sermon excerpts: "Sabbath Past: A Historic Commandment"

Genesis 2: 1-3; Exodus 20: 8-11

Why does it take so much effort for our day and age to remember the Sabbath? We can blame Sunday shopping, sports practices, the NFL, the multiverse of the Internet, or the moral decay of the social fabric, but when it comes right down to it, Sabbath is about choice. We decide what we do with our time and it speaks volumes about us.

If we look to the original practitioners of Sabbath, those of the Jewish faith, we see that to observe Sabbath takes a lot of work. No fires could be lit, no food prepared, no money spent. Anything not done in time, was left undone. Recreation, feasting, worship, delight in creation, in one another (especially blessed is the act of love-making which carries with it a double blessing in the Bible). This was to be time spent with family and friends.

However, as a result of 16th century religious reform, Sabbath practices became more obsessed with things not to do. In an effort to focus on the holy and sanctified, all that was ordinary and profane was prohibited. So we have the stories of children unable to play on Sunday, of somber and dour days of sitting still and behaving.

The true spirit of Sabbath was rest and nurture for our spirits, for God’s creation which includes the greater human family. So we are called to abstain from pursuits that would distract us from such a focus like commerce, work, worry, even sadness and mourning. These admonitions should not overshadow the fact that the Sabbath is a delight.

Rabbi Abraham Heschel refers to Jewish scholarship when he imagines God speaking to us with the instructions:
Call the Sabbath a delight: a delight to the soul and a delight to the body. Since there are so many acts which one must abstain from doing on the seventh day, “you might think I have given you the Sabbath for your displeasure; I have surely given you the Sabbath for your pleasure.” To sanctify the seventh day does not mean: Thou shalt mortify thyself, but on the contrary: Thou shalt sanctify it with all thy heart with all they soul and with all thy senses. “Sanctify the Sabbath by choice meals, by beautiful garments; delight your soul with pleasure and I will reward you for this very pleasure." (The Sabbath. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2005. pp 18-19)

Admittedly, Sabbath is a little understood or appreciated phenomenon in our society of high achievers and workaholics. It begins at the beginning, in the first days of existence, when time and space first began. After all the work of creation had been set into motion, (whether by literal creationistic powers or by virtue of a theoretical Big Bang is not important to me), after 6 days of labour, God rested. It was to be a holy time, a holy day, a recognition of our spiritual need for rest and rejuvenation.

Something else happened: God blesses Day 7. This does not happen for the other days of the week. Yes, God approves of what was created on those days, blessing humanity, and the living creatures of all kinds. God saw that all of it was good, but makes a point of blessing and hallowing the seventh day itself.

Again from, Rabbi Heschel (p. 20): Creation was not “finished” after 6 days of labour. Sure, there was light and land, flora and fauna, men and women, but the universe was missing something. The verse states, “on the seventh day God completed creation. So what was missing? Menuha. We simply translate it as “rest” but like so many rich Hebrew words, it means that much more. “Tranquility, serenity, peace and repose.” In later times, it came to mean “life in the world to come; eternal life”.

The fact that God gets to Day 7 and says, “There we go! I’m done; this is good enough. Time for a break.” I’m sure it would have been tempting for God to fidget and fuss with the creation that took so much time. I mean it would be something that you want to get right. What about tilting the earth’s axis another half-degree? Or setting the moon a kilometer closer? Why not make the platypus look more natural?

I’m one who is always fiddling with my work – what about changing the phrasing of this sentence, or moving this point over here? Especially when I’m working with a multi-media presentation with graphics and slides, if I don’t watch myself hours could go by with me fretting about colour and size of font or placement of an image.

This Sabbath lesson bears remembering during the upcoming season of Church annual meetings and seeking people to sit on committees, to take leadership roles and engage in the work of the church. It would be unfortunate if being part of a community of worship became a chore and a source of resentment rather than inspiration and nurture. Are there places where we can take a break and say, “that’s good enough for now”?

I see elements of Sabbath in what we do here: gathering of community, shared company in worship and fellowship over refreshments. Yet, it doesn’t seem to connect with the wider population. While this maybe a symptom of our Sabbath-less society, we’ve also admit that church could do to be more appealing to our spirits.

... Once more from Rabbi Heschel (p. 76): “In the language of the Bible the world was brought into being in the six days of creation, yet its survival depends upon the holiness of the seventh day. Great are the laws that govern the processes of nature. Yet without holiness there would be neither greatness nor nature.” Amen.