Why Sabbath Matters

We’ve all heard the studies and statistics. Rest and relaxation are crucial to a healthy and productive life. Sleep can impact memory, metabolism, immune systems, and can even inspire creativity! Moreover, rest is necessary for a healthy life. A vacation produces the same benefits as sleep, and also increases productivity. Taking time off reduces likelihood of burnout and brings new perspectives on work and daily life.

Rest is also a spiritual discipline. Sabbath is a day of rest, observed every week, for intentional relaxation, renewal, and growing in relationship with God. The concept of Sabbath is grounded in two solid Biblical concepts. The first is creation: God made the universe in six days, and on the seventh day, God rested. If rest was important for God, then it is also important for us. The second Biblical reason for Sabbath is gratitude for God’s work in our lives and respect for God’s authority.

We rest because God rested. And we rest because God freed us from slavery and gave us the luxury of time off of work.

Christians sometimes lament the secularization of our day of rest and worship. You may remember a time when stores were not open on Sundays, when there were no sports tournaments or liquor sales on the first day of the week, when no one had to work.

Though, let me clue you in on something. As I pastor, I can assure you, there have always been people working on Sundays.

And it’s not just church professionals who work on Sunday. Police officers and firefighters have always worked on Sundays. Praise God! I would hate for my house to burn down because it caught fire on a Sunday instead of a Monday. Health care professionals have always worked on Sundays. Even when clinics aren’t open, emergency rooms are. Nursing homes are.

And forget rest from professional endeavors – if your Sunday routine growing up was going to church and coming home to a wonderful meal that the whole family shared together – who made that meal? Who did the dishes? It is not restful for most of us to prepare a meal for a dozen of our closest loved ones! Someone in the family had to work very hard in order for the rest of the family to have a day off.

Sundays have traditionally been a day of rest for Christians. But there have always been people who work on Sundays. So, we have a paradox: commandment to keep the Sabbath, but the reality of daily life that requires some of us to work on what should be our day off.

How to resolve the paradox? Here’s what I think.

First, the day on which you observe the Sabbath is less important than the fact of observing it. If you work every Sunday, turn Fridays or Mondays into your Sabbath. Pick a day of the week, and set that day aside for no work to be done.

Second, observe the Sabbath in ways that draw you closer to God. Yes, join a community for worship every week. And also, get some fresh air. Find God in nature. Spend time with family or friends who show you God’s unconditional love. Read or meditate or do whatever draws you into meaningful relationship with your creator.

First – take a day of rest.

Second – fill that day only with things that help you know God more deeply.

It’s tempting to work on our day off – catch up on email, run just a few errands, schedule an appointment. Don’t do it. The way to emulate God, to show gratitude to God, and to follow God’s commands, is to take a day of rest. Every week.

The rewards are monumental.

If you stop trampling the Sabbath,

    stop doing whatever you want on my holy day,

    and consider the Sabbath a delight,

    sacred to the Lord, honored…

then you will take delight in the Lord.

    I will let you ride on the heights of the earth;

    I will sustain you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob.

    The mouth of the Lord has spoken.

(Isaiah 58:13-14 NRSV)

Take a day of rest. Use it to grow closer to God. And God promises to be there in your busy days and in your restful days, for all eternity.

For a wonderful message on Sabbath, rest, and self-care, see this message by the Rev. Kanyere Eaton: God is not glorified by your chronic exhaustion 

What is Genuine Worship?

The first chapter of the book of Isaiah echoes a familiar tune, sung by the prophets of Israel and Judah throughout history. We hear the same theme from Amos and Micah. It echoes in the ministry of Jesus. The same tune is sung by modern-day prophets like Dorothy Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. The message is this:

God considers your worship to be meaningless, unless it is followed up by acts of justice. Don’t bother praying to God unless you’re also willing to put those prayers into action.

Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth;

for the Lord has spoken:

Trample my courts no more;

bringing offerings is futile;

incense is an abomination to me.

New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation—

I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.

Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates;

they have become a burden to me,

I am weary of bearing them.

Cease to do evil,

learn to do good;

seek justice,

rescue the oppressed,

defend the orphan,

plead for the widow.

            (Isaiah 1:2a, 12c-14, 16c-17 NRSV)

God hears plenty of praying from people who have a half-hearted faith. Those prayers are vanity, worthless, a chasing after the wind. When you come to weekly worship, but consider your duty to God complete once worship is over, God sees through your façade and knows that you could do so much more to help make the world a better place. And that so much more is what God really wants you to spend your time doing.

Worship is good. But worship cannot feed the hungry, care for the orphan, or liberate the oppressed. God wants – even expects – that faithful people will do whatever it takes to make sure that all people are cared for.

Cease to do evil and learn to do good. Seek justice. 

Really, go do it.

That’s the encouragement of Isaiah today. Don’t just pray for justice in the world, but seek it out, help to create it.

It is easy for us to hear these words, to become inspired, and to have the best of intentions, but then get stuck because we have no idea how to follow up.

Right?

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Isaiah doesn’t tell us today that we have to stop all of the world’s injustice. Such a command would be impractical and overwhelming. Isaiah simply tells us that, as far as it lies within our ability to do so, we are to seek justice. Rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow. In other words, do everything that we can to help those who have less power in society than we do. That’s what justice means to Isaiah… and to Amos, to Micah, to Jesus, and to modern-day prophets.

           

Caring for the widow and the orphan is a kind of Old Testament shorthand for helping the underprivileged people in society. A widow in the ancient world could only make a living by begging or becoming a prostitute. Widows were a class of people who really needed extra support. Orphans didn’t have anyone to feed or house them when they were growing up, or to set them up with a spouse or an apprenticeship for a career. Orphans started life with all the cards stacked against them.

So caring for the widows and the orphans was the way that the prophets humanized the problems of society – everyone knew at least one widow or one orphan. So care for that person. And then work out from there to care for all oppressed people in the world!

We can do the same. Find someone who has less power in society that you do, and care for that person. If every person in the world did this, eventually we would be caring for all the oppressed people in the world!