Sabbath-keeping
Sabbath – The Rhythm of Creation
To everything there is a season,
a time for every purpose under heaven.
~ Ecclesiastes 3:1
Here, if there is such a thing as time, it surely cannot be linear. Einstein shattered our complacency when he showed us that light itself can bend, and time along with it. Can this be truly news? Everything begins and ends, and begins again, says the preacher in Ecclesiastes, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”
The most recognizable quality of creation is this rhythmicity. The pulsing light and dark, expand and contract, cycles of growth, dormancy, death,
and regenerations are characteristics of all living things from smallest microbe to largest galaxy.
When we know the seasons of things, we can feel their timing, their readiness. There is less pushing, more waiting to see what is necessary…All our work is fruitful in its season…There is deeper timing at work, a kairos, a fullness of time.
When we live without listening to the timing of things—when we live and work 24-hour shifts without rest—we are on war time, mobilized for battle. Yes, we are strong capable people, we can work without stopping…But remember, No living thing lives like this. There are greater rhythms that govern how life grows, days and seasons, as small as hormones or as
great as the seas and stars. We are part of the creation story, subject to
all its laws and rhythms.
Many scientists believe we are “hard-wired” to live in rhythmic
awareness—to be engrossed and then detached, to work and then to
rest. The commandment to remember the Sabbath, then, is not a burden imposed, but a reminder of how things are, the rhythmic dance to which
we unavoidably belong.
Practice: The Sabbath Walk – A walk without any purpose other than simply to let your soul catch up with you. For thirty minutes, walk slowly
and silently—preferably outside in nature, but it can also be done indoors—without trying to get anywhere. It is an amble; let your senses guide you. When called to stop, stop; when called to begin again, begin. At the end
of thirty minutes, notice what has happened to your body, your mind, your sense of time.
Excerpted or summarized from SABBATH: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest,
by Wayne Muller, 2000
Sabbath-keeping
Sabbath – The Rhythm of Creation
To everything there is a season,
a time for every purpose under heaven.
~ Ecclesiastes 3:1
Here, if there is such a thing as time, it surely cannot be linear. Einstein shattered our complacency when he showed us that light itself can bend, and time along with it. Can this be truly news? Everything begins and ends, and begins again, says the preacher in Ecclesiastes, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”
The most recognizable quality of creation is this rhythmicity. The pulsing light and dark, expand and contract, cycles of growth, dormancy, death,
and regenerations are characteristics of all living things from smallest microbe to largest galaxy.
When we know the seasons of things, we can feel their timing, their readiness. There is less pushing, more waiting to see what is necessary…All our work is fruitful in its season…There is deeper timing at work, a kairos, a fullness of time.
When we live without listening to the timing of things—when we live and work 24-hour shifts without rest—we are on war time, mobilized for battle. Yes, we are strong capable people, we can work without stopping…But remember, No living thing lives like this. There are greater rhythms that govern how life grows, days and seasons, as small as hormones or as
great as the seas and stars. We are part of the creation story, subject to
all its laws and rhythms.
Many scientists believe we are “hard-wired” to live in rhythmic
awareness—to be engrossed and then detached, to work and then to
rest. The commandment to remember the Sabbath, then, is not a burden imposed, but a reminder of how things are, the rhythmic dance to which
we unavoidably belong.
Practice: The Sabbath Walk – A walk without any purpose other than simply to let your soul catch up with you. For thirty minutes, walk slowly
and silently—preferably outside in nature, but it can also be done indoors—without trying to get anywhere. It is an amble; let your senses guide you. When called to stop, stop; when called to begin again, begin. At the end
of thirty minutes, notice what has happened to your body, your mind, your sense of time.
Excerpted or summarized from SABBATH: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest,
by Wayne Muller, 2000