ARTOS=BREAD (In the original Greek of the Prayer of Jesus, Luke 11). Here it stands for the community of readers who are saying the prayer daily at the start of their day.
Father
may your name be kept holy
may your kingdom come.
Give us today the bread we need
and forgive us the wrongs we have done
as we forgive those who have wronged us.
And do not bring is into hard testing.
The first three lines of the prayer speak to the Father; the next four speak to the Spirit; while the whole is the prayer of God’s Son offered as a prayer of God’s children. It is a small map of the Christian Way.
Today’s blog uses the daily reading from the Revised Common Lectionary along with a headline from world news.
NORTH KOREAN LEADERS SHOUT WAR WHILE THEIR PEOPLE STARVE
North Korean Soldiers
Hebrews 4:1-11
New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised (NRSVA)
The Rest That God Promised
4 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2 For indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.[a] 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, just as God[b] has said,
‘As in my anger I swore, “They shall not enter my rest”’,
though his works were finished at the foundation of the world. 4 For in one place it speaks about the seventh day as follows: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.’ 5 And again in this place it says, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ 6 Since therefore it remains open for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 again he sets a certain day—‘today’—saying through David much later, in the words already quoted,
‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.’
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God[c] would not speak later about another day. 9 So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; 10 for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labours as God did from his. 11 Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.
The Lectionary gives no Gospel reading on this day, when the Gospel reader imagines Jesus in the tomb. Instead it gives us this passage from Hebrews which reflects on the Jewsih tradition of the Sabbath to celebrate the concept of a “rest for God’s people.” The writer reminds his readers that some of those who went out of Egypt never found “rest” because they tried the patience of God. And even those who entered the land of promise with Joshua did not receive it, because of their disobedience. As God’s promises are never invalidated, and as the scripture records a promise of “rest” it is clear, says the writer, that “a Sabbath rest still awaits the people of God.” The wrter identifies this rest as the salvation which is offered in the gospel of Jesus.
But the Lectionary has selected this passage because on this day we can imagine Jesus resting from the great labour of his battle with evil on the cross in the confidence that the battle has been well-fought, while awaiting the announcement of victory on Easter day. This points to a recurrent moment in the life of believers when they have done all they can do, and must await the things that only God can do.
I don’t think that this is a good interpretationof the passage in Hebrews but it may identify a way in which the Church can use the institution of the sabbath day. In Scotland it was often confused with the Lord’s Day, Sunday, the first day of the week. That was completely inappropriate as the day of the resurrection was a working day, a day when the labour of God was decisively renewed, whereas the sabbath is a day of rest. So perhaps this Saturday (and every Saturday?) can help us to rest quietly at the limits of human effort, while awaiting the new life that only God can create.
Emmock's Blog 