Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
The seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.
— Deuteronomy 5. 14-15
There was a time when people came at the Sabbath as a day of obligations, anxiously obeying rules and avoiding all sorts of things that might be classified as “work.” But it’s a day off from obligations, a day of freedom. The Sabbath was the first general labor strike, the first Labor Day Holiday. And it was weekly! Pretty radical, if you think about it: a day of rest for slaves. And it is extended even to foreigners and animals. What a wonderful way to worship God: sit around and do nothing.
God is not interested in what you accomplish, how hard you work, whether you earn your keep or pay your way. You are not defined by your job. So relax. Take a day off. Enter into the impossibility of your deserving God’s grace. On this day the lazy rich and the laborer, the unemployed and the one who works three jobs are all the same: the beloved of God, set free just because God loves them that way.
Have a restful day.
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve
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Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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