August 26th, 2007 - Being fed and keeping Sabbath

There was familiar and new music today. We still appear to be benefiting from the music inspired by the Chicago Jubilee that happened just before the Churchwide Assembly. The congregation seemed to pick up on the new music quickly and the familiar brimmed with energy. David's vigorous performance of Hallelujah, We Sing Your Praises stood out. Kim's vocals guided the worship music in a very beautiful way.

I was deeply touched by the sermon which started with a rumination on The Oregonian headline of Mother Teresa not feeling the presence of God or Jesus in her life for years. Pastor Dayle talked about times of faithlessness when we feel abandoned by God as times where we need to keep going and that we need to be a community that can buoy each other up during those times.

The sermon then moved to the Gospel reading and how to keep the Sabbath. Pastor Dayle defined this as attending to the things that feed you, give you life and energy and remind you that you are a child of God.

Sabbath gives us the space we need to rejoice in God.

Does keeping Sabbath involve obeying some deep essential that spiritually holds us together?Should keeping Sabbath cuts across the grain of the crammed and frenzied 24/7 time is money life in which we live. We put such a premium on hard work and brilliance, highly-developed skills and achievement. Pastor Dayle talked about another way of keeping Sabbath, the root word which means in Hebrew either to stop, desist, or exhale. Do we keep Sabbath in that way?

I am drawn to the Sabbath being far more than a day to restrain ourselves from working. My earliest childhood memories of Sundays involved restrictions on what could and couldn’t be done. Then, as more chores and work needed to be done, those restrictions slipped away. Growing older I felt I needed Sunday as a “day off” from the work week, a day to vegetate and stay in neutral.

For years I missed, and still often miss, the heart of the Sabbath as silence and trust. I should know that our identity is not wrapped into our activity. Sabbath is a reminder we are limited, and that our lives are more dependant on God’s grace than our own effort and yet that truth often eludes me.

Part of my sabbath, using the definition Pastor Dayle cited, is my writing here. This is a reflection and meditation that helps me see and celebrate what happens at Creator in a way that I would otherwise lose or not understand.