Sabbath

You may or may not be aware of my husband Demetrius' joke that he attends the "Church of the Restful Sabbath" on Sunday mornings--meaning that he enjoys sleeping in and "doesn't bug God on His day off". Being a funny guy who does computer graphics for a living, the joke came complete with a church logo.



In my EFM reading last night, the significance of the creation story ending with a day of rest was discussed. This excerpt from the Judaism 101 web site expresses the gist of what I read:

In modern America, we take the five-day work-week so much for granted that we forget what a radical concept a day of rest was in ancient times. The weekly day of rest has no parallel in any other ancient civilization. In ancient times, leisure was for the wealthy and the ruling classes only, never for the serving or laboring classes. In addition, the very idea of rest each week was unimaginable. The Greeks thought Jews were lazy because we insisted on having a "holiday" every seventh day.

So, maybe Demetrius' restful Sabbath notion isn't too far off from the original intent. Church music courtesy of Dr. Demento. I've written elsewhere about the importance of following your own spiritual practice--whatever that may be, as long it is a source of rest and renewal. We need that...in these times, maybe more than ever.

Most of you do know that, more often than not, I honor the Sabbath day by actually going to church. Today, I will not be attending my home church, but the one where my daughter sings in the children's choir. Both of us are a little disappointed that the day children's choir is scheduled to sing will make us miss the blessing of the animals at the other church. Maybe we can find another animal blessing event later in the day, though. In any event, I need to get ready now, so I leave you with this fresh, new Sabbath day thread.

Here is Pastor Dan's Word for the Week, Oscar's Word for the Week, and it's simple IF you ignore the complexity' Sabbath Time thread. The theme, as I mentioned yesterday, is the very timely one (given the recent discussions) of being tired.

Yesterday Demetrius created a new candle graphic for the page where I used to list our intentions. I thought it was about time to start actively maintaining that page again, so if you or someone you care about are in need of prayers or positive thoughts, please let me know.