Greetings friends,
The idea of rest seems unimportant until it’s not available. Caring for a new baby is a reminder to everyone in the house of the value of a good night’s sleep.
There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest (Hebrews 4:9-11a).
What does it look like to “make every effort” to enter Sabbath-rest?
With a baby in the house, it looks like a strategy and a schedule: Grandma’s got the baby until midnight. Grandpa will take the baby at 5 AM. Parents – you’re the overnight crew from midnight to 5 AM!
For many of us, rest feels like an option, if we can “make” time. Yet, only God can “make time.” More than an option, it is the 4th commandment and one that is easy to overlook.
We are indeed a rest-less people. Who has time for that with so much more to be done? It begs the question, why is it one of the top 10?! Maybe it is more than a joyless burden or obligation.
We need a new vantage point, a new vista, a new way to see this concept of “Sabbath-rest.” In a world that screams to us, you must do more, we need a new and better understanding of Sabbath. ECO’s Theological Task Force just published a piece on this called Lord of Time: Living in the Rest and Reign of God. Here are some highlights:
Sabbath is grace. Sabbath is a sign. Sabbath is first and foremost, the time of God. Sabbath is not a rest we “take,” but a gift that is given, whose meaning is bound up with the gift being given at all. The very giving of the Sabbath means that God has given himself to abide with us in time. The eternity of God overlapped with the temporality of his creation. Sabbath is experiencing the sovereign reign of God as King. (p. 6, 24-26).
Jesus models this as we see him dwelling with his disciples. It is a foreshadowing of what it
will be like with all is restored again.
What does it look like to “make every effort” to enter Sabbath-rest?
A good place to start may be pondering a deeper understanding of Sabbath. It promises
more and provides more that we may realize!
Let us make every effort to cease every effort for God’s time… unless of course you have a new baby, then you may need some grandparents!
Pastor Nancy
