May the mumbling commence!
What does it mean this day and age to honor the Lord through Sabbath? Here in the United States, we live in a land that never sleeps. Buying and selling happen 24/7. Convenience is king (or queen). How can we be a witness to the Lord in this land? I believe we need to exercise our ability to wait. Can we rest and wait on the Lord in this dog-eat-dog society? If we cannot, then we will be doomed to continue the thankless and wearing cycle.
From today’s reading, one verse jumped out to me. Here it is:
"When the neighboring peoples bring merchandise or grain to sell on the Sabbath, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on any holy day. Every seventh year we will forgo working the land and will cancel all debts. (Nehemiah 10:31)
The Sabbath is holy to the Lord. That means we do not continue business as usual. There will be no buying or selling on the Sabbath or on any holy day. Jesus often spoke to the religious leaders of his day about serving on the Sabbath. The leaders of that day took too didactically this command to honor the Lord on the Sabbath. They refused even to help those who needed help on the Sabbath. God intended the Sabbath to serve humanity – to give them relief from their toil and to open space for relationship with the Creator and all creation.
Today the pendulum has swung to the other extreme. It may be like the days of Nehemiah today. You know, I got to keep going or everyone else will surpass me. I cannot afford to rest. And no rest destroys relationship like highly corrosive acid. Our relationships with our families and with God suffer from our drive to thrive.
To truly stop and neither buy nor sell on the Sabbath requires a great faith. Will I fall behind if I rest? Can I define rest as something other than laziness? What if I find myself unable to support myself?
Imagine that! I cannot support myself. I need God. I am dependent upon God. I am interdependent on my Christian brothers and sisters. It is a deception of the oldest stripe. We deceive ourselves when we believe that we can be self-supporting. We damage ourselves and everyone else when we invest in this lie.
And when we drive ourselves beyond exhaustion we damage the creation as well. How about giving the land a rest? Rest our work of the land for a cycle of seasons. Talk about reliance upon God and others! Could we possibly trust in God enough to give him every seventh year of our lives? Could we possibly trust each other enough to cancel the debts that accumulate on that seventh year?
Except the continuing debt of love, debt destroys relationships. Don’t believe me? Ask yourself this question: How often have people been driven from their faith communities by an outstanding loan of money from the church? It is hard to worship God and be in full relationship with one another when a debt remains unpaid.
And debt destroys the weak and vulnerable – the very people we are supposed to protect and love.
So, let’s take a break from the rat race. Let’s take a break to love our Creator, to learn to love the rats we race against, and to restore the balance of creation. Say goodbye to falling behind. Say goodbye to debt. The greatest debt (not the national debt but the debt of sin) has been erased! Why worry about the pennies and nickels and dimes? God cares for us. Will we love God and care for one another?
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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