As noted yesterday, we will continue with the piece from Stanley Hauerwas.
Jesus' death was not a mistake but what was to be expected of a violent world which does not believe that this is God's world. In effect Jesus is nothing less than the embodiment of God's sabbath as a reality for all people. Jesus proclaims peace as a real alternative, because he has made it possible to rest - to have confidence that our lives are in God's hands. No longer is the sabbath one day, but the form of life of a people on the move. God's kingdom, God's peace, is a movement of those who have found the confidence through the life of Jesus to make their lives a constant worship of God. We can rest in God because we are no longer driven by the assumption that we must be in control of history, that it is up to us to make things come out right.
At first it may look as though we are to be a group of passive folks who simply wait for God to act. Well...not. Our rest is the rest we have when we know that our God is and will be the beginning and end of all things...that the Reign of God comes in the midst of promise. Therefore, we can say that our lives are lives of promise. The promise in which we rest is that of shalom - the peace & healing & justice & mercy that is available to all who trust in God. We can go there. We can live there. We can walk within its promise of life even as it is not the life that is being lived all around us. Quite like the sabbath where the world goes about its business attempting to secure itself while the people of promise rest and do not try to take advantage of anyone or anything...they/we are invited to rest and worship our God.
Connection: How do you rest? How do you re-group or re-focus or re-commit? When are you best at doing that?
We long for your peace to reign among us, O God. And yet, we are so pulled by the powers of the day that we forget to pause and step back within the rest of this day that you have promised for all your children. Guide us into that place and time as we rush about this day trying to make a life for ourselves. Guide us into your peace. Amen
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