Keeping Sabbath for Twenty-First Century Disciples

In an age where even the Southern Eyre Peninsula operates according to a 24/7 clock it is encouraging to find a practice that endorses a life lived at 15/6. Keeping the Sabbath is God’s idea of a joy-filled, healthy life. With regard to the Omnipotence of The Creator it doesn’t seem to make sense that God actually required a divine session of couch-veg for restorative purposes, but that is the point. The lesson is that rest is important, so important that God took time out of God’s other work to demonstrate it for us. The message for us is that God might not actually need one day off after five at the chalkface, one umpiring local footy, one doing shopping and house cleaning, and one leading worship at church, but we sure do. Sabbath means taking time out just to be. It is not intended as a day away from paid employment so as to complete household chores and religious obligations; rather it is a day of be-still-ness to spend unweeking so as to reconnect with the delight we can find simply in breathing air.

The best definition I have come across for rest is to first define work and then to rest by not doing whatever work is for you. In Jewish tradition Sabbath is a two part command. It is a day for remembrance and of observation ; both “Thou Shalt” and “Thou Shalt Not”. Thou shalt rest, thou shalt not create. On Sabbath you shouldn’t make anything, be that plans for the week ahead or the creation of anything. On Sabbath you can eat, but you cannot cook. How may I spend Sabbath as a secondary school teacher and a tertiary student? May I read on Sabbath so long as I don’t actually study? Who gets to decide what I may/not read? When Jesus declared himself the Lord of Sabbath and that Sabbath was made for Man, not Man for Sabbath he was saying it is good for me to take time to rest, but not so good for me to get all legalistic about what delineates the sin of “work-related reading”.

A key aspect of Sabbath Keeping for twenty-first century disciples is that it sets us apart as the followers of God because Sabbath is God’s idea. Other ancient religions had festivals but only our God prescribed a weekly day of rest. Sabbath is also a statement of satisfaction: Jehovah Jireh has supplied, Jehovah Ropheka has restored, Jehovah Sabaoth has protected. We can rest because we have faith that God is in control: our rest and our deliberate resistance to rush and worry is a sign of that faith . When we cease interfering we acknowledge the world as God’s world. Sabbath rest is a deliberate session of “taking delight in”, looking back at the work done and finding things to take pleasure in, and to feel contentment and satisfaction. Sabbath is an orientation toward God, not just a day off or a trip to the spa. In keeping Sabbath we imitate our God . Sabbath is a day not just restful and relaxed but to be cosy, snugly, happy and safe within the Father’s arms. Sabbath is a taste of grace, but it is also a test of grace. Am I prepared to have playtime while others are working?

A second key aspect of Sabbath Keeping for twenty-first century disciples is that setting aside God’s day is similar to setting aside God’s tithe. Sabbath is the first portion of the week which directs how the other days are expressed in response to its leading. Sabbath is not about a legal minimum input of hours; rather it is about setting the direction and agenda for what is to follow in the week. Sabbath is a regular, predictable expression of the grace and profoundly deep goodness of God: Sabbath is a structure that mediates grace through creation . Sabbath is central to the way we live; it is the fundamental unit of time around which we define our lives. While days, months, and years are defined by the motion of the planets, a week is defined as the period between Sabbaths. If our week is bookended by Sabbath then our week can be viewed within a blessed framework. Sabbath is a symbol of the covenant, like a rainbow in the calendar. Slaves can’t take a day off so Sabbath reminds us that we live every day as freed people and that we must also be people of compassion who allow rest to our own employees.

Sabbath is most commonly thought of as the day of collective worship, which for most Christians is Sunday. Sunday is perichoresis, joining in the eternal dance with God and with our brothers and sisters on earth. It is a joyful celebration of all that God has accomplished so last thing Sabbath should be is quiet and restrained. Sabbath is a day when we play . We get to pretend, like children, that we are in a different place and doing a different job. We can pretend that we are already in Heaven and that we are surrounded by God’s glory in all we sense and in all whom we meet. We get to play “peace” and imagine for a day that all of the tension and fighting in our worlds is not happening and our world is “on Earth as it is in Heaven”. Sabbath is the day to be curious about Eternity and to go exploring. In the light of all that can be said of Sabbath it is unfortunate that Sabbath has a bad name in many quarters, even in the Church . Sabbath must no longer be presented as a form of headmaster’s detention. Sabbath is “play lunch” as it was called at my childhood school, a time of fun for no other reason than to play. It is not lunchtime requiring supervised eating, neither is it PE requiring disciplined activity. Sabbath is time to have a swing and a slide and to lie on the grass and count clouds and smile and feel freed. It might be for this reason that Shabbat is the practise of Judaism that ex-Jews miss the most . Sabbath is the day when we add value to our hours , even as we cannot add hours to our day.

I have been Keeping Sabbath for twelve months and my Sabbath is Thursday because on Sunday I am busy at church. When I began holding a day apart I didn’t really feel closer to God that I had on any other “day off”, but as I made changes to my practice and mindset I found myself looking forward to my Sabbath. I wrote my own Sabbath liturgy and bought a candle to use as a havdallah. Ultimately I began to feel “unweeked” which was the point.

Sabbath is very much an appropriate practice for twenty-first century disciples living within popular culture, perhaps even more important than it was in Jesus’ more relaxed, seasonal time. It is a practice that focuses our attention on God as provider, source and sustainer, as well as saviour and object of our worship, and takes our attention off money and employment as the sources of identity. Rest and see that the Lord is good.