The Sabbath

Rest. Worship. Serve.

The labor movement

The labor movement emerged in the nineteenth century in response to the Industrial Revolution. The first Labor Day in the United States was observed in 1882 in New York City under President Grover Cleveland. In 1891, Pope Leo XIII issued the encyclical, “On the Condition of the Working Classes,” in which he addressed pressing issues such as the work day, minimum wage, child labor, organized unions, regulations, and the like. The influence of this encyclical effectively won a forty hour work week so that bosses could no longer own their workers and jobs could no longer enslave employees.

A culture of busyness and overwork

Fast forward one hundred plus years. We now live in a post-industrial society, an information economy, in which we are seeing the work of the labor movement reversed and undone. Ask your friends, neighbors, or co-workers, “How are you? How is life?” and any student, professional, or full-time parent will say, “I am busy. I am tired.” We are stressed, frenetic, rushed, overloaded, and over-scheduled. Our children feel the same. We can relate to Bilbo Baggins who said, “I feel like too little butter spread over too much toast.”

Our technologies erase our boundaries, leaving us forever connected, always “on.” Our new global economy requires us to produce, to get blood out of a stone. Many of our responsibilities demand more than we can do or manage. Several years ago, an article in Fast Company read,

“Working 24-7 is a badge of honor in the new economy. Those who embrace long hours and devotion to the workplace not only earn a special place in the ranks of the company, but they also frequently earn more money -- which translates into even more approval in our culture.”

Achievement. Advancement. Applause. Working 60-100 hours does have its benefits. But it also has its problems. Hence, we now hear calls for a secular revival of the Sabbath in The New York Times, New York Magazine, and other such publications. Work-related burnout, failed relationships, isolation, depression, and addiction are not new problems, but we are beginning to see just how big, widespread, cultural, and societal these problems have become. Yet another project to “work” on.

What does it mean to be human?

Thus, in the midst of a busy, frenetic, stressed out culture, we do well to ask, “What does it mean to be human, to be free, to live life fully and abundantly? How do we inhabit time? How do we embody ourselves in the world? What are the rhythms of our lives? How do we work and rest?

Though it may be counter-intuitive in the modern era, we find the wisdom we need to address these questions in an under-realized cultural treasure: the Biblical book of Deuteronomy.1 The Bible has much to say about work and rest - God is the creator; we are made in God’s image and thus created to create; work is a gift, not a curse; to work is to be human, a worker of humus, or soil. Deuteronomy takes the gift of work and connects it with the gift of rest - the Sabbath.

For some religious people, the Sabbath seems a legalistic, outdated, and irrelevant practice. For some secular people, the Sabbath seems weird, impractical, or not even on the radar. For Seneca, the Roman Stoic philosopher, to practice the Sabbath was “to waste a seventh of life in inactivity.” In contrast to such prevailing views, Deuteronomy suggests that Sabbath is a gift from God. Listen to the ancient text for yourself, a short section from the Decalogue (The Ten Commandments):

"Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.” (Deuteronomy 5:12-15)

Of the ten commandments, the fourth command about the Sabbath is the longest and most specific. And this command to rest (!) is sandwiched between commands having to do with idolatry, murder, adultery, lying, and stealing. Interestingly, it is the most reiterated command in the Hebrew Scriptures. And when we turn to the New Testament, Jesus and Paul critiqued current Sabbath observances while practicing and affirming Sabbath as normative for the people of God. Thus, it seems that honoring time and establishing humane patterns of work and rest are important to God.

Sabbath protects

We hear the words “the Lord your God has commanded you,” however, and we get nervous. Why commands and not suggestions? Does God not understand that Americans value individual autonomy and liberty? We do not like being told what to do. We hear this command and we receive it as something which seeks to burden, constrain, oppress, and enslave. Is God trying to put us in a straight jacket?

In any healthy relationship, we have a short list of things we agree to be and do for one another to protect and cultivate a meaningful and intimate connection. In this command, God is seeking to protect us against our primary human failing. From the beginning of our story until now, we have a tendency to trivialize God and overestimate ourselves. Rather than worship our Creator as ultimate, we make created things ultimate - money, material goods, security, relationships, sex, work, status, achievement, approval, pleasure, and anything else you can imagine. We tend to make a mess of God’s gifts of time and work, which is why God is so concerned about Sabbath rest.

In Deuteronomy 8, we are reminded of our penchant to forget God, to live like self-oriented two-year olds who say to their parents, “Look at me.”

“Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God... Otherwise, your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery... You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.” (Deuteronomy 8)

Our fatal flaw is to push God out, making him irrelevant, trivial, peripheral, and marginal to our lives. Rather than say, “God is everything, and work is how I serve him,” we say with our actions, “Work is everything; it gives me identity, meaning, purpose, and salvation.” God is trying to protect us from such a misdirected life.

“Yes, but won’t obedience to God make me a slave?” Bob Dylan was onto an inescapable reality of human nature when he sang, “You gotta serve somebody.” We will obey something or someone. Whatever we live for is our Master, and many people in our culture are tragically slaves to work, money, achievement, advancement, and approval. The important thing to remember here is that freedom is not an absence of restrictions, it is finding and living under the right ones. There are such things as limitations which liberate and humanize. And Sabbath rest is such a limitation.

"Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God.”

This is a gift from God, an invitation - a command - to rest. God gives us the Sabbath as a regular, rhythmic twenty-four hour ceasing of work. Through the Sabbath, God says to us, “Stop. Power down. Unplug. Choose me.” The Sabbath is not a burden, constraint, oppression, or straight jacket, but an occasion for joy and love. Just as tithing guards us against greed and envy and sets us free with our money, so the Sabbath guards us against worshiping work, productivity, money, success, approval, and ourselves, and sets us free with our time. If we let it, Sabbath keeps God first and central, teaching us to trust God and not ourselves with our lives.

Sabbath provides

Rest

Ask anyone, “How can Christians be counter-cultural and serve the common good?” and most people will respond, “Feed the poor,” or “Heal the sick,” or “Rescue the enslaved.” Ask God the same question, and he answers, “Sleep!” Why? Sleep restores our bodies and souls, enabling us to feed the poor, heal the sick, and rescue the enslaved.

Sleep is an obvious but undervalued aspect of Sabbath. We moderns sleep two-and-a-half hours less than when folks slept before the lightbulb was invented. Indeed, scientists tell us that we need eight or nine hours of sleep. Imagine if we abided by the laws of nature! What better drivers we would be (and how many less unnecessary accidents). What better listeners we would be. What better communicators we would be. How much more patient, self-controlled, and creative we would be. Indeed, if we got the rest we need, we would all be better workers Monday through Saturday.

We must be careful, however. The secular revival of the Sabbath says, “Take time for yourself” and “Make sure you get some ‘me time.’” But the Sabbath is not merely a day off, a Second Saturday, a divinely sanctioned excuse to sleep, play, relax, or get away. In fact, the Scriptures tell us that Sabbath exists precisely to remind us that life not about us!

Worship God

"Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God."

Keeping the Sabbath day holy means that after we have had a good night of sleep we are to make it special and set apart, unlike any other day. During this time we are to do something different than what we do the rest of the week, something sacred. It is to be “a sabbath to the Lord your God.” We are to be with God, to focus our attention on God, to linger with God. Thus, Sabbath is both an external rest of body and an inner recalibration of soul. It gives us spiritual renewal - intimacy, joy, and pleasure in God. Regular date nights allows us to look deep into the eyes of our significant other and ask, “How are you?” Likewise, the Sabbath is a regular opportunity to move beyond cohabiting the universe with God to reconnecting and abiding with God. We can rest in his arms knowing that it is he - not us or our work - that holds the world together and gives us life.

Serve neighbors

The Sabbath is not only about getting rest and worshiping God, but it also includes serving our neighbors. The Sabbath reminds us, “Life is not about you; it is about God.” But it also teaches us, “Life is not about the individual; it is about community.” In this way, the Sabbath de-selfs us.

On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.

Notice all of the neighbors included in this litany - not only our spouses and children, but anyone who works for us, and those who may be visiting. More than that, our animals get a rest too, which of course means the land gets a rest with them.

Judith Shulevitz, a columnist for The New York Times, wrote the following in an article entitled “Bring Back the Sabbath” (March 2, 2003):

“When the Jews took over an old Mesopotamian day of taboo and transformed it into one of holy rest... they invented the idea of social equality. The Israelite Sabbath institutionalized an astonishing, hitherto undreamed-of notion: that every single creature has the right to rest, not just the rich and the privileged. Covered under the Fourth Commandment are women, slaves, strangers and, improbably, animals. The verse in Deuteronomy that elaborates on this aspect of the Sabbath repeats, twice, that slaves were not to work, as if to drive home what must have been very hard to understand in the ancient world. The Jews were meant to perceive the Sabbath not only as a way to honor God but also as the central vehicle of their liberation theology, a weekly reminder of their escape from their servitude in Egypt. In other words, we have the Sabbath to thank for labor legislation and for our belief that it is wrong for employers to drive their employees until they drop from exhaustion.”

Jesus stirred up lots of trouble for his “work” on the Sabbath. He fed the hungry, healed the sick, offered mercy to the downcast, and forgave the sinner. What was Jesus’ Sabbath work? Giving rest to his neighbors. He is famous for saying, “The Sabbath is made for people, not people for the Sabbath” (Mk 2). Jesus recognized that the Sabbath is made to bring life, goodness, and renewal to society.

So how do we keep the Sabbath holy to the Lord? It will no doubt be difficult - a radical, counter-cultural act that cuts to the core of our lifestyles. Shulevitz went on to write, “Interrupting the ceaseless round of striving requires a surprisingly strenuous act of will, one that has to be bolstered by habit as well as by social sanction.” Observing Sabbath requires a community that is willing to submit itself to the discipline of this practice and to accountability with one another should we find ourselves struggling to keep it.

What follows is a list of ten suggestions (not commands!) that Christians could begin talking about and practicing together. We must ask ourselves, “What will I stop and start doing?” Of course, the danger with lists is that we can quickly become legalistic, performance-oriented, and judgmental, so go lightly with yourself and your neighbor.

1. On Sundays, do not immediately leave the worship service to check email or work! Rather, go share a meal with friends and neighbors.
2. Plan ahead. If you have a test, a project, or bills due on Monday, get them done by Saturday.
3. Sleep more. Go to be early on Saturday night; take a nap on Sunday afternoon.
4. Consider discontinuing 1-2 of the following: email, phone, computer, chores, sports, shopping.
5. Prioritize Sunday worship. Christians in the Bay Area who worship 2.5 times per month should seriously ask themselves and God, “Am I really keeping the Sabbath holy to you, Lord? Why am I choosing to miss what you are doing among your people through the means of grace - prayer, Scripture, and sacraments?”
6. Read the Bible and pray. Read Deuteronomy if you have not; or the Gospels make for good Sabbath reading. Take time to pray about your work (i.e. projects, boss, co-workers, company). Let prayer be a way to connect the Caller with your calling, worship with work, liturgy with labor.
7. Take a long walk. In the opening chapters of Genesis, we read that God delighted in the goodness of his new creation - “It is good.” Take time to praise your Creator and remember your dignity as his creature. Acknowledge that there is more to you than your work. Rejoice that when you stop working, God is doing fine.
8. Review the Ten Commandments (Ex 20, Dt 5). Let them remind you of the importance of God, work, rest, family, mind, body, words, and resources. Remember Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5-7) that the birds are singing to you and the flowers are preaching to you not to be anxious because your heavenly Father has the whole world in his hands.
9. Plan nothing. Be surprised by what happens during the day. When was the last time you were spontaneous?
10. Practice hospitality and share meals. Help our community keep the Sabbath by inviting others to rest with you.

Sabbath points

The Sabbath not only protects us and provides for us, it also points us to the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.

Israel had been slaves with no rest for four hundred years (!), but God liberated them to a Sabbath rest. In the same way, we were slaves to self, evil, darkness, and death, but through Jesus’ “mighty hands and outstretched arms” on the cross God liberated us to a Sabbath rest. Indeed, God has “brought us out of there” to make us a free people.

Jesus famously said, “I have not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it... Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest... The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath... It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” (Mt 5; 11-12). In other words, “I am Sabbath, I am Rest.” It is through the work of Jesus that we get rest. His work is to allow us to rest in the salvation he accomplished for us - “It is finished” (Jn 19). We are now a free people - “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (Jn 8), and “It is for freedom that Christ has set you free” (Gal 5). God’s work through Jesus’ death on the cross is matched in his work through Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. When Jesus went into sickness, death, evil, and hell, he dismantled it and came out on other side - “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full... I am the resurrection and the life” (Jn 10-11). Thus, the Sabbath is an embodied reminder that we are free and alive in Christ. What happened to Jesus will happen to us. We will come out on the other side of death into the Sabbath rest of the resurrection, the new creation, the new Eden, the kingdom of God “on earth as in heaven.”