Time for rest?

A reflection from the Revd Christine Broad, Rector of Woodchurch and Dean of Women in Ministry in the Diocese of Chester.

“O Sabbath rest by Galilee!
O calm of hills above,
where Jesus knelt to share with thee
the silence of eternity
interpreted by love”

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)

The lines above are taken from the well-known hymn, “Dear Lord and Father of mankind” written by John Greenleaf Whittier. The hymn itself is taken from a longer poem by Whittier in which he calls worshippers away from frantic activity and commends purity and simplicity in approaching God.[1] In this verse, he turns to the joy of keeping the Sabbath as an aspect of such pure and simple worship.

I wonder what that word, “Sabbath” means to you? One day in seven set aside for rest and recuperation and dedicated as holy? The Sabbath is inaugurated in the creation narrative of Genesis-  “God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation” Genesis 2:3. The Sabbath is affirmed in the narrative of the new creation. On the Cross as he dies Jesus states , “it is finished”, ( John 19:30) and the following day, the Sabbath, his body rests in the tomb. On the first day of the new week there is  New Creation-  Resurrection.

The rhythm of activity and rest inaugurated in creation and affirmed in the new creation is offered as a gift to humankind, but we live in a world, in a culture, in a society which never stops, there is always another task to accomplish, e-mail to answer, call to make…where is that rhythm of activity and rest in our lives today?

In Mark 2:27 Jesus says that “The Sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the Sabbath”. The gift of a rhythm of activity and rest is not another thing to feel guilty about if we don’t quite achieve it, it is something to be considered, accepted and enjoyed as a gift to enrich our lives.

As I write it is the busiest weekend of the year for travel and many people head for holidays, it is that time of year when we might well be thinking  about stopping our regular activity and resting for a while, leaving the tasks the emails and the calls to one side- and if that is possible then that is just great. But thinking about Sabbath in the context of the holiday season reminds me that whilst holidays are wonderful, making time for Sabbath rest as part of an ongoing sustainable and sustaining rhythm of life is perhaps a greater gift. Thinking about Sabbath reminds me that its OK to stop, for a day in each week, for some time in each day, for a moment in each hour, the tasks will wait as we share with Jesus even just for a moment the silence of eternity, simply offering our thanks for his presence with us as our offering of worship.  The gift of Sabbath is a gift of love.