PRAYER##BENCH# Sabbath# · “Sabbath#Restingin#God”in#Weavings#Magazine.)## # # •...
Transcript of PRAYER##BENCH# Sabbath# · “Sabbath#Restingin#God”in#Weavings#Magazine.)## # # •...
By Janice MacLean
Sabbath www.prayerbench.ca
A Seeker of Sabbath
I learned to listen for it when I lived in Jerusalem, the siren signalling the entry into Shabbat. It sounded on a Friday afternoon eighteen minutes before sunset. The buses stopped. The shops closed. The work week ended. The land seemed to breath out. It was the Sabbath, a time of deep rest. Even remembering it, I breathe deeply and my shoulders lower and I settle into a different space, Sabbath space. At the convent where I volunteered in Israel we had our "Entry in Sabbath" on Saturday evening. We went to Mass. We had a feast together. The pattern of our daily round ceased and Sunday was a day off. It was a time of deep rest.
“A day of rest.”
“Wasting time with
God.” “Solitude for the soul.”
“Sanctified Laziness.”
“To STOP.”
“To catch your
breath.”
P R A Y E R B E N C H
Sabbath
Longing for Sabbath
• Be present to what is unfinished in you and longing for Sabbath.
• What does Sabbath rest look like for you? The Hebrew Sabbath is also a moral practice. “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” (Exodus 20). Sabbath prohibited work for slaves and animals and called for jubilee, the freedom from debt. Sabbath was, not just the practice of an individual but also, the work of community for the good of all.
• How might your community benefit from Sabbath?
• What signs can you see in your community or in your family calling for a Sabbath for all? What gifts would a Sabbath bring to your creativity, the life of your group or family, or for the healing of creation?
Keeping the Sabbath was also a sign of covenant. See Exodus 31:12,17. “You shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations.” Keeping Sabbath was a sign of hope.
• Name the places in your life that long for hope.
“Keeping the Lord’s day holy” was the rallying cry of the Puritans. Obedience to the Lord’s Day Law meant books, music and activities that were not strictly religious were banned. Perhaps this is where we mixed up legalism with letting go when creating space for Sabbath rest. So with all this richness of Sabbath meaning, why do we have so little Sabbath?
My time in Jerusalem leaves me with a longing for Sabbath. I yearn for a weekly 'Entry in Sabbath' but the unpredictable pattern of my week doesn't always invite ritual. Honestly, sometimes I am too tired to intentionally welcome Sabbath! I try to have a sundown-‐to-‐sundown Sabbath once a month where I break patterns, fast from technology and catch my breath. Sometimes it works out. Other times the "Sabbath day" in my calendar gets replaced with "working at home." It's a compromise. I get a little break in pattern and a chance to focus on a piece of creative work. I usually have a five-‐day silent retreat once a year. The longing for a stretch of Sabbath drives me to this time of rest for my heart. True Sabbath rest is hard to observe. It's challenging to get enough sleep most weeks! Sabbath rest seems a luxury or worse, the shame of wasting time. We easily lose the habit of practicing Sabbath. “You don't play cards on Sunday.” I recall this sanction. It was a remnant of the Scottish Presbyterian roots of my Cape Breton family. It reminds me that deep in my DNA I do have an understanding of Sabbath that marked time differently. It is the source of my longing as a seeker of Sabbath. Jewish tradition offers us the understanding of Sabbath as a day of rest. Creation is unfinished until the seventh day, the day of Sabbath, of rest. Whatever our work, it is not finished until we’ve rested with it.
What Works against our need for rest? “We feel inwardly compelled to be productive, to be responsible, to be on
time, to make a good impression, to be liked or needed, to make our mark, to reform that in the world which offends our sense of justice. The freight train of our restless mind and hearts is not easily stopped … And we are not sure we want to stop it. We are guilty about doing nothing and resting before we cleaned up the world. Many of us exhibit a drivenness that implies on the one hand an anxious over-‐valuing of our own
individual actions for the welfare of the world, and, on the other hand, a lack of trust that God is also working in a much larger framework for wholeness and justice.
The idea of Sabbath resting in prayer runs counter to the whole mentality of the Protestant work ethic. When we are not being productive an anxious part of us starts to question our self-‐worth and feel that in our inactivity we are nothing … in an odd sort of way it is painful for us to rest because resting means just sitting with things as they are for awhile.” (FROM “Sabbath Resting in God” in Weavings Magazine.)
• What is stirred in you as you reflect on these words?
• Where do you experience resistance to creating time and space for Sabbath?
Here we are. Life is full of moments shimmering with fruitfulness and suffused in the ordinary. God of every moment, help us find Sabbath spaciousness in the crammed days of our lives. AMEN.
SABBATH WWW.PRAYERBENCH.CA
Planning for Sabbath
Sabbath demands intention. We need to get ready. Maria Harris in her book Jubilee Time, suggests Sabbath has less to do with a length of time or a specific day than it is ’a discipline of being in time.’ We will need to summon desire to set aside an hour or two, or a day or more for Sabbath rest. We will need discipline to keep it. We will need to decide if our Sabbath includes a fast from radio, TV, telephone, email, and social media. I know the depth of my own addiction to screens when my stomach clenches and my mind immediately offers the argument that I can better pray for the world if I check the news online! (It’s an easy leap then to email and social media!) Yet I accept that fasting from technology offers me deeper possibility of being present.
• What do you need to let go to fully enter into Sabbath rest? What do I “do” during Sabbath? Sometimes I walk. Or read. I make a nice meal. Or I receive pictures (rather than taking them.) I pray. Or listen to music. I sleep. (Yes, sleep is often a gift of Sabbath time.) I sink into silence. I savour scripture using a process of the heart like Lectio Divina. The longer the Sabbath the less I “do.” I'm not sure anyone can tell another what to do or not do on Sabbath. Try sitting with these 'definitions’ as you plan a Sabbath.
Sabbath is ... Hanging out with God. Sabbath is … Sanctified Laziness.
Sabbath is … Wasting time with God. Sabbath is … Solitude for the soul.
Sabbath is ... a day of rest. Sabbath is … to stop, to catch your breath.
Notice which phrase attracts you.
• Which image or phrase speaks to your longing or imagination? • What would help you enter deeply into a time of rest for your heart?
Photos by Janice MacLean www.prayerbenchc.ca