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Good morning.  And I’m looking forward to rest of the day ahead because today is the May Bank holiday. This offers for many, though perhaps not all of us, the chance to spend some welcome time in rest or recreation with family and friends. It’s interesting that unlike many of our other holidays, Christmas, Easter and Whitsun, this one doesn’t have any particular Christian significance. Its origins lie perhaps in the old pagan traditions of May Day and festivities like dancing round the Maypole on village greens, a tribute to our agricultural past when the patterns of labour and leisure were very different.

These days we live and work in an industrial and increasingly post-industrial world where technology can further pressurise us into staying open for business at all hours. It gets harder to keep to those communal times of rest and relaxation and not everyone will be able to take time off today. But for those of us who can, perhaps there’s something of spiritual significance still to be found. In the biblical accounts in Genesis, we read of how God paused to take stock of his creation and see that it was good; and then instructed human beings to follow this same practice by setting aside one day of the week as ‘Sabbath’, as a day of rest to honour the goodness of God’s creation. In our 24/7 working world it can seem a long time since Sunday or any other day was special for many of us; but perhaps this May Day bank holiday provides us with an opportunity; for whatever reason, to enjoy a little rest and recreation with those whom we love.

Living Lord,

You set in motion all the rich activity of this world; help us to become more attuned to the rhythm of your creation so that amidst all our busyness, our lives may find their balance and their blessing in you. For Christ’s sake, Amen.