In and out of time

Clearly, I have yet to establish a rhythm for blogging. I hear tell that it's blogging practice to neglect one's blog for very long, that one of the marks of the genre is to keep it current. But I haven't gotten into a regular "updating" habit yet, and so here we are, two weeks later.

However, this is just another minute episode (if you will) in my life of attempting to live in multiple kinds of time all at once. Blogging time. The liturgical calendar (it's Lent, after all). Lucas time. Keith time. Spring garden planting time. The seminary calendar. Taxation time (April 15th on its way).

I preached on the Ten Commandments this past Sunday in church. Out all of the commandments, the one with which people in our world seem to have the most difficulty accepting is the commandment to "Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy." This is where we Protestant Christians like to drag in the justification by faith argument, and claim that the "old law" has passed in Jesus. (They don't call it the "Protestant Work Ethic" for nothing). I'm pretty sure that my sermon opened up this can of worms for some people, as they looked at the commandments and thought, "No murder, check. No stealing, check. But how can I possible keep the Sabbath? How can I possibly stop working, for even one day?"

Sabbath is about resting from work. But I think it is also about how we approach time in general. One of my seminary professors talked about how following the commandments in Judaism (including Sabbath) is actually about "sanctifying time." What would it be like to live in sanctified time, I wonder?

In the past, I've had fantasies of following a pseudo-monastic daily prayer pattern, praying the hours (Here's a website which lists them http://palm.philippians-1-20.us/hours.htm). A momentary glance at the number of online pages that come up and the number of book titles on prayer available demonstrates to me that I am not alone in this. What is it that I hope for, what is it that I long for in dreaming of holy time?

I long for childhood time, the kind of time I see Lucas inhabiting more and more, where he is so deeply engrossed in his play (and I'm so engrossed in him) that an hour passes without either of us noticing. Is that what holy time is like?