What does the Bible say about recreation?

• Genesis 2:1-4, God rested on the seventh day
• Psalm 116, rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you
• Isaiah 65:17-25, God will create a new heaven and a new earth
• Matthew 11:28-30, "Come to me, all you that are weary. . ."
• Mark 6:30-32, Jesus said, "Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while."
• 2 Corinthians 5:11-17, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation
• Galatians 6, a new creation is everything

Sermon ideas about recreation

All things new

Old covenant and new covenant. OldAdam and new Adam. Old life and new life. The way of things in the biblical narrative is that God is in the business of taking what is old and making it new. This is "re-creation." The old covenant of gracious law is re-created to be a new covenant of law fulfilled by grace. The old Adam who bears the shame of sin is put to death and re-created in the new Adam, Christ, who was put to death and re-created, resurrected. The old way of life that haunts Christians is re-created by the work of Christ and of his Spirit. We do not become new people entirely, as though possessing nothing in common with who we once were. Rather, who we once were is refined, re-oriented, and re-created to new purpose.

You say "recreation," I say "re-creation": It is important to play with the linguistics here. Too often, being re-created in the image of Christ is described as burdensome, fatiguing hard work, after all, the command was to pick up a cross and follow! But the linguistics betray something delightful: that there is joy and freedom and release in finally allowing our actions to align with our holy purpose. Created in the image of God, there is great delight when our perceptions of the world, our attitudes, actions, thoughts, and words, align to their original purpose. To be re-created is to fit into God's created purpose. Fitting into God's created purpose, we are re-created to participate in the re-creation of God's good (yet still broken) world.

Patterns of our lives

The Sabbath is a day of rest. Many people have memories of growing up in Sabbatarian households where to "rest" was equivalent to not doing childishly joyful (read: loud) things. Another linguistic parallel worth noting is that "rest" and "restore" come from the same root. In a society where work is physically active, a day of physical rest or stillness is restorative. In a society where work is done while sitting at a desk and at a computer, restoration or re-creation may well be the work of a long run or a bike ride. As we approach the Sabbath day in a new context, it would serve us well to ask: "In what ways have the last six days made me less than my created-in-God's-image self? How can I receive this day as a gift to re-create what the world has broken down?"

The Bible tells us that we are to pattern our lives on the behavior of children. "I tell you, the kingdom of God belongs to such as these" (Matt. 19:14). What this means has been disputed over the centuries. I asked an elementary school-age kid in my congregation once what he made of that saying of Jesus, and he said, "Well, kids are more jolly than adults." God created the world good. It is beautiful, from the expansive sunsets to butterfly wings. The Bible tells us that God made this good world for our use and dominion. Good stewardship, then, ought to involve enjoyment of the earth and enjoyment of one another as God's creations. As we play, or recreate, we participate in the re-creation of the earth, preparing ourselves and it for the return of its Maker.