Mover

Two weeks ago, I had my first chance to teach at our weekly worship gathering (Saturday Night Grace). I gave the final talk in a series "Spiritual Climate in Crisis." You can listen to it online. I'm new at this, so it's not too long-winded :) Unfortunately, you'll miss out on some fun images I shared, such like these:

I read a couple books as I researched and thought about the topic of the Sabbath. I recommend the Sabbath by Abraham Heschel, for some Jewish, historical background and Keeping the Sabbath Wholly by Marva Dawn, for a contemporary, Christian perspective. Dawn shares some thoughts for intertwining some of the beautiful Jewish practices into our remembrance of the Sabbath. Also, check out JR's post on the Sabbath.

I'm a big fan of benedictions, so I wrote one out for this teaching. I pasted it in below. All in all, I really enjoyed this first experience of teaching/preaching/talking/presenting/dialogue-ing (however you choose to call it). God gave me a great peace as a I prepared and spoke. All honor to Him.

"When you want to keep moving in an attempt to do it all, I pray that you may learn to break free from the toxic climate that we live in today and learn to breathe in the fresh air of the Sabbath. May you come to understand that God gave us a beautiful gift in the rhythm of the Sabbath: freedom from the need to justify ourselves by the work of our hands and a foretaste of his eternal peace and rest in the world to come. And may you come to know that Jesus Christ came to bring us fully into God’s rest, fully into harmony with him and his creation and that he alone is the Way to that rest. Amen."