Fourth Sunday of Easter

As we pause on the Sundays of Easter to simple celebrate the wonders and the joy of this season, we also remember that Sundays are considered by many to be a day of Sabbath rest.

Days of rest are wonderful…can I get an ‘Amen’ for that? How good and pleasant it is to set a day apart to live out the rhythm of restoration that God modeled for us at the very beginning of Creation. But as good as a day of rest can be, there are dangers inherent in it. There’s a danger that we fall into a diminished view of the Sabbath that sees it as little more than a “day off work,” and there’s a danger within that “day off” view that says the Sabbath is for doing all those things we weren’t able to get done while we were at work all week. In other words, we substitute one or more jobs for our “main” job we just don’t happen to be engaging that day—nothing really changes. It’s still work, just a different kind.

Sabbath is different. It is about ceasing from work and resting, not just in a physical sense but in every sense. Eugene Peterson said this about the Sabbath:

“Sabbath is the time set aside to do nothing so that we can receive everything, to set aside our anxious attempts to make ourselves useful, to set aside our tense restlessness, to set aside our media-satiated boredom. Sabbath is the time to receive silence and let it deepen into gratitude, to receive quiet into which forgotten faces and voices unobtrusively make themselves present, to receive the days of the just completed week and absorb the wonder and miracle still reverberating from each one, to receive our Lord's amazing grace.”—Eugene Peterson

There are stark challenges to our “day off” approach in that statement, phrases that fly in the face of how we usually approach Sabbath: “do nothing,” “receive silence,” “receive quiet”…these are not easy things for 21st century folk. But then look at what Peterson describes being stirred up in us as we embrace them: “gratitude,” “wonder,” and “grace” to name just a few.

The song for today is one that helps me think about Sabbath in a different way than a “day off” mentality. It uses the language of rest, but encourages us to not just “rest from” but also “rest in,” acknowledging that a true Sabbath not only removes us from the pursuits that drain us and too often define us, but it also calls us into the presence of Jesus, where we are made whole.

This song, too, is a celebration. It’s a celebration of all that is given to us in the presence of our risen Savior. It’s a call to rest in those promises and find true Sabbath in them.

Jesus I am resting, resting
In the joy of what Thou art
I am finding out the greatness
Of Thy loving heart

Thou hast bid me gaze upon Thee
And Thy beauty fills my soul
For by Thy transforming power
Thou hast made me whole

How great Thy loving kindness
Vaster, broader than the sea
How marvelous Thy goodness
Lavished all on me

Yes I rest in Thee Beloved
Know what wealth of grace is Thine
Know Thy certainty of promise
And hath made it mine

Scripture for Reflection and Worship

Psalm 131 (NIV)

A song of ascents. Of David.

My heart is not proud, Lord,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
But I have calmed and quieted myself,
I am like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child I am content.

Israel, put your hope in the Lord
both now and forevermore.

Matthew 11:28-30 (NKJV)

“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”