The Fourth Commandment

Exodus 20:8-11

Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 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, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

__________

There was an article that cited a study that said it takes people an average of three days before they distress and enter into vacation mode. For those of you in high-stress positions, and for many clergy, those three days might actually look like a week before you enter what I like to call the “chill zone.” Rest is good, it clears the mind, heals the body, and as we hear this morning is ordained by God. We all need a break, but what happens if that time away or time off isn’t made manifest in a meaningful way? The time we take for Sabbath is meant to be restorative, and often it’s more than mindlessly watching Netflix or TV. On the Sabbath, we set aside a time of holy rest, rest that provides clarity and direction, rest that will tend to our bodies and our soul.

On occasion, there are days when I wake up and think that if we all got a little more sleep the world would be a better place. Perhaps that’s a naive belief, it is easy to believe when you’ve seen how we are consistently filling every second of our day with various noises and activities. Why do we fill our schedules to the brim? Perhaps the thought of rest and sitting with ourselves is a frightening thought. But rest is necessary if we want to make it in life without our minds having melted into a puddle, the brakes need to be applied. We run around to and fro and if we don’t stop and rest our bodies, our minds will grow weary. And in our weary state, we will discover that our better angels may yield to our baser instincts, instincts that are not beneficial to anyone but ourselves.

The stillness, the quietness, of Sabbath rest is a necessity in our modern era. It recharges our energies in a manner that will sustain us as we go forward, carrying out the mission and vision of God. If you’re not sold yet as to the importance of observing Sabbath, here are a few things to consider:

There is a seriousness to the command to maintain and observe the Sabbath. The directive to set aside time for rest is so important that it is one of the few words of God that carries a dire consequence if one were to break the commandment. God asks us to intentionally set aside time that separates ourselves from the work that we do. We might assume that we can write off rest as something that isn't important in the eyes of God. Yet for those in pages of scripture would find that breaking the Fourth Commandment could result in death if not taken seriously. What we hear today is not a modern call to punish people who do not adhere to the Sabbath command, but we do hear a call to dwell in a sacred moment of rest. There is plenty of time to work, to toil under the heat of the sun, so God invites us to pause. 

The Sabbath is a sign of the covenant between God and us. The Fourth Commandment provides a sign that represents the deliverance God brings to the people of God. In this liberation, we find that the Sabbath is a marking of how we belong to God. We hear God say these words in Exodus 31:13, “You shall keep my sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, given in order that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you.” We've talked a lot about covenant relationships during this series, but today we find a visible marker of this covenant in the Fourth Commandment. For the people of God, the setting aside of time as a holy day is a public testimony to the role that God plays in their lives and their community. Therefore keeping the Sabbath functions not only as a time of rest and devotion, but also serves to continually remind us of God's devotion. 

Joy is waiting for us in the Sabbath command. Joy is waiting, and it is eager to greet us, and while resting may seem simple, it is always at risk of being undone by our material and personal desires. The prophet Amos is one such person who denounces the rich for their eagerness to move past the Sabbath so that they can go back to making money, often by nefarious means. (Amos 8:4) The Fourth Commandment is not about waiting with anticipation for the next moment we can flex our power or strike another business deal. If we let these things go, we will discover that there is joy. We can let go of our work, hand over our burdens to God, and find the release our souls and bodies need. Rest is not easy, especially if the world tells us something different, so let us listen to God's persistent voice that welcomes us and provides a place to lay our weary heads. 

The Fourth Commandment is persistent as it plays a pivotal role in the lives of the early people God claimed. And this persistence carries over to the New Testament, where we find that need for Sabbath rest in Jesus' earthly ministry. And it is in Jesus' ministry we come to know that the Sabbath is about something else as well, wholeness. Some folks criticize Jesus for healing and forgiving sins on the Sabbath. Jesus states that only "the Son of man is lord of the Sabbath." In these words, Jesus changes our understanding of the Sabbath. While the Sabbath prohibits work that exploits or increases personal wealth, the Sabbath does promote that would, "Save [lives] and do good, not just to rest, but to give rest to others." (Bockmeuhl, "Keeping It Holy," 116) While our bodies and souls may need rest, rest does not make up the entirety of the Sabbath Day. The Sabbath is a mentality, a way of life, that as Jesus would say, is a call to "love our neighbors." 

How are you/we, going to be more conscious about how we live out the Sabbath Day. The Fourth Commandment, the Sabbath Day, is a command, but it is also a gift. It is a gift that grants relief from our current burdens and inspires us to lift the yoke off our neighbor's backs. In our practice of the Fourth Commandment, we glean reminders of God's redemptive work in the world. While we sit with the current climate of our world, one might say that the Sabbath Day is a glimpse of the world to come. Let us celebrate the joyous gift of rest, wholeness, and restoration that we cherish in this commandment. And let the healing rest we have received spur us to make such a balm accessible to our fellow companions in this journey of life. May we never take for granted the Sabbath and what good news it brings to our tired and weary souls. Amen.