Many reading this
grew up with serious sabbath-keeping, remembered best for what you
were not allowed to do. With great relief that has been left behind.
Yet, something continues to niggle. The command to honour the
Sabbath Day and keep it holy unsettles us. We don't believe the “no
fun on Sunday” rule of years past was a good one, but we think that
maybe we're not really being good Christians with what we do with our
Sundays.
So what counts as
genuine sabbath-keeping? What is the Bible on about?
The primary focus is
on a break from the routine of work. If God could work for six days
and stop and rest on the seventh (and get back on the life-giving and
sustaining job again on the eighth), surely so can we. There's a
message here that's no-one's labour is indispensable.
If you have
accumulated resources and have staff or animals working for your
benefit, then the order to rest includes them too. It includes all
living things, and note well that the soil is living, a living –
breathing organism in its own right.
Sabbath-keeping
remains a vital provision to counter the “treadmill”. It is
crucial for well-being.
As an individual our
health depends on it (this working woman knows that well!). The
health of families and community also depends on it. The break from
labour means opportunity to be together with each other, talking,
interacting, taking care of our relationships with each other.
Enjoying each other's company.
Which comes to the
second important focus of sabbath-keeping.
Pause in your work
and savour the day. Just enjoy the day.
Because the word
“enjoy” goes with sabbath-keeping, then the dour rules of old did
not catch the spirit. Yet the concern our ancestors had about simply
enjoying does also have its point.
For it's not about
me, and me having a good time. It's not even about me and mine –
us – having a good time. To honour the day and make it holy means
we're talking about something bigger than me and mine, and deeper
than surface entertainment.
It's time in which
to pause and notice. And that means we find ourselves looking beyond
our own self-managed world. The fact of being alive, the people
around us, all the things we are indeed grateful for. Ourselves
linked in with others and drawn out of our own concerns into interest
and concern for others.
Sabbath-keeping is
when our view is expanded and our focus shifts from self to other.
I think the best
sign that we are keeping sabbath is when our eyes are open and, as a
result, our hearts get opened too.
What do you think?
Rangimarie Peace Shalom
Robyn
