A day of rest

Almighty God, who after the creation of the world rested from all your works and sanctified a day of rest for all your creatures: Grant that we, putting away all earthly anxieties, may be duly prepared for the service of your sanctuary, and that our rest here upon earth may be a preparation for the eternal rest promised to your people in heaven; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A Sabbath Mood

A Sabbath Mood

Whatever is foreseen in joy
Must be lived out from day to day.
Vision held open in the dark
By our ten thousand days of work.
Harvest will fill the barn; for that
The hand must ache, the face must sweat.
And yet no leaf or grain is filled
By work of ours; the field is tilled
And left to grace. That we may reap,
Great work is done while we’re asleep.
When we work well, a Sabbath mood
Rests on our day, and finds it good.

~Wendell Berry

Sabbath by Wendell Berry

Sabbath

The mind that comes to rest is tended

In ways that it cannot intend:
Is borne, preserved, and comprehended
By what it cannot comprehend.
Your will, not ours. And it is fit
Our only choice should be to die

Into that rest, or out of it.
Our only choice should be to die
Into that rest, or out of it.

Your Sabbath, Lord, thus keeps us by

Your will, not ours. And it is fit

Wendell Berry 1934-

Sabbath, by Wendell Berry ~ April is Poetry Month

Sabbath

The mind that comes to rest is tended

In ways that it cannot intend:
Is borne, preserved, and comprehended
By what it cannot comprehend.
Your will, not ours. And it is fit
Our only choice should be to die

Into that rest, or out of it.
Our only choice should be to die
Into that rest, or out of it.

Your Sabbath, Lord, thus keeps us by

Your will, not ours. And it is fit

Wendell Berry 1934-

The opportunity to play

Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play. -Mike Singletary

The downside of Luke 10

I think the downside of Jesus "breaking the Law" by healing on the Sabbath in Luke 13:10-17 is that it gives some justification for our modern / post-modern total disregard for sabbathkeeping.  The upside of this passage is that Jesus is not going to be hemmed in by silly requirements, he's not going to refuse healing for one who suffered for 18 years just to placate some religious professionals who were too caught up in the minutia of religious requirements.

However, don't think that Jesus didn't believe in Sabbath!  He certainly did, and certainly believed that rest and turning toward God was essential for living the abundant life.  Going to pray, taking time away, getting out to the desert were all essential and core experiences for Jesus.  These were not mere "breaks" from lots of teaching and healing and proclaiming, nope.  These were the core, the heart, the guts, the skeleton of his very life and ministry.  Are they are the core of ours?  Were they are the core of the religious nitwits of his time?  Probably not.

So, yes!  Get busy healing, and if you need to heal and do ministry in violation of some silly nitwits, do it.  However, at the core of our life should not be earthly treasures (remember the readings just recently), but rather, our core should be in turning to God, and in prayer, rest, Sabbath, and penitance.  From there, and there alone can our ministry emerge full and abundant.

~The Rev. Peter M. Carey

Luke 13:10-17

¹⁰Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. ¹¹And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. ¹²When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” ¹³When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. ¹⁴But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” ¹⁵But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? ¹⁶And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” ¹⁷When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

Almighty God rested, and so should we!

A Collect for Saturdays

Almighty God, who after the creation of the world rested from all you works and sanctified a day of rest for all your creatures: Grant that we, putting away all earthly anxieties, may be duly prepared for the service of your sanctuary, and that our rest here upon earth may be a preparation for the eternal rest promised to your people in heaven; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

For many of us, Saturday is not a day of Sabbath (rest), but rather a day of rushing around, getting to do lists done, cleaning houses and apartments, doing shopping, catching up from the week. Families have scheduled events for children and adults, sports and arts activities, and all the rest! It can be quite hard to even take a deep breath, but God does provide us rest, and it is up to us to take it. Making time to schedule "open time," "down time," and even "unscheduled time" is so essential in our rapidly paced world. I am reminded that without local, state, and federal protections, we might not have open spaces for parks, likewise, we need to designate time for Sabbath, even amidst our swirling lives and stuffed schedules.

I was recently given the gift of time for Sabbath, retreat, and refreshment along with other clergy at the Diocese of Virginia's conference center at Shrine Mont. I've posted a few pictures from that Sabbath time.

Hoping that we all take time for Sabbath today,

~The Rev. Peter M. Carey

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: "Credo: Sunday shopping has not made us better or happier"

AMEN!

~The Rev. Peter M. Carey

Read it all HERE

From the TimesOnline (London Times)

Credo: Sunday shopping has not made us better or happier
The Sabbath is our counterweight to the pressures and values of the market undefined

Jonathan Sacks

During this economic crisis much attention has been paid to the deregulation of financial services that took place in the 1980s. That opened the floodgates to higher, and eventually unsustainable, levels of borrowing and spending. Little attention has been paid to another act of deregulation at about the same time, that played its own part in creating an overheated credit-and-consumption culture: the deregulation of Sunday, turning the day of rest into a day of shopping.

It was probably inevitable given the secularisation of society. But from a Jewish perspective I doubt whether Judaism would have survived, let alone thrived, without the Sabbath. It is our counterweight to the pressures and values of the market. It is our oasis of rest in a world that seems as if it is moving too fast for anyone to know where it is going. It is our sanctuary in time, when we celebrate the things that have value but no price....

Read it all HERE

Back to Blogging...!

I've been off on vacation with my wonderful family up in New England and am now settling in for the summer in the Morningside Heights/Harlem area of New York City. It has been a wonderful few weeks of resting, prayer, reflection, reading the Bible, re-engaging my spiritual life, enjoying the beach, my family, reading, sleeping, cycling and taking in the natural world all around us. My Internet access was severely limited for the last 2+ weeks and this helped to force an Internet Sabbatical on me ... I recommend it for all of us who can tend to live very close to our keyboards so much of the time...

I hope this season affords you time and space for rest, for prayer, and for theological reflection.

Peace,

Peter Carey+

SPACE, the Final Frontier...

No, I don't mean Star Trek - space...for surely that is the final frontier (I always wanted to be an astronaut, but couldn't hack the 3D motion sickness)...but "Space" in our lives also seems to be the final frontier. How can we make space? How can we take the time for rest? How can we make the time and the space for Sabbath, which is, afterall, one of the commandments!? (sorry to sound so biblical and religious...!).

Can we make space for the angels to come to us as Mary did?
Can we hear God's voice among the cacophany of voices?

Henri Nouwen has some comments on space and time and such that I found helpful as I am striving to live into a Holy Advent:

By Henri Nouwen

Empty space tends to create fear. As long as our minds, hearts and hands are occupied we can avoid confronting the painful questions, to which we never gave much attention and which we do not want to surface. “Being busy” has become a status symbol, and most people keep encouraging each other to keep their body and mind in constant motion. Occupation and not empty space is what most of us are looking for. When we are not occupied we become restless. We even become fearful when we do not know what we will do the next hour, the next day or the next year. Then occupation is called a blessing and emptiness a curse.

Many telephone conversations start with the words: “I know you are busy, but…” and we would confuse the speaker and even harm our reputation were we to say, “Oh no, I am completely free, today, tomorrow and the whole week.” Our client might well lose interest in one who has so little to do.

I found this wonderful blog post on the "Childrens Minister" Blog...these 10 Commandments are just what I needed to hear, so I'm passing them on to you as well!

Ten Commandments for reducing stress

1. Thou shalt not be perfect, or even try to be.

2. Thou shalt not try to be all things to all people.

3. Thou shalt leave things undone that ought to be done.

4.Thou shalt spread thyself too thin.

5. Thou shalt learn to say “no”.

6. Thou shalt schedule time for thyself and for thy supportive network.

7. Thou shalt switch off and do nothing regularly.

8. Thou shalt be boring, untidy, inelegant and unattractive at times.

9. Thou shalt not even feel guilty.

10. Especially thou shalt not be thine own worst enemy, but be thy best friend.

Above all things remember to rest in the Lord Jesus who said “Come to Me all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest.”