Balance

The Chi­nese have a proverb that says some­thing like: “If you have only two coins left, spend one for bread and the other for a flower.” It is their ver­sion of bread and wine. I do not think it is an acci­dent that the two ele­ments of the Eucharist have to do with sus­tain­ing life and cel­e­bra­tion. Get­ting the two out of bal­ance has dis­as­trous con­se­quences.

Have you ever noticed the half-hearted cel­e­bra­tions of the Marx­ists? There is only so much you can do with May Day. After a parade of mil­i­tary equip­ment (reminders of con­trol, power, and death), and a pic­nic, there is not much left. Third-world folks often keep a bet­ter bal­ance than first or sec­ond world peo­ple. Infor­ma­tion and indus­try cul­tures die from work-a-holism. The so called “lesser” worlds have more time to cel­e­brate. They also use cel­e­bra­tion in lieu of med­i­cines they do not have. A world of song and dance with just enough bread may well be supe­rior to end­less shal­low enter­tain­ment and weight prob­lems.

My Cof­fee Den bill is sig­nif­i­cant. How­ever, it is cheaper than med­ica­tions and coun­sel­ing. I play at mow­ing the par­son­age lawn (and it kind of looks like it too). Accord­ing to my bank account and my waist­line, I have enough bread. My soul tells me I need more cel­e­bra­tion. All work and no play makes for a dull (and resent­ful) per­son. The trees and flow­ers are com­ing into bloom — reminders of beauty. Nature works a lit­tle and plays a lot. Once the puppy’s tummy is full, it is time to play, and play, and play, and play.

The Sab­bath was estab­lished over our inse­cu­ri­ties. It looks like con­stant work would ful­fill life. It does quite the oppo­site. Jesus put it into per­spec­tive when he said, “Man does not live by bread alone…” It takes the words of God (and in my opin­ion — the arts, play, won­der, reflec­tion, walk­ing, singing, and the rest that gives life bal­ance). Ever notice how much of the Old Tes­ta­ment text has to do with the estab­lish­ment and main­te­nance of cel­e­bra­tions? Ever notice how Jesus seemed to make wed­dings, din­ners, sup­pers, (work as a car­pen­ter) and some­how man­age to stop and smell the flow­ers along the way?