| Like a week comes to an abrupt end, so too does creation - and it ends in rest. Again from "Mandate to Difference." What a piece of literary architecture, that Exodus 25-31 imagines and construes a safe, ordered place where the holiness of God can touch down without pollution or disturbance. Except that at the last moment, in the seventh speech, the promise of space, in characteristic Jewish fashion, is converted to a safe, ordered time for rehabilitation. In this regard, the tabernacle-to-sabbath sequence is exactly parallel to Genesis 1 that ponders fruitful space for six days and at the last moment turns to holy time. What is holy time? It is the realm of peace. It is the day in which the fullness of God is available without restriction - therefore it is a time of complete rest. All the work and all the planning and all the action and all the creation of that which is new and springing forth as though it is truly the gift that it is, is now at its end - for now. Rest comes - breath comes - memories hold us deep within the promises of our God - the sabbath rest (that "cathedral in time") is where we can wander and wonder and prayerfully consider the gift of life that is handed to us all. Where is this day to be honored? I suppose without limit. And yet it must have some intention about it. Even if it is in the middle of the work within time that so often buries us with worry and agendas. For even there, we must be a people who enter the rest that can be presented to us at any moment. I find that at times, this time of rest sits down right alongside me and just stares at me and waits for me to notice what is not yet a part of my life. It is not a condemning presence. It is a loving presence that seeks to keep me well and bring about refreshment. It takes discipline to respect those moments when the world is asking us to press on. Connection: Are you able to enter that rest - that gift - even when your sense that your are being carried away by the day? Your touch, O God, nurtures us and guides us and reminds us that we are your beloved children. In the face of all that must be done you continue to whisper a word of peace and well-being so that we will remember that you love us into restfulness. Amen. |
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