Archive for December, 2006

Sabbath (or) Holy Center, part VIII

Wednesday, December 13th, 2006

Sabbath (or) Holy Center, part VIII

Richard M. Wright

Yes – Sabbath.

Of course you/we knew where I was/we were heading these last several weeks. Now you know my agenda.

Here it is. I am convinced that Sabbath is the most important discipline for the Christian community to (re)discover and practice (anew) partly (mostly?) because it affects (almost?) every other dimension of living as the people of God.

My favorite saint Seraphim of Sarov once was asked, “What is the chief aim of the Christian life?” Seraphim replied, “To gain the Holy Spirit.” If someone were to ask me, “What is the most important thing the Christian movement can do?” my reply today would be, “To practice Sabbath.”

Consider what would happen if you began to sleep for only one hour each night. How would that affect the rest of your life? Physical health would begin to deteriorate. Ability to function mentally. Difficulty performing at work or at school. Emotional health. Severe grumpiness – relationships with others would suffer. Spiritual health. Consider the difference it makes throughout your life when you just plain get enough sleep each night.

Consider all the different aspects of being the people of God. Worship. Prayer. Community. Family. Relationships. Hospitality. Theology and teaching. Evangelism. Engaging our culture. Mission. And so on. How would practicing Sabbath well affect all of these? The Puritans of New England said, “Good Sabbaths make good Christians.”

I submit that practicing Sabbath would be revolutionary and transformational. Individually and corporately and globally. From the center of our spiritual being to the expanding circumference of our mission. Practice Sabbath… and everything else is affected.

I invite us (as one church family and two worshiping congregations) to join and journey together to dialogue… to explore… to experiment in the weeks and months ahead. Through the what and the why and the how of Sabbath.

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Sabbath (or) Holy Advent, part VII

Wednesday, December 6th, 2006

Sabbath (or) Holy Advent, part VII

Richard M. Wright

Sabbath.

(Like you did not know where all this was going.)

On the one hand we have the season of Advent. That begins by looking forward to the second coming. As well as looking backward to the first coming of Christ. That straddles the past and the future.

On the other hand we have Sabbath. More specifically the “seventh day” that looks backward to Genesis 1 and what God has done in creation. And that looks forward to Genesis 2 and what human beings will do in partnership with God. What Terence Fretheim calls “creaturely creation.”

Sabbath then – to say more about this – celebrates and contemplates God and his activity as creator. And prepares for what we will do in ministry and mission. Sam Balentine writes:

In this ordered and relational world [referring to the vision of creation in Genesis 1 and 2], the seventh/Sabbath day crucially intersects God’s creative hopes and humankind’s creative possibilities. This day marks simultaneously an ending and a beginning, a bridge between God’s first and second creation demands (1:26; 2:16-18) – the day of rest for God and all God’s creation that signals the transition between imagine God’s creative act as royalty and imaging it as servant.

Sabbath then resembles Advent. Looking backwards as well as forwards. Celebrating as well as preparing.

Have you noticed how crazy the Christmas season can become? Extra musicals at church. Plethorae of Christmas parties. For Sunday school. For deacons. For internationals. For colleagues and friends. For inmates at Jetson Correction Center for Youth. Live Nativity. Downtown Christmas pilgrimage. Oh yeah and Christmas shopping.

Is there any time or any room for us to pause (not stop) and be still and hear the angels sing the good news of the birth of Jesus Christ the son of God? To – gasp! – experience the meaning of Christmas?

Perhaps if we practiced Sabbath more consistently and effectively we would be in better spiritual shape for entering (more) fully into the Advent season…? To play and pray? To rest? To look backwards and forwards? To celebrate and prepare?

Now you begin to see my agenda.

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