sabbath is something that is rare in our fast-paced, technologically advanced society. given all the means of communication and connectivity we have at our disposal, most americans don't even observe a moment of rest, much less an entire day. and when we do rest, it is often out of the function that it was something for which we worked hard, something we deserved. as lauren points out, when we do rest, the focus is on us pampering ourselves. this purpose, she asserts is diametrically opposed to the purpose of the sabbath, which is a day of rest to honor God. the hebrew bible offers a wealth of information about the sabbath, which i cannot exhaust fully in one measly blog post. instead, i'm going to highlight some of the things that particularly jumped out at me, and offer some of my thoughts on those things.
Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out, (deuteronomy 5:15, niv). the purpose of the Sabbath was to remind the people of Israel that they were once slaves, that at some point in their lives or their ancestors' lives, doing work was part of their bondage. they didn't have a choice to not work. when God brought the people of Israel out of egypt, God ensured that they were no longer going to be enslaved to work. the people of egypt were stripped of their individuality and of their identity, and they were made to simply be laborers. they lived such lives that their value was based on the work of their hands, their efficiency, their productivity. God brought them out of egypt and gave them all new identities as children of God. it makes me sad to think about how many people in our society today are now un-doing what God did back then, how many are re-enslaving themselves to their work, how many are returning to a type of existence where they are defined by their labors, their efficiency and their productivity. we need to practice the sabbath regularly because we need to be constantly reminded that we are more than the work of our hands and what we produce. we are children of God, and we have been delivered from the slavery of work.
the year of jubilee. the year of jubilee is a jewish tradition often associated with the sabbath and the sabbath year (every seven years, Israelites were to give the land a rest). according to leviticus 25, the year of jubilee occurs every 50th year (following seven sabbaths of years). during the year of jubilee, those who had acquired others' ancestral lands were obligated to return them to their original owners and Israelite slaves were to be released and allowed to return to their families. this is my favorite part about the year of jubilee: according to one commentary, "this sabbatical system would have helped to restore social equality by checking the mass accumulation of wealth by a few, providing less fortunate Israelites a way out of permanent servitude, and offering a second chance to debtors at least once in their lifetimes." even back then, God's laws already reflected a concern for economic justice for all and a preference for the less-fortunate.
as christians, why should we care? lauren writes, "for christians, the Sabbath has added dimension: It commemorates not only God's resting from Creation, but also God's Resurrection... 'Christians also consecrate one day out of seven, Sunday, to God, that being the day on which Christ rose from the dead, and the Holy Spirit was poured out.'"
the idea of the sabbath was borne out of the simple idea that God rested after creating, so the modern-day practice of the sabbath, according to lauren, boils down to not creating. in her discussion of the sabbath, lauren quotes a Hasidic jew's best explanation of what inaction and lack of creation during the sabbath means:
"when we don't operate machines, or pick flowers, or pluck fish from the sea... when we cease interfering in the world, we are acknowledging that it is God's world."
my prayer is that we take some time, at least once a week, to stop interfering in the world, and simply acknowledge that all of Creation is God's.
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