2008. 7. 20 Rev. Lee, Hyun Ho

Shelter for Restless Souls
Luke 15:20-24; Psalms 131:1-3

1.

Whether we want it or not, we have a nickname that society gives us. It is the “modern day busy people.” Like all nicknames, this nickname describes well the common characteristics of modern people. The concept that we can’t survive without being busy controls us. So, being busy is the evidence that we are alive and the standard for success. How about you? Are you also busy?

On the one hand, we want to escape the busy life and enjoy rest, and on the other hand, we enjoy being busy. We hate leading a deadly tiring and restless life. We often ask ourselves whether we really have to live like that. However, when we are not busy, we feel anxious and uncomfortable because we think that being busy means that someone and society need us. That is why anxiety attacks us when we are free, thinking, “Have I been forgotten” or “Have I become useless” As we complain about being busy, we encourage ourselves to be busy, thinking, “I should be busy.”

The world pushes us to be busy and hands us the appropriate presents to keep busy. In the morning, “simple but nutritious breakfast for the busy modern day person” is provided. At work, “quick service” provides fast delivery for documents. People can visit during lunch hour the “30 minute clinic for busy people suffering from chronic fatigue”. After work, we can do “one-stop shopping.” This society whispers in our ears that “We will take care of the less important things, so that you can lead even busier lives.” We kind of enjoy the fact that we are busy.

However, what the busy life leaves us is chronic fatigue, stress, emptiness, helplessness, a lack of motivation, and depression. So many times, we say that, “I am tired,” “I feel empty,” “it is meaningless”. These phrases become so popular. This so called “modern disease” troubles so many peoples. As we lead busier lives, we make more money and decorate more beautifully our homes, our souls become more desolated. Though we get better medical insurance, we end up suffering from the “disease of heart” that can not be cured easily with medical help. We live a busier life for a happier life, but we become too busy to have a moment of happiness.

2.

“The modern day busy people” is the product of this society, but society is what we make of it. In the end, we are the ones that make ourselves busy. It is because of our desires that make us restless. There is no generation where man is free from desires; there is no comparison especially with this generation in promoting our desires. Advanced media constantly stimulates our desires. There lies that reason that modern day people are busier than ever. Here is the modern version of Psalm 23 which depicts our current busy life well.

TV is my shepherd and I shall not be in want.
TV makes me lie down in cushy couch,
It leads me beside unreasonable way,

TV makes my soul thirsty.
It guides me in paths of abundant consumption

Even though I make a commitment but fail each time,
For TV is with me all the time.

TV and advertisement comfort me.
TV prepares an online shopping before me
in the presence of my family .
TV anoints my head with the shopping spree;
My soul corrupts.

Surely luxuries and indulgence will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell with TV forever

What is ambition? It is the desire to be filled. Ambition for materials is the desire to fill our lives with material things. The desire is derived from our fantasy about materialism. The fantasy, that we would be at peace and happy when filled by materials, incites our desire even more. Then, how much do we need to be satisfied? There is really no end! The more we have, the bigger our desires become and the busier our lives become. The more we have, the more we feel anxious and worried. Ambition also encourages competition. Competition makes us busier. Through fierce competition we can achieve more, but might lose our friends and neighbors. As a result, our house become more beautiful and our table become abundant with more food but we feel emptier.

3.

In the midst of a society which pushes everyone to have busier lives and makes us tired and lonely, the church is the place for our souls to rest. The church doesn’t provide a convenient breakfast for busy people, express mail delivery service, medical service for the chronically fatigued, nor one-stop shopping service. However, the church does cure us of the desire which pushes us to be busy, tired and provides us with true rest. The church is not the place to satisfy man’s desire in the name of God. The church is not the place to stop temporarily and provide what we lack. The church is not the place to look for help in the name of God seeking fame and the success. The church is the place to come to be healed from the wounds inflicted by society, the battlefield where people compete for more.

The main reason we come to church is not to work for God, but to rejoice and be thankful in what God has done for us. The church is the place to rest in the love of God who works for us and is almighty. Rest comes first and then comes work. It is not right for church to make people compete harder to earn more in the name of their own blessings. It is also not right for church to put too much burden on its members and make them even busier to become a bigger church.

Society demands us to “run faster” while the church tells us to stop. While society continuously demands better results, the church continuously comforts us. Society judges us while the church embraces us. Society treats us depending on what we do while the church welcomes us as who we are. Society teaches us we should be special, busy, and tired while the church tells and comforts us that “You are my lovely child and I rejoice in you”. There is no place in the world like the church -- the restful place for souls that only God can provide.

4.

What is rest? Rest is the greatest gift from God to man. The first thing God did after he created humans was to rest. God invited humans to rest with Him. Eden was not a work place, but a place of rest. Eden is where we become God’s children and together with God enjoy what God has created. Eden is not the place for owning but enjoying. Eden is not the place to feel tired after competing with people, but to sing a song of peace and joy and enjoy God’s creation as God’s children.

Coming back to church is like coming back to your father’s home. The second son who left home for the world couldn’t rest in the world. His decision based on ambition only brought him trouble, fatigue, betrayal, and emptiness. However, his decision to come back to his father’s home gave him the joy to join his father’s banquet and the privilege to rest with his father. “Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate (Luke 15:23).” Father provided his son with a truly restful place.

Children experience the blessing of resting in their father’s house. The father makes the room warm for his child who wanders outside in the cold wintry weather. The child warms himself up in his father’s house after he shivers outside in the terrible cold. Soon, he feels warm and falls asleep. The father is happy as he watches his child resting in his home, not as he watches his child hard at work. This is the blessing that the prodigal son was given in his father’s home. This is the blessing that God provide us through the church. The world is cold; nothing really warms up our hearts and bodies. We are tired in this cold world and we miss the church, which is our father’s house. Missing church, we come back. As soon as we enter, we feel so relaxed and the sweetest peace comes to us. This is the blessing that God gives us.

5.

We experience the blessings of healing and restoration in His house. The father took off his son’s dirty robe and sandals, put on his best robe, a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. New robe, new sandal, and a ring are the symbols of being children (Luke 16:22). Father neither treated his returning child as a servant nor asked him to take responsibility nor asked him how he wanted to live. The father allowed him to rest and made him be as he should be.

Resting is healing. Resting is not passive or wasting. Great power is hidden in resting. The power of rest is the power of healing. Resting is not a strategic time-out for more fierce battle. Rest leads us into new life. Rest allows us to look back at ourselves and experience a new being in us through God’s blessings. We are all his masterpieces (Ephesians 2:10). God allows us rest in His house and recover our identity.

The reason why resting has the power to heal and restore is because it helps us to discard what is unnecessary, just as the prodigal son took off his dirty clothes and put on a new robe. The author of Psalm 131 talks about how the power of healing and restoring can be found through rest.

1 My heart is not proud, O LORD,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.

Pride and arrogance, ambition for bigger achievements are what society has forced on us. These make us busier and more tired. After experiencing God’s rest, the author of Psalm 131 realized how meaningless and silly it was to follow worldly things. So, he discarded his desires, and the great peace began coming to his heart.

2 But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

The author urges us to look up to God who helps us rest and restore.

3 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD
both now and forevermore.

6.

We do not rest to work, and we work to rest. Who would go home to return to work? We go to work to return home and live a happy a life. Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of the greatest Jewish theologians, said, “The Sabbath is not the break of the life but the climax of the life.” He warns us who are often confused between the priority of work and rest

Of course, it doesn’t mean that we are doing nothing when we rest in father’s home. True rest is to tune our life with God, our father. Rest doesn’t mean to stop working but to work in tune with God’s rhythm. Working in tune with God’s rhythm means that we do what God wants, not what we desire. It also means that I am not the person in charge, but God is. It is like flying a kite. It is much easier to fly a kite as the wind blows.

The church for tired souls to rest is not the place to negate the works of the world but to complete it. It does not mean that church is a place to escape when it says that the church is a place for souls to rest. Just as the 4th commandment says that the Sabbath is only given to those who work hard for 6 days, God calls us to his church to rest and restores us from our desires. And then, God sends us back to the world.

The world is still running busy. The world is still whispering “we can only survive when you are busy” We go back to the world and live a busy life. However, we are no longer who we were. We are not busy satisfying our own ambitions. We are busy seeking God’s righteousness. (Matthew 6:33) Though we are busy, we no longer worry about what to eat and what to wear (Matthew 6:25). Instead of chronic fatigue and stress, joy is with us. Instead of boredom and emptiness, hope is with us. Instead of lack of motivation and depression, energetic power is with us. The world is the same, but as we have changed, our life is new. Because of God’s blessing which allows us to rest, heal, and restore, we can write a new chapter in history. Amen.

<Prayer>

My heart is not proud, O LORD,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, put your hope in the LORD
both now and forever more.