Dear Faith Family,
Life after Easter is a return—a resurrection into the original, whole, and holy cadence of Sabbath into Work into Sabbath into Work into Sabbath…and so on and so forth. The Church historically calls this season “Ordinary Time.” And as we know, it’s precisely in the ordinary rhythms and relationships that we see and participate in the Kingdom come and our Father’s will done on earth as it is in heaven.
As we were reminded on Sunday, this return to ordinary begins not in our work, but in God’s finished work and our resting with Him through faith.
The events of Easter weekend, the suffering, betrayal, trial, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection gave witness to the essential reality of our existence as humans: we live only and truly in God’s love for us. Paraphrasing John’s words to us from the conclusion of last week’s note,
In this the love of God was made manifest (real)…
that the Son of God died for us…
so that through Him we might live...
making our home in love…
as God makes His home in us.
So how do we make ourselves at home in this love, at home with God? Well, first and foremost, through faith-filled rest.
Remember, to Sabbath is simply to cease our efforts to be with God and others as we delight in His finished efforts. While we have for millennia added to, subtracted from, built up, and torn down the particulars of “sabbathing,” the simple nature of the day made for us (Mark 2:27-28) remains, and requires our faith to enter in.
Faith, as we said, is more than an affirmation of belief in a true statement. More, but not less. As we discussed on Sunday:
“Faith is an attitude,
the joy of living a life in which God has a stake…”
(Abraham Heschel)
As an attitude, it is faith that shapes the manner in which we Sabbath; how and why we do and do not do certain things on this “special day.” In this way, faith is action. More specifically: seeing and responding to what we see. Echoing Hebrews 11:1-2, Frederick Buechner writes,
“Faith is a way of looking
at what there is to be seen in the world
and in ourselves
and hoping, trusting, believing
against all evidence to the contrary
that beneath the surface…
there is vastly more…
To have faith is to respond to what we see…”
Sabbathing through faith is responding by rest to the love we see in Jesus’ life given for us.
If we can learn to rest through faith, to “respond to what we see,” in the love of God for us in Jesus, “breathing it in like air and growing strong on it,” we can be ones who don’t try and “get Sabbath right” (or don’t Sabbath because we are afraid we won’t get it right?) or use Sabbath as a means to our own ends (as just another attempt at control). Instead, we can delight in the reality of the truth we have come to know and believe through Jesus: that we exist now, this day, and forever within the love of God for us.
So…
CONSIDER THIS:
It’s hard to cease striving if we cannot see where we are. Can you see God's love for you today in your story, in ordinary places, and clearly in Jesus?
If you can’t, no need to go any further. Instead, go back to where we restart, to the finished work of Jesus, to God’s love for you in Jesus’ life, given up and raised again. Read and reflect on John 17-20 until you can see the truth of your existence.
If you can see where you are, how are you responding to what you see? How are you resting through faith within God’s love? What’s keeping you from seeing it again and seeing it better? What might you do or not do on a day of rest with God and others to “live up to…and toward” what you see?
If you need some ideas, check out the resources by clicking the image above. And don’t be afraid to talk it out with one another. After all, the Sabbath in scripture is always done with a community!
May our Father’s ever-restful grace, allow us to enter His Sabbath rest as His Sabbath rest enters into us.
Love you, faith family. God bless!