The Scripture Readings this week are:
- Genesis 2:1-3
- Exodus 20:8-11
- Hebrews 4:9-10
The Sermon title is Sabbath
Early Thoughts: A time to rest, a time to recharge, a time to reset our priorities, a time to make a statement about how the world could work. Maybe Sabbath is all of these.
From the very beginning of our faith story we are told about finding a balance. From the very beginning of the story we are told that resting, taking a break, not being productive for a time is a good thing. In fact we are told it should be one seventh (14%) of our time. God sets the model at the end of the hymn to Creation. God calls us to follow the model throughout the rest of the story.
There are LOTS of passages in Scripture that talk about this commandment to keep Sabbath. As time went by it would become one of the defining features of the people of Israel (used Biblically, not necessarily referring to the modern nation-state). The Rabbis have spent HOURS and YEARS debating what it means to keep Sabbath properly. Jesus will find himself involved in these debates. It is easy to say something is important, it is more difficult to say what exactly that means, how it gets lived out.
In a more modern sense Christians have had many debates about how best to keep the Lord's Day -- very early on Christians moved their rest day from the last day of the week (the Jewish Sabbath flows from Friday evening until Saturday evening) to the first day of the week to mark the Resurrection. There are some who say that the very earliest followers of Jesus, who were mainly Jewish, kept Sabbath and then had a celebration the next day as well but as the Christian movement became more Gentile it was easier to justify doing it all on the one day. As time went by there were understandings of what was and was not 'proper' to do on Sunday. Reading Scripture was good. Playing games not so much. I once met a person who said that when she was growing up Sunday dinner was always prepped (or at least mainly prepped) on Saturday to avoid having to do the work on Sunday. And many of us might remember the Blue Laws which gave legal and civil limits to what could be open on Sunday. Personally I remember the debate in Alberta about Sunday shopping back when I was in my early teens.
My how times have changed
How do we honor Sabbath now? How best do we keep the idea that time of rest and non-productiveness are important?
I don't think the answer lies in creating (or recreating or trying to enforce) the old rules. I think the answer has to first start with "why is this important?". This is part of what I think Jesus is saying when he tells us that the Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. Rules can help but they can also hurt when we make them more important than people.
So why is Sabbath-time important?
Sabbath-time (a phrase I have come to use to remind me that it is not just about a specific day but a concept) is important, I think, for a number of reasons. Things like:
- we are not meant to be "on" all the time, our mental and physical health is better for it
- in a culture that has bought into the myth that the economy can grow continuously Sabbath-time reminds us that maybe it shouldn't
- some studies show that having nothing to do, maybe even being bored, sparks our creative/imaginative sides
- Sabbath reminds us that energy is finite
- a forced pause helps us re-focus
- when we work all the time we start to forget that it isn't all about us
- I remember the lesson once learned by farmers about the importance of leaving a field fallow once every few years, so that it could continue to be productive in the future
So what do we do about Sabbath-time in 2026? How do we step off of the treadmill, step out of the busy-ness of life when there is so much that needs to be done?
Good questions to ponder. Maybe on Sunday I will have some attempts at answers.
--Gord
No comments:
Post a Comment