麻豆社

Good morning. Those standing for election will be out busy canvassing this weekend. No rest for them or party activists knocking on doors. But it is good to remind ourselves that all this political activity is a means to an end. It is there to bring about their particular vision of a good society- life with one another, organised as it should be, and which is to be enjoyed for its own sake. And for those who don鈥檛 have to work over the weekend, this is what Saturday and Sunday should be about. Its roots are of course in the Jewish Sabbath, a remarkable institution that had no parallel in the Near Eastern culture of the time. Everything had to stop. Everyone, including slaves and animals were allowed to relax. First worship God as the giver of this good life and then rest and enjoy the day. One of the reasons that is given for the Sabbath is that God himself, having poured himself into creating the world in six days, rested on the seventh.

A few words of the great Australian poet Les Murray have haunted me all week. 鈥淎bsolutely anything is absolute for those who see the poem in it鈥�. What is absolute exists in its own right, to be enjoyed for its own sake. What he is suggesting is that if we see the poem in something, anything at all can come to be enjoyed in that way-simply for itself. Nothing is ordinary any more, nothing too insignificant. Murray鈥檚 own choice of subjects is good evidence for this. My favourite poem of his is about someone who has the gift of being able to sprawl.

The very earliest Christians kept the Jewish Sabbath, but quickly, as we see in the New Testament, they came together on what they called the first day of the week, for that was the day when the women came to the tomb and found it empty because, they believed, God had raised Jesus to a universal contemporaneity. This invested the day of rest for them with a very special joy. And on that day they met to break bread together-for meals with family or friends are also all occasions to be enjoyed for their own sake.

This distinction between doing something as a means to an end and enjoying the end for its own sake has been fundamental to Christian thought. Whether we are lucky enough to enjoy our work, or find it a terrible burden, it is there to enable ourselves, and everyone in society, to enjoy life as life. For believers this begins with the acknowledgement of God as God, the giver of all good things, and then goes on to see the poetry in everything. Have a good weekend.

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