| Here is another interesting way to look at sabbath rest - and anxiety. From "Mandate to Difference" by Walter Brueggemann. The Creator promises and guarantees abundance, and sabbath is the day we luxuriate in that abundance as a gift which we do not need to perform or possess or acquire or achieve....because it is a gift! But of course, we do not keep sabbath, and so violate the inviolate sabbath and so diminish and deplete our naphshim because we do not believe in, trust in, or count on god's abundance. We do not think that creation is abundant, and we do not trust the guarantee of the Creator. The outcome of such distrust, I propose, is a devouring anxiety....just as sabbath is a total antidote to anxiety. For what remains of my comments, I juxtapose sabbath and anxiety. Note well "anxiety" .....not "sin" or "guilt." Well it is obvious that we will be staying with this discussion of sabbath as we move into looking at sabbath and our anxiety. That's good. I need that. Trusting in God is the foundation of who we say we are. Even at the beginning of the words at Sinai, there is our trust in one God alone. All things come from and grow within that reality. It is a reality that is meant to shape the character of our lives. Once we step away from that foundational word of hopefulness - "I am the Lord, YOUR God" - we step into piles of "stuff" that keep making our lives smell with misplaced trust and thus, anxiety over what may or may not happen to us. I find that as I am anxious about what will happen in my life, I become less of a person shaped within the loving embrace of our God. In many and various ways, I will step into action and begin to build the world as I want it and insist that it must be. In other words, I run from the promises of our God and in response to my anxiety enter a living hell that is always being judged and under scrutiny. That's sad. Sabbath call me to rest in what God has promised and I so easily choose to spin within my anxieties - an utter waste of time - all time. Connection: Are you able to catch yourself spinning within the grasp of anxious moments? It can be so deadly. Come, Holy Spirit. Come and open up our lives that we may see how you offer new life and when you offer life it is life given forever and ever. When we are inspired to see that, we are handed a weapon with which we can face our anxieties. Amen. |
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