The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space. Six days a week we live under the tyranny of things of space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time. It is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world. (Abraham Joshua Heschel, "The Sabbath")
And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who doe not have the Son of god does not have the life. (1 John 1:11-12)
We began our Sabbath on Saturday evening as we have the last several weeks...after spending the day working on the kitchen. We weren't especially inspired to work on the kitchen, but we were motivated because the plumber was coming and that section of that wall absolutely needed to be done before he arrived. And it has also been two years since we started the dang thing and we really want to get it done already! "And once we are finally done with it," we reason, "then we can really begin to enjoy it."
I live my life like that.
If I get the lawn mowed, then I can enjoy it. When I fix the screen door, then we can savor these beautiful fall mornings. Once I get my book published, then I'll really feel like a success. When we finally are able to take our kids back to the Redwoods, then I'll be happy. And so it goes. There is no time to stop because there is so much we still need to do.
So, I often don't really feel like taking twenty-four hours off. I don't really feel inspired to go through the hard work of stopping. I'd often rather work at work. At least then I'll accomplish something. But if I stop, the promise is that Jesus will show up. Jesus will come and finish what isn't done. Maybe this unfinished part is not the kitchen. And I still have to go to the dentist tomorrow. I still haven't fixed the screen door on the back porch, but Jesus comes and something changes and my life becomes more than just the sum of some list I cross off on a daily basis. (I live by Post-it-notes!)
I don't know if it is the result of regular Sabbaths for these last five weeks, but my wife has also started to experienced the presence of God in the everyday...even doing laundry! Isn't this what we hear from the beloved disciple, "God has given us eternal life in His Son..."
"Has given" means that it is already here! It's here as we wrangle the kids for church on Sunday morning. We don't have to wait! It's here when we go to work and its here when we do the laundry. It's here when we experience heart-ache and loss. It's here already. We experience the sacred in what we thought was just the fallen part of our lives. Those things that are necessary become celebratory. Those things that are broken become beautiful.
And there was celebration in our Sabbath. We were able to celebrate a good friend's birthday. We were able to go on a date together. We played football in our yard as a family. We went to worship and ate beautiful cookies with some sweet and savory saints. We tucked in our precious boys and went to bed exhausted but full. As my wife fell asleep, she said, "It has been a good day."
And I thought, "Yes. It has. It has been a good day. It is has been a really, really good day. I didn't get to surf in Hawaii. I didn't even get the screen door fixed. But it was good."
And it was eternal.
Church Stopping. Less doing. More being.
Photo from www.sxc.hu #2903028
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