WORK AND REST…GOD’S
RHYTHM
Text: Genesis 1:2-4a
Dr. Stephen Jones, preaching
Labor Day week-end, September 2, 2007
Second Baptist Church of St. Louis
I do not read the two creation
stories in Genesis for a scientific explanation of the beginning of the
universe. I don’t find them plausible descriptions of the actual beginning of
the earth. And yet, I believe these stories of creation are true. Not
historically accurate, but true. How can that be?
Actually, we might first do best to
look at science. Is a theory true? The scientific method is built upon
hypothesis and controlled tests and reducing the number of possibilities and
probabilities. But it isn’t the nature of science to say, “This is absolutely,
undeniably true.” Science doesn’t say, “This is the way it has to be.” It
says, “This is likely the way it is. This is what our scientific findings
suggest.” Or, “we can’t find anything to refute this conclusion.”
Evolution is a theory; it is
difficult to refute because certain aspects of the theory have been proven to a
high probability. Even the evolution of human beings, from prehistoric
Neanderthals to the modern human being, we can plot this change over thousands
of years. I believe in evolution as the best explanation we have to date of
how the world came to be. It doesn’t explain where the first atom or molecule
came from. It doesn’t explain how “something” came from “nothing.” And it
doesn’t explain the soul, the spiritual. And it doesn’t explain art or beauty
or goodness or joy or freedom.
I don’t read the creation stories in
Genesis as a competing story to science or evolution. These stories were
written so that people would believe in God. They do not attempt to tell us
literally how the world began. They tell two entirely different stories of the
world’s beginning. But still, they are true. They describe God as the author of
life. They describe how God created the world with a value, to be good, not
neutral. They describe God as purposeful, loving, and engaged with creation.
These are foundational truths. I would find it hard to get out of bed in the
morning if I didn’t believe these truths. For as I read these ancient stories,
the 7-day creation story and the story of the Garden of Eden, I learn a great
deal about how God interacts with human beings. And that is a truth that the
Big Bang theory can never offer. If we treat these stories as literal stories
of science, we will miss their spiritual truths.
One of the truths of the 7 day
creation story is that God desires balance. Perhaps better said, God is balance
and harmony. Native American spirituality affirms this. Buddhism affirms
this. And so does our Judeo-Christian faith. God is balance and harmony. And
so that which is imbalance and disharmony is not of God. Imbalance and
disharmony are evil and wrong. If you are truly connected to God, you will find
balance and wholeness.
Each day of creation in the first
chapter of Genesis ends with God looking upon “all that God had done” and
pronouncing it “good.” Each represents a full day’s work. And when the work is
done, God tarries with this work. And enjoys it. And appreciates the way the
world is coming together. And yet, God’s work isn’t done. One thing led to
another. Dry land was created. And that called for vegetation. And vegetation
called for the creation of day and night. And that called for “swarms of living
creatures.” One day’s work led to another, keeping God busy for six days of
creation, for the whole of creation. We find balance here. A full day’s work,
but not so hectic as to not be able to observe, discern, enjoy and recognize its
goodness.
We learn about the value of work.
Work is to not only have balance, but keep our lives balanced. Without work, we
have no contribution to make, no investment, no opportunity to express our
values. Work is to include observation, discernment and analysis. No matter
what you do for work, whether you work on an automotive assembly plant, or sell
real estate, or teach students, or raise children or volunteer in a hospital,
there must be built into your work the opportunity to discern, to discover its
purpose, to analyze the value of what you are doing, and to recognize its
goodness. Martin Luther King, Jr., once said, “If you are called to be a street
sweeper, sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed
music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of
heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a street sweeper who did his job
well.’”
Little Suzie was sitting on her dad’s
lap. She held a mirror in her hand and returned back and forth from looking at
herself in the mirror and looking intently at her dad’s face. She noticed the
wrinkles and pockets in her father’s face. Finally Suzie asked her father,
“Daddy, did God create me?” Her father put down his newspaper and said, “Why,
certainly, Suzie, God created you.” A little time went by, and then Suzie
asked, “Daddy, did God create you?” Her father again said, “Yes, Suzie, God
created me.” Suzie responded, “Seems to me God’s been doing better work lately.”
What if you work on an assembly line
with rote repetition, day in and day out? You are likely a union worker, so you
would have time built in for breaks, and if you work in an enlightened factory,
there are collaborative teams sharing ideas on how best to build a car. You have
a voice. You could go crazy unless you took pride in your work, and unless you
realized the joy that comes from buying, owning and driving a car. We may hate
what the automobile has done to the environment and to society, but many of us
express something of ourselves in the cars we enjoy driving. If you worked on
an assembly line, for balance, you would have to keep in mind the joy, the
necessity, the helpfulness you are offering the person or family who buys the
car you are helping to build. The same would be true for all work.
Work that drives you crazy, work you
hate, work that denies something you value, is out of balance and out of
harmony. It is work you must eventually stop doing.
We had a large group of young adults
at Central Baptist Church in Wayne when I served there. And one year, one of
the young men became very tired of his work. He tired of putting on a suit and
tie, he tired of his long daily commute, and he tired of the demanding
hierarchy. So, he quit his job, turned his attic into an office, and started
his own consulting firm. He became the first of six friends in the church to do
something similar. All of them sought to express themselves more in their
work. One quit college teaching to take up carpentry. Another quit teaching
young children to build creative exhibits for children’s museums. Another began
as an entrepreneurial photographer. All of them took a risk and ended up with
work that better expressed their values, and offered balance to their lives.
They became better fathers and husbands. They became better church members and
neighbors.
One of the values of retirement isn’t
that you don’t work. Work hasn’t to do with a salary or paycheck. Work has to
do with vocation. The Latin word, vocare, means, to call forth. And
thus those who are retired have opportunity to reshape their vocations, their
work, how they use their time. Those who view retirement as nothing but
self-serving miss the calling of the later years. My dad was retired for as
many years as he owned his printing company. And throughout retirement, he
found ways to express himself, through sharing the bounty of his garden, through
serving as a deacon, through volunteer mission work in which he and my mother
became engaged. He was able to shape his vocation. Of course, as he aged, his
world became a bit smaller, but still, he found ways to make a difference.
We all have work to do. If you don’t
work at your marriage, don’t count on it lasting. If you don’t work at
parenting, God help your children. If you don’t work at hobbies, don’t count on
them amounting to anything. If you don’t work through your church, don’t count
on it meaning very much.
Work involves investment and energy.
All work involves power. Something happens, something changes, when we work.
Through work, we shape the present and the future. If we work, and nothing
happens, then what is the purpose? And if we work, and we could care less about
the outcome, what is the purpose?
God worked on the six days of
creation, taking time to see how it all fit together, enjoying how creation was
unfolding, and seeing goodness in creation. Our work must do the same.
I enjoy hard work and a demanding
schedule, sometimes, to my detriment. When we over-work, work no longer has
balance or harmony. And yet, for some strange reason, I often feel better about
myself when I’m overwhelmed or harried or rushed. I need the hectic, frenetic
pace almost like a drug addict needs a fix. I thrive on too much to do. I know
it isn’t healthy. Since we arrived in St. Louis, I’ve had a more relaxed
schedule. Strangely, the quieter pace is harder for me. I have to struggle
with my value. Am I earning my salary? Am I producing enough? Am I doing
enough? I am forced to trust that my value is in my being as much as my doing.
These are my demons, the way I mis-use
work, the way I violate my vocation. God modeled healthy work for us in the
7-day story of creation. Not frenetic, not overwhelming, not harried.
Americans are working harder than
ever before. In fact, we are the only industrialized nation where working hours
are increasing. Yet despite working shorter hours, European nations show
similar rates of economic growth and even greater worker efficiency. Even
Japan has seen a 10% decline in working hours. Stress in the American workplace
has reached epic proportions. There are more Americans with multiple jobs, and
of course, families with multiple breadwinners. We rarely sit down at the table
together. To talk together. To discern the value of what we do together. We
value busy-ness, not vocation, not calling, not purposeful engagement. Who has
time to consider whether we are contributing anything to the common good? We
are going at break-neck speed.
Jan was reading the book to be read
later by the Book Group, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, when I was preparing
my sermon. Because we are living in a small apartment, I was writing this
sermon in one corner of the room and she was reading in the other. Jan enjoys
outloud reading to me, and frankly I was resenting the interruption, until she
read to me this illustration about the value of work.
Young Francie loved going to the
public library and every Saturday, she asked the librarian, “Could you recommend
a good book for a girl?”
“How old?” the librarian asked.
“She is eleven,” Francie answered.
Each week Francie made the same
request and each week the librarian asked the same question. A name on a
library card meant nothing to her and since she never looked up into a child’s
face, the librarian never did get to know the little girl who took a book out
every day and two on Saturday. A smile would have meant a lot to Francie and a
friendly comment would have made her so happy. Francie loved the library and
was anxious to worship the lady in charge. But the librarian had other things
on her mind…” (p. 24, Betty Smith, Harper and Collins)
The librarian missed the value of her
work. She had tasks to be done. She missed the purpose of being a librarian,
of opening up inquiring minds. Francie was a nuisance to her, an interruption.
The librarian confused tasks with vocation.
Yet, there is still more wisdom to be
gained from this ancient creation story, and that is the role of the 7th
day of creation. God needed it as a fallow day, a day of rest, a day of
disengagement. And this became the foundation of one of the definitive traits
of Judaism, keeping the Sabbath holy. Setting aside, in a natural weekly
rhythm, a day when no work was to be done. Once the Sabbath was over, work
resumed. It was never intended to be a permanent break. The story of creation
places the highest value on the Sabbath: if God needed the Sabbath, who are we
to deny its value?
One of the things I like best about
this church is your ability to play together. I loved it when you had a
spontaneous barbecue each Summer Sunday for any who wanted to stay. I loved it
last week when Linda described several upcoming play days for the church.
Sabbath is for play, for re-creation, for renewal, for worship, for prayer, for
interrupting work. Sabbath-keeping offers balance and harmony into our lives.
Without fallow times, without play, without recreation, we miss something
valuable. The story of creation reminds us that God couldn’t pull off God’s
first week without a day of rest, a day of relaxation, a day of enjoying
creation.
For many of us, Summer is such a
season. And I don’t happen to believe that we need to treat Sabbath as a
literal 24 hours, but more special, regular and on-going times in our lives when
we don’t work. Summer can be our Sabbath. Vacations and trips away can be our
Sabbath. Sunday as a day of worship can be our Sabbath. When we enjoy our
family, it is a Sabbath. When we enjoy our church family, it is a Sabbath.
Work and rest, vocation and Sabbath,
there is a rhythm that offers balance and harmony to our lives. Are you in
balance? Whether you are retired, whether you have a paycheck or not, what is
your work? For some of us, our vocation has little to do with our paycheck.
For some, it is our avocation that keeps us satisfied.
Are you healthy about work, or, are
you like me, often allowing work, or even needing work to create imbalance,
disharmony?
God is balance and harmony. American
Baptists engage in Holy Communion typically on the first Sunday of every month.
There’s nothing scriptural about this pattern. It’s just our tradition. One
could as easily argue for weekly communion, or any other pattern. The ritual
our Lord commanded was to wash each others’ feet. Nevertheless, this is our
pattern. And today once again we engage in this symbolic ritual. It
represents an interruption to worship, a change. A quieter, more reflective time
in worship. More silence. Less talk. More symbol. Less words.
Holy Communion brings balance to our
worship. It replenishes our thirsty and hungry souls. God has a rhythm to
life. We do best to learn it and respect it. We don’t impose our rhythm on
others. This is simply the way Baptists do it; monthly communion is our rhythm,
just as the 6 days of work and 1 day of rest is God’s rhythm.
May we be reminded on this Sabbath to
overcome our obsessions and preoccupations as we seek balance and harmony. May
we live by God’s rhythm. Amen.
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