Enforced Sabbaths

Leviticus 25-26. God gives the people he has redeemed the gift of his laws, accompanied by rich promises of blessing. Included in these laws is the institution of the Sabbath, and the Sabbath year.

After the blessings of obedience come the punishments of disobedience. Notable in these is the 'enforced' sabbath of the land:

Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it. (Lev. 26:34-35)

I wonder how often this happens in our own lives: we push and push and refuse to rest in God (and even to rest literally!), and then, by physical limitation or circumstance, are forced to rest. This may work in the life of a student, when breaks punctuate the relentless pace of the semester, but is it really the way we are meant to live? What does it mean for our spiritual life?

"comprehended by what it cannot comprehend."

So it has happened. I forgot to post on Sunday evening. The thought crossed my mind once, but it then kept going and didn't come back until Monday night, well after my electricity and magnetism exam was over.

This week I have come to this conclusion about advent: it is celebrated in community, and not isolation. The people of Israel waited together for hundreds of years. We, the church local and global, wait together.

I started reading Wendell Berry this week (thanks to my writer-sister for lending me the book!) , and thought I'd share one of his Sabbath Poems. The second to last stanza really struck me.

Another Sunday morning comes
And I resume the standing Sabbath
Of the woods, where the finest blooms
Of time return, and where no path

Is worn but wears its makers out
At last, and disappears in leaves
Of fallen seasons. The tracked rut
Fills and levels; here nothing grieves

In the risen season. Past life
Lives in the living. Resurrection
Is in the way each maple leaf
Commemorates its kind, by connection

Outreaching understanding. What rises
Rises into comprehension
And beyond. Even falling raises
In praise of light. What is begun

Is unfinished. And so the mind
That comes to rest among the bluebells
Comes to rest in motion, refined
By alteration. The bud swells,

Opens, makes seed, falls, is well,
Being becoming what it is:
Miracle and parable
Exceeding thought, because it is

Immeasurable; the understander
Encloses understanding, thus
Darkens the light. We can stand under
No ray that is not dimmed y us.

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 Sabbath, Lord, thus keeps us by
Your will, not ours. And it is fit
Our only choice should be to die
Into that rest, or out of it.

Satisfied II

Perhaps this is a primarily feminine tendency, but I find something so satisfying in the little orderings and rituals of life: climbing into a newly made bed with tea, enjoying the openness of a freshly tidied and vacuumed room after some exertion to get it to that point, eating warm baked goods with a friend, going for a walk in cool weather, pushing in my chair or clearing my desk when I leave my office for the day, knowing that the next day will be another start...

...the list could go on and on. Ultimately I only find true satisfaction in God. This does not mean that the physical world around me cannot bring me satisfaction; our spirituality is not a platonic separation of soul and body. In fact, our satisfaction with God even leads to satisfaction with the life we are living. As I was just reading today,

We must accept the circumstances we constantly find ourselves in as the place of God's kingdom and blessing. God has yet to bless anyone except where they actually are, and if we faithlessly discard situation after situation, moment after moment, as not being "right", we will simply have no place to receive his kingdom into our life. For those situations and moments are our life. (Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 348)

I know my week ahead will have its challenges. Some of them loom on the horizon of the day about to begin. Yet as if I am truly satisfied in Christ I can still wake up and joyfully enter the day. May we all be granted grace to internalize this fact a little more each day.

Satisfied

Food is good. When enjoyed in good measure, our eating of food can be a way of enjoying God's goodness to us, of pausing and delighting. That is why this week I am going to share with you a recipe that I discovered and enjoyed last week. It is simple, relatively inexpensive, and tasty. I think I will make it again tomorrow.

Chick-Pea, Sweet Pepper and Fresh Basil Salad
1 sweet red pepper (the recipe recommends roasting it first)
1 can (19 0z/450mL) chick-peas, drained
1 diced cucumber
1/4 cup minced red onion (but regular white also works)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup packed chopped fresh basil (if you can't find any, dried works fine too, as long as you have plenty of fresh parsley)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper

1. In a bowl, combine red pepper, chick-peas, cucumber, onion, parsley and basil.
2. In a small dish, whisk together lemon juice, olive oil,garlic and salt and pepper to taste; pour over salad and toss lightly. Cover and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes or up to a day (but I did two days and it was fine).

Eating is a powerfully repetitive and necessary part of our lives. No wonder, then, that it is used as an analogy throughout the bible. In what I find to be one of the strongest, almost disturbing, passages in the gospels, Jesus calls himself our food. I encourage you to read John 6:48-58 and reflect upon the source of nourishment to our souls.

Rest

Take a deep breath.
Now relax your muscles.

Do you feel at rest now? Probably not (unless you were before you started reading). Resting is something that takes more time than that. Yet however much time it takes, most people will agree (or perhaps just admit) that we need it.

I looked up a couple of dictionary definitions of the word "rest". Here are a few:

rest
Date: before 12th century
intransitive verb 1 a : to get rest by lying down; especially : sleep b : to lie dead
2 : to cease from action or motion : refrain from labor or exertion
3 : to be free from anxiety or disturbance
4 : to sit or lie fixed or supported (a column rests on its pedestal)
5 a : to remain confident : trust (cannot rest on that assumption) b : to be based or founded (the verdict rested on several sound precedents)
6 : to remain for action or accomplishment (the answer rests with you)
7 of farmland : to remain idle or uncropped
(Merriam-Webster)

rest
— ORIGIN Old English, from a root meaning "league" or "mile" (referring to a distance after which one rests).
verb 1 cease work or movement in order to relax or recover strength. 2 allow to be inactive in order to regain or save strength or energy. 3 place or be placed so as to stay in a specified position: his feet rested on the table. 4 (rest on) depend or be based on. 5 (rest in/on) place (trust, hope, or confidence) in or on.
(Oxford English Dictionary)

A few things strike me:

1. Resting implies intent or necessity. The cessation of labour is done for a reason: "in order to relax or recover strength". Land is given rest so that it can better bear fruit the next year.
   
2. I am no linguist but 900 years seems like a pretty good long time for a word to be in use. Of course the concept has been around much longer, but the longstanding use of this word in our culture seems to point to its significance. Also note that its derivation (see above) refers once again to the need for rest: after going a certain distance, it is time to rest.
   
3. There is an element of confidence or trust. Resting requires trusting. I can't sleep well without trusting that I am safe. I can't stop working unless I trust that the necessary task will be finished. I usually like to think of the image of leaning on something for support: we trust in something because it is strong enough to allow us to rest.

I challenge you to take some time this week to rest; don't just assume you will have the strength you need without intentionally resting. As you rest, consider how trusting is specifically linked to your resting.

Isn't it interesting that God specifically commanded his people to rest?