Learning to be a Community of Good Rest
“The Sabbath was made
for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath.”
--Mark
2:27
I. Required readings
Christian Biography for the Day: Catherine of Sienna
Chittister, Chapter 8 (“Holy Leisure: The Key to a Good Life”), 95-107.
“Unwrapping the Gift of Sabbath.”
II. Quotation for the
day
“The choices regarding work may be consciously formulated as follows: to work more and to consume more, or to consume less and to rest, play, pass time in conversation. Typically, traditional societies adopted the latter orientation. We are the first society to have dedicated ourselves totally to work, which calls for more and more primary resources and their consumption, with the result that an apparent abundance becomes an organization of scarcity, immediately or in the future (through exhaustion of the soil and its resources).”
III. Journal prompts
The readings for today deal with another subject we rarely think about in terms of discipleship: leisure and rest. As you read and reflect on these matters, be mindful of the ways in which our culture encourages us to think about leisure and rest and how this differs from views offered in these readings.
1. How do the assignments for today illuminate and enrich your understanding of rest and Sabbath? How might Christians appropriate the notion of Sabbath discussed in these readings?
2. Chittister writes of her busy sisters: "They are not so involved in work that they forget that we have no light to give to others unless we first of all have it in ourselves." How does this reminder help you think about the purpose of leisure and rest?
3. Holy leisure offers us opportunities to "take time to look at life in fresh, new ways." In what ways do your current leisure choices offer you such opportunities? In what ways do they simply continue to reinforce your current ways of looking at life?
4. How might our deepening understanding of the neuro-science of sleep reinforce God's design for rest and sleep?
5. Why do you think the dominant culture cares more about living a "productive" life and less about living a "thoughtful" life? How do you plan to keep the balance?
IV. Links of possible
interest
Russell Foster, "Why do we sleep?" Another fascinating Ted-Talk on the neuro-science of sleep.
Jubilee USA Network In the Old Testament, the practice of the year of Jubilee was understood as an extension of the rhythm of Sabbath to the realm of economics. This link is to a movement calling for the cancellation of debt for the world’s poorest countries.