Posts from August 2014

Domination

“In its community form, Sabbath is not only about rest but also about resistance. Each time it appears in Torah, the commandment limits the exploitation of others as well as the exhaustion of the self. When you stop working, so do your children, your animals and your employees, even if they do not believe in your God. You believe in your God, so they get the day off. By interrupting our economically sanctioned social order every week, Sabbath suspends our…

Toward Sunday

We conclude our three-week worship series this week on Summer Sabbath.   We hope this worship series will help us to reclaim the significance of Sabbath. Our worship series is based on a book called Sabbath as Resistance:  Saying NO to the CULTURE OF NOW  by Walter Brueggemann who is a professor emeritus of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary. Outline of Sabbath as Resistance August 17 Genesis 2.1-3 August 24 Exodus 20.1-8   August 31 Matthew 11.28-30 Take time to reflect upon what makes you weary. What heavy burdens are…

Ceasing from work

Read Exodus 20.1-8 . As we continue our series on Sabbath as Resistance, take time today to reflect upon these questions based on Receiving The Day by Dorothy Bass: How might ceasing from work one day a week reshape your work and attitudes on the other six? What is the advantage of a pattern of Sabbath time, as opposed to snatching odd moments or hours of Sabbath time?  In what ways can members of a worshiping community help one another…

Toward Sunday

We continue our three-week worship series this week on Summer Sabbath.   We hope this worship series will help us to reclaim the significance of Sabbath.  Each week will focus upon a particular expression of Sabbath from scripture.  Our worship series is based on a book called Sabbath as Resistance:  Saying NO to the CULTURE OF NOW  by Walter Brueggemann who is a professor emeritus of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary. Outline of Sabbath as Resistance August 17 Genesis…

Money and rest

“Where there is money to be made, there is no rest for the land, nor for those who live in it.” ~Barbara Brown Taylor

Rough ride

“In his book Jewish Renewal, Rabbi Michael Lerner says that anyone engaging the practice of Shabbat can expect a rough ride for a couple of years at least. This is because Sabbath involves pleasure, rest, freedom and slowness, none of which comes naturally to North Americans. Most of us are so sold on speed, so invested in productivity, so convinced that multitasking is the way of life that stopping for one whole day can feel at first like a kind…

Toward Sunday

We begin a three-week worship series this week on Sabbath as Resistance.   We hope this worship series will help us to reclaim the significance of Sabbath.  Each week will focus upon a particular expression of Sabbath from scripture.  Our worship series is based on a book called Sabbath as Resistance:  Saying NO to the CULTURE OF NOW  by Walter Brueggemann who is a professor emeritus of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary.   Outline of Sabbath as Resistance August…

Unity or Isolation?

In Psalm 133 we read. “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity” (verse 1). According to the New Interpreter’s Bible, the word “kindred” …does not mean blood relatives, but a people joined by God’s grace.  The Psalm, though short, is “highly” ambitious: it calls all people into unity.  Every day we make choices.  Some choices create unity.  Some choices divide.  Sometimes our anxiety guides us.  Sometimes we are guided by generosity and trust.  What…

Prayer

  Before you go to sleep tonight take time to think back over the day.  Silently offer to God whatever words you have spoken that have not been wise, true or kind.  Allow yourself few moments of quiet. Close your silence with this simple prayer:  Loving God, we offer these words to you in our hearts knowing that they may have caused harm. Forgive us. Help us to use words that reflect your love.  Amen. What would it be like for you…

Toward Sunday

We continue our four-week worship series this week called Talking Ourselves into Being Christian.  We hope this worship series will help us to talk about following Jesus in our everyday lives. We will focus on talking about faith in the real world today…in our work lives and our volunteer commitments and our families. Our worship series is based on a book called Testimony: Talking Ourselves into Being Christian by Thomas G. Long, a professor of theology and preaching at Candler School of Theology. Outline of Talking Ourselves into Being Christian July…

Brave

Singer songwriter Sara Bareilles inspires me to be brave with my words.  Maybe she will do the same for you today? Brave
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