Pope,G - Good Work and a Sabbath's Rest

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Crescent Hill Baptist Church

Louisville, Kentucky

Pentecost 19

September 21, 2008

W. Gregory Pope

SERIES: The New Monasticism

GOOD WORK AND A SABBATHS REST

Exodus 16:2-15; Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45; Philippians 1:21-30; Matthew 20:1-16

Its been a turbulent week in Louisville. One week ago we gathered in this place not knowing that a storm

was brewing outside that would significantly affect our lives for the rest of the week; a storm that

continues to affect many of us even still. Mary Oakley said except for the indoor plumbing, it felt like her

childhood. On a lesser note, the turbulence continues to build at Valhalla as the U.S. tries to hold on for a

Ryder Cup victory. And the baseball world says goodbye tonight to perhaps its greatest sanctuary, Yankee

Stadium.

Of much more significant note, it has been a turbulent week on Wall Street. This is a storm that has been

brewing for some time. Warnings have been sounded from many corners. The storm is still raging and we

are uncertain of the effects and what the recovery will look like and when it will be.

Storms of nature and economics have a way of reminding us what really matters and where our security

truly lies. Monastic spirituality can do the same, drawing us away from the false securities and

superficialities and craziness of our age, calling us to the wise living of our days.

The prophet Jeremiah says, Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where thegood way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls (6:16). Are you a weary soul looking for

rest? Jeremiah calls us to search the ancient paths.

That is what we are doing these days as we consider a 1500 year old spirituality shaped by the monastic

rule of St. Benedict, a rule which is heavily informed by a 4000 year old biblical spirituality.

The Benedictine motto that rules monasteries is the Latin phrase ora et labora (to pray and to work). The

goal is to create a healthy rhythm of prayer and work, study and service for the purpose of spiritual

transformation. In a few weeks we are going to look in depth at monastic prayer. Today I want to look at

shaping a healthy rhythm of work and rest in our lives.

Exodus 16

Our scripture lesson this morning illustrates this for us in a story of divine provision, human work, and a

Sabbaths rest.

The Israelites were complaining about having nothing to eat. There was no electricity in the wilderness.

All the food in the fridge had gone bad. And the spoiled children that they were, they just knew they were

going to die of starvation and discomfort.

So God told Moses to tell the people that daily manna would be provided. Their job was to go out eachday and do what was necessary to gather it. On the sixth day there would be enough manna for two days

which they were to gather in order to rest on the Sabbath.

Simple plan. Work six days. Rest on the seventh. God will provide.

scent Hill Baptist Church http://www.crescenthillbaptistchurch.org/oldsite/sermon-09-21-08.ht

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Now this simple plan only works when greed is kept in check, when desires do not lead us into debt, and

when companies care more about their employees than their stockholders. Unjust social systems

sometimes force unhealthy living through overwork and poverty wages. There are outside forces that

make a healthy balanced life of work and rest extremely difficult.

However, for most of us, the responsibility for a healthy lifestyle falls on us. We are responsible to do

good work and take a Sabbaths rest.

If you are a student, perhaps you will want to think about your responsibility to balance school work with

ipod/MySpace time. Even as a child or teenager, you can work on developing a healthy, balanced lifestyle

that very few adults illustrate for you.

Work

The Rule of Benedict calls us to good work. He says:Idleness is the enemy of the soul. Therefore, the

community members should have specified periods for manual labor as well as for prayerful reading.

When they live by the labor of their hands, as our ancestors and apostles did, then they are really

monks. Refrain from too much eating and sleeping, and from laziness. [1]

Benedict stressed the dignity of work for all, both the wealthy and the indigent. In his day, this was a

revolutionary idea. Those born into noble homes expected servants to manage the annoying minutiae of

their lives, but in Benedicts monasteries, everyone tilled the fields, watered the crops, harvested the corn,

weeded the gardens, worked in the kitchen, and served others in a variety of ways. [2]

The monastery had no slaves, modeled not on the secular world but on the servant ministry to which Jesus

called his disciples (John 13). Tasks were rotated, and monks undertook the work in a spirit of humility for

the well-being of the whole community. [3]

Everyone in the monastery did everything. And it was good work for the well-being of the wholecommunity, which included serving the needy. Benedict says:Relieve the lot of the poor, clothe the

naked, visit the sick, bury the dead, go to help the troubled, and console the sorrowing.

The monastic life calls us to engage in good work without being overworked. There is to be a rhythm of

work and rest.

But we do not always embrace healthy rhythms of work and rest.

One reason has to do with what has been previously mentioned: unjust social and economic structures that

force seven day work weeks for poverty wages, and these structures must be challenged.

There is also the way in which many of us allow our work to define everything about us. It is our status in

the world and the rewards are often more clearly visible through promotion and position and pay, whereas

with other ways of being in the world - spouse, parent, child, volunteer - the rewards are not so clearly

visible.

If you read the business magazines you get the impression that if you work only forty hours a week, you

will never get ahead. If you read the next article, you discover that those who work seventy hours a week

are called names like workaholic. And in our society thats considered a badge of honor. We often call

ourselves workaholics with a hidden sense of pride.

But when we overwork it wears us down and it wears down our family and others with whom we share

life together.

We work ourselves to death because workaholics are our cultural heroes. And we want to be heroes.


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of living centered in something other than productivity. The church as a monastery should stand as a

counter-cultural symbol against distraction and busyness, and teach the world to take care of the life God

has given us.

The church as a monastery provides a refuge for people living busy lives, those caught up in the

distractions of this noisy, confusing, and disordered world. It is a sanctuary, a place of peace and calm,

where the ways of the world do not follow. [6]

To quote Benson again: Perhaps the answer for all of us who are weary is to do less and not more. To

walk slower rather than faster. To be more present to this day than we are to tomorrow. To just stand

there sometimes rather than just do something. [7]

Be so still inside that you can listen at every moment to what life is offering you, says Brother David

Steidl-Rast. [8]

We must take time for silence and solitude, rest and reflection. The Rule is built around silence and we

ignore Benedicts call to silence and stillness at the peril of our spiritual lives.

We live in a world in which we are encouraged to multitask. We eat fast food, expect overnight delivery,and sign up for instant messaging. We get too little sleep, have too many commitments and too much on

our plate most days and weeks. So we look for books that can help us pray our way to powerful Christian

living in ten minutes a day, and we wonder why we are often left feeling somehow devoid of Gods

presence in our lives. [9]

If the way in which I live does not have some silence and solitude and stillness and rest, then there is only

one person to blame in the end. There is only one person who can, in fact, get me to do less and not more,

to stop moving and be still, to slow done instead of speed up. And I am that person. [10]

There is within us all a longing for a deep connection to the silence, to the great Solitude at the Center of

All Things, as Merton once called it. It is in returning and rest that we shall be saved, says the psalmist.But we must stop and sit down and be silent. For in the rest, I began to see things a bit more clearly and to

be drawn a little more powerfully back into the life of work and community and prayer that has been

given me to live. [11]

Conclusion: Time / Restlessness

There is about many of us a restless and anxious distraction that characterizes our lives. Part of the

restlessness is built-in. St. Augustine prayed, O Lord, you have made us for Thy self, and we are restless

until we rest in Thee. Part of the restlessness is God-given. Part of our restlessness will always be with us.

This divine inner restlessness should, at times, direct us outward toward others and toward a purpose

beyond ourselves, doing something with our lives that matters in the world.

But the restlessness that harms our souls is not put to rest by staying busy; it is by living an integrated life

of work and rest, prayer and service, a life centered in contemplation, a life that seeks an intimate union

with God.

There comes a point when our restlessness should direct us inward. Rather than driving us outward,

hoping to satisfy our unrest with more activity, more people, more work, more entertainment, more

distraction, we must allow our restlessness to lead us beside still waters and to lay us down in green

pastures and to restore our souls in the quiet presence of God.

A healthy spiritual life that you find embodied in most monastic communities is the desire to be an active

contemplative, to live a life shaped by the rhythm of work and prayer, service and silence. Living such a

life is a test of the maturity of a persons spirituality.


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It has been said that the task of life is to keep your world in order. To seriously follow the spiritual

journey, particularly amid our worlds busyness, we must learn to guard the preciousness of time by

savoring the beauty of prayer and reflection, work and rest. Life in God is about the nourishment of our

souls, bodies, and minds. And its about living in the context of a community that supports us in our

common goals.

We are called to be examples of a saner lifestyle, creating a schedule that honors our spiritual life,

consecrating time to a higher purpose than productivity and consumption. Our goal is spiritual

transformation.

So honor the life youve given by doing good work and practicing a Sabbaths rest. Amen.

_______________________________

1. St. Benedict, The Rule of St. Benedict, ed. Timothy Fry, Vintage Spiritual Classics, 1998, ch. 48

2. Carmen Butcher Acevedo,Man of Blessing: A Life of St. Benedict, 84

3. Elizabeth Canham,Heart Whispers: Benedictine Wisdom For Today, Abingdon, 1999, 91

4. Abbot Christopher Jamison, Finding Sanctuary: Monastic Steps for Everyday Life, Liturgical Press,2006, 19, 21

5. Robert Benson,A Good Life: Benedicts Guide to Everyday Joy, Paraclete Press, 2004, 68-69

6. Wayne Teasdale,A Monk in the World, New World Library, 2002, xxv

7. Benson, 68

8. As quoted in Esther de Waal,Living With Contradiction: An Introduction to Benedictine Spirituality,

Morehouse, 1998, 79

9. Benson, 24

10. Ibid., 37

11. Ibid., 42-43

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CRESCENT HILL BAPTIST CHURCH

2800 Frankfort Avenue

Louisville, Kentucky 40206

(502) 896-4425

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