We are well past the era of the blue laws. I know folks who still grumble at the thought
of stores being open on Sunday and sports practices and games that conflict
with Christian worship. There are still
a few vestigial rules here and there, mostly around liquor sales on Sunday
morning. We in the church may fuss about
it, but do we really want to admit that one the impulses for church attendance
was that people had nothing better to do?
That our real impulse for closing stores is simply to narrow the options
of Sunday morning?
At the
same time, I think that we in the church need to rediscover and redevelop the
meaning of Sabbath. We have come to
equate Sabbath with worship, that to observe the Sabbath is to go to
church. Yet the Sabbath has more to do
with lifestyle and rhythm than a fixed day or a holy hour. In recent years I have spoken to families in
the effort to involve them more deeply in the life of the community and
frequently I hear that one reason for not attending worship is that Sunday
morning is the only time they feel they have as a family. Sunday is the day they can sleep in together;
enjoy a slow breakfast and long conversation together. And more and more I am torn between my hope
that such families might make their way into worship once again and my hope
that such families can have that sacred time together, that time to slow down
and simply “be” together. I don’t want
church attendance to be one more thing that they are obligated to do, a piece of
inconvenient clutter in an already cluttered schedule.
And now
we are back at things, back with Meister Eckhart and his reminder that “To be
full of things is to be empty of God.”
Our schedules are full of things.
Some of them are necessary. Some
of them are good and life-fulfilling.
Some of them are busywork and some of them are clutter.
At its
heart, Sabbath is essentially time to step away from things. It is time to breathe and rejoice is the
essential act of being alive. For the
contemplative, it time set aside to dwell with God, neither asking for help nor
moving toward praise. Sabbath is time simply
spent being with God.
A
number of the gospel stories revolve around Jesus challenging the legalistic
concept of Sabbath that had developed in the first century. He healed non-life-threatening illnesses on
the Sabbath. He allowed his disciples to
pick grain and eat when they were hungry on the Sabbath. He told the people, “The Sabbath was made for
humanity; not humanity for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27) Sabbath is meant as a gift, and when it
ceases to be a gift but becomes an obligation, it ceases to be Sabbath.
Human
beings need rest. We are not made to be
productive all the time. God knows this,
but we forget. We become convinced that
we are measured by the things we get done and things we experience. We stress about leaving a mark on the world
and are envious of those who are proclaimed to be successful. The good news that Jesus brings to us is that
we are already enough in the eyes of God.
As we enter the next section in the Easter season, talking about
stewardship, I will write a bit about how we might use time in more faithful
ways, but that won’t change the fact that you are already enough by being you,
loved in the sight of God.
I
encourage you to develop some Sabbath practices and these can range from small
to large. You can spend time in retreat,
disconnected from the world for a few days.
You can seek to observe a full-day weekly Sabbath, where you refrain
from work and, as much as possible, refrain from obligating others to work on
your behalf. You can build a
Sabbath-hour in your day, a time to put productivity aside and simply rest or
enjoy God’s creation. You can take
Sabbath-breaks, 5-minutes of quiet or, one of my favorites, three deep breaths
to remind you of who and where you are.
All of
these practices can be Sabbath: a time to let go of time; a time to brush up
against eternity. May you rediscover the
freedom and blessing of Sabbath rest.
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