The Gift of Rest

Scripture  

Exodus 20:8–11 (NRSV)  

Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.  

Six days you shall labor and do all your work.  

But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God;  

you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter,  

your male or female slave, your livestock,  

or the alien resident in your towns.  

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth,  

the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day;  

therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

Refrain  

Rest is not withdrawal, it is return.

Poem  

Wendell Berry, from A Timbered Choir  

“Teach me work that honors Thy work,  

the true economies of goods and words,  

to make my arts compatible with the songs of the local birds.  

Teach me patience beyond work—  

and, beyond patience, the blest Sabbath of Thy unresting love  

which lights all things and gives rest.”

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