Drawing herself upright she spoke, clearly, controlling her anger and frustration;
"If we kept the Sabbath as a Holy Day, as we should, things would be different."
Would they I wondered to myself, for her children though they had been brought up "well" are hardly ever seen here, and it is not because they live far away. They are not the only ones, countless people of my generation ( and older) struggle to relate to the God their parents wanted them to worship...
But then if they dare to look around those parents would have to acknowledge that many of their own generation have rejected that God.
And here I am, a convert by the grace of God with no rule bound Sunday School baggage to drag behind me wondering how to relate to these parents and their children...
Children who were told to be quiet in church, dressed in their Sunday best and not allowed to play. Children whose concept of being a Christian is a long way from anything I read in the gospels; children who heard not a message of freedom but a list of thou shat's and shalt not's...
The parents bemoan the state of the nation, and refuse to see that their children's devotion to their families on Sundays as a positive thing...
...and so the cycle of conversations goes around and around...
I want to break the loop, to hold before them the Jesus who ate with sinners, prostitutes and tax collectors and drew them beyond their sins into fullness of life. Not a rule bound diminished life but a life compelled by a new found love and freely given grace, a life that offered more than cheap sex, and drunken stupors...
...a life that celebrated everyday, not just the Sabbath, and called every day Holy...
This Jesus is the Jesus I encountered, the one I know and follow. The trouble is he is still shocking, for he challenges the comfortable notions of many, and looks upon his church and weeps for those who have lost their way, returned to rules and boxed in thinking....
"If we kept the Sabbath", her words return to haunt me again...
When did she get lost? I wonder to myself...has she ever know grace....
Jesus said "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."(Matthew 11: 28-30)
Picture taken at Hunstanton Norfolk.
