Proper 22 A

Oct. 5, 2008
The Rev. Susan J. Latimer

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

Perhaps the most radical of the 10 commandments for our time is the commandment for God’s people to keep the Sabbath. Misunderstood, mis-used, and then all but forgotten, except by our Jewish brothers and sisters, Sabbath-keeping may be the least-observed of all the commandments by modern Christians, and one of the most difficult to begin observing.

Why is that? Wayne Muller says it is because we have lost the natural rhythm between work and rest in our society. Barbara Brown Taylor says: “that is because Sabbath involves pleasure, rest, freedom, and slowness, none of which comes naturally to North Americans. Most of us are so sold on speed, so invested in productivity, so convinced that multi-tasking is the way of life that stopping for one whole day can feel at first like a kind of death” ( Sabbath Resistance - Christian Century May 31, 2005 )

Yet it is Life, not Death, that God promises us when we keep the Sabbath.

I could spend an entire sermon giving you examples of what Sabbath is not – it is not grim, no-fun, or simply a bunch of “thou shalt nots”, although some of you may have grown up thinking that because of the way Sabbath was done in your family, or church, or community. I remember my Dad telling me that in his family he was not allowed to go to the movies or play cards on Sundays, even though his family did not regularly go to church. This kind of practice gave rise to the commonly held idea of Sabbath as a puritanical, harsh, and even ridiculous practice that had no place in our modern life.
Sabbath involves saying “No” to some things in order to say “Yes” to God, and the abundant, joyful life that God wants for all of us.

The reason that it is so counter-culural, so radical, so difficult to do, is that the things we are to say no to for an entire day each week are things that have become idols to our society: Work, Commerce, and Worry. If you question whether these have become idols, look at the news of the last two months or so. The entire nation is focused on the stock market, the economy, and the worries that surround them. If we were ever in need of a recovery of Sabbath, now is the time!!

When we keep the Sabbath, we set aside time to be free from our normal work and busyness. Most of us do not yet set aside an entire day. That is something that usually has to be worked towards a little at a time, like tithing. If we are not giving 10 percent of our income to God’s work, but instead giving 4 percent, then perhaps we can give 6 percent this year. If our only Sabbath time is Sunday morning worship, perhaps we can begin to include an hour before and after worship as well. This time helps us to put life in perspective. Remembering to focus on God at least one day a week, helps us to trust God.

Sabbath means time for the really important things – family, friends, a walk in the country, playing with children, animals, or even having much-needed solitude. It is a way of seeing, a way of living, a holy discipline, a radical choice for life. Sabbath is about relationships, connections. It is about Being instead of Doing. It is about taking our rightful places as stewards of God’s Creation, not Owners. It is about trusting in God’s promises and God’s power.

“To act as if the world cannot get along without our work for one day in seven is a startling display of pride that denies the sufficiency of our generous Maker. “ ( Dorothy Bass, Keeping Sabbath.)

Sabbath time is Kairos time – God’s time – which is qualitatively different from Chronos time – looking at our watches constantly, working on deadlines and always feeling like we are late. In Kairos time, if we can relax into it, we are given the gift of timelessness. Think of the last time that you lost track of time when you were doing something that you loved – walking in nature, sitting by the fire, reading a good book, talking with a friend, eating a meal with friends.
Sabbath memories of Kairos time might include Sunday dinner at your grandparent’s house, long summer days when you were a child, family vacations, time with friends. One of my favorites is the Day After Christmas. It is one of the few days in the year when I am not tempted to “DO” anything. There are always plenty of really good leftovers, family and friends around and we can just enjoy being together.

But Sabbath is not only about holiness. It is also radical because of its insistence on Social Justice. When an entire community practices Sabbath, it is “not only about rest but also about resistance. “ BBT reminds us that “Each time it appears in Torah, the commandment limits the exploitation of others as well as the exhaustion of the self. When you stop working, so do your children, your animals, and your employees, even if they do not believe in your God. You believe in your God, so they get the day off.
By interrupting our economically sanctioned social order every week, Sabbath suspends our subtle and not so subtle ways of dominating one another on a regular basis.

All of Creation is included in this rhythm of work and rest - even the land is included – every seventh year the fields are to lie fallow.

The possibilities of Sabbath for healing our world give hope in the midst of anxious times. All we have to do is stop. Stop working, stop buying things, stop worrying, for one day each week. Then start – start resting, thanking God, playing with family and friends, delighting in the goodness of God’s Creation. I can promise you that if you do this, your entire life will be transformed. BBT, one of the most driven priests I have ever met, says, “Sabbath is no longer a good idea or even a spiritual discipline for me. It is an experience of divine love that swamps both body and soul. It is the weekly practice of eternal life…”

Finally, it is not enough for us to take our Sabbath – although we must start there – we must see that the gift of Sabbath extends to the whole world.

We must also work on the other six days for a more just society, so that all people have the opportunity for meaningful work – and so that no one has to work seven days a week in order to live. We must work for the proper use of Creation – and stop the exploitation and destruction of God’s good creation.

And we cannot do this on our own steam, without God’s help. That may be the most powerful message of the Sabbath for us – to trust that God is working while we rest in God.

Whatever is foreseen in joy
Must be lived from day to day.
Visiton held open in the dark
By our ten thousand days of work.
Harvest will fill the barn; for that
The hand must ache, the face must sweat.
And yet no leaf or grain is filled
By work of ours; the field is tilled
And left to grace. That we may reap,
Great work is done while we’re asleep.
When we work well, a Sabbath mood
Rests on our day, and finds it good.

( Wendell Berry, Sabbaths ).