Rest for Your Souls
Matthew 11:28-30
St. John’s United Church of Christ
Greeley, Colorado
May 26, 2024
Harriett Meeker
Intro
Don't you know how busy and important I am?
I’ve got so much to do
Ask me out to dinner on a Friday night
I can't go, I've got too much to do
Oh, I'm too busy to finish this song
I'm too busy to dance
Too busy to cry
Too busy to die
Too busy to see my chance
Don't you know how busy and important I am?
I've got so much to do
Ask me to the disco on a Friday night
I can't go, I've got too much to do
Oh, I'm too busy to see the sky
I’m too busy to know
Too busy to fly
Too busy to die
Too busy to rest my soul
Those are lyrics from “Busy and Important” by Tom Rosenthal.
Scripture
Can any of you relate to feeling this busy? I know I can!
The song is funny—and it’s grim at the same time
And when we look at Scripture, Jesus never commands us to operate at such an all-consuming, breakneck pace.
In fact, in Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus says:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Do you hear the difference? Tom Rosenthal was “too busy to rest [his] soul.” But Jesus beckons us to come to him and find rest for our souls.
Doesn’t finding rest for your soul sound much more appealing than bemoaning an inescapable state of busyness?
This Year
Let’s be honest here. We could all use some rest.
We accomplished a lot this year – we have all been very busy
As we close out a hectic spring and approach summer, when the pace of our lives slows down a bit – how can we find rest for our souls?
Introduce Sabbath
In that spirit, today, I want to invite us into a sacred practice—Sabbath rest.
I’ll admit that I wish I did a better job taking time to rest. In fact, I am really bad at it.
People often ask me about work/life balance and when I find time to rest. I am honest with them and tell them that it is really difficult!
So, what do we mean by “Sabbath rest”?
I don’t mean enforcing Blue laws or taking unwanted naps on Sunday afternoons or even having a 24 hour Sabbath on Sunday.
I do mean carving out intentional time for rest and renewal in the presence of God.
Author Judy Henderson Prather writes, “[Sabbath] is an attitude that applies to living all our days. […] Sabbath keeping cannot be limited by the clock or calendar. We may encounter sabbath in brief moments of prayer within a workday, or during a season when we lie dormant for weeks, silently drawing from God’s deep wisdom before another period of productivity begins.”
So, why should we care about Sabbath rest?
1) Well -- Sabbath rest matters to God.
When God created the world, He instituted a time of rest.
On the seventh day of creation, God finished what he had been doing and stopped working. (Genesis 2:2-3)
He blessed the seventh day and made it holy.
Weekly rest became a regular practice for the children of Israel throughout the Old Testament.
And it was something that Jesus took great care to practice Himself.
In all four gospels, we see examples of Jesus choosing solitude, rest, and prayer over activity.
Luke 5:16 says, “Yet [Jesus] frequently withdrew to the wilderness to pray.”
In Mark 6, Jesus’ disciples visited with Him before the Feeding of the Five Thousand. Scripture says, “The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’”
The disciples had just returned from extensive travel. Two by two, they’d preached the gospel and performed miracles on the way.
But when they returned, Jesus didn’t immediately assign them more work. He instructed them to join Him and rest.
Today, I believe God offers us that same invitation. To join Him and rest.
Rest matters to God. Resting is an act of humility.
It is a recognition that we cannot accomplish everything on our own.
And it is an act of faith that teaches us to trust God with the things we cannot accomplish.
2) Sabbath rest is also necessary for our souls.
I was challenged by a quote from Dallas Willard.
He was a Baylor graduate and a longtime professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California.
In the 1990s, the pastor of a large church asked Willard what he needed to do to stay spiritually healthy. After a long pause, Willard replied, “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”
The pastor said, “Okay, I’ve written that one down.” He was getting a little impatient. “Now what else is there?” he asked.
After another long pause, Willard said, “There is nothing else. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”
“The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry” by John Mark Comer is a book that we can add to our reading list.
In our culture, hurry and busyness have become status symbols. Like the song says – we are busy and important!
But hurry is a great enemy of spiritual life in our day.
Hurry is an obstacle to walking in the love, peace, and joy of God.
Hurried people aren’t thinking about nourishing their souls.
And in their busyness, they can lose sight of God’s abundance and sufficiency.
We work in an industry that stays busy.
But without rest, our efforts are unsustainable in the long term.
Soul rest is at the heart of our effectiveness.
Most importantly, soul rest is crucial to our wellbeing as Individuals.
To be good educators, good researchers, and good disciples of Christ, we must be replenished. We must rest and allow the Lord to refresh our souls (Psalm 23:3).
So, how can we give God space to restore our souls?
I would suggest one way is to spend time with our Soul People - people who know us deeply, who we trust fully with our deepest secrets and who hold us accountable to finding rest for our souls.
If you think about it – many of the great stories we all love have at their heart – Soul People
Frodo and Sam; Harry, Hermione, and Ron
Woody & Buzz; Uncle Phil and Aunt Viv
Winnie the Pooh and Piglet
Another way can we give God space to restore our souls is to spend time in Soul Places.
Places where we can step away from the busyness and hurry of everyday life and spend time with God in prayer and reflection.
We know that Jesus often times went to Soul Places
He went up on the mountain to pray
He rose and went out to a lonely place, and there he prayed
He went to a place called Gethsemane, and said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.”
Reflect on a place where you have found solace and rest and you were replenished.
Conclusion
As we conclude this sermon, I encourage us to reflect on how we can find rest for our souls this summer.
Who are the Soul People that we can spend time with, sharing life together?
Where are the soul places that we can spend time in prayer and reflection with God?
Let’s commit to not being too busy to rest our souls this summer and to develop or strengthen soul rest practices that will carry over into the busy autumn that will begin before we know it!
To conclude, let’s join in a moment of rest for our souls as we listen to a favorite chorus/hymn.