Rules, rules, rules...

"Then he said to them, 'The sabbath was made for humankind, not humankind for the sabbath. That is why the Son of Man is lord, even of the sabbath.'"
Mark 2:27-28

As I am watching a beautiful sunrise in Boiseville, I'm thinking how the sabbath was meant to be freeing for the people. They toiled long and hard all week, they deserved a nice rejuvenating rest, and that is why God told them to take it easy for one day a week. But, humans, as humans tend to do, got all twisted up in the rules of it. The sabbath became much less freeing and much more confining, with intricate rules marking what people could and could not do.  The goal became about obeying the rules rather than resting. Pray-As-You-Go asked if we think humankind is still too caught up in the rules and I nearly spit out my coffee.  Jesus proclaimed himself Lord of the sabbath to return it to its freeing nature, to give it back to the people as it was intended to be, sans all the strict and crazy rules. Take a day off, put your feet up, spend time in quiet mindfulness. Don't get wigged out about the rules for yourself and, certainly, don't be nit-picky about the rules for others. Because, you see, that's exactly what they did; they policed each other strictly and critically, which is why Jesus had to remind them not to judge, too. And this was two thousand years ago...where are we with it now? Love, heidi