different from my panicked visions of Andrew learning to drive on the beltway someday. That really causes me to think about prayer. But in sailboats I know Andrew will have some rocky moments too.
When one is in a boat that is being rocked by a storm, our first reaction is often to move around in the boat. But the last thing one wants to do in a storm is stand up and run around. It only tips the boar more and all could fall in. One should stay calm, low to the deck and ride out the storm.
During the storm in the Sea of Galilee, Jesus slept in the boat while the disciples panicked. But when he was ready, Jesus calmed his friends and he calmed the storm. It is the same calm he brings in the storms of life. It is the same calm that we all know we need. It is calm that God requests of us through our spiritual practices, through observance of Sabbath, self care and sleep, and through prayer, rest, and worship.
It is the calm that inspired J.G. Whittier to write:
“O Sabbath rest by Galilee! O calm of hills above,
Where Jesus knelt to share with thee,
The silence of eternity, Interpreted by love!
Drop thy still dews of quietness, Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress, and let our ordered lives confess,
The beauty of thy peace.”
Thanks be to God. Amen.
