Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.”
NL Daily Devotion for SSunday, August 27, 2023
by Madison L. Johnston, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: In a life of faith, rest is a dynamic practice—regular, intentional, and full of love.
Too often, we equate rest to inactivity. To nothingness. To the absence or lack of something dynamic. Too often, we view rest as an exciting and even elusive chance to disconnect from our day-to-day obligations and unplug, freezing a bit until we are forced to get moving again. Our texts this morning combine to tell us that rest is actually a very dynamic thing, in and of itself. Rest isn’t about hitting the pause button on busy-ness and going dark just to return to busy-ness again. Rather, it’s about disrupting our busy-ness with something more substantive. Reorienting our busy-ness toward something more meaningful. Using energy to change our energy.
We know all of this because we have a creator who models rest, and a savior who calls us to make rest a part of our everyday lives. Between Genesis and John, we learn that Christian rest has three, main components:
1) It is regular (habitual)
Our creation narrative presents rest in the context rhythm. Routine, even. After a certain amount of time—after a certain threshold had been reached—God makes time and a threshold for rest. (This is an invitation for us to reflect on our rhythms of rest.)
2) It is intentional
Jesus reminds us that abiding in love inherently involves keeping commandments. We might say, then, that rest is a practice. Rest involves some doing. Rest involves some seeking. Rest involves some evaluation on our parts, and even a little bit of performance. (What a beautiful way to reframe what we often think of as obligation.)
3) It is full of love
Joy being complete. Relationships moving from master-servant dynamics to friend-friend dynamics. Everything our scriptures tell us about rest ties back to one of these processes. God’s rest on the seventh day of creation was an act of delight, wonderment and enjoyment. And Jesus’s vision of rest for us is one of connection. Friendship. Adoration. A call to rest in the Christian life is synonymous to the Golden Rule: a call to love others as you love yourself.
