Dear ALC Family,
What a week! If you haven’t heard, the running mate, Tim Walz, selected by Vice President Kamala Harris is the governor of Minnesota, and a member of an ELCA church. Since he joined the ticket the ELCA has been showing up all over social media. I love that people are discovering a church that is progressive and loving. Of course, some comments are negative, but ironically, the negative comments just reinforce the positive aspects of our faith. Maybe the Holy Spirit is moving! The photo I am sharing with you is from another ELCA leader. I think his suggestion is a great one.
Who can you invite?
In our book this week we are looking at Sabbath as Resistance to Coercion. The idea is that our participation in the Sabbath as the gift for our own well-being, frees us to from the coercion to produce and do and be. In that freedom from coercion, we are able to rest, and in that rest, to see and care for one another. Here is a key quote:
Sabbath is the great day of equality when all are equally at rest. Not all are equal in production. Some perform much more effectively than others. Not all are equal in consumption. Some have greater access to consumer goods. In a society defined by production and consumption, there are huge gradations of performance and, therefore, of worth and significance. In such a social system everyone is coerced to perform better – produce more, consume more – be a good shopper! Such valuing, of course, created ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots,’ significant and insignificant, rich and poor, people with access and people denied access.
But Sabbath breaks that gradation cause by coercion. On the Sabbath:
-You do not have to do more.
-Your do not have to sell more.
-Your do not have to control more.
-Your do not have to know more.
-Your do not have to have to have your kids in ballet or soccer.
-Your do not have to be younger or more beautiful.
-Your do not have to score more.
I confess that our world has moved so far from the Sabbath as rest that this does not sound realistic. But at the same time, the idea is inviting.
What might our lives, our families, our communities look like if we observed the Sabbath as the great gift of rest that it is for us?
Pastor Nancy
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