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 “Sabbath”

There is a great recording of popular preacher in San Diego, California by the name of Shadrach Lockridge titled “It’s Friday, But Sunday’s Coming.” [I invite you to Google search it.]            

For myself it reminds me to consider the Saturdays in our life. To take a sabbath day.

For Jesus on Holy Saturday, we are told, rested in the tomb of Joseph. It was like a “sabbath” before the resurrection. Time to consider the past and ponder the future.            

In the early 90s Flo and myself were afforded the opportunity to visit the Holy Land.

Amongst the many places we visited, the one city which made the greatest impression on myself was our time spent in Jerusalem. A friend on the tour with us observed, at the end of the weekend, if I had noticed anything unusual to our western eye? I had not.            

My friend Les had observed how a percentage of the store fronts were closed on Friday, then others on Saturday and yet others on Sunday.

He reflected on how the religions of the city observed their Sabbath (Holy Day). For the Muslims it was Friday, for those observing the Jewish tradition, Saturday. This was followed by the Christians on Sunday.

Certainly, a lesson for us in the so-called West.            

An alternative title for my reflections this week could be, keeping in mind Pastor Lockridge’s reflection on the Easter Tridium of “It’s Friday, Sunday’s a Coming,” it could have said “It’s June, Summer’s a coming.”

What summer means for us in this part of western hemisphere is vacation time or a better label may be Sabbath Time.            

Brother James Koester, SSJE makes this observation for us on Sabbath:
The picture Jesus paints of the sabbath is not a day constrained by rules and regulations, but a day of healing, wholeness, and liberation, a day of mercy, love, and delight in which we discover again the very nature and being of God, who is a God of rest.            

I so appreciate those words: healing, wholeness, and liberation, a day of mercy, love, and delight in which we discover again the very nature and being of God, who is a God of rest.

Among many annual holidays some of the most valuable have been stay cations. Yes, admittedly on two occasions it was an opportunity to paint the exterior of our home. The good part was, during the summer you need to keep on the “shady” side, or the “sabbath” side of life.            

I encourage each one of us, myself included to take time for you and your Creator. Take time for self, the reward will be phenomenal. It will keep you on the “Sunny Side of Life” a popular song made popular by the Carter Family in 1928, which continues to be recorded to this day.

Blessings for this week,
Archdeacon Brian+