(Thursday)
I grew up in a household that observed the Sabbath. Sunday was a day of rest. Cooking typically took place on Saturday so that the Sunday meal could be quickly and simply heated. Yard work was never acceptable, and schoolwork was expected to be completed by the time Sunday arrived. On that one day of the week, we went only to church and perhaps to visit with friends or family sitting quietly in the shade of the yard. Anything that resembled work was unacceptable.
Shopping was unthinkable, not to mention that stores were typically closed on Sundays. (By the time I was a teenager, some of those restrictions had relaxed a bit and stores began to have limited open hours. My mother, however, held to her eleventh commandment: Thou shalt not go to Walmart on Sunday.) Even working in the garden or watering the flowerbeds was left to the other six days of the week. Sunday was for rest.
My nine-year-old curiosity rose to the surface one day as I slowly walked through the oppressive Southern humidity. My friend’s mother was like my own, and I felt comfortable asking my question that afternoon as I entered her yard. Her olive skin had been baked to a deep chocolate color over the summer and now glistened in the heat telling me that she’d been outside for a while. “Kat, I thought you weren’t supposed to work on Sundays. Why do you always work in your flower garden?” Kat continued watering her blooms with a skinny red garden hose and leaned down to pluck a stray weed from beneath a blanket of glorious color. “If you enjoy something, it’s not work.”
Kat always had a way of making things simple, and these fifty years later I remember her words. I have, however, learned to temper them with some of my own understandings. Watering flowers wasn’t work to Kat because she enjoyed spending time emersed in God’s creation. I think this time was Kat’s way of resting in Jesus and worshiping the Holy One. A sense of renewal and restoration flowed from God’s heart to hers as gently as her garden hose carried refreshing nourishment to her plants. Just as she was careful not to scorch any leaves in the afternoon sun but water only at the roots, Kat was carefully tended by God’s love deeply rooted in the rich soil of her faith. She rested in that love.
In todays’ scripture, Isaiah has just described how the Israelites looked back to Egypt as their source of renewal and restoration. While grumbling against God, they expressed how much better off they were while enslaved. They longed to return to that life where they thought they could find rest from their desert wandering. Isaiah, acting as God’s instrument, shares these words from God: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” Even though they rebelled, God provided them with a promise of rest in salvation.
What a wonderful promise this is for us as well! Even as I go about my busy days (and they can get busy!), I know that God provides for me through Sabbath and rest. Through that returning to God and through that rest, I quietly and trustingly find my strength. Whether I am working for others, sitting in relaxation, or watering my flowers, may God be glorified by my life and by the breaks I take to honor my Creator. Thanks, Kat, for a beautiful example of sabbath keeping.
Resting in peace,
Pastor Beth
PRAYER FROM JOHN 8
Have mercy upon us, O Lord, according to your steadfast love and abundant mercy. Let our response to your love be the exercise of heartfelt compassion for the poor, the oppressed, the downtrodden and vulnerable. Create in us clean hearts, and renew in us upright spirits. Let our renewed vision see the places where you beckon; let our clean hearts be broken for the things that cause you pain. Let us be present with you in healing and deliverance, and let us be instruments of your peace. Do not cast us away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from us. Instead supply us with the boldness that your Holy Spirit supplies, that we might be strength for the weak and a voice for the silenced. Empower us with the sureness of your presence that as we walk in your way, we might initiate glorious transformation of this world through our justified miraculous expectations. Amen.
re-worship.blogspot.com
KEY VERSES FROM TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READINGS
Psalm 51 – Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
Isaiah 30 – For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.
Hebrews 4 – For indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
For today’s full scripture readings, click here… https://www.divinestreet.org/lent-scripture.html
I grew up in a household that observed the Sabbath. Sunday was a day of rest. Cooking typically took place on Saturday so that the Sunday meal could be quickly and simply heated. Yard work was never acceptable, and schoolwork was expected to be completed by the time Sunday arrived. On that one day of the week, we went only to church and perhaps to visit with friends or family sitting quietly in the shade of the yard. Anything that resembled work was unacceptable.
Shopping was unthinkable, not to mention that stores were typically closed on Sundays. (By the time I was a teenager, some of those restrictions had relaxed a bit and stores began to have limited open hours. My mother, however, held to her eleventh commandment: Thou shalt not go to Walmart on Sunday.) Even working in the garden or watering the flowerbeds was left to the other six days of the week. Sunday was for rest.
My nine-year-old curiosity rose to the surface one day as I slowly walked through the oppressive Southern humidity. My friend’s mother was like my own, and I felt comfortable asking my question that afternoon as I entered her yard. Her olive skin had been baked to a deep chocolate color over the summer and now glistened in the heat telling me that she’d been outside for a while. “Kat, I thought you weren’t supposed to work on Sundays. Why do you always work in your flower garden?” Kat continued watering her blooms with a skinny red garden hose and leaned down to pluck a stray weed from beneath a blanket of glorious color. “If you enjoy something, it’s not work.”
Kat always had a way of making things simple, and these fifty years later I remember her words. I have, however, learned to temper them with some of my own understandings. Watering flowers wasn’t work to Kat because she enjoyed spending time emersed in God’s creation. I think this time was Kat’s way of resting in Jesus and worshiping the Holy One. A sense of renewal and restoration flowed from God’s heart to hers as gently as her garden hose carried refreshing nourishment to her plants. Just as she was careful not to scorch any leaves in the afternoon sun but water only at the roots, Kat was carefully tended by God’s love deeply rooted in the rich soil of her faith. She rested in that love.
In todays’ scripture, Isaiah has just described how the Israelites looked back to Egypt as their source of renewal and restoration. While grumbling against God, they expressed how much better off they were while enslaved. They longed to return to that life where they thought they could find rest from their desert wandering. Isaiah, acting as God’s instrument, shares these words from God: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” Even though they rebelled, God provided them with a promise of rest in salvation.
What a wonderful promise this is for us as well! Even as I go about my busy days (and they can get busy!), I know that God provides for me through Sabbath and rest. Through that returning to God and through that rest, I quietly and trustingly find my strength. Whether I am working for others, sitting in relaxation, or watering my flowers, may God be glorified by my life and by the breaks I take to honor my Creator. Thanks, Kat, for a beautiful example of sabbath keeping.
Resting in peace,
Pastor Beth
PRAYER FROM JOHN 8
Have mercy upon us, O Lord, according to your steadfast love and abundant mercy. Let our response to your love be the exercise of heartfelt compassion for the poor, the oppressed, the downtrodden and vulnerable. Create in us clean hearts, and renew in us upright spirits. Let our renewed vision see the places where you beckon; let our clean hearts be broken for the things that cause you pain. Let us be present with you in healing and deliverance, and let us be instruments of your peace. Do not cast us away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from us. Instead supply us with the boldness that your Holy Spirit supplies, that we might be strength for the weak and a voice for the silenced. Empower us with the sureness of your presence that as we walk in your way, we might initiate glorious transformation of this world through our justified miraculous expectations. Amen.
re-worship.blogspot.com
KEY VERSES FROM TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READINGS
Psalm 51 – Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
Isaiah 30 – For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.
Hebrews 4 – For indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
For today’s full scripture readings, click here… https://www.divinestreet.org/lent-scripture.html