Reading for May 18th - 24th, 2008

Acts 2: 42-47

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship,

to the breaking of the bread and the prayers.

Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles.

All who believed were together and had all things in common; the would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.

Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread together at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God

and having the goodwill of all the people.

As we enter the long weekend and celebrate the beginning of the summer season, we may find ourselves traveling to visit friends and family. I'm looking forward to a weekend volunteering at Lumsden Beach Camp. A place where many youth and leaders are coming together to enjoy fresh air, share stories, pause from everyday routines, and play.

It's a get-away from work, school, technology, and busyness, and a moving toward intentional rest, play, and togetherness. This ritual of coming together in community with people we love, to share in conversation, summer barbeques, is a wonderful way to spend Sabbath time. Sabbath time is best spent with others, as many of us learned during our first 4 months of Sabbath. I invite everyone to invite others to share in Sabbath time and ritual. Be open to what "awe"some things happen when you intentionally explore what Sabbath can mean to you.

I'll leave it at that for now. More later in the week!

Peace and Blessings for the long weekend.

Sandra

Was frustrated but am adjusting

Hello, Sabbathers!

Thinking about our time together in Tatamagouche. I was grateful to be able to deepen relationships with all of you during our time. But as we shared our Sabbath experiences I got discouraged. Not that I needed everyone to have a similar experience in every way but one way I had hoped we could share was that we all would remain committed to attempting a Sabbath ritual or practice of some kind.

Between our first meeting in Regina and our Tatamagouche meeting I did my ritual based on the assumption that we were in solidarity with a commitment to the ritual. During that time we were learning from each other that some found it really difficult if not impossible and I was OK with that. I certainly understood the guilt around that. It was more at the meeting when I felt that there was more or less a collective abandonment of commitment to ritual. Yes, people would try to honour Sabbath in their own way (once a week, once a month, every 7 years, whatever!). But I found it sad to have to let go of what I had hoped we could be with the ritual. Maybe I have misunderstood where we left off with the ritual of Sabbath.

It would have been helpful for me if we had taken some time to re-commit to a more personalized ritual. For instance, I would commit to continuing my Wednesday morning Sabbath. Another member might commit to a weekly family meal and treating it as Sabbath. Then I could know that we were still in solidarity in our Sabbath "experiment" which I feel is central to our discernment of the work we need to do for the larger church.

And I also must admit that as well as I am doing at Sabbath practice I am not doing so well at discerning the youth and young adult ministry questions which we named near the end of our meeting. And clearly at the meeting there are many on this great team who excel at working through that piece. So I feel inadequate in that respect.

Anyway, as we named together, our church is not that good at being vulnerable and honest. So this blog entry is my attempt.

Peace.

Rick G(unn)