Daily Office Readings for Friday of Proper 3: Year 1
Morning, Psalm 31; Evening, Psalm 35;
Deuteronomy 5:1 to 22; 2nd Corinthians. 4:1 to12; Luke 16:10 to17(18)
“Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. For six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work, you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.” (Deuteronomy 5: 12 to 15)
The book “The Sabbath” by Abraham Joshua Heschel is one of the books that has permanently changed my life. This book has made me realize that we did not create the Sabbath, God did and has given it to us as a gift. Rabbi Heschel has also made me realize that things and places are not as important as time. Time is something we all share. Time then, and most especially, the Sabbath is a time that we should stop and ponder about our relationship with God. “It is a day of praise, not a day of petitions:” (page 30 of The Sabbath).
We Christians must remember that we are Judeo-Christians. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus, was a Jewish Rabbi, which means Teacher. Jesus has taught us, but have we learned anything? I believe as Christians that we should worship on Sunday. But as recipients of God’s Holy Sabbath, we should individually calm ourselves on the Sabbath (Saturday), and be thankful for what God is still doing in our midst. I am aware that not all of us can do this at the same time. First responders, doctors and health care providers, police, the military, fire fighters and others must work through the Holy Sabbath. But time should be made whereby they too can praise God in thanksgiving for what God continues to do for us. God is love and has created us in love, to love.
Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, and our schools.
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done” (Genesis 2:1 and 2). So, for this evening and tomorrow day my friends, Shabbat Shalom.
What is Shabbat? Intro to the Jewish Sabbath – YouTube
As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
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