I read in Friday’s paper about the unusual bike ride that was supposed to happen on Saturday. Unusual in that it was a protest ride, determined to protest the U.S. dependency on oil…which I heartily support…and also intended to “get people more comfortable with their bodies.” The only way to do that, of course was by having the protest riders…ride naked.

They were supposed to go over Queen Anne. I was unable to be in attendance, but knowing the number of biking enthusiasts in our congregation…I was hoping you all had other things to do yesterday! I was glad there was at least a biblical element involved in their protest…at the end of the ride, they were handing out “free fig leaves!”

This morning we are returning finally to our series in the book of Hebrews. I feel the need to remind you of a few things from Hebrews since it has been several weeks since we read from it.

• First, the letter was probably written in the late 60s AD, so about a generation after the death of Jesus.
• Second, it seems to have been written to a group of Jewish Christians…people from the Jewish faith who had come to recognize Jesus as the point of access to the Living God.
• And third, it seems to have been written during a time of persecution when it was a difficult to admit to being a Christian.

Now here’s the bad news. Practically every scholar I read this week comments about chapter 4 beginning with the words:

“In this difficult passage…”

Not so encouraging. We’ll try to sort it out. It seems to me to be the case that Hebrews, perhaps of all the New Testament books, absolutely requires that we have some familiarity with the Old Testament story. In particular, today’s reading requires that we remember the story behind the Psalm 95 passage that Lynne read earlier. That story is again from the book of Numbers.

You know I love words. And one of my favorites this week is “watershed.” Do you know that word? It’s actually a topographical word that refers to a ridge up in the mountains. The rain or melting snow water on one side of that ridge drains down to one particular river and ecosystem, while water from just a few feet on the other side goes to an entirely different system. That ridge is the crucial dividing line, or turning point.

Now, most often the “watershed moment” for the people of Israel is described as the Exodus. When God saved the people out of slavery in Egypt, and through a series of miracles took them to safety…it was Israel’s defining moment. God said to them,

“Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.”

The story of the book of Numbers is that after their amazing escape from Egypt, the people of Israel have slowly made their way through the desert towards Canaan. God had promised them a land, and they are finally poised at edge of that Promised Land. At God’s instruction, Moses sends 12 spies into the land. They return, and ten give a fearful, depressing report about the strength of the people, and the impossibility of conquering the land.

They advise Israel to turn aside. Only two, Caleb and Joshua, disagree, not because they evaluate their enemies differently…but because they remember what God has already said and done, and believe that God will continue to lead them.

The people, however, don’t believe. They hear, but can’t trust. Another watershed moment, according to the author of Hebrews…And God’s anger is stirred against them, and God says that though their children will enter the Promised Land, the current generation never will…which is indeed what happens. Even Moses only sees the Promised Land from afar. It will fall to Joshua to actually lead the people into the land.

Let’s read now in Hebrews 4…1-3b, 6-13.

“Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open…”

Are you carrying around a picture of what rest looks like? Maybe you conjure up an image of napping on a nice beach somewhere. I’ve talked with a couple of people in the last month who have sabbaticals coming. They’re tired, nothing sounds like better rest than just time off of work, almost regardless of what else they do.

I have a picture in my mind of a canoe trip I went on when we lived in Minnesota. Maybe you don’t know that the whole northern part of Minnesota is water…except for the part that is mosquitoes! And there is this famous section called the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. No motors allowed. You canoe across a lake, portage (i.e. carry your canoe across a little isthmus of land), then paddle again.

One day we were crossing the longest lake on our trip, lengthwise. It was a cloudy day, and just as we started across the wind started up. It grew stronger and stronger, and pretty soon we were paddling with everything we had just to make a little headway into the wind. What could have been an easy journey turned into this Herculean effort…it was windy and choppy enough by the end to give you quite a bit of adrenaline.

By the time we reached the island where we were going to camp, we were exhausted. Absolutely exhausted. We dragged our canoes ashore. Too tired to even unpack the food. Even though it was still windy, the sun came out and we all stretched out on these warm rocks like a bunch of walruses…and almost instantly fell asleep, for a good hour. Never has a rest felt so good.

“Let us therefore make every effort to enter God’s rest, so that no one will fall…by disobedience.”

In these 14 verses, the writer of Hebrews uses the concept of God’s rest…no less than 11 times. God’s rest comes through the hearing of God’s word, and obeying.

But what is the rest, exactly?

1. The first reference is to a land, a place. The land of promise for Israel. The land flowing with milk and honey. That was the land that, because of unbelief (the hearing of God’s word, and the refusal to believe it), Moses and a whole generation were unable to enter. Joshua led the people into the Promised Land. That’s why it is so surprising to hear the writer say that even Joshua had not really given the people rest either. As one theologian says it, apparently the event of entering and settling and thriving in the land “did not exhaust God’s intention” for His people to enter his rest. A hint, a shadow, but ultimately not the true rest.

2. We may know more about this than we think. The “Land” was a physical, material place. My default is to think of “rest” in mainly physical terms. Rest may mean having a life of leisure as defined by the spaciousness of the house, or the dependability of the car, or the assurance of a savings account. Or rest is when we succeed in moving to a safer neighborhood, or when we’ve retired. Rest is acquired when we have these things and are less worried about the physical needs of life day to day.

A more idealistic way of saying this, perhaps, is that we search for heaven on our physical and social earth. We continue to look for the utopia, where life is clean and neat and stress-free. Sometimes we go through job after job, neighborhood after neighborhood, or church after church looking for our rest…only to be disappointed. Life remains messy. Church families still fall far short. Relationships are too shallow.

This earth just does not seem to contain the full rest of God. I’m reminded of that this week. I received an email from one of our missionaries in China.

Two years ago a small group of us went to China and spent time in several schools of the underground church. The email I received this week said that two weeks ago the Chinese police seized two of the very schools we were at.

School property was destroyed, teachers were arrested. The head teacher is considering turning himself in because it would eliminate the heat on everyone else. That would mean a three year prison sentence for gathering in an unauthorized manner. I share this partly to say we need to pray for our Chinese brothers and sisters. But I also thought this week, where is God’s rest for them? It doesn’t seem to be materially on their earth.

The writer to the Hebrews says the Israelites entered the land with Joshua, but ultimately that was not God’s whole rest either. There is something more.

3. Maybe then God’s rest is just…in heaven. Some of you I know have read a story called “The Borning Chamber.” It starts out in some kind of village. It slowly dawns on you that this village is actually in heaven, and people there are periodically called together with a joyous shout that says,

“Come, come, the time is come!”

As they gather, it seems that a baby is about to be born…until you realize that what actually is happening is that someone down on earth is about to die, and be “born” into heaven, welcomed by God and all the saints.

The story is about a man who awaits a long-suffering mother. In fact, at one point he can see down into the hospital room where his mother struggles with her last breaths. When she finally arrives in heaven there is a cheering, a grand welcome to a wonderful rest.

The writer to the Hebrews certainly believes in the ultimate rest of heaven. In chapter 11, it will be called “a better country, a heavenly one.” And yet…clearly there is far more for us than just “the rest comes after we die.”

The truth of the gospel rest is that we yearn, we long, not for a land of perfect leisure, nor even just the ultimate rest of heaven, but we long for the rest of being in “unbroken fellowship with the God who made us.”

And the power of that relationship, accessible in Jesus Christ, will inform all of life. Some rest will come in the here and now, where the kingdom of God is both here and not yet fully realized… because ultimately the rest we crave is not in a land or a destination but in a Person. In Jesus Christ God straddles our life here and our life to come. In Jesus we taste the rest that will allow us to in some way live now what will come in full in heaven.

If we are to experience any of that rest now…we will have to learn not to grab hold of life so tightly. We are so prone to try to earn our way to God, to fill our lives with things that are second best, and for me, I can complicate even the things of faith so much. And the word of God…to the Israelites, to the early Christians, to us, says simply:

“Listen to my word, and believe.”

When I was 22 and just out of college, I worked as a factory sales rep for one year. One December I was over in Yakima with my boss for some sales calls. We left after dark on a Friday to come back to Seattle. My boss wanted me to drive, so I jumped in behind the wheel of his car and off we went.

As you leave Yakima and head towards Ellensburg, you have to climb up and over a long hill. It was dark, and it had been snowing, but as we headed up the hill the snow was really falling hard. Cars going by splattered slush onto the windshield. My boss in the passenger seat was totally relaxed, but the more I drove the tighter I became. Traction was bad, visibility was worse and I found myself very intently watching the road, struggling to know where my lane was. I gripped the steering wheel with a kind of death grip.

At one point, I felt like I was going too fast for the conditions, so I eased up on the gas a bit. To my dismay, we actually increased a bit in speed! I eased up more, but we were still going just as fast, and my heart was pounding. I took my foot off the wheel, and found us still traveling too fast. I started to panic just a little, not sure if I could negotiate the next turn at this speed. That’s when my boss’s voice drifted casually over:

“I guess we’re over the top of the hill, huh?”

I had been so iron-gripped intent on driving I hadn’t noticed we were going downhill instead of up! Now, of course I needed to keep driving…but what I really needed to do was relax, and be able to see around me.

On this earth, I don’t actually think our rest is going to look too serene and peaceful and unhurried. There’s too much to do, to experience, to live, to minister. We still live in a just a hint or foreshadowing of what will come. But because our real destination lies in this person Jesus, we can quit gripping the wheel so hard. We don’t need to save ourselves, we’ve already been saved. We don’t have to find grace, it’s being held out to us. We can just listen for God’s word, and believe…and taste God’s rest.

Let’s pray.

Lord, as your word comes to us, in prayer in your scripture, it cuts to the very heart of us. Give us the ability to know your rest…in knowing You. Amen.