Sabbath

Dear People of Christ Church,
This Sunday, we head into our summer schedule of having just one service at 9:30 in place of our usual 8:30 and 10, kicked off with our annual Church in the Garden. This year we're blessed with a unique portable organ, lent to us by Bill Weber, to support our singing even better. Bring a chair or blanket (there will also be some folding chairs from the parish hall set up) and stay for our outdoor coffee-less hour, too. We meet on the lawn in the shade, so don't worry about getting too hot.

Last week, I wrote about celebration-this week, as I see pictures of my family already on vacation posted on facebook, I'm thinking about rest (I leave on Monday to join them, so it's also my own longing at work!). Rest isn't slacking, or laziness, but part of our calling as spiritual beings. The New Zealand prayer book translates Psalm 127 like this: "It is but lost labor that we haste to rise up early, and so late take rest, and eat the bread of anxiety. For those beloved of God are given gifts even while they sleep." 

Gifts from God, even as you sleep! 
In our busy lives, though, it's hard to remember the importance of Sabbath. We are so intent in our culture on being productive, on having something to show for ourselves. "Empty hands are the devil's playground," our grandmothers taught us. But it's only with empty hands that we can accept what God has to give us. 

We "eat the bread of anxiety;" the psalm cites it as an intentional act. We get caught up and forget that we choose the way we live our lives. Even in our "time off," we go shopping, we consume things we don't need. We want, at the end of the day, to say that we did something. But what would it be like if you just didn't do anything? If you put aside all the things that people expect of you, that you expect from yourself, all those needs and random wants? What if you came before God with empty hands and a silent mind and just prayed for them to be filled with God's quiet and love? 

Important, too, is how your Sabbath impacts those around you. The meaning of Sabbath is rigorously outlined in the Old Testament for the Jews to follow-Sabbath is part of the law. But the implications of Sabbath aren't just for the Jews. They are commanded not to work, not just for themselves but so that their slaves and their animals also don't work. Sabbath extends outward from one person through to the community. "Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your donkey may have relief, and your homeborn slave and the resident alien may be refreshed." (Exodus 23: 12) Of course, we are reading now in Galatians about how Christ came to take us out from under the law. How readily does God receive our rest when it's given freely, rather than commanded? Take a moment and give God the gift of your rest, and see how your receive God's grace in return. 

Peace,
Sara+