I guess that was the heyday of the Protestant work ethic! And in some ways we can do the same - and turn our worship into hard work - when we think of it as work and not celebration.

Today the impetus to work is a huge pressure on people. Employers put vast and unrealistic demands on people.

Political changes in the 1980s famously ‘cut the slack in industry’. It was a vital reform in some ways - we would not be able to compete as well in a global economic market without it. But I think it went to far. It assumed that people are most productive when they are pushed to their limits all the time.

This is clearly not true! It is not the way God says that he has made us. We are most productive when we live in balance, and when we do have space and time to be creative, when we do have time to chat things over with a colleague, when we have time to think - is this the best way to do this job, what about if I did it another way?

We live in dangerous times. If we were flogging ourselves to death when the economy was doing reasonably well, how will we get on in times of recession and rising unemployment? (P)

I am sure that we as Christians, and as a church need to be thinking this through, finding out how we can encourage each other and those around us to make space to put sparkle and celebration back into the our lives when we feel oppressed by the grind of work or the lack of it.

I don’t have any immediate answers, we need to work on this together, bandy ideas about in groups and see what God might be wanting us to do.

But lets do something! For too long we have recognised the problem, shared the problem with each other, but in effect stood there wringing our hands rather than doing anything about it.

I don’t have answers but I do have a lot of experience of needing to rest far more than I would like to. (P)

Even beforeIbecame so ill at Christmas,I knew that I had to speak about this subject.

For more years than I like to remember God has been challenging me to find a better work life balance, and to take more time for family and fun.

As my illness has become worse the pressure has got greater, the diagnosis of ME or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome put it in sharp focus, and after the Christmas flu I have just had to learn to take more time to rest.

I have had to face the real distress of having loads of things I want to do, but I’ve not been able to do them. It has been so frustrating. I can feel the panic rising in me when I allow myself to dwell on it.

But I know that God has been preparing me for it. For years I have been wrestling with this very subject when I see my spiritual director.

He was a typical hard working cleric, running a parish, training curates and holding down a number of important posts in the Diocese. Until he hit a personal crisis and realised he had to change. It was too late to undo a lot of the damage he had already done to those around him, but he did change.

He has giving up all his Diocesan Committees, and has worked hard on his priorities. He continues to assure me that he now does more of the things he feels are really important in ministry more and does them effectively and better.

Now I am sure that a lot of you are saying to yourselves, ‘but I just can’t do any less, there is just so much to be done’. I cannot disagree with that feeling. I have thought it for years.

It grieves me now that my illness has put so much more pressure on other people, especially Ann (my wife). She has had to do more when she very much needed to do less. I think it is very unfair of God to let it be this way, but in the end I have to trust that he knows what he is doing.(P)

With so much else to say I am a bit sorry that I have not had time to expounded our passages for today - all I can say is, go to a group and find out more there about what God is saying through them!

But I want to leave you with a challenge.

Just think on this: Maybe God is actually very serious about this Sabbath stuff. Maybe we only work properly as humans when we do get a balance of work, rest and play - and all the relationships we have in all those activities.

We do have so much to celebrate! I wonder if we don’t celebrate much because we won’t take the sabbath seriously.

Jesus wants us to come to him and rest, why won’t we let God care for us like he cared for Elijah - and like Elijah, admit how much we are in need of him.

Maybe we are just not sufficiently secure in who we are - as beloved children of God - to be able to admit that we are the people whom God longs to draw into healing and wholeness of life. So many of us have to grind ourselves into the ground justifying our existence and working to avoid the nagging emotional pains we feel inside.

None of this is easy. I have stubbornly ignored God’s call to work more effectively for about twenty years - most of my ministry. My family and my own body have born the brunt of my stupidity. Some things cannot be undone. But I know that I am being drawn to face changes now, more than ever before. I think that this year, at St Paul’s, we all might be.

We will see what happens! Amen