The rhythm of work and rest//rest and work
Sept. 2 – Exodus 20:8-11
8 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9 For six days you shall labour and do all your work. 10 But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.
God worked in bringing the creation into being, then God rested on the seventh day. In God’s being there is the rhythm of work and rest. Both are also essential to human existence. Work and rest are part of our lives as human beings.
In the contemporary world of 40-hour, Monday to Friday work weeks, we have equated work with making a paycheck, and if people don’t receive a paycheck, then they are not working. Work in the world of the Bible is having something to do. A task or tasks, a purpose, a something to do. Thus, making meals – as happens a great deal in the Bible is work, as is leading the army into battle, as is being among the town leaders at the city gate deciding on the legal matters of the day, as is singing songs of praise, as is fishing and shepherding, as is working in the media of wood and metal and cloth. All those things and many more are work recognized in the Bible.
Work may being a cheerleader for those who are called to tasks within the body of Christ, the church, or within the wider community. Work may be to pray, in conversation with God about the issues and needs of the day and the community. Work may be connecting with the isolated and the alone, being a listening ear and a caring shoulder.
And just as there is work, there is rest, stopping working. There is letting God carry the load, the responsibility, the task, for it is only in God that there is any possibility that our work will be productive. The Sabbath one day a week, the stopping, reminds us that we are not the saviours, we are not the ones who bring about the results of the work – all of that belongs to God and God alone. The one day in seven that we do not work, reminds us that we are participating in what God is doing in the world, not that God is joining us in what we are doing.
In adopting the rhythm of work and rest, we declare our commitment to joining God in what God is doing. For it is God’s work.
PRAYER:
God of work and rest, we rejoice that you have built the rhythm of work and rest into our lives. Teach us to rejoice in the gift of work, and to trust you in our times of rest. In Jesus’ name. Amen.