Sermon Text

The Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 19, 2009

RECREATION/RE-CREATION
Exodus 20:8-11

I haven’t been yet, but you may have already been. After all, it’s that time of year. Just about everybody does it, to some extent. There are even laws written about it, labor negotiations spend time wrangling over it, people sometimes spend lots of money doing it. I’m talking, of course, about vacations, and I’m reminded of vacations not just because it’s that time of year, or because I’m still looking forward to mine, but because Jesus insisted that his followers take one after an especially busy time, and the Bible does talk about leisure and rest.

But thinking about vacations also reminds me that the Bible is not extremely explicit in its guidance on the effective and appropriate uses of leisure time. In fact, it hasn’t been until the last few years that there was any literature on the subject being written for use in the Church. Leisure was one of those things you never seemed to have enough of, and when you had it, there wasn’t much theological content to it. Religion in general really didn’t seem to have too much to say about leisure, except to make us feel guilty because we weren’t doing anything productive.

I would suggest to you that, if we believe in a God who is sovereign over all of life, then we believe in a God who has something to say to us about our use of leisure time.

Now, this isn’t going to be a plea for you to spend every open minute you have here in the church. That is not what is asked of us. However, I do believe that there are ways in which we can approach this issue of effective and appropriate use of leisure time which are definitely Biblical.

As I mentioned a moment ago, the Bible is not extremely explicit in its counsel about our use of leisure time. There is good reason for this. The Greeks and the Romans had extensive volumes of literature treating leisure time and the proper pursuits which should fill it. Their societies were such that the small group at the top was taken care of by a large population of slaves and poor, leaving the folks at the top a great deal of leisure time. On the other hand, the Bible is, if you will, a proletarian book – it was written by and for a people who had to work.

Even so, as we are reminded in several places in Scripture, the Hebrews held leisure in a special position. The Biblical view of leisure, if we can call it that, is of a balance between work and rest. In the Creation stories in Genesis, rest is seen as a part of creation, and not as an interruption of it. Creation and rest are part of the same act. Listen to these familiar words:

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that God had done, and God rested ion the seventh day from all the work that God had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that God had done in creation.(Genesis 2:1-3)

The first lesson we can learn about the Biblical view of leisure is that rest is not just a diversion from labor, but a necessary ingredient of genuinely creative work. The alternation of days of work and times for rest was a rhythm set by divine command. Labor and leisure were equally sacred sides of the good life, given by God.

The “rest” of the Biblical Sabbath was not idleness, but a positive opportunity for refreshment and renewal. This is the second lesson we can learn about the Biblical view of leisure. In the Biblical view, there is a profound difference between leisure time and what we might call “time off.” “Time off” is essentially a negative concept, defined in relation to “time on.” It is seen only as an interruption of work.
“Leisure time” is a more positive concept. Certainly, it is time away from work, but it is filled time, time when we are absorbed in what we are doing, even if what we are doing is silence or introspection, “for the fun of it” – for its own sake.

I don’t think we should miss the striking word relationship concerning leisure time I have alluded to in the title for this sermon. There is a very definite relationship between “recreation” and “re-creation.” Recreation should be re-creation.

Recreation is, in this sense, a creative pause, a time which allows for renewal, refreshment, and recommitment. When Jesus made his great invitation, he said, “Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.” That word “rest is better translated “refreshment,” or “re-creation.”

Perhaps one way of going at this issue of the effective use of leisure time would be to judge our leisure activities against this standard of re-creation. Our leisure time, be it Sabbath or any other time, needs to be a time for recovering our balance and our perspective on life and living, for setting our priorities and values in order, because it’s too easy in this world for them to get all mixed up.

What makes for re-creative leisure? Well, a specific example would be PLAY! Play is the way children have of learning, of growing, of re-creating. The ability to play is an ability the great majority of us adults lose, since we try to outgrow things we consider childish. Dr. Wayne Oates, a psychiatrist and theologian, in his book, Confessions of a Workaholic, puts it this way: “to become as a child who can really play without inhibitions is a major spiritual discovery.”

I look at the young people in our culture and I see two phenomena. On the one hand, I see a great many young people who realize and enjoy the value of child-like (not childish) play, often to the consternation of the adult world. On the other hand, I see other young people so wrapped up in being what they consider grown-up and sophisticated that they are losing (or have already lost) the ability to enjoy themselves freely. And I think you and I know who that second group is using as role models!

Eric Marshall and Stuart Hample have compiled a booklet of children’s sayings about God. One of them is: “God made a lot of days so that you wouldn’t try to do everything at once.”

We don’t have to accomplish everything at once. If we try, we will fail, one way or another, because we will have ignored, or shortchanged, or cut off, one whole side of our being. We will have left out our need for leisure time.

Wayne Oates relates a legend concerning the Apostle John. One day, John was playing with a partridge. One of his disciples chided him for resting and enjoying the partridge in play rather than being busy at work. John answered the man, “I see you carry a bow. Why is it that you do not have it strung and ready for use?” The man replied, “That would not do at all. If I kept my bow strung and ready for use, it would go lax and be good for nothing!” “Then,” said John, “do not wonder why I do what I do.”

Remember, I’m not talking only about vacation time here, even though that is what sparked the idea for this sermon. Effectively spent leisure time is where you find it, and what you make of it. It is a gift to us from God, meant for us to enjoy. It is a high priority item on God’s list – a part of the created nature of things.

Use God’s good gift of leisure time. Recreate – re-create. Grow and live. Amen.