This Sunday will mark our last group discussion on Walter Brueggemann’s Sabbath as Resistance. I have thoroughly enjoyed our journey together through this book – particularly the insightful conversations we have had together on Sunday mornings the last couple of months.
After I finished Brueggemann’s last chapter on the Sabbath and the Tenth Commandment this morning, I thought I would write a final blog entry on my impressions of our conversation with the book. I felt like we allowed a lot of our anxieties (our individual and societal anxieties) into the conversation. We were able to be honest about how we are often restless – whether that’s sitting in the pews on Sunday mornings, in front of a laptop at work on a Friday morning (like me right now), or lying awake at night. We were able to be real when talking about what Sabbath rest is resisting – it’s resisting our felt need to be constantly productive or consuming. It’s resisting our desire to multitask. It’s resisting our envy of what others have and we want. Brueggemann’s book makes us uncomfortable at times. I felt this way again in the final chapter as he spoke of the ways that people have sought to exploit others in their pursuit of “more.” This happens at more than just an individual or corporate level – it happens through policies and actions of establishments such as government and religion. It happened in the time of Micah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. It happened in the time of Jesus. It happens today, and we play a part in it. Conversations about this are deeply uncomfortable today. Verbally, one of two things usually happens during those conversations – we either fall silent or we explode. I believe this is another symptom of the anxiety-fueled restlessness Brueggemann talks about. So how do we move beyond our paralysis or destructiveness to have constructive conversations about these uncomfortable topics? We love God, we love our neighbors, and we love ourselves. We rest in the assurance that God has designed us for communion with the Triune God and with one another. And we work to respond to that love and that assurance – not our anxieties. We rely upon grace from God. And we both seek and provide grace in our conversations. At the conclusion of his book, Brueggemann talks about the parallels between the first and tenth commandments. These can be summed up as avoiding idolatry and avoiding greed. They might further be summed up as loving God and loving neighbor. When we cultivate a restful presence by observing Sabbath and by living with a Sabbath mindset all seven days of the week, we trust in God’s providence, and we trust in God’s desire for a community of neighborly love. We don’t feel the pursuit of “stuff” or “power” as a god controlling us, leading us to greedily take from one another. We feel the communion of our God who rests and is not anxious about the well-functioning of creation … the love of our God who created us for a community of neighborliness … and the grace of our God who lived with us, faced the forces of restlessness and anxiety, and defeated them. That, my sisters and brothers, is something that gives us the freedom to take off the yoke of restlessness. And then we live lives of thanksgiving, in the name of the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Sustainer. Amen. The final group discussion of Sabbath as Resistance takes place this Sunday (Mar. 25) at 9:00 a.m. in the Hope Room of First Presbyterian Church – Salina. If you are, or have been, unavailable to join us for this discussion, I commend the book to you as one worthy of your time and reflection. It is available online through its publisher, Westminster John Knox Press, and through other book sellers.
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AuthorRev. Keith Phillips, PC(USA) Pastor ArchivesCategories |