Transformative Rest

Genesis 1:1-2:4a

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You might have noticed that on Sunday mornings the worship liturgy printed in the bulletin is often written by Rev. Dr. Cheryl A. Lindsay. She also writes helpful reflections that I often use as jumping-off points for my own message that I offer on Sunday mornings. This week Lindsay, who is the Minister of Worship and Theology for the United Church of Christ, focused on the creation story and specifically God’s day of rest. And I felt uncomfortably called out. Because I know that, not only do I struggle to take the rest God commands us all to take, but my own frantic restlessness can make it harder for those around me to take that rest as well. That restless tendency can be a stumbling block to my own faith, and, worse yet, it can be a stumbling block for others as well. And God’s still speaking voice does sometimes call us out uncomfortably. But never without the promise of transformation and new life. So here goes.

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Vanessa Lovelace writes that the description of the beginning can be translated variously as a “formless void,” “complete chaos,” or “jumble and disorder” all surrounded by an impenetrable darkness. Coincidentally, any of those phrases would also accurately describe the state of my sermon when we met for Bible study on Thursday morning. I have the participants of this week’s Bible study to thank for some profound and fruitful thoughts on what God meant by “rest.” We typically think of the sabbath, from the Hebrew word shabbat, when we talk about the seventh day of rest. But here in Genesis, the word shavat is used. Lovelace notes that “the fourth commandment…does not instruct Israel to build an altar and worship God. Instead, it is an invitation to imitate God, as those who are made in God’s image and likeness, in setting one day aside as holy and to rest and remember God as sovereign over the created order.” As members of a small rural church who wear many hats in order to make worship and fellowship hour run smoothly, you probably understand how Sunday mornings, while joyful and fulfilling, may not always feel restful.

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Similarly, at Bible study we thought of the things we are drawn to do, things we love to do, things that make us feel rejuvenated. Cooking, baking, and gardening came up. Maybe for you it’s making music or crafting with wood, paint, or fiber. Maybe you feel a sense of relief and comfort when you are in your workshop, kitchen, craft room, or garden. Creating, like worshipping, can be a joyful, fulfilling act. And I have to imagine that’s how God felt when They created the heavens and the earth and all the life therein. How could you create a pansy, or a sea otter, or fireflies and not feel joyful? How else could God have felt when God called every created thing good? And the love it took to create it all. Isn’t that the love we emulate when we nurture a seedling? When we bake a pie or knit a hat to give someone? Yes, we are imitating our Creator God in whose image we are made when we create out of joy and love. But how do we imitate our Resting God? One Bible study participant asked the thoughtful question, “Is being rejuvenated the same as being recharged?”

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Years ago, I was going through some immense anxiety and depression that stemmed from multiple factors in my environment at that time. I couldn’t name those factors back then, though, I just thought my world would fall apart if I stopped to think about it. So, I turned to the things I loved doing. The kitchen is my happy place, and a healthy diet is foundational for a healthy life, so I spent hours cooking everything from scratch with fresh ingredients for my family. Exercise is just as good for mental health as physical health, so I ran and lifted weights every day. I thought producing and accomplishing would make me valuable, I thought handling my anxiety on my own would make me proud. But it was never enough. Pretty soon I was cooking and exercising, not joyfully, but compulsively. I was no longer doing them because I wanted to, but because I had to. It came to a head when I hurt my back, and I physically could not exercise. Without this outlet for my anxiety, I freaked out. Of course I turned to my mom. She said, “Why don’t you do some gentle yoga or meditate?” I responded harshly, “I can’t do those things because when I do those I cry and I don’t have time to cry.” And there it was. I had said it out loud. Resting scared me, and I was avoiding it like the plague. I knew I would be incapacitated with tears, and if I couldn’t do anything, what use was I? But even Jesus wept. Even Jesus sought a place away from the crowds to rest. The only way for me to get out of the anxiety was to go through the tears, and the only way to get through the tears was to take a rest.

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One Bible study participant noted that we have to be intentional about taking rest. Sometimes we forget, sometimes we don’t realize we need it, sometimes we avoid it for one reason or another. And our society won’t remind us. In a capitalist, consumerist, perfectionist culture, rest is associated with guilt. We are valued when we produce or accomplish, not when we rest. God’s rest is yet another example of how the ways of God are not the ways of the world. And it can feel awkward or wrong to do things that go against the daily signals we absorb from the world around us, especially when they are tied to our sense of worth. When I finally started making my way through some tears, I saw a therapist and I told her that self-care never felt right. When I say self-care, I don’t mean “treating myself” by purchasing goods or services, but by stopping to breathe, to practice mindfulness, to just be. Without any distraction. For those of us who don’t like to be left alone with our critical, anxious thoughts, that can be especially challenging. “Well, then, I have good news for you,” my therapist told me. “Studies show that even when self-care doesn’t feel good in the moment, it has an overall positive effect on our lives.” Like so many things, it is the practice of self-care that matters, not the perfected-ness of it. But usually, we’d rather do things we’re good at.

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One of the themes that came up in our Bible study group was being outside. Taking a walk in a natural environment has been proven to reduce anxiety and offer other health benefits. We gaze at the stars when we need perspective, we look at the birds in the air and know that the Earth provides all their needs, we look at the lilies of the field and see how beautifully they are dressed. All of it lovingly created and intrinsically valued. The trees are more than lumber, the cows are more than beef, and we, too, are more than what we produce or achieve. Because God created us in Their image and called us good. As such, we are called to rest just as much as we are called to create. That transformative kind of rest that calls us through tears and discomfort and guilt to a place of intrinsic self-worth; the kind that invites us to be still even as the pressure to produce and achieve bombards us; the kind that reminds us that our Creator and Resting God is Sovereign, not the dominant culture and norms of the world. Beloveds, my hope for you is that you may practice a deep, transformative rest sometime this week, even if it feels unnatural or awkward in the moment, even if it feels undeserved. I’ll try too. Because we’re worth it. Simply by being part of God’s creation, we are worth just as much when we are resting as when we are creating. Like the stately pines, the lilies of the field, the sparrow settled on her nest in God’s abode. Amen.