Cultivate Rest

Engage

My parents raised me with a strong work ethic.

My dad worked construction, then working in ministry for a season, then worked in construction again until he died when I was in high school.

One of my first jobs was working as his assistant, carrying heavy loads, cleaning, helping.

Before he passed away, my dad passed on his work ethic to me.

My mom taught us the value of working hard before playing.

Saturday mornings, when all we wanted to do was watch cartoons all morning (remember those?), she would gently (and sometimes less gently) invite us into the weekly cleaning routine.

She passed on to me the value of getting your work done first, then taking time to enjoy play.

I don’t know about you, but my relationship with “work” has always been mixed.

As the son of an immigrant, I learned that the limit of what I can achieve goes hand in hand with how much work I’m willing to put into it.

Waking up early, staying up late, devoting myself to the task, investing here, jumping in on an opportunity there, my Ukrainian mind seldom turns off.

I’m always thinking about what side-hustle I can try.

How I can monetize this or that.

I’ve always got a few plates spinning at the same time.

My side hustles sometimes have side hustles.

Anyone resonate with this? I know this isn’t everyone’s story.

I remember when we first moved to RI and I stepped into the life of a Church-Planter.

Being a very entrepreneurial job, I found out pretty quickly that starting something new can be all-consuming.

I learned within the first year that having my office in my home was a bigger challenge than I expected. This is pre-covid!

Add to that the fact that a ministry job never truly ends, there’s always more to do, there’s always more pastoring, there’s always something challenging to think about.

One minute I’m eating dinner with my friends and everything is fun and causal, the next minute we’re in a deep pastoral/shepherding conversation.

And I’m left wondering what just happened? Did I just step back into work?

Just two years into church planting I was already on the verge of mental/emotional/physical burnout.

I struggled to turn off any part of my brain when I was supposed to be “off the clock”.

Even when we would go on vacation, I was preoccupied with the work of the Church plant.

I knew that my relationship with work was a problem, but I didn’t know what I could even do about it.

I hobbled my way through a few more years of pretty intense ministry work surviving off of weekly Sabbaths and caffeine.

And as COVID was beginning to wain we were in the process of merging our church plant in with another church in Providence.

I knew that I needed to do something to change the way I related to my work, or else I would just continue to repeat the same cycles over and over again.

So I started doing something I called a “daily liturgy of rest”.

At this time, our family had one car (we really only needed one car in the city).

Brit would drive the car daily, I would walk/bike/scooter to the office when the weather was good.

There is a river in Providence that separates the city and a pedestrian bridge that spans the river.

My daily commute involved riding my bike or scooter down from the East Side, across this bridge, and then over to the office downtown. Then in reverse on the way home.

This commute became something of a daily moment of worship for me. Beautiful weather, beautiful city, sun on my face, listening to a podcast or a favorite album, wind blowing on my face.

I decided early on that on my way home each day I would pause at the apex of this pedestrian bridge, turn off anything I was listening to, and spend a minute in prayer before going home.

I would pause, thank Jesus for the city he placed us in, pray for the city, my neighbors, revival.

Then I would take a moment to thank God for the work he had given me that day, I would acknowledge that I couldn’t complete everything I needed to do, thank him for the energy and strength to do what I did, and then I would ask God to help me leave my work on one side of the river, and go home to my family on the other side of the river.

This was also around the time that we as a family started taking Sabbath more intentionally. We’ll chat about that in a little bit.

Doing this liturgy daily for almost 3 years helped me to finally begin to separate my own identity from my work.

To view myself as being more than just the sum of what I produce.

To begin the journey of seeing myself as a Human Being, not a Human Doing.

I am by no means an expert on this. I still have to fight each day to remind myself that I am not what I do.

But it’s a journey I am gladly taking.

**TRANS - So what about you? What is your relationship to work and rest?**

My hope today to spend some time unpacking this and help us to get to a point where we see rest not as weakness but as a sacred rhythm: a daily, weekly, yearly liturgy.

Tension

Have you noticed how hard it is to actually truly rest in our culture?

The things we typically think of when we think of rest just don’t seem to be all that restful, am I right?

What do we tend to think of when we think of rest in today’s day and age? Sleeping in and watching TV comes to my mind.

Why is it that I can sleep in and then wake up tired?

Why is it that when I spend an entire day lounging in front of a TV, binge watching my favorite show, not doing anything physically strenuous, but then feel so exhausted and depleted?

On the flip side, why is it that I can take a physically strenuous hike up to the top of Sharp top and still feel rested and refreshed afterwards?

Or chase my toddler around, feel physically tired, but emotionally/relationally connected and therefore full?

We’re in a series called “Cultivate” where we’re trying to wrap our minds and hearts around the gift of Sabbath.

We’re defining Sabbath as a intentional weekly rhythm to Stop, Rest, Delight, and Worship.

It’s not that we’re doing NOTHING when we Sabbath, it is making room for a different kind of work: cultivating the soil of the heart and relationships.

Sabbath is, in many ways, a radical resistance to the way of being our culture invites us into.

A way that is more akin to Pharaoh, than heaven.

**TRANS - Let me pray, and then let’s take a look at Genesis 2

Teach

Turn with me to Genesis 2

In Gen 2 we’re jumping in at the end of God’s creation story.

For seven days God had worked to create everything that existed.

For seven days we see the phrase “evening came, and then morning…” at the end of each day.

Now, all of creation has been completed, and something different is about to happen…

Pay attention:

Genesis 2:1–3 CSB

So the heavens and the earth and everything in them were completed. On the seventh day God had completed his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it he rested from all his work of creation.

A few important things to point out here:

God did not rest because he was tired - rest was an intentional choice, an example for us to follow.

God declared the seventh day “holy” - It was set apart. Intended from creation to be distinct and different.

God did not rest because he had earned it - Rest was not a reward for good work.

In fact, the pattern of “it was evening and it was morning” give us an insight into how God saw a full day.

We wake up in the morning, and assume that now the day is started.

Genesis teaches us that the day actually started in the EVENING, and concluded in the afternoon.

In other words, we do not rest at the end of the day, after we completed our work, we rest at the start of the day, before entering into work.

This is why the Jewish practice was to start Shabbat at sundown on Friday.

It’s interesting to note that there are a couple of different words that the OT uses for “Rest”

“Shavat” - full stop. cease and desist.

Gen 2. - “God rested from all the work he had done”

Has nothing to do with recovery, just stopping.

“Nuach” - to settle, dwell, be present. (where we get the name “Noah)

Ex 20 - Giving of the 10 commandments and the sabbath.

Ex 33 - Moses interceding for Israel saying, if your presence doesn’t come with us we don’t want to go.

God says, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you (NUACH) rest.”

“Menuchah” - (menuaha) peace, freedom from strain, absence of mental stress/anxiety, stillness.

Psalm 23 - “He leads me beside (menuchah) still waters”

Menuchah is the byproduct of Shavat and Nuach.

In other words, we experience STILLNESS, peace, and freedom when we STOP our normal activity, SETTLE, and BE PRESENT.

The pattern of Sabbath Rest was introduced to humanity long before it was introduced to Israel in the 10 Commandments.

God rested. And so should humanity.

Israel did with Sabbath what we always tend to do with God’s invitation. They complicated it.

They tried to “Help God out” like my 2 year old when he’s trying to help me make crepes on Saturday mornings. It just makes a mess.

They kept trying to clarify more and more what this “rest” should look like. So they added some clarifying rules.

Then they thought, “we should make some extra rules so we don’t “accidentally sin against God”.

It’s like adding a guard rail on a cliffs edge so you don’t accidentally make a fatal mistake.

By the time Jesus comes on the scene, it’s a hot mess, Sabbath is legalistic and no longer a joy.

And so Jesus rescues and redeems Sabbath.

Mark 2 - Jesus’ disciples are “harvesting wheat” as they walk on a road

Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

Luke 6 - Jesus heals a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath.

Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

Luke 13, John 5, John 9, on and on and on.

Jesus isn’t just loosening the rules of Sabbath, he’s restoring it to its original purpose.

Dane Ortlund puts it this way, 

“He is that of which the sabbath is a shadow; Jesus is the shadow-caster. He doesn’t just forgive our sins; he lets the frenetic RPMs of the heart slow down into calm sanity. And no external circumstance can threaten that rest, as we look to him.”

So what does this mean for you and me? Does this mean we’re required to practice Sabbath? What happens if we don’t?

Church, let us not make the same mistakes as the Israelites in Jesus’ day.

Let us not set rules and regulations around what Sabbath SHOULD look like.

Let us instead hear the heart of the principle.

Let us see the pattern that God has set from the beginning.

And let us joyfully accept the invitation of rest!

Heart, Soul, Mind, Strength Framework: (Keys come up, play some pads)

Heart: Create space for joy, connection, and delight.

Soul: Create space for worship (not just singing), reflection, and stillness.

Mind: Create space for reading, journaling, clearing.

Strength: Get a good night’s sleep, take a walk, eat some delicious food, sit in a hot tub (if that’s your thing).

The consequence of ignoring Sabbath is that we surrender the beautiful gift that could be ours.

We fail to experience the joy that could be ours.

It’s like leaving the best part of the meal on the table, untouched, untasted.

It’s like leaving the best present under the Christmas tree un-opened.

**TRANS - I wanted to invite my wife Brit to come on stage for the last few minutes.

Apply

When it comes to Sabbath, it’s usually best not to give strict rules, but rather share examples.

We often leave a teaching like this agreeing that this is good and right, but struggling to figure out how to apply it to our lives well.

Brit, can you share a little bit of how our understanding of Sabbath developed, and maybe how it has shifted a bit in each season of our lives?

BRIT SHARES ABOUT SABBATH THROUGHOUT OUR 11 YEARS OF MARRIAGE (Photos of Morozes Sabbathing Together)

First married - didn’t have a strong concept for Sabbath. Understood it as Sundays.

Community Group Life - Tuesday nights became very much a Sabbath time. Community, food, laughs, joy, worship, scripture, refreshment.

Moving to RI / Intense challenges of ministry - first time we started turning phones off.

Kids - Intentional rhythm of stopping, resting, delighting, worshipping once a week. Weekly crepes on Saturdays. Going to the ocean (summer or winter). Skipping rocks. Playing together. Laughing. Loudly praying our praises to Jesus as we walked along the water “Jesus, we thank you for seaweed!”

Now - past year has been a transition season. Rediscovering what Sabbath looks like. Tim taking intentional time to stop from Phd work each week (especially in the busy season). Rediscovery! Asking one another, “What does your ideal/preferred Sabbath look like this week?” How do we want to rest? Delight? Worship? Involves inviting friends over to swim and be.

what do you think are some of the lessons we’ve learned about Sabbath Rest along the way?

A few lessons we’ve learned along the way:

Sabbath rest is very individual specific. What brings rest to one person may not bring rest to another.

Sabbath rest can look different in different seasons. What works when you’re unmarried may look different when you get married. It will certainly shift dramatically when you’ve got toddlers in the house.

It’s okay if you don’t call it “Sabbath” - A rose by any other name. As long as you are taking time to stop, rest, delight, and worship.

Be flexible, be Spirit-led, try something new and see if it brings you rest.

Re-habituate - resist the cultural habits of what rest might be, changing the habit/rhythm to that which is truly restful.

There is grace upon grace upon grace in how you experiment and try it. You’ll know when you’ve been neglecting Sabbath rest because your heart, soul, mind, and strength will not let you ignore it.

When we Stop (Shavat) and be present (Nuach) we experience peaceful stillness (Menuchah). * this is the stillness we see in Psalm 23. * I’ve asked Brit to lead us into our response time by helping us to practically get a taste of what this Menuchah rest could feel like.

**Keys play pads. Brit leads through a contemplative reading of Psalm 23. Enter directly into response song after this**

Psalm 23 NLT

A psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley,* I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me. You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.

Inspire/Action

In Jesus’ day, the religious leaders had added so many rules and laws to sabbath that it lost its restfulness and became legalism.

Some of us may be afraid that if we as Christians start practicing Sabbath, we will fall into the same legalistic practices.

Harvesting: activities such as plucking a flower and plucking a fruit from a tree come under this heading. The same is true of mowing a lawn.

Driving: An automobile engine works by burning gasoline. Turning on the ignition and stepping on the accelerator causes it to burn. It is therefore forbidden to drive a car on the Sabbath.

Tearing: Forbidden to cut or tear paper in any way. To take a very mundane example, one may not tear toilet paper on the Sabbath. Religious Jews therefore only use pre-cut paper. 

Selecting: if one is eating berries, he may not pick out the bad ones before eating the good ones. One may, however, eat the good ones and leave the bad. This category also forbids one to pick the bones out of fish. 

Jesus, on the other hand, redeems sabbath from legalism.

Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27).

“Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest!”

I don’t know what your image of the new heavens and the new earth are like.

The book of Hebrews describes the Ultimate Rest that is coming.

Hebrews 4:9–11 CSB

Therefore, a Sabbath rest remains for God’s people. For the person who has entered his rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from his. Let us, then, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience.

Let us then make EVERY EFFORT to enter into that rest (It sometimes takes work to rest!).

The implication here is that we can actually get a taste of eternity every week when we practice Sabbath rest.

Come, therefore, let us set our hearts and minds towards Jesus.

Let us choose to practice sabbath as a radical resistance to the way of Pharaoh, the way of death.

As a way of tasting the fruit of eternity on a weekly basis.