Owning
a house at the beach comes at some cost.
While it gives pleasure to you or others, the elements are harsh and one
will either spend money or self to keep the house in shape. Today my hands still ache from 5 hours spent
yesterday pressure washing the decks. I
am only a quarter done! But Mother
Nature has given us rain and rest. I am
glad to yield.
Jeremiah
is a prophet with a fairly heavy agenda, but that seems always the role of the
prophetic. He warns the people of Judah
what will befall them if they do not sharpen their alertness. Some things are
pretty self evident to this author and one of them is that people have a hard
time following the commandments. The
momentary gain attained, often financial or pleasure, in breaking these commandments comes
at a cost to the depth of life and our posture before God.
But if you do not
listen to me, to keep the sabbath day holy, and to carry in no burden through
the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its
gates; it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.
(7:27)
I
grew up under Blue Laws where all businesses were closed on Sunday, the
Christian Sabbath it was called. One always had to remember to buy milk on
Saturday or gas if a trip was planned. The
Blue Laws slowly went away as one thing and then another was judged a necessity.
The only place I know that maintains them is the town of Paramus, NJ, a town
loaded with malls where New Yorkers often shop. The Blue Laws are not maintained for religious
reasons but sanity, the local desire to rest or freely get about without heavy
traffic once a week. Yet there is tension from time to time to get rid of these
barriers to commerce.
Truth
is we have a need to rest and it can be more easily achieved when a culture
cooperates with one another to allow it.
We need to restore even as my hands do today. I need to let them be. Because we are a religiously
plural society we have a hard time either agreeing to a day or to the purpose
of this stopping. Our faith teaches us,
we stop that God’s values and ways may penetrate us, thus worship, resting in
God and being in restorative company. I would add we do well to let the “other”
rest as well for each is an image bearer of God who needs time to restore this
image.
John’s
gospel has an interesting line today.
Having fed the 4000, Jesus has crossed over the lake. The crowds have followed looking, perhaps for
another meal. But I suspect for more
because they rowed across the sea which seems to indicate a deeper hunger. Yet Jesus says:
"Very truly, I
tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you
ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work
for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you. (John 6:26-27)
I
feel slightly warned here. Yes it is
good my hands should rest and that I take this morning time to be quiet and
restore. But it is important to realize
that the reason to rest is to be open to the guidance of God which comes from
beyond me. I do well to lay down my
agenda, not just to lay it down, but to create an open space to invite the Holy
Other in.
Once
I post this, I think I shall just be more quiet and taste some of the eternal
life food. Perhaps then when I take up a task later, I will do so from a centered, caring and cared for place.
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