Redeemer East Side Update

Transformed together through Pause

Just five blocks south of my apartment there is a beautiful old Croatian church. Compared to the grand cathedrals of the city, it isn’t especially impressive. What makes it perhaps a curiosity is that it is nestled, somewhat awkwardly, on a very short block in the middle of a series of shimmering new high rise apartments. The steeple of the church, no doubt once one of the highest points on the block, barely reaches a third of the way up the neighboring building. Yet, whenever I walk down this block, it isn’t the towering glass skyscrapers that pull my attention upward; it’s this little church. And as my eyes move upward along the Gothic lines of the church, what strikes me is how it all ends, always unexpectedly, with a block of blue, empty sky sitting vacant above the church between the jostling high rises. The absence for me both disrupts and delights.

The great rabbi and theologian Abraham Heschel once described the Sabbath this way: "The Sabbath is to time what the tabernacle and temple are to space: a cathedral in time, … [They are] sanctuaries that emerge from the magnificent stream of a year.” It is a beautiful image, isn't it? A sanctuary rising out of the everflowing stream of our days. Just as a cathedral is a space that interrupts the monotony of a skyline and points to a greater Beauty, so a sabbath is a day that interrupts the monotony of our timelines and points to a greater Rest. And it is often the absence of feverish productivity and anxious performance that disrupts and delights.

Last night we were able to have an incredibly rich and practical conversation on the practice of Pause in a busy city with my friend Rich Villodas, pastor of New Life Fellowship in Queens and author of The Deeply Formed Life. I really hope you were able to join us! Make sure you don’t miss out on future speaker events we’ll be having by signing up here!

For the entire month of February, we will be focusing together as a congregation on building the practice of Pause into our lives. We want to help each other find simple, sustainable ways to keep a weekly sabbath that enables us to step away from the forces that are constantly shaping us and step into the presence of the God of free grace. In a city where you are often defined by what you achieve, there may be nothing more disruptive and counter-cultural than to refuse to draw your worth from what you produce. So whether you need to start with just a three hour span each week or whether you can commit an entire day to sabbath rest and delight, I want to invite you into a life where you experience the unconditional love of God for you in Christ on the very day that you produce nothing for him. I pray that your weekly sabbath will truly begin to feel to you like that cathedral built in time, disrupting your timeline to draw you closer to God.

I’m sitting here smiling imagining our entire East Side community pausing together and saying to one another, “Times up! Pencils down!”

Warmly,

Rev. Abraham Cho
East Side Senior Pastor

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PEACE: An Invitation to Pause

Join Rich Villodas as he leads us in an incredibly rich and practical conversation on the practice of Pause in a busy city. Rich is the lead pastor of New Life Fellowship, a large church in Elmhurst, Queens with more than seventy-five countries represented in its congregation. His first book, The Deeply Formed Life, explores why some people can be deeply committed to being Christian without ever being deeply formed by Christ.

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PEACE Stories: Pause

One day each week we Pause from our labors so that we can delight in Jesus, who freed us from the burden of accomplishment and productivity. Here's Nancy's story of how she experienced God’s rest and delight through the practice of Pause.

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