More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
A.J. Swoboda
Read between
March 30 - June 17, 2019
In the end, the problem with the Sabbath is there are huge rewards and incentives for not actually doing it.
We often fear what will happen when we are absent. But we fail to recognize that our absence is not the absence of God,
Entering into Sabbath community invariably creates logistical and practical challenges.
The single person should feel free to say no to other requests without having to fully explain. Ambiguity is not a sin.
we make a living but have no time to live.
Provision of the extra Sabbath manna is celebrated today by a white tablecloth used in the Sabbath ceremony, symbolizing God’s rich and abundant provision in the desert wanderings.
Godly rest, particularly in a 24/7 world, is never accidental and can only come when we have gone out of our way to prepare for it.
people also have the right not to know,
A person who leads a meaningful life does not need the excessive burdening flow of information.”
A technological society essentially replaces relationship with information.
How many times, when a person comes to mind, do we go to Facebook or Instagram to get our information rather than pray for them or call them?
Consider this Sabbath technology principle: the Sabbath prefers natural light to artificial light.43 Have one day a week free of light bulbs and screens that do not respect natural life rhythms. The Sabbath returns us to natural light—to the established rhythms of God—and honors sunlight over iPhone light.
“Hurry is not just a disordered schedule. Hurry is a disordered heart.”
Therefore, no blessing from God should be bottled up. The church is a conduit, mediating generously that which it has received.
Jesus lists those commandments concerning loving a neighbor. However, Jesus adds one: “You shall not defraud.” Was this one of the Ten Commandments? It was not.
Sabbath should not be for those with time, space, energy, and money to do so. God desires Sabbath for all people.
When you know you are loved even if you never change, then true change is possible.
much of the ecological issues we face are a direct result of the fact that we have ignored the Sabbath.
Just as our bodies speak to us to alert us, the earth speaks to us to guide and correct us.
the opposite of rest is not work but restlessness.
When humans Sabbath, we intentionally immerse ourselves, as God did, into the creation order.
No longer a functioning society, we are an overfunctioning society. We do not cease. Therefore, creation gets no rest.
Sabbath dethrones humanity from its self-aggrandized place of lordship over creation by handing authority of the world back to the One to whom it already belongs.
The church of Jesus must speak to the real felt needs of the world in which the gospel is preached.
By contrast, our approach toward the Sabbath must walk along a path of grace and empathy for real people in a real world.
Mark Buchanan has aptly written, “This is maybe the primary mistake we make when we try to figure out the Sabbath: we go straight to the rules.”22 We must orient ourselves toward grace instead of rule-based rest.
