Remembering the Sabbath

In my last blog post, I considered the Christian Year as a way to develop a different relationship with time.  Instead of our experience of time being bound to a schedule at work or school, or even a calendar, we can experience time as movement through the teachings and events of Jesus, the one we follow. 

This way of following time is not unique to the Christian faith.  Both Islam and Judaism have their own calendars that include feasts and holy days that celebrate the stories of their faith.  In fact, some have suggested that the idea for the Christian calendar came from the Jewish practice. 

Another way to develop a different relationship with time is the celebration of Sabbath.  Sabbath has been a part of the Jewish faith for thousands of years.  Because of its Jewish roots, the Christian faith has incorporated some form of Sabbath celebration.  For example, because of the resurrection of Jesus, Sunday became the primary day of celebrating Sabbath.  Of course, there are some who suggest that as Christians, we should leave behind Jewish practices like the Sabbath.

In the religious tradition in which I grew up, Sabbath felt like an obligation or a duty.  It conjures up images of stores closing and not doing work like mowing the grass on Sunday.   But if we can move beyond these images, we can discover how Sabbath is a radical way of thinking about time that can change the way we order our lives.

Celebrating the Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments: “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy” (Exodus 20:6).  It goes on to say (20:8) that the observance of Sabbath is connected to God resting on the seventh day in the creation story.

This is not just a statement of “if it’s good enough for God, then it’s good enough for me.” 

Exodus is saying that Sabbath celebration, and all that it means, has been woven into the very fabric of the created order.  If the dynamic of work/Sabbath is built by God into the structure of reality, then failure to observe this structure puts us out of “sync” with creation as God intended it to be. That’s a profound idea.

The commandment of Sabbath in Exodus 20 invites to consider the discussion of Sabbath in the Genesis 2 passage.  We have always heard that God finished his work in six days and rested on the seventh day.  That’s the way it is written in most Bibles.  But Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel points out that in many texts, it says that “on the seventh day God finished the work he had done.” 

Heschel suggests that there was, in fact, an act of creation on the seventh day before God rested.  What was created?  Sabbath, tranquility, serenity, peace, and repose.  It was only after the creation of Sabbath that the universe was complete.

The Genesis passage has more to say about Sabbath.  It says that on the Sabbath God rested.  We struggle with the idea of God resting because we tend to think of God as pure activity.  We think that the way we come to know, understand, and relate to God is through what God has been and is doing in the world.   We tend to overlook those passages that talk about God resting. We look for things that we can do to reflect the image of God in our lives, but Genesis tells us that resting is also a reflection of the image of God.

The Genesis passage tells us that God does more than simply rest on Sabbath. The text declares that God blessed and that God made holy this Sabbath that God created.  With Sabbath, God weaves rest into the very fabric of creation.  With Sabbath, God weaves blessing and making holy into the very fabric of creation. 

Hopefully, by now, you can see that we are talking about more than keeping stores closed or not doing household chores.  There are ways that this understanding Sabbath can have a significant impact on how order our lives.

For example, the Sabbath is given not just to provide a time for rest up so we can go out and do the business of ‘real life’ the next six day.  Sabbath gives us a pattern in the rhythm of daily life (every week) that is open to God and the difference God can make in our living.  The Genesis text says that God didn’t just create Sabbath; God blessed it and hallowed it.  Sanctifying the Sabbath means setting aside on a regular basis some time that is consciously intended to celebrate the wonder of God and all that God has created.  There really is a difference between taking a day off and taking a day off and sanctifying it to the Lord.

Often, we talk about how to observe the Sabbath.  But the commandment does not tell us to observe.  It wants us to “remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.”  Remembering is more than a cognitive process.  It is more than reminiscing.  When we remember, we re-member (just like we can dis-member).  Observing the Christian calendar immerses us in the stories of our faith so that each year we consider again the difference Christ’s presence can make in our lives.  Remembering Sabbath immerses us every week all the God offers us:  Resting and Pausing.  Delighting in all of life that can be missed during the other six days of living. 

Also, notice that we are encouraged to remember and make holy the Sabbath…not the Sabbath day.  Sabbath is celebrated on a certain day, but Sabbath is more than a day of the week.  Sabbath is not part of time; instead, as Rabbi Heschel describes it, Sabbath is a “sanctuary in time.”

The Book of Deuteronomy has another version of the Ten Commandments (5: 1-21).  There are some differences from Exodus 20.  While Exodus connects the importance of Sabbath to what God does at creation, the motivation for honoring the Sabbath in Deuteronomy is connected to God’s work in bringing the people of slavery in Egypt. 

For slaves, every day is a day of labor and toil.  But with their freedom, the people of Israel are reminded that work is no longer their identity.  For us, the celebration of Sabbath carries the same reminder. 

Our identity is not tied up in what we do, what we produce.  There is more to life than work.  Sabbath invites us to put aside our desires for acquiring and earning. 

One of the benefits of sustained practice (24 hours) and consistent practice (every week) is that we can experience, not just think about and reflect upon, the power that false desires can have over us.  Again, we are way beyond taking a break from work.  In fact, Rabbi Heschel says that Sabbath is not for the sake of the weekdays; the weekdays are for the sake of Sabbath.  It is not an interlude but the climax of living.

In my next post, I will consider some practices ways that we can weave the meaning of Sabbath into our lives.  For now, I welcome your thoughts and reflections.  How is this understanding of Sabbath different from the way you have experienced it?  What do you find meaningful about it?