Sermon Follow-Up: Work, Rest & Rhythm

Work
Scripture says a lot about work, starting in the very first book of the Bible. Life in a fallen world has distorted our view of labor, but from the beginning God created us for work—not only to earn a living, but also to find enjoyment and fulfillment.

As mentioned in Sunday’s sermon, work isn’t a result of the fall. It’s not part of the curse, as it existed before the fall of man.

“The LORD God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it.” – Genesis 2:15

Scripture even states that “It is also the gift of God whenever anyone eats, drinks, and enjoys all his efforts… I have seen that there is nothing better than for a person to enjoy his activities because that is his reward” (Ecclesiastes 3:13, 3:22).

Think about it, the Lord Himself worked in the very beginning when he “made the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). During the six days of creation, God repeatedly paused to survey with pleasure what he had made through His work and not just once or twice, but seven times we read that God looked at his labors and saw that it was good (Genesis 1).

Yet, since Adam and Eve disobeyed, sin has skewed humanity’s relationship with work.

God sentenced Adam to a life of toil by the sweat of his brow. For many, this curse is felt quite literally as their intense labor and long, grueling hours certainly produce a sweaty brow! For others, toil might come through mental anguish, dealing with incompetent or unjust supervisors, disloyal companies, monotonous roles, and even our own aversion/addiction to work.

The charge that the Lord gave to Adam, to carefully steward the resources that God had given him, still applies to us today. This is true whether one works in the field of agriculture, technology, medicine, finance, construction, or any other profession. Our work is one of the ways we display the image of God and exercise dominion as stewards of his creation.
Finding dignity, joy and fulfillment in our work is not wrong! Work is a good gift given by a gracious King that helps us to reflect His character and add to the flourishing of society.
But how about work on the Lord’s Day?

We were reminded on Sunday that though we don’t observe the Old Testament Sabbath as New Testament believers, but the principle of the Sabbath remains in play as passage after passage of scripture concerning the early church tell us that after the resurrection of Christ, our spiritual ancestors gathered on the Lord’s Day (Sunday) to worship Him. It’s a day that the church has historically set aside for this good and God-honoring purpose.

What if our vocation requires labor on the Lord’s Day? Are we in sin?

This is an important question, and in full disclosure, one that I have had to wrestle with personally given the fact that I have been working on Sundays for a quarter of a century now!
Let’s be sure to understand that both the Old and the New Testament recognized that there was such a thing as necessary work.

For example, when Jesus allowed for His disciples to provide food from themselves on the Sabbath Day as they walked through the grain fields He was not proposing something new. He was not in conflict with the mosaic Sabbath when He said that it was appropriate for His disciples to feed themselves and to prepare food for themselves on the Lord's Day. If fact, He rooted it in the principle of David taking the showbread from the temple, but had He chosen to do so, He could have gone back right to the law of Moses itself which made it clear that there were certain deeds of necessity, of mercy, that were permitted on the Sabbath.

If you were called upon to show mercy, mercy had to be shown, no matter the day.
This extended even to domestic animals (that's where we get the famous story of the ox in the ditch). Literally, if the ox has fallen in the ditch, mercy to the animal and to its owner dictates that you must do work on that day in order to do what is necessary.

So, there are legitimate vocations that are, and legitimate work that is permitted on the Lord’s Day. I'm thankful, and I know that you are as well, that there are public servants, first responders, healthcare professionals, there are doctors and there are nurses who work on the Lord's Day doing necessary work. Many of these individuals are part of our faith family here at North Anderson and bless their community by fulfilling the calling that the Lord has placed upon their lives by working on the Lord’s Day. Their work on the Lord’s Day is necessary.

Rest
We spent a good bit of our time on Sunday gaining, I pray, a better understanding of the rest that we need and that is required, so I won’t try to build an argument here for incorporating “shabbat” into our lives.

Instead, I want to spend a few moments on the application of rest.

Allow me to begin with a simple statement that is essential to our having clarity on the subject: Rest looks different for different people.

In other words, no believer has the authority to determine for another believer what their rest should look like.

On Sunday, I referenced Romans 14 and a similar passage on Colossians where the Apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, spoke to what could have been a devastating issue in the church. Jewish and Gentile Christians, who both had distinct cultures and traditions, had become part of one big Christian family. They were struggling to figure out how, with all of their differences, they could live in harmony with one another.
In both of the passages that I cited, Paul is talking about things in the church that are “adiaphora”. This, in essence, means “things can we agree to disagree on”

Some believed that certain foods should be avoided because of their traditions and customs and certain days and festivals should be kept for the same reason. For them, consuming specific foods that were forbidden by the law would be a violation of their conscience, as would forsaking the various feast or festivals on their traditional calendar.

Paul said, “That’s fine. Don’t eat those foods… Observe those special days and events…but just because something violates your individual conscience doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a general violation of a command.”

“One who eats must not look down on one who does not eat, and one who does not eat must not judge one who does, because God has accepted him. 4 Who are you to judge another’s household servant?... One person judges one day to be more important than another day. Someone else judges every day to be the same. Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind… let us no longer judge one another. Instead decide never to put a stumbling block or pitfall in the way of your brother or sister... So then, let us pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another… Whatever you believe about these things, keep between yourself and God” – Romans 14:3-4,5,13,19

While Paul is certainly dealing with dietary laws, special observances, and other customs and traditions here, I believe that the subject of how we “rest” fits in perfectly.

For example, some Christians might say that for them, kicking back in a lazy-boy and binge watching a favorite TV series on Netflix is a restful thing.

Other Christians would find that miserable. Rest, for them, may be to go on a hike or plant some flowers.

It’s not that someone finding rest by taking a nap on the Lord’s Day isnt right….it’s that taking a nap on the Lord’s day is not required.

Let’s go back to that statement that we began with: Rest looks different for different people…and we’ve got to make room for those differences by being charitable, gracious, non-judgmental, and understanding the liberty that we have in Christ.

Let me use myself as an example.
The way that I find rest has changed over the years. Before I entered into vocational ministry, I worked in home construction. I enjoyed the work immensely and found great fulfillment in it, though it was an incredibly physically demanding vocation.

When I made it to the end of the workweek, the last thing that I wanted to do was go for a jog or to the gym! I just wanted to kick back in a hammock under a shade tree and do nothing! I found rest that way.

That said, now that I have a vocation that is not physically demanding but by weeks end, I am mentally, relationally, and emotionally exhausted. I find no appeal whatsoever in sitting still, taking a nap, or “doing nothing”. Those things don’t allow me to rest my mind. You know what does? A long trail run, a few hours of fishing on my kayak, a mountain hike, or going to the gym and lifting weights. As backwards as I am sure it seems to some, I find rest and restoration by physical activity…and there’s not a thing wrong with that.

Though there are certainly exceptions to the rule, I believe the following to be true:
Those who work primarily with their hands find rest with their minds and those who work primarily with their minds find rest with their hands.

At the end of the day, let me reiterate once more, rest looks different for different people, and that’s got to be ok.

If you find rest by reading a book, read it to the glory of God, but don’t impose that kind of rest on anyone else. If you find it restful to hop on a tractor and bush hog a field, crank that John Deere up and do your thing, but don’t require anyone else to find their rest in the same way.

Rhythm
Between Sunday’s sermon and this article, I think that we’ve established the necessity of both work and rest. The question for us becomes, “How do we create a healthy pattern for these things so that they may be in concert with one another?”

I think the answer is rhythm.

You see, joyful, fruitful, and abundant life is made up of regular, repeated patterns by which we fill our calendars. These routine disciplines and scheduled routines work to bring are like healthy spiritual rhythms that make beautiful music.

There’s a rhythm to our work (on six days you should work) and there’s a rhythm to our rest (on the seventh day you sabbath).

A word of personal testimony –  
As I mentioned at the outset of this past Sunday’s sermon, when it comes to observing the principle of the Sabbath, I’m a work in progress. While I think that part of my struggle in this comes from a natural disposition towards burning the candle at both ends, a vocation that sometimes requires me to always be “on call”,  and the fact that I genuinely and thoroughly enjoy the vocation to which God has called me…the lion's share of my shortcomings here is due to sinful pride on my part.

The rhythm of work and rest that I have been living to for the past couple of decades has not been healthy and I have long known that. What I have been doing for a long, long time now is just not sustainable and is not the Lord’s will as revealed by His Word.

My rhythm has been to work, work, work, and work until I crash. Then chill out for a couple of days before I start the process over.

A few years ago, after a good friend who kept a similar pattern fell morally, I came to the realization that it is only by the grace of God that I haven’t, in my exhausted state, done something stupid or disqualifying myself. I was vulnerable to attack in my depleted state and knew something had to change.

Instead of committing myself to weekly sabbath as the Lord prescribes, I decided I would just put some periodic times of refreshing on the calendar.

While that sounded good in theory, it didn’t materialize in practice.

A year or so ago, I was nearing that proverbial wall, but vacation was on the calendar! Yet, some life happened, and vacation didn’t (two vacations have been cancelled now, by the way)

So, now I’m running on empty…but it’s going to be ok because in my “great wisdom” I had scheduled a Pastor and Wives Retreat with the North American Mission Board in the mountains of Eastern North Carolina. Guess what? The day before we would leave, Hurricane Helene decided to visit Eastern North Carolina as well. Retreat off.

Now, I’m out of gas and just coasting…but low and behold, some strings got pulled and I was able to get Annette and I registered for the Restore Retreat, hosted by the South Carolina Baptist Convention in Hilton Head! Yet, the day we were scheduled to depart, Annette’s dear mother passed away.

Believe me when I say, these cancellations are just a few of the MANY that have occurred over the past couple of years.

Now, I don’t write this for the sake of pity. I’m actually grateful that my plans have not panned out because I’ve been forced to get on board with the Lord’s plan instead. It’s still a work in process but I am slowly developing a new rhythm of taking a sabbath once a week, and the tank is filling back up because of it.

I say all of that to simply say this: Get the rhythm of a sabbath into your life.

It may not look like the sabbath that you envisioned, and that’s ok.

I try to sabbath on Saturday, but it just doesn’t always work out that way. Sometimes, a sabbath for me might be leaving the office early on a Thursday and going for a long walk or it may mean turning off my cell phone and disconnecting for a few hours on a Monday morning. What matters isn’t what day of the week by sabbath falls on but that it is at least falling!

Let’s commit ourselves to a life of fruitful work, purposed rest, and healthy rhythms.

In Christ Alone,
Pastor DK Caudell