I had our community do an online vote for what we’ll be exploring together for this sunday gathering. Our top pick this week was
Finding rest and wholeness in a world of chaos and brokenness
In the spirit of keeping things collaborative, anyone have any theological or practical thoughts on this?
Hahah… Well, this is how I see it. There’s the theological standard of God’s sabbath. But if you move it to the dangerous realm of principle, you’ll see that sabbath is the whole rest,reflection,seeing-your-place-in-God’s-big-picture-humbly bit.
So the practical realization is that different strokes for different folks – not everyone sabbaths (in principle) on a weekly basis. And even those that do, if they are church servants, don’t do it on Sunday. Like pastors, many congregants work more on Sunday then on a Monday.
So, while the farmer might be the last person who sabbaths a la biblical tradition (once a week for a day), today’s Christian cubicle monkeys do so differently. One friend, who is a fantastic Christian Educator, sabbaths once a quarter by not going to church and enjoying the day, at home, stopping. I think that’s fair.
Rest and wholeness is more about knowing who you are, who God is, the whole serenity prayer bit, without getting lazy, and changing the world, but putting that responsibility in God’s hands. It’s what I call theological tension. Pulses that pull in sometimes opposite, but ultimately balanced ways.
Anyway, that’s a not-so-brief thought on it. Good luck
fantastic thoughts alan!