Shabbat Shalom. Peaceful Sabbath. Sabbath is the first gift
given to us by our Creator. Sabbath returns us to the Holiness of Time. We
spend so much of our life attending to the world of space, of things, of
possessions and possessing. And when we run out of things we spend our time
coveting more things, more possessions, forgetting that in the end space and
all things of space only exist in Time. The Bible speaks of the creation of
space in Time.
“A special consciousness is required to recognize the
ultimate significance of time. We all live in it and are so close to being
identical with it that we fail to notice it. The world of space surrounds our
existence. It is but a part of living, the rest is time. Things are the shore; the
voyage is in time.” [Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath: Its Meaning for
Modern Man, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1951, p 96]
There is a Realm of Time where the goal is not to have, but
to be; not to own, but to give; not to control, but to share; not to subdue but
to be in accord…This is the Realm of Sabbath time. Which is the first thing in
Creation that the Lord God declared Holy. [Ibid p 3ff]
Jesus heals a man born blind by spitting on the ground to
mix a kind of mud, put it on the man’s eyes, and tells him to wash in the Pool
of Siloam. The man can see. “Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud
and opened his eyes,” writes the storyteller John [John 9:1-41]. There is so
much going on in this rather long account: questions about why the man was
blind, about sin, about who is to blame, about authority, about light and
darkness, healing, personhood and more.
Yet, at the heart of this story is the Sabbath – a day to
remember the Holiness of Time, God’s first gift to humankind. Sabbath is
essential to being one of God’s people, to being a Jew. It is a reminder that a
people who once were slaves 24/7 now have a day off. The Pharisees, often made
out to be the ‘bad guys,’ are right to be concerned that Jesus appears to be
breaking time honored rituals around Sabbath – rituals that say we are meant to
rest, not do the things of space, but rather rest in the realm of Time. We may
overlook that on this Sabbath day the man who was forced to become a beggar is
now able not only to see but to defend himself and Jesus against all assaults from
the authorities who are sure they know just how Sabbath time is to be observed.
So wrapped up in things of space, the Pharisees cannot see
that Jesus is that force of creation that took moisture and dust to make a kind
of mud, breathed, blew God’s ruach, God’s breath, into it and created a life.
That this blind man is reborn, given a new life. He is no longer afraid. And
that Jesus divides light from darkness, that is sight from blindness. And it is
all about seeing for the first time what God, what Jesus, what Sabbath is all
about: not to have but to be; not to own, but to give; not to control, but to
share; not to subdue but to be in accord. The story means to ask: Who is really
breaking the Sabbath here? And, who is keeping it?
I say all this because we have been given an extended kind
of Sabbath Time. For the time being we are to withdraw from the world of space
and retreat to the Realm of Time of which Heschel speaks. I believe we are
invited to see this time not as a time for extreme anxiety, but rather as an
invitation into Sabbath, the first gift we are given in creation. Heschel
asserts that, “Even when the soul is seared, even when no prayer can come out
of our tightened throats, the clean, silent rest of the Sabbath leads us to a
realm of endless peace, or to the beginning of awareness of what eternity
means.” [Ibid p101]
One day as I stood in a Cathedral Church in Rochester, NY, I
saw two stained glass windows opposite one another. The scripture of one read, “God
has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound
mind.” [2Timothy1:7] The other simply read, “The God of Love shall be with you.”[2Corinthians
13:11] Sabbath means to bring us to that awareness that the God of Love is with
us, even in this time of public health crisis. And that we have been given power,
and love, and strong minds that can overcome and transcend any and all fears.
May we enter into this gift of Sabbath Time together and allow ourselves to experience
the Living God who inhabits all Time. Who knows, an instant of returning to God
in Sabbath may restore what has been lost in years of escaping from Him. The
God of Love shall be, and is with us, as we travel through this extended Sabbath
time. May we remember, God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power
and of love and of a sound mind. Shabbat Shalom.
No comments:
Post a Comment