by Wendell Berry, from A Timbered Choir.
Another Sunday morning comes
And I resume the standing Sabbath
Of the woods, where the finest blooms
Of time return, and where no path
Is worn but wears its makers out
At last, and disappears in leaves
Of fallen seasons. The tracked rut
Fills and levels; here nothing grieves
In the risen season. Past life
Lives in the living. Resurrection
Is in the way each maple leaf
Commemorates its kind, by connection
Outreaching understanding. What rises
Rises into comprehension
And beyond. Even falling raises
In praise of light. What is begun
Is unfinished. And so the mind
That comes to rest among the bluebells
Comes to rest in motion, refined
By alteration. The bud swells,
Opens, makes seed, falls, is well,
By becoming what it is:
Miracle and Parable,
Exceeding thought because it is.
Immeasurable; the understander
Encloses understanding, thus
Darkens the light. We can stand under
No ray that is not dimmed by us.
The mind that comes to rest is tended
In ways that it cannot intend:
Is borne, preserved, and comprehended
By what it cannot comprehend.
Your Sabbath, Lord, thus keeps us by
Your will, not ours. And it is fit
Our only choice should be to die
Into that rest, or out of it.
Warning: I get a bit wordy in this post
I have been thinking for some time now (Most specifically since I took an environmental ethics course in college) about the importance of the Sabbath rest for the individual, society as a whole and the land itself. Taking time to rest, recuperate, rejuvenate, and just bask in the glory and beauty of God's love is something that every part of God's Creation should have an internal longing and outward commitment to. On the individual level taking time to put aside the cares of this world and spend time in God's Word and His World brings not only physical relief but spiritual as well. Finding a peaceful spot void of all distracting noises and people, surrounded by the beauty of God's nature, with a Bible in your hand, and a poem such as the one above by your side is truly a beautiful and enlightening thing.
On the societal level the importance of the Sabbath rest can be seen, not in its diligent practice, but in it's woeful disregard. In this hectic society of constant motion, endless work, events, and decadent self-gratification, the idea of taking days, hours, even minutes to simply stop and reflect on something, anything for that matter, is a total anathema. The modern man may be smart, fast, hip, up to date on the latest technology, and a master of societal workings, but he knows next to nothing about how to properly rest. True rest, that is the Sabbath rest ordained in Genesis 2 where God set aside the seventh day "and made it holy" (Genesis 2: 3) and commanded in Exodus 20:8-11 as a blessing and mandate to the people, is a concept entirely foreign to the modern mind. Even when people take a "rest" from their jobs to go on vacation, how often does this rest really correspond to true Sabbath rest? Often, rather than spending their precious vacation time to reflect on the beauty of God and his creation, they squander their time on grandiose schemes of meaningless self-fulfillment or materialistic pleasure.The results of this complete disregard for true rest are telling. Rather than returning refreshed from a wonderful vacation of relaxation and meditation ready to do God's work in the world, often travelers return just as worn out as they left and complaining about the work they must begrudgingly go back to the next day. What has happened to the sense of contentment and peace that should follow a time of well rested peace?
Finally there is the Sabbath of the Land, an intriguing and glorious commandment from Yahweh to His people in Leviticus 25:2-7, that has unfortunately been almost wholly disregarded by both the Israelites then and Christians today (Read the passage now before you forget, as you no doubt likely will by the time you finish reading this sentence). As the Israelites were coming into the land God specifically set out parameters of how they were to live that they might be his witnesses to the world and chief among these commandments was the mandate that the people set aside a Sabbath year every seven years that the land and its people might rest from their work and think on the extraordinary care of Yahweh No food could be harvested during the Sabbath year except that which was already on the trees, and after 7 Sabbath years a Jubilee year would occur in which all land returned to its original owners. It is interesting to note, and somewhat depressing, that the specific reason given by God for the exile of Israel is that they failed to keep the Sabbath of the land (Leviticus 26:28-35, Leviticus 26:43. & 2 Chronicles 36:16-21). To punish his disobedient people and give the land it desperately needed God sent his people into exile for 490 years, 7 years for every Sabbath year missed while Israel was in the land (My prof Dr. Gathany did the math, not me, and I trust him). Clearly then if God is willing to subject His own people to 490 years of captivity for failing to give the land its proper rest He must deeply care about rest. As Christians that desire to follow the example of our Lord and the teachings of Yahweh why do we not follow the commandments he specifically states and care for the Land He has given us? Why do we not treasure the Sabbath rest as a gift?
I put a poem in my blog to urge me (And whoever else chooses to read this crazy blog) to move toward this longing and love of the Sabbath. Wendell Berry has a way with words that will always amaze me and move me to deeper understanding of life and nature. I highly recommend you go back now and read the poem again (If you read it at all), preferably with a good cup of tea sitting by a lake or pond and watching the sun go down. Anyway I hope this giant discussion about rest and the Sabbath didn't bore you too much (And if it did, I highly doubt you read this sentence anyway). I'll soon post a shorter post about my trip this last weekend and some pictures from two weeks ago.
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