A Year of Rest

A Year of Rest

Note to Reader: The following is the result of a conversation with a friend in New Orleans. Sadly Bourbon Street is not what it used to be and probably won't be for a good long time to come. Likewise, The Boston Marathon is off for this year, maybe for next year too. There is a Biblical perspective to help us understand where we find ourselves us at present. Here follows an attempt to provide that perspective. 

Live from Lynn, it’s “Godspell”.

Hello, this is Fr Paul Bresnahan, priest of the Episcopal Church.

Welcome back to “Godspell”: I like the sound of that word.

We’ve come to a time to spell it out.

Who is God, and how is God involved in our lives?

“Godspell”. It’s a nice old English word for the Gospel or, what I call, the language of God, the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Silence

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia!

Expressions of faith

Lord, You have always given

bread for the coming day;

and though I am poor,

today I believe.

Lord, You have always given

strength for the coming day;

and though I am weak,

today I believe.

Lord, You have always given

peace for the coming day;

and though of anxious heart,

today I believe.

Lord, You have always kept

me safe in trials;

and now, tried as I am,

today I believe.

Lord, You have always marked

the road for the coming day;

and though it may be hidden,

today I believe.

Lord, You have always lightened

this darkness of mine;

and though the night is here,

today I believe.

Lord, You have always spoken

when time was ripe;

and though you be silent now,

today I believe

A Year of Rest

In the midst of this pandemic we find ourselves in a situation that is as novel to us as the COVID-19 virus is to our bodies. There is a struggle among and within us as to how long we need to be in lockdown and when we can open up the economy 

Perhaps we need to declare a Year of Rest. It would not be the first time that we have done so. The history of our experience with God and Mother Nature goes back thousands of years in our shared Abrahamic Faith traditions. In fact, we were required to take one year off in seven in ancient times. We gave the land and ourselves a Sabbatical. The word “Sabbath” refers to the Seventh Day or the Seventh Year. In fact the Ancients prepared for it. We stored up provisions for ourselves so that when the Jubilee Year came along we were prepared. 

We have made no such provision for ourselves in the modern world. We mindlessly keep up the grind on the treadmill. We are  busy. Seldom do we take time away and time apart to think, pray, meditate, recreate, reimagine, reinvent who we are in the deepest part of ourselves. We are not accustomed to the restorative powers of quiet and of solitude. Many of us struggle with that Peace that Passes Understanding we discover when we are alone. What an opportunity if we use the time we have been given.

The Biblical record gives us some perspective. Let me point out three passages I feel are timely and pertinent.

First we need to give it a rest, a “Sabbath Rest”...a year’s rest...perhaps 18 months rest in our case (or until there is a vaccine.) It has been well over 100 years since we “gave it a rest”. We are long overdue. God’s Creation needs a break a “Jubilee Year” to the Lord. Already we notice that the air is cleaner and the Springtime birdsong is more jubilant. 

A “Jubilee Year” requires remission of debt and freedom for all slaves. At least that’s what scripture says, as a colleague of mine hastened to remind me.

The Book of Leviticus, of all things, says this on the subject; “The LORD then spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, 'When you come into the land which I shall give you, then the land shall have a sabbath to the LORD. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop, but during the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD’” .~Chapter 25.

It has been well over a hundred years since we “gave it a rest”. The last time was during the Influenza Epidemic of 1918. Even Calvin Coolidge pretty much shut things down for a while. There were debates about wearing masks. Many of us turned a deaf ear to health agencies and government guidelines and about 675,000 of us died. Worldwide 50,000,000 souls were taken. 

We had no choice. We had to give it a rest.

Now we are being told to do it all over again. It is a profound sacrifice for us. And painful beyond measure. Giving up work, restaurants, pubs, retail shopping and the like is costing us jobs and businesses. Giving up our livelihood. Where will our food come from if we all just stop?

Farmers and ranchers have crops and livestock to tend to. How would we manage a sabbatical for the entire economy? 

Many have to clean up after the rest of us in hospitals, nursing homes, city trash collection. People of color have been disproportionately effected. They pack our meats, they pick our fruit and vegetables and flip our hamburgers, serve up our daily Dunkin’s in the morning. They are our servant class. 

A judge in Los Angeles country has told the authorities to move the 65,000 homeless away from the freeways. Where are they supposed to go? Not surprisingly Native peoples are also paying the price with their lives.

In the meantime there are those who put the the value of the Almighty Dollar and the Economy ahead of the value of human life. There is precedent to this human tendency also.

Secondly the Scripture reminds us about the danger in worshiping the The Golden Calf? Remember this one?

   ~Exodus 32:1-14

“When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

Ah, how nice it was to have a shiny new golden god you could see to worship. It was like the shiny Bull on Wall Street. It was like having cold hard cash on hand. Look at the gods we’ve made for ourselves. The Almighty Dollar reigns. The Economy is our Supreme Being. 

As for those of 1,400,00 of us who are sick and the 87,436 who have died, I get the sense that some in positions of national leadership put the economy ahead of those of the people we love. I am waiting for a convincing expression of compassion from those who put their trust in the Economy. 

By the way, these are not numbers. These are people. I happen to know three of them at Logan Airport who contracted the virus. One did rather well and showed few symptoms, one was really sick and his recovery has been a long and difficult, one has died. 

I live a the Gateway City; Lynn MA. We have been especially hard hit. Of the 95,000 who live here, 3,000 are sick and 80 have died. Many of my neighbors are people of color and some do not speak English as their first language. Many are fearful of ICE because they await Green Card clearance or are not yet quite “legal”. 

Secondly listen to what the Scripture say of the alien who lives within our borders. Our Abrahamic Faith Traditions have something to say about that too. Again from Leviticus of all places; 

"When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God."

   ~Leviticus 19

We are suffering similarly in other Gateway Cities across the nation. Some people feel judged and vulnerable and do not know where to turn or who to trust. These are hard times for so many.

Perhaps if we put people first ahead of the Golden Calf we worship, we could take a Jubilee Year, a Year of Rest. “Stop the World” we want to get off for a while, a respite from the grind of it all.

Thirdly

Who then shall we worship as a nation? The Golden Calf? The Bull on Wall Street. Or shall we love God and shall we love one another? Who is first? What or who is the God we worship and serve? Perhaps a Year of Rest might give us time to set our priorities straight once more. 

For those of us who love Jesus we are under a moral mandate to follow in the steps in which he walked.

Jesus sets the record straight on who comes first. The Great Commandment: ~Matthew 22:34-40

“A lawyer, asked Jesus a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Many Americans are willful, self-centered, and egotistical bullies. There are those whose racism, misogyny, xenophobia and so on are not far for the surface. There is the potential of violence and they love to brandish their weapons. 

But the vast majority of us are caring, compassionate, generous, and eager to learn. We care very much about one another. Our better angels bring us to our good senses. Jesus was unarmed. Jesus gave his life for the sins of the whole world. Whatever violence or hatred there is, Jesus loved us through it all. 

Jesus speaks to our better angels. Maybe the Ancients knew something we need to learn again. We need time off especially the poorest among us. Sabbaticals need not be only for clergy and professors. I can imagine that with some creativity we could rotate responsibility and manage a sabbatical for all God’s children if we choose obedience rather than oppression.

How would we pay for it? Here’s an idea. “Trickle Down” economics? Nah! The truth is it has been a time of “Triple Up” economics. The concentration of wealth is now in the hands of the 1% of the Super Rich and the Vast Multinational Corporations. Perhaps out of your generosity of spirit you would write the check for our elderly, our poor, our homeless. 

We can be a kinder and gentler people with the alien in our midst. This is the biblical mandate. And we need to put God first, meaning we need to put humankind first. As for the Golden Calf and the Almighty Dollar? 

This is not our God, and we will not fall down and worship them. that we are told to worship, not me? I will not bow down and worship any but God and serve the people of God. 

Prayers for others

Lord’s Prayer

A Blessing

See that ye be at peace among yourselves, 

and love one another.

Follow the example of the wise and good

and God will comfort you and help you,

both in this world

and in the world which is to come.

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you,

wherever He may send you.

May He guide you through the wilderness,

protect you through the storm.

May He bring you home rejoicing

at the wonders He has shown you.

May He bring you home rejoicing

once again into our doors.

And may the Blessing of God the Most holy undivided and everlasting Trinity be upon you this day and always. Amen.

God bless us everyone,

Fr Paul