Sermon by Rev. Ray Silverman

Lesson: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.
Exodus 20: 8-11

Sermon: There is a graphic story in the New Testament that gives a beautiful picture of the Sabbath. It is told in the gospel of Matthew and also in the gospel of Mark. The story takes place at nightfall. The Lord had just fed five thousand with only five loaves and two fish. He instructed the disciples to get into the boat and row across to the other side. Meanwhile the Lord went up into the mountain to pray. The disciples must have been rowing for a very long time because the next thing we find out is that it is the end of the night and the coming of the dawn, and they are still rowing. According to Mark, the Lord noticed how they were straining against the wind. We read, “The boat was in the middle of the sea and Jesus was alone on the land. Then He saw them straining at rowing, for the wind was against them.” (Mark 6:47, 48)

The feeling of rowing against the wind is a dramatic one. We row and row, but make no headway. Yet if we do not row we are blown backwards by the wind, and carried off course by the waves. It takes our total effort to merely stay in place. The feeling is reminiscent of those nightmares when we want to run but our legs refuse to move, or even if they do move, there is a force holding us back, keeping us from going forward. Although we are making strenuous efforts, like the disciples who have been rowing all night, we are getting nowhere. It’s like trying to row upstream, against the current.

This picture of the disciples straining at rowing in the dark, fighting wind and waves, pictures a state of human life. They are obediently following orders. The Lord has told them to get into the boat and go on to the other side. He would stay behind to send the multitude away. There they are, cut adrift from their Lord, the hour late, the night dark, the sea violent, waves lashing at the small boat. The wind was against them. Often in our lives we come into similar situations. It seems that although we are doing what the Lord says, we are making no progress. We have been trying to keep the commandments, but we feel tired. We have been trying so hard, like the disciples who are straining at rowing. We are straining at having patience, straining at being a loving person, straining at being content with life, straining at accepting situations that do not please us, straining at accepting people who do not agree with us, straining at keeping the commandments.

The word which is here translated as “strain” comes from a Greek word meaning “torture”, a tortuous effort, highly painful and most distressing. It is associated with the heaviest, most unwelcome labor and toil. It is a word that accurately expresses the futility of human endeavor without the Lord. In the picture of the disciples toiling against the wind, we are given a divine glimpse of human life without the Lord. Unless the Lord is within our efforts, they are all in vain. We toil, we strive, we drive ourselves relentlessly from task to task, but it is all in vain, like rowing against the wind. Unless the Lord is within our efforts, we can get nowhere.

Psalm 127 expresses this most clearly: “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he gives his beloved sleep.” The type of sleep here referred to is divine rest. The Lord comes into our life to give us rest from our labors, to lighten our load, to ease the burdens we find ourselves under. The commandment to remember the Sabbath is really a call to remember the Lord. In His presence is eternal rest, eternal peace and eternal joy. The disciples, alone in their boat, toiling against the wind, is a picture of each of us, struggling in vain to make our lives work, to get somewhere. It is a long and lonesome struggle in the darkness, toiling against the wind.

But the Lord comes into our lives to change all this. He wants to give us peace; He wants to give us rest from our labors. Nowhere is this more clear than in the gospel of Matthew, where Jesus says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew. 11:28, 29) Some have mistakenly viewed heavenly peace and Sabbath rest as the cessation of all physical labor. They think of heaven as a perpetual Sabbath, in which people merely praise God and enjoy splendid feasts and fellowship banquets. But notice that Jesus says, “You will find rest for your souls.”

Jesus offers something deeper and more profound than physical rest. He offers rest for our souls. The spiritual Sabbath is quite the opposite of what is normally supposed. It is only attained, after what is called in the language of sacred scripture, "six days of labor."

Those six days in which we labor refer to our individual struggles to free ourselves from every form of negativity and evil. We toil and struggle to overcome selfishness, greed, fear, bitterness, hatred. But the more we are attached to these negative emotions, the fiercer is the struggle to give them up. “Six days you shall labor and do all your work.” Spiritual growth, like all growth, does not happen overnight. We must be born again, but even when we are, there is a continuing struggle; still there are growing pains; still there are setbacks, disappointments, times when we seem to feel the clip of the pruning shears. “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.”

The seventh day marks a new beginning in each of our lives. It is a time when we have begun to realize that God is in total control of our lives and of the universe. It is a time of rest for our souls because we have come to that point of wisdom where we rely totally on Him, trusting in Him, resting in Him. It isn’t that we just give up, feeling that whatever we do is futile. Quite the opposite. It is the dawn of a new realization, the realization that without God we can do nothing. This realization grows in us slowly, from the first day of our spiritual awakening when God said, “Let there be light,” to the third day when we begin to act on our new insights, but still take credit for our good works, to the sixth day, when we finally realize that God is the only one who can take credit, for He alone is the source of all goodness.

In Genesis, chapter one, verses 12-13, this realization has not yet fully dawned. Therefore we read that “the earth brought forth grass and seed and fruit, and God saw that it was good.” But on the sixth day there is a fuller realization. It is not the earth that brings forth, but rather God Who brings forth every herb, every seed and every fruit of the field. In verse 29 we read, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed and every tree whose fruit yields seed.” And then in verse 31 we read, “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”

“Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.” This magnificent description of spiritual development is a process that we all go through, from the dawn of first spiritual light, through the days when we labor at keeping the Lord’s commandments. Rowing across a stormy sea against the wind illustrates that point in our spiritual development when we are obediently striving for the Lord's will. The Lord sees that this sort of obedience is good, even though it is somewhat defiled with the sense of personal merit. We think that the good we do is from ourselves. It isn’t until the end of the sixth day that the true Sabbath comes, the realization that unless the Lord rows the boat, we labor in vain.

“Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.” It is then that we look up and see a figure walking on the water. At first, like the disciples, we are alarmed, terror-stricken. It must be an evil spirit, the very source of this dangerous wind storm. Now we shall surely die. It seems to be the end. This is how it is at the end of the sixth day, just before the Sabbath. The darkest hour always comes just before the dawn. It is the final letting go, the ultimate letting go that feels so much like death. It is to give up the notion that we have power from ourselves, that we are the source of our own goodness. When we are able to give up this final illusion, we enter the Sabbath state.

“Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.” In the Sabbath state, we come to realize that of ourselves we can do nothing. In the Sabbath state we come to realize that in Him we live, in Him we move, in Him we have our being. In the Sabbath state we give up the illusion that we are in control of the universe, and simply accept our part in the whole. We know that there is still important work for us to do, and that we are vital and essential people in God’s universal community. But we also realize that God is in control, that all things are in His hands, and He knows the overall plan far better than we. This realization helps us to relax, to accept what is, and to trust in Him. It isn’t that we give up striving for a better world. We still strive, but this striving is no longer toil. It is called rest from labor, for it is a labor of love.

Emanuel Swedenborg writes, “Eternal rest from labor is not eternal idleness. Idleness and inactivity are death, not life. Eternal rest, therefore, is to engage in useful services. It is this delight in being useful to others that elevates the mind, arousing and enlivening the whole person. It is this delight in being useful to others which carries a person along, just as a favorable current carries a ship. This is what is meant by eternal rest from labors" (TCR 694.3).

Swedenborg is here describing the Sabbath state in man. Until we reach this point, we struggle against feelings of selfishness, the desire for human praise and recognition, the hope for material rewards. Until we reach the Sabbath state, all our labor is like that of the disciples in the boat, rowing against the wind. We may obediently be following the Lord’s commands, but still we are engaged in a tortuous struggle. As long as we believe we can overcome our evils by our own power, we are toiling against the wind. As long as we believe that by serving others we will earn tickets to heaven, our efforts will be in vain. We are toiling against the wind.

We cannot work our way into heaven. Heaven comes into us, with its peace and joy, when we give up all struggle for selfish gain. Heaven comes into us when we begin to labor, not for any reward, but simply because we love our neighbors and desire to be useful to them. Suddenly, miraculously we discover that heaven is not a prize or a reward given to those who work hard and do good. Rather, it is a Sabbath state, a state of peace available to all who labor not for themselves, but for others. Those who come into this state experience what Swedenborg means when he describes it as being carried along like a ship in a favorable current. When we willingly submit ourselves to the stream of the Lord’s Divine Providence, we no longer toil against the wind. We find that it is not difficult to love our neighbor or pray for our enemy or keep the commandments.

As the story of the disciples in the boat concludes, we see why it is such a beautiful picture of the Sabbath state which comes to each of us. The night is ending, and a new day is beginning to dawn. We have been toiling long and hard against every form of evil, and we are tired. But Jesus comes to reassure us and encourage us, saying, “Be of good cheer. It is I. Do not be afraid.” [Mark 6:50] These words of comfort and hope break through the darkness and desolation. A new light begins to shine. A new day has begun to dawn. No longer will we labor in vain. The Lord Himself has come to us, not only in words of reassurance and encouragement, but more deeply. He has come up into the boat. He is with us in every struggle, rowing with us, fighting for us. He is on board, causing the wind to cease, and our boat to be carried along by a favorable current. The six days of labor are over, and the Sabbath has begun to dawn. As the sun rises we feel a great calm, an inner peace, and we know that this is the holiness of the Sabbath state.