Vineyard Church | Weekly Update October 2nd, 2024

The 6+1 rhythm… If you were with us on Sunday, you know that we began unpacking the fourth commandment, Exodus 20:8-11:

8 “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 You have six days each week for your ordinary work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you.”

There is so much to consider with these few verses and so much conflict that has come from this short passage. Well-meaning leaders who wanted to help keep people on the right side of the law and evil manipulators who sought to weaponize the faith against the faithful alike have taken the words of the Lord to a place of application that doesn’t fit with God's nature.

Using this passage as a mechanism to control behavior ignores the fact that God presented the Ten Commandments as a gift AFTER he liberated his people from slavery. For the Jews of the Old Testament, this was freedom from literal slavery in Egypt; for us, this freedom is from the slavery caused by sin, addiction, or the demands and distractions of secular life.

The paradigm then of the fourth commandment, as Darrell Johnson puts it, is not as an imposition on the human species but as an exposition of who we are called to be. This call to rest one day a week is not a disengagement without responsibilities, it is a matter of engagement without obstacles. The fourth commandment does not create a system or force a behavior, it defines the way the Intelligent Designer created us… We are dealing with the Manufacturer’s specifications for how we will thrive; the 6+1 rhythm.

Operating outside of this rhythm creates the conditions for chaos collaboration and a return to slavery after being freed. The demands, distractions, and ambitions of life can lead to a rhythm that we are slaves to, and can also reveal a faulty worthiness metric when we derive worth from our work rather than worth from the reality that we are the beloved of the Living God.

It is not difficult to see how far away from the Manufacturer’s specifications our culture is, including those attempting to follow Jesus. This rhythm is antithetical to secular culture, and bringing correction to out-of-whack rhythms can be a minefield of relational conflict. Let’s frolic into that minefield together!

Over the next few weeks, we will be devoting this space to a conversation about the Sabbath. Perhaps culminating in a spiritual discipline that we engage in together; we are going to evaluate our rhythms and work to bring them in line with how we are created to operate. Today, we begin with looking at the 6 of the 6+1, a Biblical philosophy of work.

Work is a non-negotiable part of the whole deal; we were created to work (not created to work for our salvation; He did that before he gave us the 10 Commandments!) evidenced by the tasks God has given His created image bearers (us). He tasked us, through archetypes Adam and Eve to multiply, fill, and co-reign with him, and as an extension of this work, Jesus commissioned us to go into all the world to tell people about him and then TRAIN those followers to do the stuff that He did. Work, from a Biblical perspective, is more than just the stuff we need to do to gain resources for survival, work is also playing our role in the unfolding plan of God. Next week we will talk about the vocational side of the work paradigm, today we look at the missional side of the work we are to engage in.

The two parts of the Great Commission make clear that a part of our activity during the 6 of the 6+1 is missional living that would see the expansion of the Kingdom of God. This expansion is through the telling of the Good News (multiply) and through discipleship, growing in the likeness of Jesus. Learning about Him, working out the things that keep us from acting like Him, and learning how better to help others be like Him.

Discipleship is done through spiritual discipline as well as through community efforts. A complete discipleship effort cannot be done as a lone ranger; we need each other in this effort. Because this is true, some of our time in the 6 of the 6+1 must be devoted to being together as the Body of Christ for the purpose of learning about Him, working out the things that keep us from acting like Him, and learning how better to help others be like Him.

One problem with this reality is that when measured against all of the other priorities of life, small group participation and church attendance are often some of the first things to go as the demands and distractions of life pile up. Whether discipleship loses place for recreation, leisure, or vocational advancement, intentional giving of time to relational maintenance with God and with the Body of Christ can be some of the first items on the chopping block of the busy American life. When Jesus calls us to abide in him, and remain in him, in John 15, we must know that allowing the discipleship piece of His commission to be chopped for other things is a transgression of the 6+1 rhythm and of a Biblical philosophy of work.

Our task this week is to evaluate the intentional discipleship with which we are engaged and where this is on our priorities list. Small group participation, prayer, and study of the Word of God are essential elements of the 6+1 rhythm. At the Vineyard, our most effective discipleship work is done in our small groups, where we learn, grow, and are challenged together. Small groups signups are open and ready to launch… A great first step to 6+1 repair.

As a Vineyard family, my hope is that we become a sabbatical Body of Christ. As a part of this rhythm, let’s begin with bringing what correction might be needed to the 6 of our 6+1.


Adam Greenwell
Pastor
Billings Vineyard Church | www.billingsvineyard.org