Entering His Rest

This last Sunday’s second lesson emphasized the Sabbath Rest, which is so important for us in our walk of faith. Here is a portion of that sermon.

In his book, The Unbroken Thread: Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos, Sohrab Ahmari writes of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s experience of Sabbath. In the observant Jewish tradition, everything ceases 20 minutes before sundown on Friday evenings. All that is at that point unfinished would be left unfinished. Candles are blessed and lighted. Another Sabbath had arrived “like a caress,” Heschel wrote, “wiping away fear, sorrow and somber memories.”

“The Sabbath is not for the sake of the weekdays,” Heschel wrote. “The weekdays are for the sake of the Sabbath. It is not an interlude but the climax of living.” The purpose for the Sabbath is to be ever more cognoscente of the presence and providence of God, Who has worked through the week that is past and will be working throughout the week that is to come.

That understanding is built upon this observation: an observation concerning the “realm of time” in relation to the “realm of space.” Modern civilization is all about conquering space: winning territory in geopolitical contests, building ingenious contraptions, growing and prospering economically, and purchasing more. The danger in this begins when in gaining power in the realm of space we forfeit all aspirations in the realm of time. For in that realm, the realm of time, the goal is not to have but to be, not to own but to give, not to control but to share, not to subdue but to be in accord. It’s about restoring the world to the Kingship of the Lord, as Heschel put it.

God’s blessings to you as you repeatedly enter His Sabbath rest, always looking forward to the ultimate Sabbath rest, when Christ Jesus returns in glory.