Grant that, as the crucified body
of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so may
we await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of
life.
Something
was goofy with the cable modem, and I wasted too much time messing around with
connections and settings. I followed all
the “trouble shooting directions” in the software, and even resorted to reading
the manual. Finally I gave up and called
tech-support – which I usually find as frustrating as trying to get accurate
directions in a gas station. The tech
asked me if I had tried rebooting. Of
course I had. A dozen times. “I don’t mean the computer,” she said, “I
mean the modem itself.” She told me to
try disconnecting the modem from its power source, then wait a minute, and then
reconnect. Shazzam! It worked! Of course it did. Why hadn’t I thought of that?
Rebooting
the machine is the secret most computers tech know for resolving many of the
problems with desktop PC’s. Most
computer slowdowns and freezes result from too many things going on in the
computer that most users cannot resolve.
The simplest fix that most often works is to simply shut down. Turn the machine off. Step away for a minute, and then turn it back
on. Reboot the machine.
Most
of us know about rebooting the PC, but may not have yet learned the importance
of rebooting other things. Not just the
cable modem. But everything. From time to time, we need to reboot our
lives. Shut down. Take a nap.
Take a break. Take a
sabbatical. Let our inner system reboot.
Very few of us understand the personal
benefit of spiritual disciplines, such as the Sabbath Day. We think of the disciplines as painful,
religious obligations, something arduous to add to our already packed schedules,
heavy commands. Few recognize the
disciplines, such as keeping the Sabbath as a benefit, a blessing, something less to do – a way to make space in our
life for refreshment and new beginnings.
In Scripture, the Sabbath Day is not about worship… it’s about rest.
A way to reboot.
Without
making light of this, Jesus, in effect, rebooted. He lay down his life. He completely shut down so that on the third
day, he would rise again, dead to sin and alive to God. Perhaps this is part of why the central
symbol of Christianity is the cross.
Instead of increasing our efforts, trying harder, struggling, maybe we
should follow that so frequent call of Jesus to shut down. Lay down our lives. To embrace the cross, so that resurrection
may follow. Maybe what we most need in
our lives, our communities, and our churches is a whole system reboot.