Daily Office Readings for Thursday of the First Week of Lent: Year 1
Morning, Psalm 50; Evening, Psalms 19 and 46:
Deuteronomy 9:23 to 10:5; Hebrews 4:1to 10; John 3:16 to 21:
“So then, a Sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labors as God did from his.” (Hebrews 4: 9 and 10)
Today is Thursday, but the gift of God’s Sabbath begins tomorrow evening. This has not changed according to the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, and even our Lord Jesus observed it. Worshiping on Sunday is fine and proper for Christians, but I don’t feel we are excused from resting from Friday evening to Saturday evening. Rest is not worship, it is rest.
Sometimes I think the human need to “micro-manage” one another required us to meet together in order to ensure no one was “working.’ However, the worship team, (clergy and laity) are technically working. I feel we need to have time to ourselves, un-monitored, unsupervised, self regulated, and trusted to truly rest and ponder about God.
I am still working on this shift in my spiritual life. I’m getting there. I must remember that our Lord Jesus said on many occasions that it is okay to do the necessary things even on the Sabbath: things like comforting the sick, putting out fires, standing guard against bad people and so forth. We go against the idea of a communal Sabbath rest when we spend time with household chores, organizing get-togethers, and running errands; even participating in public worship. None of these are God’s idea of Rest. “For those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labors as God did from his.”
The Sabbath should be a time of meditation and perhaps small informal gatherings of very close spiritual friends for prayer, light food and drink, and the sharing of blessings. It is not a time of detailed preparation. It is a time of contemplative reflection, a time to do nothing. Every Sabbath is a gift of time from God. Let us not refuse, or reject such a loving present. This sharing is in no way an attempt to undermine our Christian worship traditions. But I don’t believe we are excused from obeying God’s instruction to observe the Sabbath Day, the seventh day, which is still understood universally to be Saturday.
Today we remember James Theodore Holly, Bishop and Doctor (March 13, 1911) and his information may be found at: James Theodore Holly.
As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and to serve, and to teach others to love and to serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
Let us pray: For Quiet Confidence (BCP p. 832)
O God of peace, who hast taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be our strength: By the might of thy Spirit lift us, we pray thee, to thy presence, where we may be still and know that thou art God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
onewhoponders 