As the big orange ball rose in the east earlier this morning, above the forest edge, and just beyond the shallow horizon outside my window, I was reminded of a most beautiful idea: ‘that darkness does not get the last word; that night does not have the final say.’
In that spirit, I wrote a prayer. I enjoy writing out my meditations perhaps as much for me as for anyone who might encounter them.
It’s a sabbath prayer.
According to Walter Brueggeman, the understanding of Sabbath which emerges from the Exodus narrative is that “wherever YHWH governs as an alternative to Pharaoh, the restfulness of YHWH effectively counters the restless anxiety of Pharaoh.”
Restless anxiety.
We are surrounded by restless anxiety at this moment in history.
Surely, if our hearts and consciences and spirits are home to the image of God writ large on us, AND, our confession that Christ is Lord, then it isn’t a stretch to suggest that YHWH is governing us, as opposed to the alternative governance of any spirit of the day. (For the ancients this was Pharaoh and his demands for more. More production from his forced labourers for the benefit of some, but not all. Then more consumption of the very same goods which in turn drives the need for more production.).
Does any of that sound remotely familiar?
Sabbath perhaps then, is as much a resistance of ‘something’ as it is anything else.
Brueggeman again states that Sabbath is “a visible insistence that our lives are not defined by the production and consumption of commodity goods.” If Pharaoh demands production and consumption, then YHWH offers us rest from that very thing. Perhaps he offers us this rest in and through the intentionality of asserting Sabbath as a way of saying NO to a culture that demands allegiance to its productivity and consumption in the NOW. Saying NO to a culture whose ideas repeatedly demand a pound of flesh yet offer (relatively) precious little restoration.
Brueggeman continues, “it is unfortunate that in society, largely out of a misunderstood Puritan heritage, Sabbath has gotten enmeshed in the legalism and moralism of life-denying practices that contradict the freedom bestowing intention of Sabbath.
Sabbath is a bodily act of testimony...resisting the pervading values of the day.
The odd insistence of the God of Sinai is to counter anxious productivity with committed neighbourliness...which rather than producing anything, it creates an environment of security and respect and dignity that redefines the human project.”
And so, my prayer:
“Lord, in your mercy, I choose to express my gratitude for a day of ALTERNATIVES, and RESISTANCE to the anxiety-infused spirit of the modern day Pharaohs of my heart and life. May you brighten my courage to the joy of saying NO today...NO to the cultural demands...NO to the cultural demands even at times within the church community...NO to life-denying practices...NO to isolation and self-absorption. May you fire my imagination to experience a rising tide of committed neighbourliness today, a tide that offers security, respect, and dignity to and for others, even as it offers the very same thing to, in and through me.
And may we all know, in that deeply restorative manner of Spirit, that the night, and its darkness, does not get the final word over us today.
Lord, in your mercy.”
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