| We ended last week with the reminder that God rested. Today we pick up with that thought. Again, in "Mandate to Difference" by Walter Brueggemann. This God rests! this God so rests that Israel in its poetic imagination can entertain the thought of YHWH's dormancy. Indeed Israel can issue a wake-up call to God: "Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord! Awake, as in days of old, the generation of long ago! Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon? (Isa. 51:9) The summons in Isaiah 51 is to the creator God, the one who had in ancient times dealt with evil sea monsters. God rests because the world will work, because the tasks of creation have been delegated, and because creation, blessed as it is, knows the will and energy of the Creator and does not need constant attention. God rests, because God engages in self-care and because there came a silence over heaven and earth and the radishes said to the porcupines, "Shhh - be quite because 'Himself' is resting, and we must tiptoe until Sunday morning when we will arise after rest to new life." The rest of the Creator causes serenity in creation. The creatures, like the Creator, are competent and trusting and unhasting. the world works and all is well. So, rest - the world will work. Even when there is so much we are handed as caretakers of creation - it will work. Rest is an essential part of all life. God rests as we are trusted to be a part of the ongoing generativity of creation. As we all know, we don't seem to take the caretaker role very seriously. Too often we have let ourselves think that "it will work" means that we don't have to keep our eyes on things. When we do that, we are most likely to take even the little gifts of creation for granted and forget about how we must seek the well-being of all things. God rests as God trusts what will be done by all of us as we enter into the role we have been given. Our resting reminds us what God has put into action before us. Our resting reminds us that we cannot control the working of the world no matter how we work. In fact, it seems like the more we try to get done in our world, the more we seem to take advantage of creation and forget about keep things in good condition. Getting things done often leads to putting our task as stewards on the shelf and going forward as we please. Connection: We are competent and trusting and unhasting - good reason to take our resting and our working as stewards seriously. Creating God, as you rest you hand us the day and consider us to be the overseers of the creative process that continues to unfold around us. Within such a blessing you have once again called us your own and we ask that you encourage this life of faithfulness. Amen. |
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