Let me begin this post with a bit of a personal confession: My last post was about a month ago and at that time I intended to take only one week off from writing this current blog series. I’d like to say that my unintended, more lengthy pause from writing was a needed rest period, however it was mostly due to summertime laziness.
That being said, I have been thinking lately about the importance of rest and how the Church Calendar encourages adequate rest, so we may properly and productively do the ongoing work of building the Eternal Kingdom with great vigor.
If you have not been keeping up with this blog series, I have been on a journey since late November, writing a series of posts on the Church Year and its seasons. The year began with Advent, followed by Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, and Easter. The first half of the year is a festival period, sometimes called the Temporal Cycle. We are now just past the midway point of the Church Year, in a long stretch called Ordinary Time, or the Sanctoral Cycle.
It is fitting during this portion of the year to take a break from deep thoughts and heavy action, and to take time to rest. The first half of the year was full of sacred feast days and fasting periods that should have purposefully exhausted us, in an effort to push our faith forward. Like any form of exercise, spiritual exercises also must be followed up with healthy rest periods.
Of course, every Sunday is intended to be a sabbath day of rest, yet even those days can feel quite full at times. That is why we need other moments, like Ordinary Time, where we can slow down a bit more.
In our current society—particularly in the Western world—rest is often considered an excuse for laziness or a wealthy person’s privilege. Indeed this can be, and often is, true (as was likely the case for me this past month with this blog series). However, scripture gives us plenty of passages that encourage rest. Even Jesus needed rest periods away from the crowds, times of solitude, moments with just friends and food, and actual sleep. As followers of Jesus, we should learn from our Lord’s example. If Jesus needed rest, then surely we do as well.
We should take appropriate time for rest and relaxation. What is important though is that our rest periods result in us coming back to the business of putting our faith into action at a certain point. The end goal of rest may simply be rest some of the time, yet more often than not our rest days should revitalize us for many more days and weeks of putting in the Kingdom-building work towards which Jesus ultimately calls us.
Relevant Reformation 