#Challenges of cultural drift from Christ-centered values

[mindfulldsliving]

Hearken, O Ye People: A Call to Repent and Return to the Lord

“Hearken, O ye people” isn’t just an invitation—it’s a command from the Lord. Doctrine and Covenants 1 is His call to review our hearts, repent, and recommit to His covenant. Given as the preface to the revelations of this dispensation, this section emphasizes the urgency of listening to His voice and aligning our lives with His will. It’s not just for the early Saints; it’s for all of us today.…

[nathanjhill]

Do you deserve a break?

Scripture: Nehemiah 13:15-22

On Wednesday night, I was sitting in a church meeting at our regional office. It was late. Past 9 PM. It had been a long day with a ton of stuff on my plate. So I tweeted out a mild complaint - “I’m stuck in a church meeting - someone get me out of here.” And one of my friends on Twitter, Jason Poon, replied:

"Someone preach the theology of Sabbath to these people!!!"

Like many of you, I live a hectic life. As your pastor, my schedule is crowded with meetings and demands. Sometimes, I stay late into the night here at the church in vital conversation with you about the future of our church and how our ministry can bring Christ’s compassion to our community. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t love it and believe in the mission God has given us - but I am the first to admit that sometimes it wears me out. Sometimes, I get tired.

Our church is made up of full-time students, federal employees, Uber drivers, teachers, contractors, consultants, and professionals of all kinds - each of you who knows this struggle - doing something that pays the bills and brings you joy but also wears you down. And even for our retirees in our church, some of you are busier after you retired than when you were working full-time.

Work is a gift - but friends, on this Labor Day weekend when we reflect on the gift of getting things done and enjoy a long weekend, I want to ask a practical but theological question -

Do you deserve a break?

In our capitalistic culture, we are taught and encouraged to work hard from a young age.

However, when we talk about vacation and rest in our culture, too often we treat them as luxuries, something that you must earn. Not everyone deserves a day off. Vacation is accrued. We call them benefits. We’ll pay you to work here, and as a bonus we’ll let you take a couple of days off every so often. Of course, those higher up on the food chain tend to have all the benefits they desire.

Too many struggling families have to make life or death choices over what they dare risk missing work for. Too many individuals could use a day off to deal with trauma and pain in their lives but cannot afford to do so. Too many bosses see a worker taking a day off as an annoyance rather than the best thing they can provide.

The word I want to focus on in my question at the core of this sermon is “deserve”.

Do we deserve time away from the hard work and stress of life?

Do we deserve the dignity of being able to recharge and refresh ourselves?

Do we deserve opportunities for self-care and self-love?

Do we deserve a chance to free our bodies from catering to the demands of others and instead experience being with God?

Whether or not you deserve a break is a question and a value that God is adamantly concerned about throughout scripture.

In our reading this morning, we pick up in the middle of the memoirs of Nehemiah, a Jewish leader and reformer who was tasked with helping his people return from exile and rebuild Jerusalem and their beloved temple. Jerusalem and its temple were at the center of Jewish religious and political life. This was a monumental task to be undertaken with great care and hard work.

Stone by stone, gate by gate, building by building, Nehemiah helped the people begin to put back the pieces of their homeland, torn apart by conquering armies years before.

In the midst of their efforts, Nehemiah’s people discover a scroll hidden away behind a wall in the temple, stashed there for safekeeping when the invaders toppled the walls and pillaged their capital. The scroll is a book of law, containing instructions for how to live according to God’s way. When Nehemiah himself hears these words, he tears his clothes out of grief for how much the people had forgotten how to live as their Creator asked.

Among those ways of God that the people had let drift from being central to their lives was Sabbath.

Deuteronomy 5:12-15 reads:

Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. For six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

The Sabbath day was meant to be holy, but as human beings do, we find loopholes in our rules and regulations. Some ancient Jews no doubt asked, “Work is prohibited on the Sabbath, but can’t I go shopping? Shopping isn’t work.” Or, “If we Jews aren’t doing the physical labor, isn’t it okay to assign the work to those foreigners over there?” In Jerusalem, Nehemiah discovered that on Sabbath the gates of the city were left open so that those foreign merchants, who maybe didn’t have to follow the rules like the Jews did, could come in with their food trucks, credit card offers, same day delivery, and fine boutiques to the delight of the residents.

Nehemiah in his effort to restore the glory of his beloved city knew that rebuilding the walls would be useless if the people did not rebuild their care for the life-giving ways of God - if they did not restore the respect for the holiness and sacredness of their lives. Sabbath was intended to be a distinctive practice that shaped the people apart from the ways of the world. Sabbath challenged them to worship God rather than money, consumption, and stuff.

So Nehemiah commanded the gates to be shut, shutting out the marketing, so that on Sabbath, his people might rest and take a day off from moneymaking and wealth generation and buying and selling and improving their status and filling their closets.

For one day a week, shut the gates, so that all people might join Creation in rest.

Sabbath was not just for human beings - but for everything:

In God’s Sabbath, even the livestock that provide us with meat and milk and eggs deserve a break.

In God’s Sabbath, even those who aren’t like you or those lower on the economic ladder - even those who were “slaves” of ancient Israel - and those who are victims of modern day slavery - or stuck in minimum wage jobs - even they deserve the dignity of a day of rest.

Sabbath speaks directly to the reality that human beings too often treat each other as livestock. We treat fellow human beings no different or worse than we treat the animals. We treat each other as animals of burden to help us achieve what we want, creatures to be loaded up and worked to the bone until we can replace them with the next low-skilled laborer in line.

Sabbath is resistance to that - Sabbath affirms the value of all human beings and the value of all living things in Creation.

And when we begin to practice Sabbath, we might begin to imagine a world where there is no more slavery and economic ladders and rat race and debt.

The good news of God is that we all deserve a break, a day off, a time to relax, refresh ourselves, and feed our souls.

Nehemiah shut the gates of the city to create that possibility for the people of Jerusalem -

Will we shut the gates in our lives so that we may return to a cycle of rest with God and all of Creation?

What are some ways we can do this?

We can take a break from success. Our society teaches us to crave success. If we aren’t climbing the ladder, then we are going nowhere. Success is wonderful, but God is far more interested in our faithfulness. We must shut the gate to the idea that we are only worth what we do and achieve in life. We are more than our accomplishments and our failures. We are God’s beloved, and that is enough for today.

We can receive mental health care. All of us will experience times in our lives when it is life-giving and sacred to get help to deal with the stress, anxiety, and pain we carry. I am always happy to meet with you as your pastor and do my best to listen and pray together, but a trained licensed professional can help any of us sort through the burdens we carry so that our bodies, minds, and souls may rest. It is never a shameful thing to seek help. And if you don’t need it, maybe you will encounter someone this week who does. Here are two numbers to remember - National Suicide Hotline - 1-800-273-8255, UMD Counseling Center - (301) 314-7651

We deserve to be with our people. This may be family, this may be a circle of friends, this may be people who know your journey best and can understand you better than anyone else. Sometimes, this is your church family - but sometimes, even your church family can’t be this for you. We all deserve space where we don’t have to perform for each other. Where we can be who we are just as we are. Where we can shut our walls and be who God created us to be. Do you have people like that in your life? Do you have space like this in your life? If not, you truly deserve it.

We deserve no more church meetings that go past 9 PM. (Haha)

Black feminist author Audrey Lorde wrote, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” Our Sabbath practice as Christians is resistance to a world and society that often seeks to devalue and degrade our human dignity - some more than others. In God, our humanity and our bodies are celebrated as temples where God’s Spirit dwells.

Yes, we deserve a break.

May we work for a world where all living things experience rest. May we care for ourselves and each other. May we take a break along with Creation