On Saturday afternoon, while doing chores around the house, I caught up on some recent podcasts from Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Mich. Rob Bell, the pastor, is one of my favorite authors and preachers, so I always enjoy listening to Mars Hills' Sunday worship service. Especially on Saturday, when the tedium of mundane tasks just begs for mental and spiritual stimulation.
The podcasts never said so directly, but I'm assuming Rob took some vacation this summer, because guest preachers filled in several Sundays.
Well, this Saturday, I plugged in my iPhone and tuned in to Mars Hill, and I heard something unusual—a woman's voice. Ruth Haley Barton, president of the Transforming Center in Wheaton, Ill., and former staff member at Willow Creek Community Church in suburban Chicago, delivered the sermon.
At first, I didn't like it one bit. Not because she's a woman preacher. I'm one of those kinds of Baptists who believes God calls whoever God wills, and some of the best preachers I've ever heard happen to be women. And Ruth Haley Barton is a gooood preacher.
But I didn't like it because she crawled all over my toes. She preached about keeping the Sabbath.
Lousy at Sabbath
I've never been very good at keeping the Sabbath.
When I was a boy, I thought Sabbath-keeping was all about don'ts. Don't go to the movies on Sunday. Don't go swimming on Sunday. Don't mow the lawn on Sunday. (Some don'ts aren't so bad.) Don't wash your car on Sunday. Don't hang out with anybody who looks like he or she's been working on Sunday.
As an adult, I've seen Sabbath-keeping as a counter-cultural statement. For example, which day of the week do I always seem to crave a Chick-fil-A sandwich? Sunday, of course. And although I've unduly desired his sandwiches on Sunday, I've admired Truett Cathy, the founder, for his conviction to close his stores on Sunday so his employees could worship and spend time with their families.
Just plain inconvenient
But mostly—and this is where I've had a hard time throughout my recent adult life—I've thought of Sabbath-keeping as inconvenient.
Oh, I go to church. That's part of my spiritual DNA. And besides, I love worshipping and fellowshipping with other Christians on Sunday. In church with my spiritual family is where I want to be on Sunday.
But I confess I've been hung up on that no-working part of keeping the Sabbath holy. Even though I work as hard as I can (and friends, colleagues and family will vouch that I'm a hard and diligent worker), I just can't seem to keep caught up with everything I think needs to be done. So, particularly since the invention of the laptop computer, I've been a pretty lousy Sabbath-keeper.
But then Ruth Haley Barton has the nerve to go on and on about the value of Sabbath-keeping. She talked about how God set the Sabbath aside because God made us and knows our bodies need rest. She talked about how God knows we need time to worship and to gain spiritual nourishment. She talked about how great it is to take a nap on Sunday afternoon, and to read for pleasure, and to take long walks, and to spend free and easy time with family and friends.
And the longer she talked, the madder I got.
It's really about trust
Until she started talking about trust. She illustrated by mentioning our workaholic ways. She talked about how we try hard to good things, and how we can't imagine our work will get done if we abstain from it for a whole day. And she talked about trusting God for the results of our work the other six days of the week if we'll just give that day to God.
She bored a hole right through my heart.
And then she talked about how we long for rest—for the spiritual and physical rest that comes only from God. And she advocated taking a Sabbath from worrying. (It's kinda like she read my mind there. Like she knew that if I sat out a Sunday, I'd waste it by worrying about how behind I'm getting.)
Well, it's a long way from my garage in Texas to the sanctuary of Mars Hill Bible Church in Michigan, but if she had given an altar call, I probably would've started walking northeast.
I think God really meant for us to keep all 1o of the Commandments. And I'm going to try to keep the Sabbath. Learning to trust will be the hardest part.
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