Friday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 399

In six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them; 
but on the seventh day he rested.
That is why the LORD has blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.

We model the behavior of our gods. The violent worship violent gods; the avaricious worship powerful gods. The frightened worship oppressive gods. Work-obsessed people, fearing failure, humiliation, defeat, and setbacks, work feverishly to please their god. They might pay lip service to the Father of Jesus but their hearts are elsewhere. 

The LORD who called Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees to settle in Palestine commands that we model our lives after him. We should be merciful, just, and endlessly patient. And we should take a sabbath rest. We are not slave of Economy, a false god if there ever was one. 

Our God is the God of Providence; meaning, he provides for his faithful people. Deuteronomy describes three major festivals each year when the Jewish people celebrate their faith. Everyone from the king to the slave, the alien, the orphan, and the widow will enjoy the feast. Between festivals they tithe in preparation for it. The Deuteronomic tithe is not to provide for construction or maintenance of the temple, nor for the priests and their families; it's for the three festivals. If they eat everything that was stored up during the festival, there will be plenty for the next one, for the Lord sets the table for his people. Like an Italian host, he says, "Mangia, mangia!" (Eat!)  

The LORD also provides for those who rest on the Sabbath. Work on the Sabbath betrays a failure to believe in God's merciful providence. 

From what I understand of American history, our workaholic ancestors never believed in that God. Especially, the slave owners of the South were slaves to their own fears in a cutthroat economy. Historians say the genteel plantations were always barely floating in an unstable market; theirs was a frontier economy of survival as they tried to provide the luxury products of cotton and sugar to the settled economies of the Northern states and Europe. Most plantations failed. Romantic memories of leisure in antebellum Dixie remember a past that never was. 

But the standard operating procedures of a slave economy -- the long hours, low pay, brief vacations, and mistrust of employees -- prevail to this day. A company is not comprised of companions. While most European workers take thirty days of vacation each year, Americans take ten, or less. 

Economy demands total sacrifice while promising much and delivering little. Those freed by their faith in God practice the Sabbath.