Hello friend,
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk in dogs.
Welcome.
To our next session and our last Hebrew word in this series on Sabbath.
And the word that we're looking at today is nuaka.
Now,
Newark's a beautiful word.
It carries the sense of settling.
Resting,
Reposing,
Becoming quiet,
Dwelling peacefully.
It's not just a physical rest.
Newark speaks of an inner stillness as well,
A settled soul.
A quiet mind and a deep sense of peace both within and around us,
And one of the first places this word appears.
Is in the Genesis creation story.
Now after creating humanity God places,
Or settles,
To human beings within the garden called Eden.
And there's something deeply touching about that image.
God creates the world.
God ceases from work.
Shabbat.
And then God rests with humanity in the garden.
Now note,
This isn't just resting from work,
But resting into work.
Relationship.
Dwelling together,
Walking together.
Being present together.
And maybe this tells us something important about Sabbath and rest.
That Sabbath and rest isn't just simply about escaping exhaustion,
But about recovering presence,
The presence of God.
The presence of ourselves and the presence of this moment.
Nuwak is the kind of rest that allows us to settle deeply enough to become attentive again.
And maybe it's that attentiveness.
That many of us have lost.
Because quite frankly our lives are often noisy.
Not just externally but also deep within.
Thoughts race,
Anxiety circle,
Pressure builds,
Attention fragments,
Even when we stop physically,
Our minds continue to wander,
But Nuwak invites the soul to settle,
To become quiet enough to rest in the presence of God.
In Exodus 33.
God speaks these words to Moses,
My presence will go with you,
And I will give you rest.
And the word translated there as rest is nuach.
And these words come during a moment of very.
.
.
Very deep uncertainty.
Israel's wandering in the desert.
There's been failure and fear and doubt and restlessness.
And in the middle of all that,
God doesn't first promise easy circumstances,
But presence.
My presence will go with you.
And maybe that's the deepest form of rest,
Not because difficulty.
Isn't there?
But the experience of not being alone in your difficulty.
God's presence settling among the people,
Dwelling with them,
Walking with them through uncertainty.
And that's why Sabbath matters so deeply,
Because Sabbath creates space for us again to remember that presence.
To remember that we don't carry life alone.
Moses got this.
And so what Moses did was he created the tent of meeting outside the camp.
A place to pause and listen?
To breathe and become attentive again to the presence of God.
Every journey needed a resting place and I think we need that too.
Where's your tent of meeting?
Maybe it's a quiet chair in the morning.
A slow walk at dusk,
Some silence before you sleep.
A few moments where you stop checking your phone and just breathe.
And again.
You're not doing this to escape life,
You're doing it to remember.
To remember the presence that's there with you within your life.
So for a few moments now,
I want to invite you gently into the experience of noir.
So just settle yourself and take a slow breath.
And imagine yourself entering a quiet garden.
Safe,
Peaceful,
Unhurried.
No pressure here,
Nothing to prove,
Nothing to achieve.
Just presents.
Notice the sounds around you.
Notice your breathing.
Notice the feeling of simply being here.
And now gently hear these words,
My presence will go with you and I will give you rest.
Allow the words to settle slowly within you.
My presence will go with you.
And I will give you rest.
Hear deeply what the words are telling us.
That there's no need to earn God's attention.
That there's no need to strive for God's nearness.
And that's because you are already held within presence.
My presence will go with you,
And I will give you rest.
Nuoc.
Settling.
Resting.
Dwelling peacefully with God.
Maybe Sabbath's less about escaping the world and more about learning how to inhabit it differently.
To move through life with greater attentiveness,
Greater peace,
Greater awareness of presence.
Because the sacred pause doesn't mean the journey's finished.
It means we remember.
That we aren't walking alone.
And maybe today,
That's all we need.
To breathe,
To settle,
To rest quietly in the presence of God.
Newark.
Let's pray.
God of Presence.
You walk with us through every wilderness.
When we're restless,
Settle our souls.
When our minds are crowded,
Quiet us gently.
When we feel alone,
Remind us that your presence surrounds us.
Teach us the sacred rest of NUAC.
Teach us how to dwell peacefully in this moment.
How to become attentive again to your nearness.
How to pause long enough to remember that we're already held in love.
May our lives become places where your presence is welcomed,
Our hearts become quiet gardens of peace.
And may we carry this deep rest with us in the ordinary moments of daily life,
Trusting that wherever we go,
You go also.
And so may grace,
Peace and love abide with us as we abide with it today and every day.
Our journey continues tomorrow.
Until then.
Peace be with you.
