Our souls need rest, and restful things to do.

We live in a distracted age, curving us either to burnout or selfish pride. Society pressures us with the commandment to achieve more and more, meanwhile digital media numbs us with an endless abundance of nothing, and our sinful nature always desires just a little more, to say nothing of the spiritual forces at work against us.

Misbelieving we can work our way to significance, if not heaven, we wear ourself out and end up as an exhausted, burnt-out soul. It’s like Babel. Without a rule or limit, our desired end can never be reached, not because it is impossible, but because we drown in an infinite possibility. God knows that for us to live a life centered on our work, productivity or achievement is actually self-destructive.  There’s no end, no telos, and no rest.

That’s one of the reasons God has given us a day of rest. He gives us rest so that we might experience the fullness of human existence.  Beings created in the image of God reflect that image by resting in Him who created them. Rest, or sabbath, encompasses more than “not despising preaching and His Word,” but it is not less than this.

We schedule rest at 9am every Sunday morning at Faith. This set habit allows grace to be delivered regularly, and rest to be enjoyed regularly.

The Divine Service is the deepest of springs by which weary souls are fed. It doesn’t lift me out of everyday human existence; rather it frees me from the necessity of justifying my human existence through my work.  The liturgy frees me from my work and gives it back to me as a gift.  

In addition, the grace of God is really given in Word, Water, and the Bread that is Jesus’ Body & the Wine that is Jesus’ Blood. This is one of the hallmarks of the Lutheran Church. Christ is really present. And if He is present here, we do not need to climb to meet Him. He comes down to us.

Through these means of grace, Jesus lifts our hearts up. That is our motto: “Lift up your hearts!” We strive to be a church and school where hearts are lifted up, free from the worries of life, the pressures of the world, and the guilt of sin.

So we invite you: come let the liturgy in the Divine Service on Sunday shape you.  Let it work on you so that your soul may be at leisure. 

The Divine Service gives rest when it is effortless; that is, when it is repeated.  It might be new and different at first, but come a few times, learn the rhythm, and it will soon be a gift.

The Divine Service gives rest because it is calm; we are not attempting to compete for attention, especially through the ephemeral and digital.  We are one of the only churches in the Madison area to not use screens in our sanctuary.

The Divine Service gives rest because it is relaxed; that is, not informal, but from laxus, meaning “free.”  The Divine Service is the chief free gift of God.  We come as beggars and God gives us the Bread of Life.

Finally and especially, the Divine Service is not here to be merely useful.  It is for rest and for grace.  Since Jesus is here, true rest and grace are here too.

One of the great Lutheran hymns (often called the Queen of Chorales) of our own Scandinavian Lutheran tradition, puts it like this:

Now richly to my waiting heart,
O Thou, my God, deign to impart
The grace of love undying.
In Thy blest body let me be,
E’en as the branch is in the tree,
Thy life my life supplying.
Sighing,
Crying,
For the savor
Of Thy favor;
Resting never
Till I rest in Thee forever.¹

Find a refuge from this busy world and rest in Jesus, here at Faith Lutheran Church, Oregon, WI.

Divine Services every Sunday at 9am

Wednesday Vespers in Thanksgiving & Advent (Nov. 25-Dec. 16) at 6:30pm

Christmas Eve at 8pm

Christmas Day at 9am

1. Philip Nicolai, “How Lovely Shines the Morning Star,” st. 3 of hymn 167, in Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary ↩︎