Sabbath

Something that has been spinning in my mind lately. If you look to my April 16 blog, there is a lot about rest - about Sabbath. As I looked through the bible a few weeks later, I realized that the biblical injunctions to rest included a relatively expansive list: You are to rest, your family, your animals, your servants, and any stranger and alien within your gate. Since you, your animals, and your servants are resting, therefore so does the land. Everything is given time to rest, sacred rest.

I think that one of the most meaningful and important ways we could apply this scripture today is to think of an energy rest. One day a week (and, if a week is too much, one day a month) set aside to be kept holy, sacred. A day (sundown to sundown) in which we use no energy, whether it is petrol or electric. We rest our cars, our appliances, our clocks, our air conditioners (if there is no danger to one's physical health in so doing), etc. We unplug everything. But we don't just make it a day of abstention. We take the time we would normally be driving, watching tv, listening to music, etc., and we sit with each other. We share meals, with families, with communities, with ourselves. We take time for reflection, for meditation, for going out to visit nature - a lake, a creek, a field. We don't make it an ascetic practice, but a way of honoring the beauty of the world without any electronic distractions. On the pragmatic side - imagine the massive impact upon carbon emissions if even half of the people of this country stopped driving and using electric power for ONE day a month, or moreso, one day a week, sundown to sundown. We sit in candlelight (I would allow for my own sabbath to be blessed with candlelight) and honor time together for sacred communion, reflection, and celebration. I encourage you all to think about it, and make it a day of beauty. Try one. Don't think about one day a week, or even a month. Try one day, Friday night to Saturday night. Make your meals in advance, plan what you will do. Have people over. Stock up on candles - ones that are kind to our world. See what joy you can have, playing games, writing letters, not being constantly obsessed by what time it is, what you have to get done. Etc.

Just try it. Then tell me what you think. Email your experience(s) to me, no matter when you do it. I want to hear what it is like. jonathan@thewayofpeace.net
I want people to pass this on to their faith communities. I want to see this take root. I am with you on this, I still have to try this, to see how it goes for me, for my wife, for our time together. To think about how it will affect things to live in the heat we live in now, and the cold we might live in one day. Even in the latter case, we could be creative. Families could gather and spend time together at a home with a fireplace. It could be a day of hot chocolate (water or milk boiled over the fire), blankets, etc. etc.

Blessings.