Remember the Sabbath
17/09/23 03:34
Each small town has its own culture. Not far from where we live is a small community that was settled primarily by Dutch immigrants to our area. They brought with them a strong attachment to the Christian Reformed Church. There are a lot of churches in that community and most of them are Christian Reformed. I have a friend who was hired as a school principal in that community several years ago. Shortly after he arrived, on a crisp fall Sunday afternoon he went out to mow his lawn. He was told by a neighbor that in that community one does not mow the lawn on Sundays. That reminder was reinforced by a second conversation with the president of the school board. He learned his lesson. There are certain community values that are far easier to comply with than to resist.
I’m not sure how long ago that incident occurred, and I don’t know if that strict observance of sabbath rules still persists in that community. I do know, however, that despite the community’s strong identity as a Christian community and its adherence to that particular biblical rule, it is not a community that is free from problems. Another acquaintance told me a story of deep seated racism in that same community.
Christianity is not, at its core, a religion of rules. A reading of the Gospels reveals many stories of Jesus in conflict with authorities over their interpretation of laws and rules. There are even stories about Jesus running afoul of sabbath rules. In the second chapter of Mark, the earliest of the Gospels, Jesus says, “The Sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27) The comment came after Jesus was rebuked because his disciples were gathering grain on the Sabbath. It wasn’t all that different from my friend mowing his lawn on a Sunday afternoon.
Throughout the Gospels and the letters of the New Testament there are stories of people of faith wrestling with the distinction between trying to earn their salvation by following sets of rules and trying to be genuinely good people by paying attention to their motivation and making decisions in context. Context is important in making moral decisions and in interpreting scripture. It reminds me of a sign I once saw. At the top of the sign it said, “Life is short, lick the bowl.” At the bottom of the sign was smaller text saying, “Context is everything. It matters whether this sign is posted in the kitchen or the bathroom.”
A professor of Hebrew Scripture once said, in a conversation about the role of the ten commandments in Hebrew history and their application in modern society, “We haven’t got a chance with commandments like ‘Do not covet.’ People can’t even get ‘observe the Sabbath.’” He was referring to the commandments as instructions about how to be free people rather than a rigid set of moral behavior guidelines. He pointed out that the commandment in Exodus speaks not only to personal behavior, but also to how one treats servants and even immigrants.
As a pastor, I have struggled with the meaning of Sabbath and how to observe the Sabbath for most of my life. The bottom line is that I worked on Sundays. For the most part, I did take a day off each week, usually Mondays, but when there were needs in the community or other important things to do, I was never rigid about it. If there was a death in the community on a Monday, I responded. If there was something that needed my attention, I gave it. I have colleagues who are much better at taking time off than I was. One colleague doesn’t answer the phone on their day off. I could never have done that. I felt that I needed to be available to the people I served. The result was that I was not always faithful to the instruction about observing the Sabbath. I sometimes convinced myself that I was too important to take a day off - a form of idolatry as pointed out by the scripture.
Being retired has presented me with a new set of challenges around my behavior on Sundays. For a few more weeks, we are not worshiping with our primary congregation in order to make space for new leadership to emerge. Today is the annual “Gathering In” observance, in which the Sunday School kicks off a new program year, choirs resume their usual schedule, and other activities resume after a summer break. In previous years we would have been very busy on this day, organizing activities, preparing spaces for learning programs, recruiting volunteers, and making sure that everyone is welcomed. Today, however, we are intentionally worshiping with another congregation so that the children can make connections with the new Church School Coordinator. We know that if we were in our home congregation, some of the children would come to us for snacks and look to us for stories. We’ll return soon, but today is a good day to have them turn to others. It does, however, feel really strange to be going to church elsewhere on a Sunday that we would not normally miss.
It leaves me thinking about what it means to observe the Sabbath when I am retired. If Sabbath is about rest and restoration, I spent three days on a sailboat this week. That is a restful activity for me. If it is about making time for prayer and contemplation, I have learned to build that time into every day and not just do so on Sundays. If it is about unplugging from constant contact, I do that in different ways. On Sundays, I participate in a group text that wishes the Peace of Christ. I have no intention of skipping that important connection with other people of faith. If I need a day to unplug from my devices, I’ll choose a different day.
Once one is freed from a simplistic literal interpretation of the words and opens to the challenges of connecting with the meaning behind the words, interpreting scripture and living faith in context is a challenge. A lifetime is all too short to explore all of the meanings available in a few words.
“Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it. (Exodus 20:8-11)
And I haven’t even begun to consider how I honor my father and my mother in the context of my life today.
I’m not sure how long ago that incident occurred, and I don’t know if that strict observance of sabbath rules still persists in that community. I do know, however, that despite the community’s strong identity as a Christian community and its adherence to that particular biblical rule, it is not a community that is free from problems. Another acquaintance told me a story of deep seated racism in that same community.
Christianity is not, at its core, a religion of rules. A reading of the Gospels reveals many stories of Jesus in conflict with authorities over their interpretation of laws and rules. There are even stories about Jesus running afoul of sabbath rules. In the second chapter of Mark, the earliest of the Gospels, Jesus says, “The Sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27) The comment came after Jesus was rebuked because his disciples were gathering grain on the Sabbath. It wasn’t all that different from my friend mowing his lawn on a Sunday afternoon.
Throughout the Gospels and the letters of the New Testament there are stories of people of faith wrestling with the distinction between trying to earn their salvation by following sets of rules and trying to be genuinely good people by paying attention to their motivation and making decisions in context. Context is important in making moral decisions and in interpreting scripture. It reminds me of a sign I once saw. At the top of the sign it said, “Life is short, lick the bowl.” At the bottom of the sign was smaller text saying, “Context is everything. It matters whether this sign is posted in the kitchen or the bathroom.”
A professor of Hebrew Scripture once said, in a conversation about the role of the ten commandments in Hebrew history and their application in modern society, “We haven’t got a chance with commandments like ‘Do not covet.’ People can’t even get ‘observe the Sabbath.’” He was referring to the commandments as instructions about how to be free people rather than a rigid set of moral behavior guidelines. He pointed out that the commandment in Exodus speaks not only to personal behavior, but also to how one treats servants and even immigrants.
As a pastor, I have struggled with the meaning of Sabbath and how to observe the Sabbath for most of my life. The bottom line is that I worked on Sundays. For the most part, I did take a day off each week, usually Mondays, but when there were needs in the community or other important things to do, I was never rigid about it. If there was a death in the community on a Monday, I responded. If there was something that needed my attention, I gave it. I have colleagues who are much better at taking time off than I was. One colleague doesn’t answer the phone on their day off. I could never have done that. I felt that I needed to be available to the people I served. The result was that I was not always faithful to the instruction about observing the Sabbath. I sometimes convinced myself that I was too important to take a day off - a form of idolatry as pointed out by the scripture.
Being retired has presented me with a new set of challenges around my behavior on Sundays. For a few more weeks, we are not worshiping with our primary congregation in order to make space for new leadership to emerge. Today is the annual “Gathering In” observance, in which the Sunday School kicks off a new program year, choirs resume their usual schedule, and other activities resume after a summer break. In previous years we would have been very busy on this day, organizing activities, preparing spaces for learning programs, recruiting volunteers, and making sure that everyone is welcomed. Today, however, we are intentionally worshiping with another congregation so that the children can make connections with the new Church School Coordinator. We know that if we were in our home congregation, some of the children would come to us for snacks and look to us for stories. We’ll return soon, but today is a good day to have them turn to others. It does, however, feel really strange to be going to church elsewhere on a Sunday that we would not normally miss.
It leaves me thinking about what it means to observe the Sabbath when I am retired. If Sabbath is about rest and restoration, I spent three days on a sailboat this week. That is a restful activity for me. If it is about making time for prayer and contemplation, I have learned to build that time into every day and not just do so on Sundays. If it is about unplugging from constant contact, I do that in different ways. On Sundays, I participate in a group text that wishes the Peace of Christ. I have no intention of skipping that important connection with other people of faith. If I need a day to unplug from my devices, I’ll choose a different day.
Once one is freed from a simplistic literal interpretation of the words and opens to the challenges of connecting with the meaning behind the words, interpreting scripture and living faith in context is a challenge. A lifetime is all too short to explore all of the meanings available in a few words.
“Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it. (Exodus 20:8-11)
And I haven’t even begun to consider how I honor my father and my mother in the context of my life today.
