Monday, July 15, 2024
Memorial of Saint Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Honor the Sabbath and keep it holy
Whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink, he will surely not lose his reward.
On the Sabbath I can go to a Catholic or Episcopal mass, or to a Vineyard worship and prayer service. I can go to a Lutheran/Methodist/Presbyterian liturgical service.
I could go to Crystal Lake Park and walk the labyrinth, preferably after the sun is lower in the sky. I could sit with friends and hold hands with them while we pray. I could sit outside amid the birdsongs with my eyes closed and let the breeze blow across my face.
Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth.
Ah.
These are good things offered by God, in my understanding of God –things offered by his command (Honor the Sabbath and keep it holy!) and by his invitation (Come unto me all ye who are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.).
In the center of all these activities I recognize a still place, a virgin point where God resides. He isn’t going anywhere. In fact whether I’m celebrating Sabbath or not, God isn’t going anywhere. This is not an idea; it is an experience.
At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us. It is, so to speak, the Holy’s name written in us, as our poverty, as our indigence, as our dependence. – Thomas Merton in Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander.
Yesterday at Vineyard, Pastor Julie spoke about her revelation of God’s righteousness, a rightness entirely different and separate from her own. All her spiritual self-improvement simply fell away, to be replaced by “the Holy’s name written in us as our poverty, our indigence, our dependence.”
What a friend we have in Jesus.
George MacDonald says that Jesus our friend is very easy to please but hard to satisfy.
Think of that and it will help you a little, if you will but let Him in. You have not much to put on the table. You cannot share much of life because you have not got it, but He will be so pleased, if it be but a cup of cold water that you can give him. Let it be something genuine, something real.” (from “The Father’s Appeal”)
This God, who resides in the still point of nothingness, cannot be pinned down with our words. C. S. Lewis, an excellent wordsmith himself said, “I want God! Not my idea of God.”
When you pray the more, I will not listen when your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves clean!
Keeping the Sabbath helps me move forward and grow more firm in my steps. God is my Father, and I am adopted into his family. God is proud of all my steps, often wobbly, sometimes firm. Every time I trust God, God is happy with me. Pats me on the head. When I close my eyes, I still can see his smile.
But, and this I must recall over and over, God is not easily satisfied.
Redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow. Love discipline, and do not cast my words behind you. He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me. To him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.
 (Isaiah 1, Psalm 50, Matthew 5, Matthew 10)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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