Today we pick up from the words God spoke at Sinai. Yesterday there were nine times that God spoke (love of God - love of Neighbor). Brueggeman now writes of the ten time God speaks. And then this emancipatory voice circled back and pressed the "insert" button on his computer; YHWH inserted between the three on love of God and six on love of neighbor, the longest of all commandments. The command on sabbath occupies a central position, because it looks back to the first three and the God of restfulness and it looks forward to the last six concerning the neighbor who needs restfulness. Right at the center of this charter for freedom, the great God of freedom has placed the central provision for freedom that rings always and now in the years of the faithful: Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Most often this command is associated with a "day of rest" - as though it is fulfilled when we stop everything and do absolutely nothing - and rest. The rest is vital for our lives. It is much to easy to keep on running until we run ourselves out of life. And yet, I wonder if it is good for us to look beneath the day of rest. In some ways, taking a day of rest can be like another bit of work we have been able to accomplish - "Look what a good boy am I!" In reality though, the sabbath rest is given to us as a gift - not a work. We rest because God has promised to be our God and save us in and through all the days of our lives - even when we think we must win the day and make something of ourselves. Sabbath rest is an explosion of laughter - at all our ways of making things work out and all of our controls that we think will win the day. The laughter is an unbounded joy in which we are invited to remember that covenant with our God. It is for me whenever I am able to rest as I remember the mark on my forehead - no one else notices it but it helps me breathe, laugh, rest, breathe again. Connection: A good restful discipline is a wonderful gift to the world. For the undisciplined (like me) we must be vigilant to enter that rest and honor our God whose word of promise is enough to sustain us and bring life. Again and again, O God, come and be our rock and foundation upon which we will rest and smile and laugh and love and know that you alone grant us such peace and rest. Praise to you, O God of New Life. Amen. |
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