Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.Click through for an explanation of the Sabbath and its key components plus the difference they make in our lives!
The Sabbath has its root in two texts: the story of creation from Genesis in which God, having formed the world, "rests" on the seventh day and in the laws given to Moses in Exodus and Deuteronomy in which the Sabbath is defined by the commandment above. A third touchstone, though not mentioned as often, is the night of deliverance for the Israelites held in slavery to Egypt. All three events have a common thread: the end of something old and the beginning of something new and even more wonderful. Each of them heralds a new creation...literally in the case of the Genesis story, the creation of a new and free nation in the case of the departure from Egypt, and the creation of a new way of faith, way speaking about life, and relationship with God through the commandments. Sabbath is the occasion which creates us anew.
Sabbath has been observed in different cultures and religions in different ways. Our modern Sabbath has two distinct themes, both of which fit into the central idea of new creation. The first is rest, the second attending church.
Sabbath rest is a way of putting an end to the old creation...not so much destroying or abandoning it as placing a period at the end of its week-long sentence. In order for the new to grow the old must cede its place. Six days gave way to a new life for Adam and Eve. Slavery in Egypt gave way to the wilderness journey. Old codes and self-serving customs gave way to the new law. Through rest we put aside the old week, the old patterns, the customary way of doing things. We stop, get out of the rut, come up for air.
Rest is an admission that though our own life is all we can see, our own life does not comprise all there is. We let our daily tasks and stresses live without our attention for a day. Sabbath rest is another way of saying that the world doesn't depend on me entirely. Look! I stopped, I rested, life went on for everybody. Therefore there must be someone else in charge of this whole thing. This puts perspective on our daily toil and cares. As important and integral as they may be, they are not everything.
Sabbath rest also reminds us that the world, at least in its temporal form, is not something we can hold onto. Letting go and being re-created is a witness that nothing lasts forever. We cannot stop time. We cannot retreat into the past. We must say goodbye to what has passed before and prepare ourselves to welcome what comes next. We avoid doing the same old, same old on the Sabbath day the better to release it, even if we strongly suspect the coming week will bring more of the same.
Many small, temporal things are supposed to pass along with the week gone by, specks of dust dwarfed by the vast and peaceful hall of the Sabbath day. Grudges and ill-thoughts, worries and fears, envy, ambition, materialism, temptation to sin...these lie among the baggage we set down as we take our Sabbath rest. In a psychological sense laying them aside for a day allows us the choice about picking them up again. In a theological sense these things pass away as part of the old creation and are not supposed to be brought into the new anymore than you'd eat last week's moldering sandwich for Monday lunch.
Reams of paper have been spent, book after book written, about what constitutes appropriate "rest" on this day set apart. Some call for a cessation of all labor of any sort, going so far as to prohibit flipping a light switch. On the other end of the spectrum are people who claim what you do physically doesn't matter as long as you keep God in your heart on that day. Neither one of these seems satisfactory to me. My definition of Sabbath rest is putting aside whatever it is you do on the other six days and doing something both different and for the sake of goodness. It's not a day to check off all of the things you didn't get done on your "to do" list this week. It's a day to take a different course, expecting to find God and goodness in different ways than you did from Monday through Saturday. This might entail swinging in a hammock or gardening. It might entail swinging a hammer in a service project or taking time to play catch with your kid. A Sunday drive might count for some. Sunday dinner might count for others. (Although you may want to ask if you're making poor mom or dad cook the same way on the Sabbath that they have to the other six days. While that makes a great Sabbath for you it might not mean any rest for them!) Basically if it's different than your daily routine and it allows you and the people around you to get a sense of renewal, invigoration, and new life you're probably good to go. If you get to the end of your Sabbath and you don't know where the time went because you were doing so many little things the day got away from you, you're probably not so good to go. The Sabbath just left without you.
Reflection is required in order to make this different direction meaningful. Without it the Sabbath is just a bunch of new and disconnected sensations. That's where the church part comes in. Remember that Sabbath isn't just an ending, it's a new beginning as well. The first thing we do in this beginning is gather to hear the Word that creates us all anew. That's what church is each Sunday...our own re-creation come to life. God originally created the world with his voice. When we hear the words of Scripture on a Sunday that same voice creates us again. We leave different people than we walked in: forgiven, inspired, sanctified, called, and at peace with God and each other. This provides the proper framework for us to experience all of the other new and different things in our Sabbath rest. That in turn strengthens us and gives us new perspective as we pick up the threads of our daily lives again on Monday. The deep pool of wisdom and grace found in God's house buoys us as we paddle through the week ahead.
Just as we have with the concept of rest, we've trivialized and reduced the idea of going to church into mere attendance. "Who was here today? Did you go?" Images of being sent to the principal's office wouldn't be out of place in this construct. How far away that is from the true power of the Sabbath! Once people understand and experience church as that re-creating, reformative force you usually can't keep them out. If that's not the focus of our Sabbath and our worship, though, all the chiding and clucking the world won't make a difference.
When framed correctly, missing church isn't an, "I did something bad, rap my knuckles now" experience. Instead missing church becomes as odd as keeping a sentence going on and on without a period, carrying the same load day after day and never setting it down, or watching the same episode of your favorite show over and over again without ever seeing the next one. I don't know about you, but when I miss church I can't tell what day it is after. That time of renewal and new creation is so intrinsic to my life that my whole concept of time flies out the window when it's not there. I also have trouble getting a purchase on even the littlest philosophical matters. Stress goes up, arguments intensify, priorities get misplaced. Church isn't something we should go to in order to avoid disapproval. Church is something we need lest our lives drag out into an unending series of mis-prioritized tasks that become our masters in place of the God we're skating around.
This also helps explain why just sitting at home and being spiritual but not religious doesn't usually get us the results we expect. By ourselves we can only go as far as our brains, hearts, and internal qualities allow. Church--defined as the community of faith come together around God's Word to hear and praise--works on us beyond, and despite, ourselves. It doesn't just flip a switch in our brain, it changes the whole world. "Spiritual but not religious", in my experience anyway, usually equates to "comfortable with the way I am and not really wanting to change". Both the diversity of the worshiping community and the God who calls them together leave one inevitably changed, providing one pays any attention to either on a Sunday morning. Church folks don't have the option to hold onto their old selves forever.
Sabbath rest--marking the end of the old creation--and Sabbath worship--inaugurating the new--are amazing, integral part of our faith lives. For devotion this week just ask yourself when is the last time you bothered to see them that way and gave the proper importance and reverence to this process and how it works in your life. If you're like most of us you just kind of go to church and then muddle through the rest of your Sunday doing whatever. (If you're like most of us the "go to church" part is fairly optional too!) Ending and starting each week like that makes it hard to view the coming week in proper perspective. It's like beginning the 100-meter dash by falling out of the starting blocks. No matter how fit you are and how well you run the race is going to be difficult after that. Take some time this Sunday not just to attend church but to reflect before, during, and after church on the new creation God has made for, and in, you this week.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
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