Worship and remember to keep the Sabbath day.

This blog is coming out a bit later in the week than is typical. Part of the reason is because Bryn Wittmayer, who has been doing the technical work of posting the blog during Eilidh’s absence (thank you, Bryn), has been at Camp Magruder this week, serving as dean of a wonderful Family Camp. But I’m not even writing this until Thursday, because . . . well, in a word, Sabbath.

Last Sunday evening at the Sellwood Faith Community dinner/worship, we focused on Sabbath. We took turns reading scripture passages about Sabbath from both the Old and New Testaments. We rested in the sense of renewal that comes from sharing food, conversation, and prayer around a table of trust. We sang songs about Sabbath at the

end of our time together, but when we first started out discussion, Megan suddenly jumped up from the table and went to the other end of the room, returning with a copy of The Faith We Sing. After a minute of searching through the book, she handed it to me, open to Natalie Sleeth’s “Come, Come, Everybody Worship.” Megan asked me to play it so that we could all sing. But it wasn’t time for singing, and I couldn’t figure out why we would sing a song about worship in the middle of a conversation about Sabbath—until I looked down at the book and remembered the first verse: “Worship and remember to keep the Sabbath day. Take a rest and think of God; put your work away!” (Natalie Sleeth, The Faith We Sing #2271) What a succinct definition of Sabbath! It’s so easy, and yet we have such a difficult time doing it.

Rev. Laura Jaquith Bartlett at Timonthy Lake

Yesterday (the day I normally would have written the blog), I went with my family to Timothy Lake, where we spent the day with friends. We shared good food, good conversation, and complete relaxation. We thanked God for the amazing beauty of creation around us. We put away our work and we rested. At SFC on Sunday, we talked about the challenge of putting aside work (“but it’s right there, needing to be done right now!!”). Before we left for Timothy Lake, I did not make the bed—shocking, right?! It’s a baby step, but it was one intentional way that I could say, “I’m putting my work away so that I can rest and think of God.” And I did not write this blog on time, because instead I was doing it!

How will you create Sabbath this week?

Rev. Laura