11.09.09

pace, sabbath, fragmentation..

Posted in formation, mission, pilgrimage at 2:17 pm by len

I’m making some notes on the sabbath and rhythms today, relative to some teaching tomorrow night with FORGE.

The sabbath is a great opportunity for us to resist the Empire. It is a counter-discipline, even within our church culture. Sabbath is a subversive expression in light of the pace of our culture and the fragmentation that results. Outwardly it may seem that pace fragments our doing, but because of our nature what fragments us outwardly also impacts our internal reality. Our sense of self is at risk. Therefore Hauerwas is right when he says that in modernity speed is violence…

The LORD calls us to remember the sabbath in Isaiah 56. But what is striking is that he makes the same promise to three different groups: Israel, the eunuchs, and the foreigners. He promises something better than “sons and daughters… an everlasting name.” Sabbath is no merely religious requirement, but something fundamental in the purposes of God in redemption; it is something that helps us become fully human.

In a market culture we commodify everything: including time. The risk of losing this fundamental rhythm is a-rhythmia.. inability to rest, loss of an essential center, and an increasing drive to find self in our acts rather than in the gift of God. But if we lose the ability to rest, we lose the ability to offer a restful place for others. We lose a listening and attentive heart. As Bonhoeffer put it, “let him who cannot be alone beware of being in community.”

It turns out that a sabbath rhythm is essential to mission..

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