Remembering Sabbath: Release from Our Anxieties - Midweek Lent 2022

Remembering Sabbath: Release from Our Anxieties

Midweek Lent 2022

Good Shepherd, Wells, MN

March 30, 2022

Exodus 16.21-30

Shortly after we were married, Cindy and I lived in Louisville, KY for a year. That winter there came the threat of a snow storm. Having grown up in Minnesota, we didn’t think about it much and went that night to do our normal grocery shopping. Big mistake. The store was packed with people yanking things off the shelves like Armageddon was coming. We moved from there to the Washington DC area and witnessed a similar phenomena. Whenever there was a threat of snow, milk, bread, and toilet paper became nonexistent in stores. Then two years ago, during the first COVID lockdown, similar things happened as people panicked, buying up anything and everything.

You may be comforted to know the hoarding phenomenon is not peculiar to 21st century America. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness after being liberated from slavery in Egypt. They were complaining that they were starving and they longed for the “fleshpots of Egypt.” How soon they forget that they were slaves who had nothing. In response to their complaints, God provides manna, a powdery substance used to make bread, and gives them strict instructions for what to do. They are to gather each day only what they need for that day and not to hold any back or it will rot. Unsurprisingly, some of them didn’t believe God because sure enough, it rotted. However, on the sixth day, they were to gather twice as much so that they can rest on the Sabbath and it won’t rot.

This story is instructive, opening our imaginations about the benefits of remembering Sabbath. As we recall from previous weeks, Sabbath keeping is rooted in the creation story and we who are created in God’s image are to rest as God did. We also recall that Sabbath is intended to refresh us in a whole-hearted life, liberating us from endless work and the myth that we must be endlessly productive and efficient in all we do. Tonight, we are invited to contemplate how remembering Sabbath might release us from our anxieties of running out or never having enough, of our need to be in control of our lives.

That’s really the heart of the matter, that we always want to be in control of everything. In other words, this Third Commandment goes back to the First: we are to have no other gods before us. This is so hard, relinquishing control and trusting God for everything we need. But ultimately, our future belongs to God because we can do nothing to create it on our own. Now, this doesn’t mean we are passive and “go with the flow” or “let go and let God.” Rather, remembering Sabbath keeps our priorities straight. So, when we remember Sabbath and set aside time to do so, we are acknowledging God’s place in the scheme of things as well as our own. God is God; we are not.

It would be lovely if we could all take a Sabbath day each week, to set aside one day. You may think it’s impossible, but it’s easier than you think. But that might be too much for all at once, like trying to eat a whole elephant in one sitting. So here’s a suggestion for a small way to start. If you aren’t already, carve out some time to practice gratitude for what you have. Maybe that means keeping a gratitude journal. Or maybe it means reviewing your day in thanksgiving before you close your eyes at night. In Philippians, the Apostle Paul  encourages us to give thanks in all things. (Note that he says to give thanks in all situations, not for all situations.) Sabbath is a time to cease striving for whatever it is we are afraid we don’t have enough of. What might that be for you tonight? So, let us give thanks to God for what we have, knowing it brings us the peace only God can bring. Thanks be to God. Amen.