Sabbath Rest

Hello All ... I'm taking Sabbath Rest from writing for a couple of weeks.  I'll be on Silent Retreat for a week and plan on reading Sabbath as Resistance:  Saying NO to the Culture of NOW.

"In our own contemporary context of the rat race of anxiety, the celebration of Sabbath is an act of both resistance and alternative.  It is resistance because it is a visible insistence that our lives are not defined by the production and consumption of commodity goods.  Such an act of resistance requires enormous intentionality and communal reinforcement amid the barrage of seductive pressures from the insatiable insistence of the market, with its intrusion into every part of our life from the family to the national budget ... But Sabbath is not only resistance.  It is alternative.  It is an alternative to the demanding, chattering, pervasive presence of advertising and its great liturgical claim of professional sports that devour all our 'rest time.'  The alternative on offer is the awareness and practice of the claim that we are situated on the receiving end of the gifts of God."

~Walter Brueggemann

... from the preface/back cover

The other book in my pilgrimage bag is Silent Compassion: Finding God in Contemplation.

Silence is not just that which is around words and underneath images and events. It has a life of its own.  It's a phenomenon with almost a physical identity.  It is a being in itself to which you can relate.  Philosophically, we would say being is that foundational quality which precedes all other attributes.  When you relate to the naked being of a think, you learn to know it at its core.  Silence is somehow at the very foundation of all reality.  It is that out of which all being comes and to which all things return. 

 ~Richard Rohr

... from Chapter One

The Mystic's quote in my back pocket as I wander and wonder in nature will be ...

Love your fellow beings—for they are all tabernacles of God.

~Mechthild of Magdeburg 

As I become a breathing prayer in the silence ... 

Breathing in ... Compassionate God

Breathing out ... Let your Presence wrap me in Stillness

“Be still, and know that I am God!"  Psalm 46:10

Amen ...

Taking an Extended Sabbath ...

Only in God do I find Rest ... Psalm 62:1a

On the Prayer Trail at Lakeview Methodist Conference Center near Palestine, Texas

Sabbath Rest

“Like a path through the forest, 

Sabbath creates a marker for ourselves so,

if we are lost, we can find our way back to our center." 

~Wayne Muller, Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives

Hello friends!   I'll be taking a long summer break from writing in order to experience a family Vacation and Sabbath Rest along the way.  I'll be back on July 29 with a post on the sermon I'll be preaching at Ashford UMC.  It will be the first of a 2-part "series" which will emerge from the lectionary texts: John 6:1-21 and John 6:24-35.   Here is a bit of synchronicity (a meaning-full coincidence) ... Out of the entire 3 year lectionary cycle, considering I preach maybe 4-6 times a year, the text for the 1st week contains MOSAIC's signature scripture verse.   What a gift!

Jesus said to the discples, 

"Gather up the fragments left over, 

so that nothing may be lost." 

John 6:12b

my sense is that we should always be about gathering up 

the fragments of people's lives, including our own, 

so that no "one" may be lost!  ~c

The concept of Sabbath emerges from the creation story found in Genesis 2:2b-3.  

On the seventh day God rested ... 

God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, 

because on it God rested from all the work of creation.

Sabbath is so important to the lives of the faithful that it became one of the ten commandments found in Exodus 20:8.

“Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy."

Jesus observed the Sabbath ... 

When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures.

Luke 4:16

But his idea keeping the Sabbath "holy" was different than those of the Pharisees, who were "religious" teachers ...  

Step 1: Lectio … reading

Read 

Mark 2:23-28 silently 

to yourself twice in a slow and reverent manner.

Listen for a word or phrase that catches your attention.

Silently focus on that word or phrase.

Repeat it several times and just sit with what you are hearing with your heart.

One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples began breaking off heads of grain to eat.  But the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?”  Jesus said to them, “Haven’t you ever read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry?  He went into the house of God (during the days when Abiathar was high priest) and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat. He also gave some to his companions.”  Then Jesus said to them, 

“The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, 

and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. 

So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”

Step 2: Meditatio … receiving
Continue to focus on your word or phrase.
Pay attention to the thoughts and feelings it evokes.
What images emerge in your imagination?
What memories come to your mind?
Ask God to continue to speak to you through this word
Listen for God’s reply as you move through your day


Step 3: Oratio … responding
Consider any desires that have been awakened by your prayer
Perhaps you have found an area of your life that needs attention
Do not rush ... wait and listen as God forms your prayers and desires


Step 4: Contempatio … resting
Allow yourself to rest in the silence.
Allow your mind to settle into the silence.
When you feel the time to move on ...

Light 2 candles ... one to remember the Sabbath, one to keep the Sabbath holy

Chapel at The Jesuit Spirituality Center in Grand Coteau, LA

Recite this Shabbat (the Hebrew word for Sabbath) blessing 

Barukh atah Adonai, Eloheinu, melekh ha'olam

Blessed are you, Lord, our God, sovereign of the universe

asher kidishanu b'mitz'votav v'tzivanu

Who has sanctified us with the commandments and commanded us

l'had'lik neir shel Shabbat. (Amein)

to light the lights of Shabbat. (Amen)

Dear Friends, in this time of Sabbath ... May the Light of Christ Shine on your Path!

Show me Your Glory ...

Beloved of God ... Breathe deeply and take a few moments to center yourself on God who is always present with us.  As you breathe, let all of your distractions float away ...

As you breathe, say a breath prayer
     Inhale:   Lord of Moses  ...
     Exhale:  show me your glory  ...
repeat your breath prayer until you feel it is time to move from prayer into sacred reading, and then ...
     

     Pray:   revealed in this sacred text

Read the passage slowly and open your heart and mind as you read...

Exodus 33:12-23

Moses said to the LORD, "See, you have said to me, 'Bring up this people'; but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, 'I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.'  Now if I have found favor in your sight, show me your ways, so that I may know you and find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people."  He said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."  And he said to him, "If your presence will not go, do not carry us up from here.  For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people, unless you go with us? In this way, we shall be distinct, I and your people, from every people on the face of the earth."  The LORD said to Moses, "I will do the very thing that you have asked; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name."  Moses said, "Show me your glory, I pray."  And he said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name, 'The LORD'; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.  But," he said, "you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live."   And the LORD continued, "See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock;  and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen."

Read the passage again slowly and Reflect.  What word or phrase seems important to you as you read?   Repeat that word or phrase.  Ponder this Word and find wonder in it.  How does this Word speak to your relationship with God?    What you sense about who you are as a follower of God?   How do you feel about God?   How does God feel about you?  How do you feel about yourself?   Welcome your feelings ... whatever they may be.  Have mercy on yourself and simply let your feelings "be" without judging yourself through them.  

Read the passage again slowly and Respond.   Tell God how you feel and how you experience the presence of God through this text and your meditation with it?   What do you say to God about who God is to you and about who you are in God's presence?    What can you offer to God right now?   Take a moment to journal your feelings and your thoughts in a stream of consciousness ... and let it be what it will be.

Read the passage again and Rest.    Allow your mind to come to a sense of awe in the Presence of God.  Let the love and care of God cover you and hold you close …

When you sense the time to move on, Pray ...

Lord of Moses, be gracious, have mercy on me, and show me your glory as you care for me so tenderly.  Amen.                                                                                                                                                                                                            Cindy's Journal Reflection ... O God your presence is so strong and bright, too strong and too bright for me to contemplate.  Your glory is pure light, so pure that we cannot look upon you.  And yet, we must.  Look around and see the presence of God in every smile ... in every child ... in every circumstance and in all suffering.  You are there to give us rest from our quest ... deep deep rest.   Amen.