SATURDAY THOUGHTS: SABBATH

There are revelations to be had in all of the quarantining, sheltering in place, lock-downs, cancellations, and social distancing.
Many are realizing that their sabbath days, throughout the years, have been anything but restful. They’re reevaluating to whom, and for what their religious and denominational busyness was all about. All of the rules, requirements, planning, emergencies, demands, procedures, and unauthorized amendments to the Bible, are being scrutinized today.

It’s quiet now. 

Many have had a lot of time pay attention to their own affairs; to think and re-prioritize; pray, study, and worship (without an audience); discover whether there was ever any substance, meaning, value, truth, benefit, or sense in what they heard and saw at church, or was it merely hype and noise. 

The thought that God never ordained, required, appreciated, sanctioned, nor was the main attraction in ANY of it, (the methods, rhetoric, titles, fashions, programs) is a sober one.

 

How to function now is challenging, because many weren’t prepared; they were trained in habits, cajoled, bullied, brainwashed, and shamed. 

The busyness of the sabbath was a crutch; an escape; a way to feel needed and important. 

Many were emotionally stimulated, mis-educated, and misinformed. 

Their faith was manipulated by others, who have been pampered so well for so long, that sheltering in place is not a hardship at all. 

Some leaders are just fine. Followers, however, are struggling. Many realize that the leaders they revered, are in no position to help, nor (based on what they’ve witnessed via online streaming “services”), do they know how to simply sit or stand alone and deliver an intelligent, informative, coherent, credible, or comforting word. 

Without the hype and noise, they’re useless. 

Many are finding that more than one emperor has no clothes.

Blinders are coming off. 

Back to normal is not where many want to go. 

Many see that the “normal” in which they invested and sacrificed time, effort, talent, and resources was all a show. 

The Coronavirus has power because it’s the truth. It’s real. It’s consistent. It knows, and remains on it’s mission. Sabbath busyness, pharisee-type arrogance, and superficial religiosity can’t handle it. This virus is laughing in the face of religious antics. Proof? Leaders, who defied logic, reason, science, and the law to prove a point, (and keep offerings coming) are falling ill and dying, too.

When this is over, the sabbath day will be different. For now, many are finally grasping the difference between going to, and doing church, and BEING the church. They’re turning their attention to God’s business, and understanding what HIS notion of service really means.