Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Quote of the Week

"Our activity can promise us everything and make us forget God. Therefore God commands us to rest from our work. It is not work that supports us but God alone; we live not from work, but from God alone.... The Sabbath rest is the visible sign that human beings live by the grace of God and not by works."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer; I Want to Live These Days with You, p. 43

3 comments:

Ted M. Gossard said...

I do like this, and I think it's our loss that we don't practice it. Maybe we can practice it in different ways, but at least it serves the point Bonhoeffer said, that we don't believe life depends on us, but on God. And we get that rest, after all the Sabbath was made for people.

Every Square Inch said...

I haven't typically been focused on the Sabbath. I tend to take the New Testament view of Christ as our Sabbath rest. But I see the wisdom in Bonhoeffer's point and perhaps my view requires correction

Ted M. Gossard said...

ESI,
I've done the same as you, actually. But I think it would be good for us if we, in a grace-oriented way (not as fixed law) would seek to take time out in a sabbath kind of way, one out of seven in our week. But just a thought I've picked up somewhere else as well, that I find interesting.