Rest is trust (with a special guest!)

Short teachings from Hillcrest Church further exploring Sunday's teachings.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hi, I hope you're doing well today. Uh Tim here, and we are diving deep into the 10 words of life. And you'll never believe it, but I have a special guest on the episode today. Would you like to introduce yourself?

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Yeah, hi. My name is Christy, and I am married to Tim.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Yeah. So we were chatting the other day about Sabbath. And um Christy, I said, It seems like you have some you have some really good thoughts about Sabbath.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

And she said, Of course I do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

So I said, would you do a podcast with me? And she graciously said she would. So I'm gonna um I'm gonna kind of catch us up to where we were from the last episode and then just ask Christy a couple questions for uh this one. So, you know, James uh did a wonderful job introducing this uh this fourth word, this word of um Sabbath command. In the last couple episodes, I've talked about how Sabbath rest is connecting in the four relationships, um, God's self, others, creation. And then the last episode, I just talked about what does it mean for New Testament Christians? And the the it seemed when you when you look at the New Testament, it seems like this kind of very stringent 24-hour moral demand is no longer binding. That in some ways that was like a ceremonial, um, it was almost like a Jewish marker, kind of like circumcision, um, and that it doesn't have that that it doesn't have that force for us as followers of Jesus. Now, the danger is that we would then think, well, if we don't follow it that way, it we it doesn't matter, or we don't follow it. And I think that would be a complete misunderstanding of what's um happening with Sabbath. There are all kinds of instructions in the Hebrew scriptures that we may not follow in the exact same way they did in ancient Israel, and yet they are still instructions for us. They still have contemporary force. I think even the fact that Sabbath is part of, it's woven into the fabric of creation, God rested on the seventh day, says something about the binding, the ongoing wisdom for these rhythms of rest in our life today. And so, um, and I think that can show up on a daily basis, a weekly basis, a yearly basis, even every seven-year sabbatical basis, these rhythms of rest. But what I wanted to um, I wanted to pick uh Christy's uh I wanted to pick your mind a little bit. It seemed like you had some, just some, as you've reflected on this series, just some of your thoughts about just this very thing, about what God was trying to do through the gift of Sabbath and what that might still mean for us as followers of Jesus today.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Yeah, I mean, I found it really interesting, you know, when you spoke about what does it mean to to take, you know, the third commandment, like to not take God's name in vain, being about putting God's character on display, or at least in part related to that. And then the very next commandment is this invitation to Sabbath or rest. And I like God is an intentional God, so I can't imagine the order in which the commandments are laid out doesn't mean something. And so to me, it made a lot of sense just in my counseling work and my observation of people that there is something connected to what does it look like to reflect God's character, become people who reflect God's character and the necessary part of Sabbath in that process.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Well, it I mean, yeah, it's interesting, you know, when I talked about that bearing God's name, I the these kind of twin ideas of receiving the gift of his name, and that that kind of the intimacy of knowing who he is, the revelation of knowing who he is, and then the and then the um representing his name in the world. And it is interesting, and I I hadn't thought about it until you pointed out that God says, you know, receive the gift of this and then represent bear it. Um, and then the next thing got that God says is start with rest.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Yeah. Which, you know, it just is very countercultural for us and would have been counter-cultural for them. Like something that James mentioned on Sunday was the idea that they were people who only knew constant work. And, you know, for God to invite his people to bear his name and then and then to not say, now go and do these things. I just was very struck by the fact that God said, Bear my name and pause. And so there has to be something about Sabbath that is forming us into that people or then those individuals that bear his name. Like Sabbath, there has to be a formational identity part of what is happening in our resting.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

The God's saying, hey, um, I want you to I want you to know me and I want you to reflect my character and that um and God's in God's wisdom, he's God's saying, hey, and you know where this starts is by resting and trusting. That's kind of where to do this well, that's where it begins. Yeah. It's not actually a list of things we do.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Yeah, or like things we produce, but it's somehow character formation. Uh yeah, there's something intrinsically powerful about resting and identity formation happening uh when we're not producing. And yeah, I think, you know, the random thoughts I had on Sunday were one, like I think we're more thoughtful about who we are and about who God is and what we're up to in the world when we are rested. Like there's something about, you know, in my work, I talk to people about like being good caretakers of their bodies and their relationships. There's something about like pausing and resting and reflecting that makes us able to like think it equality that is necessary. Um, I was also just thinking about uh, yeah, the way that when we pause, like we're able to have a certain type of perspective that's harder to have when we're just kind of in the day in, day out, like working uh rhythms of a day. But I think more important than what you had just said was this aspect of trust. Like when we are ceasing, when we are pausing, that it is an intrinsically an act of trust to say, like I, yeah, like God is bigger than me and my work, like God is up to things, you know, like sleeping in and of itself is an act of like trust. And yeah, there there is something that happens in our identity and in our posture of trust when we when we listen to this command of Sabbath.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Yeah. No, I one of the things I when you said that to me the other day, I thought, you know, I you know, a lot of times I've taught on the idea that um before uh Sinai, obviously the Israelites were they were enslaved people, they were human tools. All they did was work, work, work, work, work. Um, and there's that sense that God's re-educating them to begin with rest and trust. But then there's this, I also, when you made that comment, I found myself thinking about, but then even once they move into the land, I like it's I don't think I have the ability to know what it would be like to be a substance farmer, like to raise a family and know that if we don't grow crops like our family doesn't eat, and the kind of pressure to work seven days a week because I have to secure my existence. I th you know I I we feel pressure to kind of be busy seven days a week now, but I I don't think I can even imagine what it would have felt like in that time or place to to stop once a week and trust.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Yeah, and I do, I mean, I and so like for me at least it was a good reminder to to use the lens or or the question like, is my Sabbath forming me into a person of trust? Is my Sabbath informing my identity? Like somehow it's not just this act of like recovery and restoration, although I think that is part of it, but somehow I do think it's connected to these bigger things around identity formation as a person or as a community of trust. And yeah, I mean, I'm it'll be fun to hear like the rest of the sermons, like as they play out around these 10 words of life. But I think it's easy for at least me and not having talked to you about it already, but the importance of being a person whose identity is linked to trusting in God for being able to indwell even what is is to come. And yeah, and to and being a a more well-rested, more rhythmed person. I think it'll also be easier to indwell the words of life that are to come. But yeah, there's there's a lot there, but those were just kind of my initial thoughts.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Yeah, like stealing, coveting, those are all they all tie right back to like control. Like, do I trust that God is God? I'm not God, God's got God's got me, and I I can I'm okay in that.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

Is there anything in particular um that is helpful to you in that that you would want to share with everybody?

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Around my particular Sabbath rhythms are kind of like.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

Yeah, and even how just how you think about it.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think when I have thought about trust in the past, and this maybe is a different topic altogether, but there's something about the invitation to be present that isn't and of itself an act of trust. And I think Sabbath is that invitation, like an invitation to be present to God, to creation, to myself, to one another. Like uh but I think even that choice to be present to the moment and not trying to solve like tomorrow's problem, like is an act of trust. And so I think something that I do practice while we are Sabbathing is intentionally trying to ground myself in the moment of what I'm doing, whether that's reading a book or going on a walk or sitting quietly by myself or chatting with a friend, um something about like being present to the moment that I'm in that I find very deeply like relaxing and connecting, but I also think is a radical act of trust because I'm not trying to like plan for what is next. Um being present in my Sabbath is helpful in lots of ways, but I think that is an active act of trust, and I do think forms forms my identity also.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

And I like when I get to be present with you.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

It's great. It's good to be together.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

Thank you for doing this with me. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

Sure. Anytime maybe they'll like it and we'll do it again sometime.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

I would like that.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Okay, so it's a good babe.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

All right, thanks everybody. Um, may you rest well. Peace.