September 26
Genesis 2.2-3
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
This is where our gift of the Sabbath begins. For many of us, Sabbath may have seemed to be a burden. Yet it comes as a gift to us. God, the one who made us, tells us that we need to work, but we also need to have time of rest. Not just the rest of sleep in the daily cycle, but the rest of the weekly cycle as well. God made us with this need in our very being for rest. Not to limit us or confine us. It is a gift.
God gives us time to be, not just to do. Paul speaks to the people of Athens and tells them that is in God that we live and move and have our being. Not just doing, but being. And when Paul says this in Athens, he quotes one of their Greek philosophers. The understanding of having our being in God, the understanding that leads us to understand our rest of Sabbath is built into us. Recognized by people as the way we are made.
The last attempt at changing to a ten day week was in the French Republic in 1793. It was shot-lived and there are a variety of reasons given for its failure. In the end, it disrupts God’s gift of a day of rest each seven. It disrupts the way we are created. Sabbath comes out of who we are, it comes out of who God is, and it is a gift for our life as people made in God’s image. Receive God’s gift of rest and being in him.
Song – Rest In You
Prayer
Lord our God, you give your gifts to your people. We see your gift of rest and being in you as we receive your gift of Sabbath. Help us to see your grace as we take our rest and being in you. Amen.