Enemies of Rest
A Sermon for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
July 21, 2024
The Rev. Robin Teasley
When the king was settled in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, the king said to the prophet Nathan, “See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.” Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that you have in mind; for the Lord is with you.”
But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. 2 Samuel 7:1-14a
David and Nathan, Matthias Sheits
We are just past the halfway point of our sabbatical time and we are halfway through the summer, so it seems like a good time to check in with one another. I hope you have had a chance to read Amelie’s message this week, which was in the weekly email and is also in your announcements today. It seems almost too good to be true that the lectionary readings assigned for today have something to say about rest and its importance for our lives. Amelie’s sabbatical time, and St. John’s sabbatical time are crucial for the health of this parish, for Amelie as your leader, and for you.
In the reading today from the second book of Samuel, David has at last been anointed king over both kingdoms, Israel and Judah. This did not happen without long years of war and struggle with King Saul and his supporters, which included much political violence and the assassinations of both Saul’s son and Saul’s commander. It was not enough that David become the king but that he be legitimized in doing so. The divisions within Israel and between Israel and Judah were eventually reconciled and they were united under King David, who was chosen by God.
At last, the Lord had given David rest from all his enemies. But was David able to rest? Was he able to let go of the pace he had been keeping and receive the gift of rest God offered? No, he was not. He had the best of intentions, wanting to build a house of cedar for God so that God’s presence would not be in a tent, but in a place that David thought better reflected God’s grandeur and power. And maybe, unconsciously David thought it would make his place as king more secure.
It was the prophet Nathan who had to remind David that God would decide where God would dwell, that God would be among the people as God desired. And what’s more, though David had his own plans, God had plans for David. God promised David both rest from enemies and a house, not a mere physical house, but a legacy, a kingdom, an eternal relationship.
In our Gospel reading from Mark, the disciples were sent out on a mission; sent out with nothing for their journey except a staff – no bread, no bag, no money, wearing only the sandals on their feet and the clothes on their back. They cast out demons and healed the sick and when they returned and told Jesus all they had done, Jesus said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.”
As God gave rest to David, Jesus gave rest to his disciples, only in this instance the disciples did receive the gift, they got into the boat with Jesus and headed for a deserted place. Even so, the people tracked them down.
If we read this carefully, it’s almost as if Jesus and the disciples tag team in caring for the needs of the people. Perhaps the disciples did rest while Jesus, in his compassion for the crowd, began to teach them. We might learn something from this. Our rest, our sabbath time, is essential and only as we share the workload with one another and entrust its safekeeping to God while we rest, are we able to receive the gift of sabbath time.
What is it that prevents us from rest, that denies us sabbath time? What are some of the enemies of rest? There are always things for which we are responsible, but we might ask ourselves to what degree. If we imagine that we are indispensable it might be fruitful to think about that. I share some of these examples from my own processing over the years, and I have by no means overcome these challenges. Maybe some of these will resonate with you.
If we need to control outcomes, if we need to be right, we might have a fear of failure. We might think that we are responsible for all the things, when ultimately only God is responsible for all the things.
If we struggle with perfectionism, then good enough is never good enough, and we can never finish a task if one more tweak will make it better.
Sometimes our enemy is a hunger for status or affirmation or acceptance; we have trouble believing that God has already affirmed, accepted, and loves us so completely. We find ourselves on a treadmill of work and stress and anxiety where there is no time for rest, where there is no peace.
Our society without sabbath has become this place where we continually compete with one another, living in a world based on who is right and who is wrong, what is good and what is evil, what is yours and what is mine. We fear there is not enough to go around. This is the enemy at work. We build walls, we become hostile to those who are not like us, we are
divided.
We see this pattern over and over in the arc of scripture and in the history of the world. And the solution, our salvation, our peace from all of our enemies is the gift of rest that God has given us. Are we able to let go of the frantic pace we keep and accept God’s gift of sabbath time?
The author of Ephesians tells us that Christ Jesus is our peace, that in him we are joined together into a holy temple, into a dwelling place for God. At creation, on that seventh day when God rested and all creation rested, we were given the gift of rest, a gift so crucial that it is a commandment. Rest is the answer to our exhaustion, our stress and anxiety, our division, and our disordered lives. Observing Sabbath creates space for us to be renewed, time for us to observe and let go of those things that are enemies to our well-being.
Take a moment to name something that you can do to practice Sabbath in your life today – this afternoon or evening. Something that is not work, not for someone else’s benefit, but simply for your delight and calm and peace. Something that will make you aware of God dwelling within you. It is not in a temple or a church, not in our work, not in our accomplishments, but in our sabbath time that we become a dwelling place for God. To practice sabbath is to entrust our lives to God.
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