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Sabbath

             At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath… If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.  For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath…Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:1-2, 7-8, 12b)

 

I recently struggled with the idea of the Sabbath, It bothers me that I can’t “kick back and relax” but it also bothers me that the only way to do it right involves maintaining a focus on God that precludes a focus on myself and what I want to do. It’s not that I don’t want to spend time focusing on God, it’s that I lack the capacity to self-generate the focus. It’s a common affliction. If I tell you, “Think of nothing but God for the next 10 minutes,” you’ll probably find yourself inundated with other thoughts. If I tell you “Don’t think of God for the next 10 minutes,  you’ll probably find yourself thinking about Him more often than you would otherwise.

This is old news for me. I don’t respond well to commands or people who issue them. It’s not just a matter of ego – I can’t. I once had a linguistics course in which the instructor went around the room testing us about – a click, I think. When she got to me, I could not do it even though she had heard me practicing before she got to me. People think I’m just being contrary, but it’s not – or not always – a choice on my part. Lots of people talk about going blank on tests. It’s the same idea.

So as I face another Sabbath, I want to approach it differently. I want to let go of both the “thou shalts” and the “thou shalt nots,” and let God direct and pace the day. If I feel the need to pick and rub “grain,” I will. And if I feel the need to listen to worship music, take a nap, or do something else good, I will. 

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