The Sabbath

Here is my message for Sunday. The text was Mark 2:23-3:6Mark 2:23-3:6:

On Monday as we celebrated, or observed is probably a better word, Memorial Day, I read an article by someone who was arguing that we should stop celebrating Memorial Day. His reasoning was that because we don’t really do what the holiday was set aside for, which was to go to cemeteries to honor those who had died in service to their various countries, and so because we are much more separated from those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, we should therefore stop celebrating Memorial Day. Now I will state for fairness that the author argued it should instead be combined with Veteran’s Day, since most people don’t know the difference anyways, and that we should reconsider and rethink all holidays, which could include removing others and possibly adding some new ones. But what struck me, especially in thinking of this message for today, was that he believed that because we didn’t celebrate the right way then we shouldn’t celebrate it at all. That if we just used it for barbequing and watching baseball then we’re doing it wrong and therefore shouldn’t get the day off at all.

And so maybe it’s a stretch to try and connect it to laws that get worked up about the sabbath, but it seemed very similar to me about all the rules that get made up around celebrating, or recognizing, the sabbath. And let’s be honest that all the sabbath rules we tend to think about at the time of Jesus, and how we think they’re a little crazy, and yet we can still do the same thing these days. Most of us remember when there were blue laws to keep us from doing things on Sunday. Even today you may have seen in the news that a stretch of beach in Ocean Grove, New Jersey has just been ordered to be open to public usage on Sunday mornings, which it hasn’t since the mid-19th century. And in one of the irony things, you could use the beach after noon, it was just forbidden in the morning as we’re not going to go overboard on sabbath laws because that would be crazy, right? You can have fun in the afternoon, but don’t you dare try and do it in the morning when you should be in church, although we’ll also conveniently ignore the fact that Sunday is not the sabbath. That’s still Saturday, as we worship on the first day of the week, so even at that we are violating the rules of the sabbath, and we should take that in and of itself as the ability to move beyond the rules in order to make a rest that works for us.

And so, Jesus and the disciples are traveling on the sabbath, and in the story before we are told that they are not fasting, which becomes important, because hunger, or starvation, could be a reason to violate sabbath laws, but they are not, but still begin to pluck heads of grain and eat them. This could be construed, and obviously is by some watching, as violating the sabbath laws because they are now reaping or harvesting which is clearly then doing work on the sabbath. Now it really easy, perhaps too easy, for us to throw mud against others, especially with how we typically see pharisees as being rule makers, who are more concerned about the rules, and punishing those who break them, than with compassion or kindness, as the healing story of the man with the withered hand seems to point out. It’s easy to make those judgments, but as Jesus says, the judgment you use will be the judgment used against you. So, let me give some possible defense for these rules, and it comes from the fact that what scripture tells us is that we are to observe the sabbath and keep it holy, but it doesn’t tell us, or anyone how to do that, and so, as I already said still happens, people tried to come up with rules, and there was lots of debate and speculation about that, and not always in agreement. What sabbath literally means is to “to stop” or “to cease”, and we are given two reasons in scripture why we are to obey the sabbath. One is from the creation story and it’s because God rested on the seventh day of creation. Work six days rest on the seventh. The other reason comes after the Exodus and the people are to practice the sabbath because they were once slaves in Egypt and didn’t control their labor or schedules, and so God has now freed them, and they are then to not just take some control, but also give over control by following God’s injunction, which is also that all their household, including slaves and animals are also to be given this day off. So, part of the understanding of sabbath is clearly about work, but what that means is where all the arguments come into place.

And so, in response to people making accusations about them violating the law of the sabbath, Jesus gives an example that doesn’t really have to do with sabbath, but laws about what you can and can’t do with the bread of the presence which is reserved for the priests. But Ahimelech, the priest, gives David the bread for he and his men to eat as there was no other bread to be had. So, a rule was violated because they were hungry. Maybe not the exact equivalent, but, since the disciples were traveling, if they had asked others for food they might have then had to violate the rules in order to cook for them, or leave them short of food because they couldn’t do more cooking. And thus, the argument says, it’s okay for them to do what they did, because the law should give way to acts of compassion or necessity and I could say a lot more about that as it gets applied within and about Jewish law. But then Jesus says what is at the heart of the matter for today: “the sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath.”

Now one of the ways this has been interpreted has been on the anything goes side, that this means there are no rules whatsoever when it comes to the sabbath, so do whatever you want, including not recognizing the sabbath at all. And I get that interpretation because it seems to overcome all of those who want to try and put restrictions in place, especially restrictions that apply to others. But that sense of permissiveness has to be tempered by the what Jesus says immediately after the fact that the sabbath was made for us, and that is the fact that Jesus is “the Lord of the sabbath.” So that means that Jesus is the one who then says what we can and cannot do, although we don’t really get any more guidance on it, and so I think we have to find the middle of this, sort of the goldilocks spot. Where we recognize the need for sabbath and we take that rest, that we stop, but how we do that is, to a large degree up to us. Because the reality is that what is relaxing and refreshing, or healing and restoring to me, might not work for you.

I spent a large portion of Memorial Day laying around and reading. I had a little less than 6 hours remaining in a book I was reading and I was hoping to finishing it, and I did. That was great for me. But I know plenty of people who would consider that to be torture, right? I’m sure that’s some of you. Not all, but some. And so, what we need to know is that sabbath plays several different roles. One of them is to follow God’s commands, to give time to God, that’s not productive in the sense of regular work, that we are intentional about time. So that we have what is known as Kairos time, or God’s time, and that we are going to put our trust that God will provide. That we won’t go belly up because of one day. And to build on that, it’s also about saying, or admitting, that we are more than what we do, it’s to find that sense of identity that resides in belonging to God, which we’ll come back to again next week. It’s about pushing aside the business and hecticness of life, which allows our souls to catch up with us as we get too far out ahead of ourselves. And then it’s about restoring ourselves. To recreate literally means to re-create. And so, as we think about what we do or don’t do on sabbath, I think that is the key we have to keep in mind. Does what we do promote restoration and renewal, healing and wholeness. I know there are people for whom gardening is incredibly relaxing, who come back from spending hours in the garden, which can be prayerlike, refreshed and relaxed. For me it’s just work, so that is not sabbath activity. And so, let’s be clear it’s not just about not doing your regular job, it’s about stopping those things that are exhausting and draining, that keep us from focusing on the truly important things in life. And I’ll give my own example. I only take one day off a week, but what do I often spend a portion of that day doing? Work around the house. That’s not really sabbath. And that’s where the hard work comes into place.

This is not about using sabbath as a cudgel for yourself, or for others, or for them to do to you. This is about saying that we need time off; God says we need time off, and we get to decide what that is. Although I would strongly encourage you to include things like your phone, or social media, or news bombardment in your sabbath considerations. Find and do those things that bring you excitement, that you are passionate about, the things that get you out of bed in the morning, that you might not otherwise have the time or space to do. And to do the things that promote restoration and renewal, healing and wholeness. We only get one go around at this, and as the cliché says, no one ever says at the end of their life they wish they had worked more. Sabbath is important; rest is important. And it doesn’t have to be Sunday, or Saturday, and if you’re not doing it at all, just carve out a few hours a week to start, and then build up from there. And it doesn’t have to even be all on the same day. Perhaps you simply decide that you’re going to take several hours every day, or you begin to carve out time to sleep and rest more, or do other things that improve our healthy and vitality. Those can be sabbath activities because they can be restorative and renewing, bringing healing and wholeness. We were not made for the sabbath, the sabbath was made for us so that we can find that time to simply be and to know God. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.