Hope Lutheran Church
Manhattan, Kansas June 2, 2024 Deuteronomy 5:12–15 When did you feel the most tired and worn out? Physically? Emotionally? Spiritually? Back when it was time for me to head off to college, I needed a way to pay for school. And that’s how I ended up at the Pepsi bottling factory in Watertown, Wisconsin. And that ended up being my summer job every year between 2013 and 2016. Going into the first summer I was there, I really had no clue what to expect. All I knew was they were hiring and I needed a job. So I showed up for orientation day. And that’s when they told me, “Dan, we’re going to have you working 3rd shift, 10:30pm-6:00am.” I don’t know if you’ve ever tried getting your full 8 hours of sleep during the day when the sun is out and the rest of the world is awake, but for me, no matter how many black-out curtains I put around the windows to make my room dark, no matter what I tried to do to make things quiet in my room, I just never felt like I had gotten good restful sleep. And then there was the work we did on 3rd shift at the factory. This was a food product we were dealing with. And that meant every single night, most of the plant had to be sprayed with warm soapy chemicals, rinsed off with these high-pressure water guns spitting out boiling hot water that could take your skin off, and it all had to be done before production started up the next morning around 6:00 AM. And you couldn’t wear shorts and a t-shirt while you did it, because if the cleaning chemicals got on you and stayed there for too long, there was a good chance you’d get a chemical burn. So when it was time to start cleaning, we’d all throw on our heavy rubber boots, long rubber pants, thick rubber jacket, and a thick face shield. So, between having to totally flip my schedule from what I was used to and the work we normally did on 3rd shift, that first summer working at the Pepsi factory (at least up until Camryn and I brought home our son Liam) is the most tired I can remember feeling over a 3-month stretch. I just felt tired and worn out and restless all the time. But you don’t have to work summers in a Pepsi factory in Wisconsin to feel something like that, right? Because aren’t there times in all our lives when we feel restless? And so we’re looking for rest. And that’s what God gives to us as a gift today. Today, God wants to give you the rest you need and rest that lasts. Those words we heard from Deuteronomy were spoken by Moses just before the people of Israel were about to enter the Promised Land. Moses wasn’t going to be able to enter the Promised Land with them and so throughout the book of Deuteronomy, it’s like Moses giving them this farewell sermon before they entered the land God wanted to give them. And included in that farewell sermon are these words about Sabbath and rest: “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you… Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.” I have to think those people struggled a lot with feelings of restlessness. If there were a whole group of people who needed rest, it was them. Cause they had been through a lot. Before reaching this point where they were about to have a place to call their home, they were living as slaves in Egypt. When they finally managed to leave that land of slavery, they still didn’t have a chance to settle down. They wandered around in the desert for forty years. So I’m sure they were tired. I’m sure they were ready for rest. But it didn’t stop there for God’s people. When they reached the place God promised them, there were going to be wars. Wars with the nations around them and wars between their own people. And in the years that followed, it was like a revolving door of the new superpower in the world showing up at Israel’s doorstep, overpowering them, and sending them off into exile or taking control of their homeland. And then somewhere in the middle of all that, some of their religious leaders started telling everyone the only way they could ever get to eternal life, the only way God would love them, the only way they would ever really have rest was if they kept, not just the Ten Commandments, but every Old Testament law. Perfectly. We saw a little bit of that attitude in the Gospel from Mark we heard this morning. That’s what it was like for people in Israel for most of their history. Some of the things that happened were out of their control, others they brought on themselves. Can you imagine what all that together does to a group of people over the course of 1500 years? Generation after generation being born into that kind of situation? Most of them just had to be tired and worn out. And so they needed a reminder and encouragement like Moses gave them about rest the God wanted to give them. And he was also doing something else. He was also pointing them ahead to someone who would come along who looked like them, who talked like them, who grew up with them, and be the rest they really needed. So, what does that all have to do with us? We might not be in the exact same situation as Israel as they entered the Promised Land and in the years that followed, but I think we still know what it’s like to need rest. Because there are some things that happen to us that are what happens when we live in a world corrupted by sin. When the doctor calls with the test results and the news isn’t good. When the person you thought you would be with forever breaks your heart. The polarizing political climate that’s in our country right now. I’m sure you can think of other things like that. But you know, sometimes isn’t the restlessness we feel the result of things that we’ve done or caused for ourselves? That sin I’m afraid will come back to haunt me. That thing I said to someone I care about that keeps me awake late at night when I’m alone with my thoughts. The bad choice I made and now I’m dealing with the consequences. Guilt for the times I did things I shouldn’t have or didn’t do something when I could’ve. It doesn’t take long for it feel like too much. With the the things outside my control and the things that are my own fault, we want a release. We want a solution. Something to take the hurt away. Even if it’s just for a little while. So, what do we turn to? Maybe we’re tempted to turn to substance abuse in all the forms it can take. Because even if they can’t actually fix the problems, well, at least they can mask it and hide it and dull it for a little bit. Or maybe for you that restlessness you’re feeling, it turns into anger. Anger towards the people who love you and who wanna see you get better and care for you. Anger towards society. Maybe even anger directed at God. Because how could a God who says he loves me, let me deal with something like this? Or maybe, if you’re anything like me, you find yourself going through life in one of two ways as you try to handle those feelings of restlessness. On the one hand, maybe you just try to avoid that feeling. Pretend like they don’t exist even though they’re staring you right in the face, but you just don’t wanna look. Or, on the other hand, maybe you tell yourself that you just need to work a little bit harder, do a little bit more and then maybe, finally someday you’ll actually be able to rest. The problem with all those solutions is they’re not really solutions. They don’t actually fix anything. They don’t give any kind of rest that lasts. It’d be like putting a Band-Aid on a broken leg and expecting it to get better. It just doesn’t work, no matter how hard you try. Back when I was working at the Pepsi factory, three times a night you’d get a break. Two 15 minute breaks, and one 30 minute lunch break. When you were working out in a hot factory, soaking wet with hot water and your own sweat, when you looked up and you saw a co-worker coming to give you a break, that was a pretty good feeling. You’d get to take off the rubber boots, the rubber pants, the rubber jacket, the plastic face shield, and go sit in the air-conditioned break room. And for 15 or 30 minutes, you felt alright. But that’s the thing. It was only 15 or 30 minutes. Eventually, it had to end. And you always knew that break was coming to an end for someone because they’d slap the table, slide their chair out, and with a deep sigh stand up and say, “Welp, I suppose.” Cause all of us there knew we couldn’t sit in that break room forever. No matter how good it made us feel for a little bit, it didn’t last. We had to go put all the equipment back on and go back out into the factory. When we try to bring about rest with our own solutions, wouldn’t that be like me thinking the break room was what could save me from having to go back out onto the factory floor? We need rest. Rest that lasts. Rest that comes from outside ourselves. This week, we’re starting a new sermon series – Unbelievable. And over the next few weeks, we’re going to be looking at truths from God’s Word that are too good to make up. And what we’re looking at today with rest is so backward to us because we think rest is something we need to earn or make for ourselves. The unbelievable truth today is that… REST IS A GIFT GOD FREELY GIVES YOU. And how does God do that? Through Jesus. Jesus gives us that kind of rest. He comes to you and me, people need rest, and he gives us the rest we need. And he has to tell us that this kind of rest is something he wants to give us because even when it comes to something like rest, he knows how easily we can make rest something we need to work for and achieve. He knows we tend to think of rest as something we need to do, instead of what he wants to give us. So what does Jesus say in our Gospel? “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” You see what Jesus is getting at with those words? Jesus is saying that real and lasting rest isn’t something we need to strive for. It’s something he’s going to give you. It’s something he’s done for you. And how did Jesus do that? He won true and lasting rest for us when he went to the cross with the weight of the world’s sin on himself. And that does away with the sin and guilt that crushes us, it removes the curse of sin and death. It’s assurance of a time when there won’t be anything left to weigh us down. This is rest that lasts. Real rest that we need and are longing for. Rest gifted to you. On the last night – really the whole last week – I worked that first summer at the Pepsi factory, it was different than all the other nights and weeks I had worked. I had sweated and grinded all summer. But on that last night, it was different. Because I knew that when I walked out the factory doors at end of that week, the responsibilities at the factory, the cleaning of the plant – none of those things – were mine to deal with anymore. Someone else was going to take care of it from now on. I finally would be able to go home and get some rest. Real rest. Today and every day, God gives rest to you and me. And the best part is, we don’t have to wait until the morning for it. It’s ours right now. It’s the rest we need. It’s rest that lasts. It might sound crazy or unbelievable, but it’s true. Jesus took the weight of sin and its consequences off of us, put it on himself, and gave you salvation in its place. All so you can have rest. Amen! Comments are closed.
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