Do you feel rested? We live in a culture more than willing to fill our calendars; asking us for just a little more of our time, promising satisfaction and progress for the sake of an hour in our calendars. As if being overworked, over-scheduled, and anxious is a badge to mark our worthiness. I’m sure I’m not alone in seeing a blank spot on the calendar as an opportunity for activity. But have you ever bumped against the wall? Have you ever felt anxiety or thoughts or exhaustion crash around you?

It’s so easy to be overworked. It’s so easy for our kids to be overscheduled. It’s so easy to forget that we were made for rest. God creates a space meant for our rest.

“On the sixth day God finished the work that God had done, and God rested on the seventh day from all the work that God had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that God had done in creation.”

— Genesis 2:2-3

Have you heard the word sabbath before? In Christianity, we most often hear the word Sabbath mentioned in The Ten Commandments. Martin Luther explains this commandment by saying, “God invites us to rest.” Sabbath brings us back to this story in Genesis. God rests. God sabbaths in the Hebrew. After the work of creating a whole world from nothing, God takes time away from that work. God calls that time holy.

As we walk in the days of Easter, think about how rest is a defiant declaration of resurrection hope. You do not work for your salvation. You do not labor for your place at the table. You do not need to overwork yourself for the sake of anything. Jesus gives us hope that a new creation is being born. From the emptiness of a tomb, hope shines forth in this world. In the midst of society’s desperation for your exhaustion and your time, God beckons you to take your rest.

Remember what God is doing for you. God names rest as holy. As tempting as the business and the labor and the stress can be, do not forget that through the waters of baptism you have been claimed for life with God through Jesus. The Holy Spirit guides you to moments that restore and renew your soul. You are made for rest. In order to remember to whom we belong, and in whom we have our very being we have to remember how we were made.

Rest is holy and sacred. God made rest holy for the very sake of you. In order to reclaim the hope of resurrection in our busy world and in order to reclaim our relationships with God and with another, we must reclaim rest.

Peace,

Pastor Lily