"Sabbath" is not a word we hear much these days. Unless, of course we have friends who are Orthodox or Conservative Jews or Seventh Day Adventists or Seventh Day Baptists, or Mennonites or Amish. These folks take the Sabbath pretty literally. Particularly in Orthodox Jewish households, NO WORK is to be done on the Sabbath. No cooking, cleaning, shopping, laundry. Nothing. Not even using electricity. All the food is prepared BEFORE SUNDOWN on Friday so that when the Sabbath begins with a special meal, all work ends until sundown the next day. Of course, that always left me questioning whoever DID clean up that enormous feast after dark! Several years ago a friend told me about orthodox Jewish families who have electronic timers set for all the lights in the home so that no one literally has to "lift a finger" to have light on the sabbath.
Do any of you remember a time when no stores were open on Sundays?… I grew up in Michigan, and during my childhood in our little community, the gas stations, grocery stores and retail shops downtown were closed on Sundays. Couldn’t even get a hamburger at Bud’s Hamburgs across the street from the church I attended! Blue laws enforced Sunday closings.
Sara B. Miller, staff writer at The Christian Science Monitor, wrote in a recent article about new laws regarding Sunday liquor sales (in the Dec. 5, 2003 edition) "Whippings, fines, burnt tongues, severed ears: such were the Puritans' penalties for breaches of the Sabbath. Under the "blue laws" of the 1700s, the punishments could be invoked for simple misdeeds ranging from shuffleboard to skipping church."
According to the collegiate edition of Houghton Mifflin’s The Reader's Companion to American History: "State and local regulations banning various activities on Sundays [we]re called ‘blue laws.’ The origin of the term is uncertain. It has been said variously to have originated in the color of the paper on which a code of laws for the early New Haven, Connecticut, colony was printed or to have derived from the concept of being "true blue" to the law. Whatever the origin, these measures, based on the biblical injunction against working on the Sabbath, have been traced back to fourth-century Rome, when Constantine I, the first Christian emperor, commanded all citizens, except farmers, to rest on Sunday. The first blue law in America was enacted in the Virginia colony in the early 1600s and required church attendance." (Houghton Mifflin’s The Reader's Companion to American History: BLUE LAWS).
Enough of a history lesson, for now at least.
The question I am trying to get to this morning is what does "Sabbath" mean to us in 2004? Anyone willing to share a response?… With our 21st century lives moving faster than ever before, do we find any relevance in using the word or thinking about "sabbath?"
I remember being told in Sunday school many years ago that since God rested on the seventh day of creation, we needed to follow God’s example and do the same. Today, if I close my eyes, I get a great mental picture of God, after having molded the clay that created humanity, stretching, wiping her muddy hands on her apron and saying, "Whew! I’m pretty tired now. That was a much bigger job than I had expected. Better get cleaned up, lie down for awhile and take a little nap…" Since I am no longer a biblical literalist, I have a hard time believing that God did actually REST, but, I like the idea a lot. I like the picture of the Divine One needing a little time out, needing a breather. Because it gives me permission to seek sabbath in the midst of my busyness.
In the scripture from Exodus, we read a stronger mandate to rest. Even if we don’t really believe that God created heaven and earth and all living creatures in a literal seven days, we as people of faith certainly attempt to follow those 10 commandments in our daily lives. "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…" I have to admit, that although I do not like to be told what to do, I LOVE being told not to do ANYTHING! To rest… To pay attention to God…
We cannot ignore the fact that what sabbath means to us depends, in most cases, upon whether or not we are Jewish or Christian. The very day of sabbath was argued. Following Jesus’ resurrection, Christians changed the sabbath from the seventh day of the week, Saturday, to the first day of the week, Sunday, because Sunday was the day that Jesus rose from the dead. Therefore Sunday was MORE HOLY than the seventh day. Note the exceptions of the Seventh Day Adventists and the Seventh Day Baptists that I mentioned earlier; two Christian groups that keep Saturday holy.
Then what does it mean for us to keep the sabbath holy? Spend an hour or two in church? Read holy books, pray? Does it mean to visit sick people? Prepare meals? Sounds like work to me. What about those of us who leave church to go to work – work that requires our punching a time clock on Sunday, whether or NOT it is in a "needed profession" like medicine or public safety? What if I’m going to work, hoping to sell a wedding dress or two on Sunday? What if keeping this job requires that I MUST work on Sunday?
Again, let me ask the question "What meaning does "Sabbath" have for us in a multicultural, capitalistic, urban 21st century society?
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I grew up the oldest of four children who were born in fewer than five years to a mother who was 34 when I was born. She was a "stay-at-home mom." You know that kind of mother. Baked at least once a week, washed floors on her hands and knees, picked fresh fruits and vegetables all summer and canned and froze them so we’d have enough to eat all winter. She often served as the PTA room mother, cub scout den mother, Camp Fire assistant leader, and on and on. Most of the time she never complained. She was a much better woman than I could ever be.
But on occasion, when the four of us were too rowdy for ANY saint to tolerate, she would put her hands on her hips and say – rather loudly as I remember – "All I want right now is a little peace and quiet." A little peace and quiet. Now, perhaps THAT is the definition of Sabbath for the 21st century. A little rest from the terrific pace of our days.
Don’t misunderstand me, please. I LOVE being at church on Sunday. I truly love the fellowship at Wedgewood each week. I love gathering for Sunday School, and even for a 9:30 choir practice! I am always happy to see all of us who come for worship. I miss those who aren’t in church. When many of us eat together following the morning service, I truly experience communion. These times often are my sabbath. Those times when I am present among people I love who also love me, praising and praying, listening and learning, gathered together as Christians who seek to follow Jesus. But is that enough?
I know people for whom digging around in the dirt, making our meditation garden, or their own yards beautiful, is sabbath. Touching warm soil and creating beauty is sabbath. It’s a labor of love. Others find sabbath on the water in a quiet spot angling for that bass or pickerel, or just drifting along reading in the silence of early morning. Some of us find sabbath when we travel, as Marge and Jerry Henderson are doing today, on an extended trip that takes them to Alaska and back by car this summer.
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No question about it. Today we constantly have to make choices that may not be ideal, but are certainly necessary. We shop on Sundays, do homework, pay bills, update resumes, clean out the garage or attic, go to jobs. In Mark’s gospel, Jesus says to the Pharisees who would criticize his disciples for picking grain on the sabbath, "Humanity was not made for the sabbath, but the sabbath was made for humanity." In other words, people need to do what makes sense on in their lives. Don’t be so rigid about adhering to the letter of the law!
Then, how will we find our sabbath – our "peace and quiet?" I cannot answer that particular question for you. Only you can figure it out. But, I ask this question because it is an important one for us to consider. "Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy."
I do have an idea though. I believe that keeping sabbath means being intentional about finding rest for our bodies and spirits on a regular basis no matter what day it is. I believe that sabbath is more an attitude than a physical day that must always be the same. I believe that keeping sabbath must occur regularly, if we are to be whole people of God.
My wish for all of us this week: look inward and find sabbath. Then keep it for yourself – this week and every week. Amen.
