Covid.
The separation.
The isolation.
It's all getting really old.
We are tired of being tired.
But why?
Is it because working from home feels like there's no end to work now?
Is it because we seem to lack the spatial and emotional boundaries we've once taken for granted?
Is it because people, including ourselves, are leaking all kinds of anxious behaviors?
Probably.
Probably a big yes to all of the above.
But there's another reason why we are so tired, so depressed, so exhausted.
Our rhythms are off.
There is no reason or rhyme to our time.
Remember, time is the first and most holy of all “spaces.” Abraham Heschel, a Jewish rabbi, once wrote that before God inhabited a physical space (the temple), God first inhabited (and therefore made holy) time—especially the time of sabbath. This time is allocated for abiding with our God. Matthew Kaemingk says we move from activation to adoration.
All week we are charged and activated to bring God's love and light into the world… But on the sabbath, with God's people, we are invited to bring all that we've been working on, relating to, struggling with to the Lord in holy expectation (trust) and holy adoration (respect).
We work all week, but on the Sabbath, we stop to let God work on us.
I know many of us have heard preachers on both sides of the extreme. Some say, “The church can not and should not be contained within these four walls! The church is the scattered and the sent, church starts on Monday!” Others demand: “The church is the house of God. You should commit here, be here, serve here, and relate here. A faithful Christian is a faithful member of a local church!”
Both are right, but not entirely right. It was never God’s intention to create a dualistic schism of worship. I believe God’s intent however was to create boundaries in time so that it can be honored and entered into intentionally.
“Both adoration and action matter. Neither can replace the other. Neither can replace the other; both are necessary. Gathered worship in the sanctuary offers workers a number of elements that scattered worship in the world does not.” - Matthew Kaemingk
What does allotted time and space offer, especially the time of gathering?
Lewis Bayly, an old Puritan preacher, says it best: "The Sabbath day is God's market day for the week's provision wherein God will have us come to him and buy of him, without silver or money, the bread of angels, and water of life, the wine of the sacrament, and milk of the Word to feed our souls... On God's market day, workers need to cease their serving so they can be served. They need to cease their grasping so they can reflect on what they've been given. There's no need to fight for their clothing in the sanctuary; here they are clothed in Christ.”
Imagine that: we need to set a clear time where we gather so that we can “cease in thy calling to do thy work, that the Lord by his calling may do his work in thee.”
We stop working to be worked on.
We stop serving to be served.
We stop grasping to give thanks.
This is why we're suffering. Boundaries no longer exist. The week bleeds into the weekend. Family time bleeds into work-time. The year-end reviews bleed into dinner time conversations.
We are no longer keeping time holy.
So what do we do?
In this time of blurred timelines, make time clear. When it's family time, get rid of phones, distractions, and business calls.
When it's church time, get out of your pajamas, get dressed, go to church (online, zoom, etc) together as a family, or meet members online and host a watch party. Try praying together after the service.
When it’s time to work, work. Set as many healthy boundaries as possible. If you can enter a different space, go there. Do your best to set up hours and space for your work. Even if it's at home, go from one room to another, giving yourself a chance to “leave” the “work desk.”
Until we can gather again, let's do our best to retrieve our holy times back. Let's do our best to get back to a certain holy cadence in all that we do.
Until the Lord brings us back together again,
- PB.