Sabbath Peace

As we continue our Lenten journey with Jana Reis's Flunking Sainthoood, this week we look at the importance and benefit of Sabbath observation.  Guided by the writing of Abraham Joshua Heschel, a 20th Century Jewish School, we learned that, according to Heschel, "Most of life is a struggle to conquer the world around us."   And the world we live in pushes us with expectations and demands which fill our time and energy, often leaving us without any resources to do or be what is really important to us.

Sabbath gives us that break each week with no expectation, no demands, and where we are not indespensable.   In Sabbath time, we break the huge demands on our lives and allow God to be in charge and to recharge us.  And to connect to what is important to us so that we can bring those priorities back into our everyday lives.

So the challenge this week is to try the spiritual discipline of Sabbath.   Find 2 hours with no expectatons.   Schedule it into your week if necessary, where there will be no television, computer, email, facebook, texting,  perhaps even no telephone.   Observe how God will fill this time for you:  reading, looking at the Bible, praying, being with your family or friends, taking a nap.   Then observe what that taught you about God or yourself.

Shalom Shabbat is the greeting and ending  blessing of the worship service at the Temple our Confirmation Class visited last Friday.   Gayle's translation of Salom Sabbat is Peace of the Sabbath.   My hope is that by finding Sabbath, the peace of God will come to us as well.

Shalom Shabbat.