"Made for Rest"
Nick Owens, October 01, 2023
So let me tell you something pastors do: We listen to other pastors. We listen to others for encouragement. But sometimes like musicians listen to other musicians for inspiration and ideas, we listen to others because we always want to grow in helping communicate about the Bible to other people. So, a few weeks ago, I was listening to a friend of mine from my time in the campus ministry RUF, a guy named, Shaun Slate. He wasn’t preaching on this text, but one of his illustrations was just too perfect not to use in relation to what we’re looking at this morning.
There was a new Wes Anderson film that came out this summer, called Asteroid City. This film is considered to be one of the most philosophical. Now if you’ve never seen a Wes Anderson movie, they are dry comedies that are a bit odd and strange. It’s definitely an acquired taste.
This one is not different in terms of being strange in that the movie “Asteroid City” is a movie that presents itself as a documentary about a play that never existed. I know I’ve just lost at least half of you, but stay with me… (A movie presenting itself as a documentary, about a play, that never existed).
In the middle of the play there’s an actor and he’s playing a certain character in the play, and he does something he doesn’t understand and it bothers him. He does something in his role in the play but he doesn’t understand why his character would do that. It bothers him throughout the rest of the play and so during a scene when he’s not needed, the actor leaves the stage to go visit the stage manager. He asks the stage manager this:
“am I doing it right; am I doing it right; I don’t understand who my character is; I don’t understand what we’re doing.”
Pause for a minute and think about your life. Do you ever feel like that? “Am I doing it right?” Who am I, and what should I be doing with my life? Am I doing it right – in my marriage, in my relationships, in my job, as a parent, in my community? If you’re a follower of Jesus, you probably ask, “am I doing it right?” Am I living in a way that rightly fits with who I am as someone united to Jesus? It’s kind of a terrifying question – it’s terrifying because we’re constantly living our lives, doing things, pursuing things, working for things, but, “Are we doing it right?”
Back to the film, the stage manager sits next to him, and says, “Just keep telling the story.” But that’s not overly helpful to the actor because that’s precisely the problem. The actor doesn’t know the story. He doesn’t know how it began. He doesn’t know where it’s meant to go and how it ends. So, frustrated he leaves theater and walks out into the ally. There he sees this woman who looks kind of familiar. He has this vague recollection of her, like he kind of knows her. And the reason is because she had been cast earlier on in the play to be his wife in the first and last act of the play, but for some reason the directors had cut her from the play, and now her only role is as a photograph in the play, she’s a distant memory. When they meet in this alleyway, they begin talking and he says to her “I don’t understand what I’m doing, I don’t understand what this play is, I don’t understand why I do what I do….” And then she goes on to tell him the first act and the last act. And from this he’s able to go back and perform his character in the play.
Think about what we just read in Genesis. The Israelites, who were the first recipients of this book, were people that had been saved and delivered by Yahweh their God out of slavery in Egypt. They lived in the Ancient Near Eastern world. They lived in a world where it was common to believe that human beings were made to serve the needs of the gods, to be slaves for the gods. Not only was there this social imaginary, you could say, this collective sense about what a human being was and what a human being was for, but Israel as a people had lived the embodied life. They had played the role, and acted the part of a slave people for a few hundred years. How was this people going to take up the role and play the part of being God’s people? What must they know (and what must they practice?) if they were going to get their bearings to live as God’s people? While our situation is different, we too live in a confusing world with beliefs and practices that often orient us away from playing our part of being the people of God. We live in a world where God has been removed from the play. We live in a very confusing world. A world where in essence we’re told that we’ve come from nothing.
We’ve come from meaninglessness and violence – strong eating the weak, evolutionary forces. That’s where we came from and how we got here. And we’re headed toward meaninglessness and violence- whether we’re talking individually as we die and our lives are taken from us;
Or as a species as one day we will die out whether from nuclear fallout, A. I., the exploding or dying out of the sun. In some way human life will end in violence, never to be remembered again. We’ve come from meaningless and violence and that’s also where we’re headed, but right now we’re supposed to live lives of love and meaning and purpose. Rarely do we slow down or stop long enough to consider how this makes any rational sense. Yet there’s a collective sense where we know we should love others and we should seek after meaning, but we also feel a deep need to achieve. We need to be successful; we need to win, we need to be productive …… unto what? We’re not so sure…
Especially around here, in places like the western suburbs, there is a collective FOMO. An anxiety, a fear of missing out, a fear of not being enough, not doing enough, not achieving enough and so we often live lives of frantic busyness of more and more. Unto what end? We don’t know, but we must stay with the pack; we don’t want to be left behind. We asked the question last week: What’s your goal? The goal of your life, the goal of each part of your life– in work, with family? If you’re a parent, what’s your goal with your kids? If you’re a student studying and thinking about what you want to do with your life, what’s the goal? We, like Israel, need to know the beginning of the story; We need to know where this story was meant to go. We need to know the goal. This is what we’re given in the opening of Genesis. Put simply – The goal is rest! Now to understand what that means, because it doesn’t mean the goal is a nap, we need to turn to the text of Gen 1& 2 and think about what God is telling his people in this text and how he’s framing the beginning of the story.
The first thing I want you to see is that the Story of Creation is told with temple language – Numerous writers and scholars have pointed out the highly organized structure of this section of Genesis. It is hymn-like with it’s repeated refrains and lyrical patterns. And one of the things you can observe is the repetition of seven. Seven was the number of perfection, it was viewed as a sacred number. There are seven days of creation; In the book of Exodus, the building of the tabernacle, which if you remember is like the portable temple where God dwells with his people in the wilderness, that building process is ordered by seven as well.There is archaeological evidence that suggest that temples in the ANE world were built in terms of the number seven. King Solomon, for example, took seven years to build the temple, and when he dedicated the temple it happened during the seven-day Festival of Tabernacles, during the seventh month of Israel’s calendar. The emphasis on seven and connection to later texts in the Bible help us to see that God is framing what he did in creation with temple language.
In addition, the climactic part of temple building and the ceremonies for temples was when the deity came to “rest” in the temple. Likewise, in the text the creation days in Genesis are moving toward the goal of the climactic 7th day. The sequence of the days moves toward the 7th, with the 7th being the goal. You can see this in the way days 1-6 come in pairs, but day 7 is all by itself.
Days 1-6 are in pairs. There is a connection between Days 1 & 4; Days 2 & 5; and Days 3 & 6.
In the first part of the pair (Days 1-3), God creates a space or a realm. God separates, divides, marking out this area from that area. Then in the corresponding day in the pair (days 4-6), God creates/makes/places something in the space or realm to rule it or fill it. The first pair – Day’s 1 & 4 – v. 3 God says, “Let there be light”. God separates light from the darkness, but it’s not until Day 4 that God creates the heavenly bodies that rule the day and night, look at v. 14:
“And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years.”
We read in v. 16-17 that these lights are to have a “governing” or “ruling” function.
The second pair, days 2 & 5, in v. 6 we read:
“And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.”
Then in Day 5, v. 20ff, God creates sea creatures and birds, which are to fill the sky and the sea. God blesses them in v. 22, and says,
“Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.”
In the last pair, days 3 & 6, we see Day 3 in v. 9 that God forms the dry groun. In v. 11, God prepares the dry ground for inhabitants making the land fruitful with vegetation – trees and plants. Then in day 6 God creates living creatures, land animals to fill that space. And the penultimate climax, the high point of creation in all God made, he makes human beings.
In v. 26, God makes human beings as his image. Made to reflect him and represent God to the world like little rulers; like royal children of the great king, and humanity is given the role of both ruling and filling. And at the conclusion of day 6 v. 31, it was not just “good”, but God sees “all that he had made, and it was very good.”
The days of creation are not a static telling of history, this happened, then that happened, it is framed & dressed with temple language. God is setting up his temple, getting everything right, and moving creation toward it’s goal: the telos, the aim. DAY 7. When God rests in the cosmic temple he has made. If we’re going to understand what the world was made for, and what our lives are made for, we have to understand what this “rest” is. Obviously, God isn’t tired. He’s not worn out. The point isn’t a nap. “Rest” points to the reality that God is king. He is the sovereign creator who has completed this work. His resting on the 7th day, A day that you will notice does not conclude with “and there was evening and morning” indicating that this is an ongoing eternal day. His resting is a celebration of his enthronement. God has established order and stability. Rest is about celebrating, savoring, and enjoying God as king. Which is to say rest is about worship.
What’s the significance of this depiction of the cosmos as a temple? It means the world is made for worship. God means to dwell here with us. It means the goal of your life is worship. It shows us that everything is to find its meaning and significance in relation to God who is the king. This is why we’re doing this series, “Habits for Love”. It is easy to go through life aimlessly “doing” things; getting things done, feeling busy, feeling rushed, feeling like we need to keep going and keep doing because hopefully someday we’ll get somewhere or achieve something that really feels meaningful and lasting. This is why, as a church, we’re focusing on looking at the structures and habits of our lives, and this is why this fall we’re focused on this theme of REST. Because your life will never come into the fullness it was meant for if Resting in God, celebrating, enjoying, savoring, God as king, is cut out by competing things or squeezed out by busyness, or drowned out by noise and distraction.
Humanity was given this monumental task in the garden, v. 28, to fill the earth, subdue it. If we were to keep reading in Gen 2 I think what we are to understand is that humanity was to expand the garden of Eden. As humanity multiplied, as it cultivated and subdued the earth, our calling was to image God, reflect God who had created and made this cosmic temple to dwell in with us. We were to go about our work of filling, having dominion, subduing, and cultivating the earth, expanding the garden until it filled the whole earth, which is what you see at the end of the Bible in Rev. 21-22. Talk about what seems like an overwhelming task. Those of you with never ending emails, laundry, patients, clients, students, assignment after assignment and on and on can relate. But this was never to be something exhausting. The primary reason being that humanity was always to have this relationship with God, this orientation toward God and resting in God and celebrating God’s kingship. That’s what an image is meant to do, reflect. And humanity could only do that when we were oriented toward God, toward the goal we were made for, celebrating God, and resting in him.
But when we turned from God, when we decided to be our own gods and run our own lives, we lost that connection with God and resting in God. The goal of our life faded away. And from this point on, knowing who we are (identity) and what we’re for (the goal of our lives), would always be things fought with anxiety and exhaustion. Our work would be anxious and exhausting, not only because of the greater challenge to work after we turned from God but because work would always be this place where we could achieve and build identity, meaning, and purpose apart from God. Because we don’t know who we are, and we don’t know what we’re for, work becomes the purpose of life and the way I know who I am. I can feel good about me because I’ve done this, I’ve achieved this. I raised these kids; My child got into this school, I make this much money or live in this kind of house… And this way of life isn’t just some intellectual thing in our minds; but it’s a way of life embodied in structures and habits we live in our world. You can intellectually believe in Jesus, and yet have a life and a way of being in the world that is moving you away from rest in him; away from what you were made for.
I want you to imagine a person: a typical suburbanite, married with kids. Let’s say they believe in God, they believe Jesus and want to experience the peace and love of Jesus. They want to experience the rest and joy in God they were made to know. Everyday this person gets up – a little groggy from what never seems like enough sleep. First thing, look at the phone, check the email, news, what’s happening in the world. “Who do I need to respond to?”, “What has to be done?”, quick glance at the calendar or to-do app and the list of things. Morning is hectic! Lunches must be made, kids off to school or daycare, commute into work or jump right on the computer for the days working at home. Meetings and tasks fill the day. There never seems to be enough time. Normal workday is coming to a close, but the day is far from over. Kids have to be rushed to baseball, soccer, and piano lessons… You sit in the car, checking your phone, seeing if anyone responded to your emails, you get in a bit more work. It’s already late and grocery shopping hasn’t happened this week yet, so it’s fast-food drive-thru for dinner or frozen pizza. Kids home, quick blazing through homework, getting them to bed, make sure you have what you need for the next day of school… Then, finally, a glass of wine, or two, some chips, or snacks. You switch on the show you’re watching, kind of check the phone again, half watching half distracted with social media and the work email you’re still waiting to hear back about. Perhaps you dose off in the chair or you finally you stumble into bed completely exhausted, but still stressed about all the must be done the next day. The “to-do” list will be longer tomorrow because of what wasn’t done today. You fall asleep, ready to rise and repeat the next day.
Here’s the point if your embodied habits and the structures of your life keep you frantic, constantly doing and working, mixed in with distractions, mixed in with habits of numbing. You’re not suddenly going to experience the peace of Jesus. In the NT book of Hebrews, the author recalls the 7th day of Gen 2:2 and says there is an ultimate rest. This is the rest that can be yours through faith in Jesus. Because Jesus has completed the work, he came into this world, he pioneered the path toward God, through the chaos, brokenness, and sin in this world, he made the way. He gave himself for us on the cross that he might deliver us from sin and death and bring us to the rest we were made for. And this same Jesus who gave himself for you, who died and rose again, calls us not only to believe with our minds, but to trust him, follow him, and learn his way of life. In Matt 11, Jesus in essence says:
Matt. 11:28 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you real rest. 29 Walk with me. – Walk at my pace! Learn the rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. 30 Come to me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
He calls us to himself, to be with him; to learn a new way of life. The Christian life begins when we come to Jesus, when we come in faith and look to him, resting and rejoicing in who he is as the King and what he has done for us. That is, we could say, the first breath of life. Growing as a Christian is continuing to breathe, remembering to breathe, we have to keep breathing, to keep looking at him, to keep re-orienting ourselves and our lives around him.
If busyness starves your life of the oxygen of worship –
- IF ….. Gathered Sunday worship, becomes contested with other things
- IF. … communal worship, as we share life together, if this gets crowded out by work and the thousand good things we could do or sign up for…..
- IF…….personal worship, times of silence, stillness, and prayer before God….. times of slowing and listening to God in the Scriptures…… if we become too distracted, busy, and exhausted to draw upon the oxygen of worship….
it’s like trying to live your daily life holding your breath…..
Gathered worship on Sunday is a reminder to breathe….it’s us coming together to breathe in as we celebrate and rest in our king who has loved us, who has died and risen in whom we find rest. But Sunday is not the big breath we take so that we can leave and just hold our breath all week. We need habits and practices throughout the week that help orient us toward the goal ofvresting and rejoicing in Jesus.
This is the next phase of our project together. During Sunday School today we’ll be talking about this and then in an email that will go out this week on Tuesday we’re inviting you to consider a time of what we’re calling “Detox”. Ways of practicing slowing our lives down, intentionally slowing down, making space and room to breathe that we might re-orient toward God, resting and rejoicing in him. In the document that will be sent out,there’s a list of possible things you might try out. Some of these things you might choose to do may make you feel uncomfortable. That’s ok…. IF we’ve become addicted to speed, productivity, and efficiency; we should expect slowing down might feel weird, it might make you feel anxious like you should be doing something.
We’d like to invite you to try and slow down with us these next two weeks, because in the coming weeks after that, we’re going to suggest some practices of prayer and meditating on Scripture that might be difficult if we’re moving at a fast pace and we don’t have space in our lives and a posture where we are still before God, waiting upon him, listening to him, and savoring him. And again, let me remind us why we’re doing this and talking about all this. The point is this: that we might center our lives on Jesus. And that as we learn and grow in him and follow him, as we learn to dwell in his love and fix our eyes on him, a way of life will be formed in us. A redemptive way of living in the eco-system of grace, of peace, joy, faith, love, and hope.