Welcome to Christ Episcopal Church

I’ve been thinking a lot about Sabbath lately.

In no small part because of how bad I am at it. There’s always something to do: a task to accomplish (an oil change for the car! folding all that laundry!), a need to be met (grocery shopping! help with homework!) or something work related that can always be done now instead of later. Maybe it’s the combination of growing up with a Puritan work ethic on a hog farm, but the reality is that I’m absolutely terrible at sitting still and doing nothing.

And yet, having a rhythm of work and rest is vitally important. The very beginning of Genesis tells us that the God of unimaginable power and might didn’t create the universe in one instant. God worked over six days, fashioning a creation that was “good”. And then God rested.

It’s a fundamentally divine pattern of work and rest that we’re to follow as we steward the good creation that God has placed in our hands to tend and care for. Scripture warns us about what happens when work be comes an end unto itself. Exodus speaks of Egypt as the “house of slavery”, where the Israelites have lost their dignity as Pharaoh ruthlessly twists labor into punishment with daily crushing burdens. The great creations the Israelites are forced to make might be impressive, but no one could call them “good”.

Sabbath is important because helps us live into the pattern God has set for us. A Sabbath way of living offers a dramatic alternative to the whirlwind of modern life that cares little for the “good” that human limits and human thriving represent. A Sabbath way of living confronts the gods of work, or shopping, or social media, or sports, or anything else that distracts us from taking time away from everything to be joyfully present with the God who created us and loves us.

If we’re honest, Sabbath is difficult. It requires us to make hard decisions to step away from the things we could dot—the labor we could engage in. It requires us to disconnect. But the reward is great—because a Sabbath spirituality ripples into the rest of lives as we learn how good it is to be more present with others and to master the culture that seeks to master us.

So step away from a life of endless work and into a life-giving rhythm of sacred work and sacred rest. You won’t regret it.

In Christ, Pastor Aaron Twait