Some wit said, "God created human beings, took a good look at what he had made, and laughed so hard he had to take a day off to recuperate."

Sabbath is a time to sigh, to stand back and look at creation and see that it is very good. Take a deep breath, enjoy your creation, and God's creation.

Yesterday and today are called Eco-justice Sabbath. A few days ago we celebrated Earth Day.

Sabbath-keeping centers on breathing. It is not a time for undue activity, but a time to rest, relax, restore your soul. A time to meditate.

Michael Ryan, a Paulist priest, directs the Montreal Canadian Centre of Ecumenism. He writes: "[A]wareness. Its critical importance derives from the fact that experiencing is our fundamental activity; the quality of our lives in fact depends on the quality of experiencing. And the ability to be aware is at the heart of the process of experiencing."

He bases his percept on the Latin spiritus, the Greek pneuma and the Hebrew ruach, all of which mean wind, breath, aliveness. To be spiritual means to be alive!

We just celebrated Easter, the Resurrection of Jesus from the jaws of death. He lives! He breathes again!

If someone for whom I have conducted a funeral were to arise and walk among us, to breathe again, we would surely better understand the Resurrection! (after we revive!!)

Theologian Harvey Cox, in his book, Turning East, says, "At first reading, the suggestion that God 'rested' after the toil of creation — the image is of a craftsman sitting down and wiping his brow — sounds quaintly anthropomorphic. The word 'rest' literally means 'to catch one's breath.'

"The first thing to notice about God's activity on the Sabbath is that it focuses on breathing."

Later, he says, "Sabbath is the Jewish answer to the profound question all religions face about the relationship between doing and being, between what Indian mystics call sat (perfect being) and prana (spirit and energy)."

Take time to catch your breath. Relax, sigh, breathe deeply. That is exactly why God told us to celebrate a Sabbath each week. It's for our own good.

Roman Catholic commentators Marie Chiodo and Rosemarie Greco write: "Although many people today may have little understanding of the Sabbath, they do celebrate anniversaries in the years that stand as milestones of time . . . This phenomenon shows the value of the Sabbath . . .

"Sabbath brings a stop to the normal daily activity of our lives. The cessation of work may seem to leave a void, but the creation of leisure time does form a new space from which untold futures may unfold."

"Stop the world, I want to get off!"I don't know who said that, but I suspect it was someone who needed time to take a deep breath.

During the French Revolution (18th century) a wave of anti-Christian tho't swept over the country. There was hostility for anything which smacked of the Bible or religion.

"Reason"and the "enlightened mind"reigned supreme. To reinforce this, the 7-day week gave way to a 10-day work cycle in France. People were to work 9 days and then have a day off!

It didn't work. Productivity went down, ill health resulted for both people and animals. One French scholar commented that he didn't know who this Moses was who wrote the Ten Commandments, but he had to be divinely inspired, because no human being could think up such laws. The 7-day week was restored!

"Take time to pray"is another significant expression. Prayer and breathing are inextricably connected. "We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express."(Romans 8:26)

Deep breathing, sighs too deep for words! So breathe deeply. Sigh. Look at the world and say, "It is very good."

On December 4, 1955, Rosa Parks boarded a bus in Montgomery. She had worked all day and was tired. She was also morally tired, tired of injustice and segregation.

When the police asked the bus driver what she said when he told her to move to the back of the bus, he said, "She didn't say anything. She just sighed." That sigh was the beginning of the Civil Rights movement.

In The Zen of Seeing, Frederick Franck says to focus on a plant, a flower or a leaf. "Look it in the eye, until you feel it looking back at you. If one looks long enough at almost anything — looks with absolute attention at a flower, a stone, the bark of a tree, grass, snow, a cloud — it will pull from you a sigh."

That is the idea of meditation. Focus your attention of any of God's created beauty. Relax, empty your heart and mind of all preconceived ideas
and feelings. It will pull from you a sigh — the Spirit of God, if you please!

Sabbath rest gives one time to pray, to meditate. You can empty your mind of worldly concerns, the pressures of your job, the worries of life. Look up at the sky and praise the Creator.

I like the story Nobel Peace Prize nominee and Brazilian Catholic Bishop Dom Helder Camera tells in A Thousand Reasons for Living.

One morning after the ants had gobbled up his rosebush, he caught Sonja, a clever little red ant.

"Why did you gobble up my rosebush?"he asked her.

"Do you think you're the only one who likes roses?" After 3 days the bishop taught her to smell the roses, not eat them.

Later, he met Claudia, a young ant who was limping. He turned her onto her back to see what was the matter with her foot.

For the first time, Claudia saw the sky, for ants are just like us — go, go, go, run, run, run, never pausing to look up at the blue sky.

Claudia lay open-mouthed and speechless with amazement. Dom Helder realized there was "no use asking her about her foot. She wasn't listening. She was looking at the sky . . . and letting out a sigh."

In Hawaiian mythology, Lono is the god of storm and rain. Like Ezekiel and Job, they know that God often speaks from a whirlwind. Belden Lane notes that "Theirs is a faith shaped by 'aloha,' a word drawn from two roots, meaning 'in the presence of wind, breath or spirit.'

I'm told that the Maoris of New Zealand sing a hymn known as haha as they invoke the divine breath or wind on those being initiated into tribal mysteries. It is holy laughter that falls like a spring breeze on people made newly open to truth . . .

Do you see how a Sabbath rest, a time to breathe deeply, the Holy Spirit, creation, the living soul all blend into sort of an ecological, environmental complex of blessing from our Creator?

Theologian Sheryll Prinz-McMillan quotes Sallie McFague, that the breath of God-the-Spirit enlivens and maintains all of life, like the air we breathe. Ms. Prinz-McMillan then adds "This view emphasizes God's nearness as well as the connection of humanity to the rest of creation." Eco-justice! Earth Day!

Ms. Prinz-McMillan is a Seventh-day Adventist, so she is a Sabbath observer. She urges "participation in the controversy with evil to include a nature that needs our protection, empowerment and co-participation."

My physician regularly asks, "Have you experienced any shortness of breath?" Shortness of breath is one of the warning signs: possible trouble. Check the heart!

Breathing is not only essential to continued life, but quality breathing is essential to quality living. Health, moods, creativity — all depend on our having sufficient oxygen, which it is lacking if there is shortness of breath.

Air is invisible; breathing is usually quite silent. We take it for granted.

My nurse wife tells me we use only a small percentage of our lung capacity, even less when we slouch! About 16 times a minute we inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. Then about once every 12 minutes we breathe deeply — yawn, sigh or just take a deep breath.

Years ago a physician wrote to the editor of a well-known medical journal, complaining about time and money wasted on research in "trivial matters." He wrote, "The next thing you know, someone will be writing a book on 'How to Breathe'!"

He couldn't imagine anything more trifling, more obvious than the process of breathing.

After all, you either breathe or you don't! If you do, you live; if you don't, you die. It's as simple as that! Isn't it? Or is it?

We do refer to someone who has died as having "expired,"as having had his breath go out. And when someone has creative energy, mental stimulation, we say that person in inspired. He is filled with the Spirit!

Sonja Herman teaches nursing at San Diego University. In her seminar in "holistic assertion"she says, "Breathing is a vital life energizing force. Inhaling a full amount of air increases one's ability to live in a more creative manner."

She points out that "holding one's breath is an unconscious behavior . . . in stressful situations,"and that we learn this from infancy. When babies are first born they are "suddenly held up by their feet and spanked, put in a cold bassinet after being used to a warm environment . . ." Compare this with the emphasis on the mother's breathing while she is in labor and delivering!

Breathing deeply and Sabbath observance also precludes violence. We all know the expression, "Count to 10"before doing anything when you're angry. For each count, take a deep breath. As in meditation, say to yourself with each inhalation, "I am taking in the spirit of God,"and with each exhalation, "I am releasing, expelling all the evil, the negative, the hurtful from my body, my soul."

One of the purposes of Dr. Herman's seminars is to reduce stress and violence in the health care environment.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, "The seventh day is the armistice in man's cruel struggle for existence, a truce in all conflicts, personal and social, peace between man and man, man and nature, peace within man . . ."

The Sabbath is a sanctuary in time. Rabbi Heschel says, "Sabbath symbolizes the sanctification of time, so that 'the Sabbaths are our great cathedrals.'"

And Rabbi Shimeon ben Yohai perceived Sabbath as "not sufficient unto itself. Its spiritual reality calls for companionship of man . . . The six days stand in need of space; the seventh day stands in need of man."

No wonder Jesus said "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." (Mark 2:27)

Judith Fielder Finn, an attorney in the federal court system, served on the commission for the development of Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. She tells how she and her reluctant husband began observing Sabbath, from sundown until sundown. (The Lutheran, March 16, 1983) Her husband knew it wouldn't work — he said "I don't have time for a Sabbath."

But he decided to give it a try. After a time, he was amazed to find he got all his work done in six days, and had a lovely day of rest.
Our work usually involves us with possessions. The Sabbath calls us to forget possessions and worship God. God is not a thing, but One with whom to relate. Meaningful communication is primarily simply being in the presence of someone.

Robert McAfee Brown said, "To most of us, God's presence is unspectacular; only a few are granted visions. It is so unspectacular, in fact, that we usually miss it. The breath of God has been breathed over you and into you by every loving touch, every gesture, whether or not those administering it are conscious of God's spirit in what they do."

The breath, or Spirit of God is in our servant-ministry as representatives of Jesus.

Sabbath observance makes time for prayer and meditation. As we have said, meditation is a process of time for talking to God, listening to God, simply being in God's presence.

Some of us have a hard time with "empty space." I'm one of those! But we can learn to use time-doing-nothing effectively. It need not be wasted. It need not be boring.

Philosopher Charles Peirce wrote that musement, "a state of deep tho't or dreamy abstraction,"is "a precondition for religious insight." He is saying it is necessary to take time to just sit, let your mind wander, explore whatever you happen to think about — that is the way to find faith.

They tell of the old woman who said, "Sometimes I sits and thinks. Other times, I just sits!"

Like W. H. Auden's "eye of faith" without which insight is impossible.

Michael Raposa of Sacred Heart University adds that "boredom might have a religious function in that it can represent a weariness with ordinary pursuits and give us time to reflect, to wait on God to direct us into deeper understanding."

Martin Marty concludes "we need not think of waiting, of boredom, in isolation and as sheer waste."

Prayer, meditation, Sabbath rest is never "sheer waste!" Rather, it is that which prepares us for another week of work. Sabbath is a holy day, but it is more than that. It is an experience of holy time, a time to breathe deeply!

Sabbath observance is more than just a day to go to church. It is a day on which to put aside worldly concerns. It is "a day on which the handling of money is considered a desecration, on which man avows his independence of that which is the world's chief idol. The seventh day is the exodus from tension, the liberation of man from his own muddiness.

"All week we may ponder and worry whether we are rich or poor, whether we succeed or fail in our occupations, whether we accomplish or fall short of reaching our goals.

"But who could feel distressed when gazing at spectral glimpses of eternity, except to feel startled at the vanity of being so distressed? The Sabbath is no time for personal anxiety or care, for any activity that might dampen the spirit of joy. The Sabbath is no time to remember sins, to confess, to repent or even to pray for relief for anything we might need. It is a day for praise . . ." (Rabbi Heschel)

God can and will breathe life into his church today. If we people, we Christians in the 21st century, resemble the dust form of a lifeless sculpture, remember that God wants to breathe his spirit into us and create living souls.

If we as his people, we Christians of the 21st century, resemble dry bones, remember that God wants to, and will breathe life into us.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote, "He lives most whoever breathes most air."

Paul told the Galatians that "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."
Galatians 5:23, 24

Paul is telling them to breathe in the breath of God, and those who do will exhibit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. What a life!

Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."

Let us pray . . .