Good morning all! Ok, just a warning…I am about to do something I never do….
Today’s scripture: Leviticus 25:1-12 The Message (MSG)
God spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai: “Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them, When you enter the land which I am going to give you, the land will observe a Sabbath to God. Sow your fields, prune your vineyards, and take in your harvests for six years. But the seventh year the land will take a Sabbath of complete and total rest, a Sabbath to God; you will not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Don’t reap what grows of itself; don’t harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land gets a year of complete and total rest. But you can eat from what the land volunteers during the Sabbath year—you and your men and women servants, your hired hands, and the foreigners who live in the country, and, of course, also your livestock and the wild animals in the land can eat from it. Whatever the land volunteers of itself can be eaten.
“Count off seven Sabbaths of years—seven times seven years: Seven Sabbaths of years adds up to forty-nine years. Then sound loud blasts on the ram’s horn on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement. Sound the ram’s horn all over the land. Sanctify the fiftieth year; make it a holy year. Proclaim freedom all over the land to everyone who lives in it—a Jubilee for you: Each person will go back to his family’s property and reunite with his extended family. The fiftieth year is your Jubilee year: Don’t sow; don’t reap what volunteers itself in the fields; don’t harvest the untended vines because it’s the Jubilee and a holy year for you. You’re permitted to eat from whatever volunteers itself in the fields.
Yup, I did it…I quoted Leviticus which is the something I hardly ever do but today stuck out to me in the scripture offerings for today. It stuck out because it talks about Sabbath which I am super horrible at. And it talks about Jubilee which I think we as a society are not so great at but its sounds good. And I also started to really look at this passage because it revolves around the fields in Sabbath and Jubilee, not necessarily just us. Especially in those times when people need food they get to be fed. Sabbath and Jubilee as feeding. Very interesting. God had set up this system with the wandering Israelites in a new land of rest and celebration….both of which takes work although it sounds easy. And it all revolves around the land….interesting….giving up the busyness of the week to rest.
Ok, here is another short video from Barbara Brown Taylor from that same series where she talked about suffering. What I like about this video is that she talks about when we get lured in by the hammock part of sabbath we all of a sudden get to ask the big questions to the night sky and everyone has plenty to eat so they don’t have to worry if we do it the Leviticus way…just to ponder…
As I said briefly, I am horrible at taking Sabbath! I remember growing up my family would spend Sundays as family days in our house and we would go have dinner with my grandparents later on. As I look at those days that might be the closest to Sabbath I have ever gotten. Sure we played and we did stuff but my parents were also pretty intentional about it being a day off after church. We hung out. We chatted. We connected differently than we did the rest of the week. It set up a nice model and yet I have a hard time of letting go of what needs to be done. Sabbath is a challenge. I am intentional about my day off but it still has an allurement of getting things done in the meantime. So how do I Sabbath? This will be my own work today…to ponder and think about when I get to do that. Without computer time. Without phone time. What would it look like? Would I be with friends? Would I go somewhere?
What do you do to rest? To ponder life’s important questions?
And then the second part of Leviticus is Jubliee…forgiving of debts, feasting, everyone having food and celebrating after a certain number of years. How could we reintroduce that idea?
Ok, enough of my questions…time to let you lose on yours. Enjoy the day! Peace!
Court
Living in Violet 