An Invitation to Sabbath Rest.
Is this possible?
A four-week study of scripture in dialogue with others
Week One: Sabbath Rest as RECEIVING & REJOICING.
Week Two: Sabbath Rest as REMEMBRANCE
Week Three: Sabbath Rest as RESISTANCE
Week Four: Sabbath Rest as RESTORATION
Introduction to your Invitation to Sabbath Rest
Sabbath [Shabbat in Hebrew]: To cease from work/labor, to pause, to rest, to celebrate.
To keep Sabbath in our culture of 24/7 commitments and technology that can keep us incessantly linked to anyone anywhere in the world is challenging and countercultural.
To keep Sabbath is to embrace God’s alternative way.
To keep Sabbath is to recognize the rhythm of life. There is morning and there is night. There is a time to work and a time to rest. Sabbath creates a pause so that life is not one long, endless grind of labor until our last breath.
Within the context of our labor, we shabbat! We pause to rest and to live at a different pace; to notice and to celebrate.
To keep Sabbath is to recognize we are a part of community – a global community that extends into time. When we keep Sabbath, we are connected to those who’ve kept Sabbath before us and we also acknowledge those who will come after us.
To keep Sabbath is not formulaic nor rigid (we will get into the abuse of it the third week) it is a way of being. “God gives Sabbath rest as a gift of sheer grace.” (Rachel Held Evans)