But How Does Sabbath Work?

I was thinking yesterday morning about common responses to conversation about Sabbath.  Mostly what I hear falls into two categories:

1) A concern for the legalism that historically adhered itself to Sabbath practice.  The stories I've heard of people confessing that their family was considered suspect because they were allowed to go swimming on the Sabbath.  But, they hasten to add, we weren't allowed to splash.  To this I say: "what the what?"

What was Sabbath/Sunday like in your family of origin?  

What was good? What was difficult or just plain bizarre?

2) The other response I get is a general agreement that the idea of resting, being refreshed, taking time to re-orient ourselves in a dizzying and confusing world sounds like a good idea.  But it is quickly followed up with something along the lines of: 

"But for my family, right now.  It's impossible."

"There is no way with the demands of my work right now."

I don't pretend that everyone's life is as dope as mine (yeah, that's right. I just said "dope." Deal.) And I can't speak to the life situation of those in the thick of child-rearing. Or high-power/high-stakes/high-pressure employment.  It's possible I just haven't been properly interculturated to DC living yet. Maybe 24 hours of extra sleep, easy hospitality, hikes in the woods and all the rest of it is unrealistic.

If this is the relationship you have toward Sabbath, I need to recommend an amazing book to you: Sabbath in the Suburbs: A Family's Experiment with Holy Time by MaryAnn McKibben Dana. (order it on Amazon. Right now. Reverend's orders.) She is a mom of three. A pastor. And living in a dual-career marriage.  Oh yeah, and she lives in the Metro DC area.  So she DOES know what it's like to be in the thick of child-rearing. To live the DC lifestyle and to juggle vocational aspirations.  Her book is joyful, thoughtful, playful & realistic.  (She'll even teach you how to "cheat" on your Sabbath practices with handy tips called "Sabbath Hacks" in each chapter.)

So maybe you can't do 24 hours every week.  

But what could you be doing to honor time as God's gift to you?   

* One family (this is from MaryAnn's book, I think) decided that once a week they were all going to walk the dog together.  That was their Sabbath hour.

* One couple (Linford & Karen Detweiler, if any of you know them) tell the story of how, at a crucial moment in their marriage, they would put a bottle of wine on the Table every night with two glasses.  And they would sit and talk until the bottle was empty.  This practice restored them to each other.

* Limits on technology?  I will not answer e-mail between 11pm & 9am.  I'm not that important.  And I'm a pastor so it'd be easy for me to make the case that I AM that important.  But I'm not.

* What about Sabbath and our relationship to food?  Love to cook but never have time? One night a week, buy the ingredients, chop, saute and delight in God's good creation.  Hate to cook but have to feed the kids everyday?  Sabbath can be as simple as ordering in pizza -- really good pizza. Not cardboard with rubbery cheese & funky red sauce.

How is your life regularly out of balance?  And how can God's gift of time bring that out-of-wackness back into the goodness of Christ's Kingdom?

What are Sabbath practices YOU have heard of/tried/might be willing to try?

...But I Digress: Is Sabbath a Justice Issue?

(It seems likely this will be a recurring kind of blog post.  As I dive deep into a text or an idea each week, there are inevitably tangents I discover that are well worth sharing but unlikely to become part of a 20-minute sermon on Sunday mornings.  So perhaps I'll throw them up here [pun possibly intended] to see if it is a conversation worth having in another format.)

So, Is Sabbath a Justice Issue?

This afternoon, as I'm hunkered down at home surrounded by books about Sabbath, a woman I've met before rings my doorbell to see if there's any way I can help her out with money for baby formula.  I know from limited experience with her that she has 4 kids, works two jobs and still regularly falls short on basics like gas, food, etc.

I told her that we have deacons at the church on Sundays who can help her with her request.  She seemed disappointed but understanding and I was satisfied that I'd held the party-line (a party-line I believe in, by the way.)  I even invited her to the potluck at church on Sunday, I thought, straining my elbow to pat my own back, as I shut the door behind me.

I sat back down amid my Sabbath books and it hit me -- how the heck do I know she doesn't work on Sundays?

Most of us work -- at least in part -- because we have financial obligations to meet.  For some that means funds for elite prep school for the kids or a car that won't overheat in DC traffic or a nest egg suitable for early retirement.  But for others "financial obligation" is far more rudimentary. How many people in this country (and LORD have mercy if we extend this thought globally) work at least two jobs or excessive hours and still don't have enough to make rent, pay for health care, groceries, transportation, let alone anything that would give them the whatever-it-is that will help them take a step forward?

We don't live in a world that values everybody's time equally (If time is money, then I submit for evidence the salary of a public school teacher and the salary of the president of the United States.  Oh, and the salary of the stay-at-home parent, come to that.)

Should I just end my sermon about the difficulty and importance of celebrating Sabbath with a giant hashtag:
#firstworldproblems   or
#invisibleprivilege

Sabbath teaches us that time does not own us.  Likewise, we do not own time. We do not make/create/waste time as we are fond of saying.  Sabbath teaches us, as the Psalmist wrote: "My times are in Your hands."  God owns time.  And God gives us time, held in trust with the expectation that we will steward this resource, along with all others, as our participation in the Kingdom of God.  The Sabbath is a Transforming Time because it re-orients us to God's Kingdom.  Then, as God's Kingdom People, we are sent into the world to engage in the work of Transforming Time (see what I did there?)

In the Kingdom of God, time -- not simply our own but everyone's time -- belongs to God.  And is intended to serve eternal purposes (six days & on the seventh day.)  If we believe this, then shouldn't we be advocating our brains out for things like: fair labor practices, living wages, generous family leave policies. We should know the practices of the companies we frequent in terms of the hours they require and the benefits they provide.  If you are a Democrat, you should lobby congress.  If you are a Republican, you should take it to the CEO.  I don't much care except for this: If you are a Christian, you should do something.  

Because, if time is sacred,

then EVERYBODY's time is sacred.

And Sabbath becomes a Justice Issue.

New Testament Sabbath

The New Testament text for Sunday is: Luke 13:10-17, which, after yesterday's Old Testament lesson, should provoke some questions for the saavy reader.  Chief among them:

* Was the Synagogue Leader wrong in his condemnation of Jesus?  Or, more accurately, his condemnation of the people who would come to the Synagogue on the Sabbath to request a miracle?

* Also, if we begin with the premise that Jesus did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it, in what way was his action in this case a fulfillment of Sabbath?

* What is the A.D. meaning/purpose of Sabbath?

Okay, I've got the ball rolling, now check out the text for yourselves (again, some of my language notations included below) and let me know what questions YOU have.

 ¹⁰ On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues,¹¹ and a woman was there who had been crippled (root word: anesthesia! Weakened, incapacity, timidity, frail, ill, incapacitated, limited)
by a spirit (same word: Holy Spirit, evil spirit, way of being/attitude/disposition) for eighteen years.She was bent over (bowed down) and could not (did not have power) straighten up (lift herself) at all.
¹² When Jesus saw (paid attention) her, he called her forward (addressed her) and said to her, “Woman, you are set free (perfect passive: released, pardoned, sent away) from your infirmity (root word: anesthesia! Weakened, incapacity, timidity, frail, ill, incapacitated, limited).”
¹³ Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up (passive voice: was built upright, restored, set straight, rebuilt) and praised (honored, glorified) God.
¹⁴ Indignant (grieved, incensed, offended, irate) because Jesus had healed (cured, served) on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, “There are six days for work (labor, expended effort, business, performance.) So come and be healed (cured, served) on those days, not on the Sabbath.”
¹⁵ The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites (pretenders, insincere)!
Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie (same root word as “set free” release) his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water?
¹⁶ Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound (tied, imprisoned, compelled, restricted, prohibited, made sick, kept a slave) for eighteen long years,
(Is it not necessary for her to) be set free (perfect passive: released, pardoned, sent away) on the Sabbath day from what bound (the bond, fetters, imprisonment, incapacity, illness) her?”
¹⁷ When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated (put to shame, disgraced), but the people were delighted (rejoiced, were glad) with all the wonderful (splendid, radiant) things he was doing. 

Old Testament Sabbath

The Old Testament Text for this Sunday is Exodus 31:12-18.  This comes at the end of Moses' trip up Mt. Sinai.  In fact, this is God's last spoken communication to Moses before sending him back down the mountain into the devolved chaos of the Israelites' unsanctioned Festival of the Golden Calf (funnel cakes and carnival games for the kiddies.  Come one! Come all!)

It strikes me that God's last word to Moses is a commandment to rest & remember, a commandment with sobering consequences for disobedience.  But how many of us treat the Sabbath as the "cute" commandment -- like 9 commandments and 1 suggestion (for those who are less hearty, less important, less than...)?

I don't think you can read this text and come to the conclusion that God didn't really mean it with this one.  That Sabbath is optional in some way.  Or available if you need it but otherwise, off you go on your merry way.

What follows is some of my work in the original text (and in the Greek, which is easier for me than Hebrew).  Is there anything here -- a word, phrase or idea -- that piques your curiousity? You may as well say so now. Otherwise, I'm just going to end up preaching the sermon I think is interested and you'll be like, "What? No. That's not what I wanted to know about.  That's not helpful at all."  Well, listen up people, if you don't register your vote here, I don't want to hear it on Sunday! ;-)

¹² Then the Lord said (promised, declared) to Moses,

¹³ “Say (imperative) to the Israelites,

‘(Above all) You must observe (keep, guard, be careful, protect, obey, see, witness, experience, visit, perceive; also imperative) my Sabbaths.

This will be a sign (banner, standard, flag, miracle, wonder, mighty act) between me and you for the generations to come,

so you may know (find out, experience, acknowledge, choose, know “in the Biblical sense,” perceive, learn) that I am the Lord,

who makes you holy. (sanctify, consecrate, dedicate, hallows you.)

¹⁴ “ ‘Observe (guard, keep, watch, be careful of, defend) the Sabbath,

because it is holy (sanctuary, holy object, as distinct from corrupt & ordinary, “temple in time”) to you.

Anyone who desecrates (defiles, profanes, treats with contempt, pollute) it

must be put to death (die, put to death, murdered, mortified);

whoever does any work (make, create, engage in money matters, cause another to work, execute, perform, build, prepare) on that day

must be cut off (stopped, ruined, failed) from his people.

¹⁵ For six days, work (same as above) is to be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest (consecrated observance of rest, holy repose),

holy (sanctuary, holy object, as distinct from corrupt & ordinary, “temple in time”) to the Lord.

Whoever does any work (see above) on the Sabbath day must be put to death (see above).

¹⁶ The Israelites are to observe (keep, guard, be careful, protect, obey, see, witness, experience, visit, perceive; also imperative) the Sabbath,

celebrating (making, observing, fashioning, cause, bring about, execute, build, perform) it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant (pledge, promise, marriage, will, testament, treaty.)

¹⁷ It will be a sign (banner, standard, flag, miracle, wonder, mighty act)  between me and the Israelites forever,

for in six days the Lord made (make, create, engage in money matters, cause another to work, execute, perform, build, prepare) the heavens and the earth,

and on the seventh day he abstained (stopped, was quiet, kept the Sabbath, ceased, left off) from work and rested (was refreshed, passive voice).’ ”

¹⁸ When the Lord finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai,

he gave (appointed him, charged him with valuables) him the two tablets of the Testimony,

the tablets of stone inscribed (written, engraved) by the finger of God.

Six Days...On the Seventh Day.

This Sunday we began a three-week series called Transformed.

We are God's Transformed People.  As God's Transformed People, then, we expect to be transformed and to be transforming in a regular, constant fashion.

God provides for us:
* Transforming Time (Sabbath)
* Transforming Place (Hospitality)
* Transforming Space (ReCreation)

And we engage in the practices of:
* Transforming Time (Sabbath)
* Transforming Place (Hospitality)
* Transforming Space (ReCreation)


At the conclusion of Sunday's service, our Call to Confession was a litany written by Blu Greenberg. And we encouraged people to write their own "Six Days...On the Seventh Day" application:

Six days shall you be a workaholic;
On the seventh day, shall you join the serene company of human beings.

Six days shall you take orders from your boss;
On the seventh day, shall you be master/mistress of your own life.

Six days shall you toil in the market;
On the seventh day, shall you detach from money matters.

Six days shall you create, drive, invent, push;
On the seventh day, shall you reflect.

Six days shall you be the perfect success;
On the seventh day, shall you remember that not everything is in your power.

Six days shall you be a miserable failure;
On the seventh day, shall you be on top of the world.

Six days shall you enjoy the blessings of work;
On the seventh day, shall you understand that being is as important as doing.

-Blu Greenberg

If you didn't get a chance to add your own thoughts, that's what the comment section is for on this blog post!  

Also, I had one friend mention to me that she didn't think this was "very Reformed."  Shouldn't we always be about the business of the Kingdom of God? What need have we of one day different/distinct from all others? A fair point! What do you think?   

"Yes! And .." Stories

Yesterday, I read this from II Corinthians 1:

"For the Son of God, Jesus Christ. . .was not 'Yes' and 'No' but in him it has always been 'Yes.' For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ. And so through him the 'Amen' is spoken by us to the glory of God."

Of course, this was a reminder of last Sunday's sermon -- of God who says "Yes! And ..." to us in Christ. Of God who allows the Church to respond to her calling with "Yes! And ..."  And of each one of us who likely has a story of "Yes! And ..." to share.  I'd love to hear them.

For now, I'll share mine with you.  I recently updated my cover photo for Facebook.

 On the Saturday morning before my Installation at DC CRC, Mary & I went for a wander.  And, as two God-nerds are likely to do, we wandered up to the National Cathedral.  Leaving by way of the Bishop's Garden, I explained how two summers ago I vacationed in the big cities of the East Coast.  On that trip, I visited the Cathedral for the first time.  On a glorious June afternoon, I spent a couple hours on this bench in prayer and contemplation.

Actually, I went back in my journal and found what I wrote that day:

Children's laughter-filled games in the sprinkler. A quiet green lawn. A moment of God's presence manifest. Grace on offer. For me. For me who is slowed down to hear and listen and to be. Held in the tenderness of God's breath gentle on my skin.  I have little more to write. This is prayer that cannot be measured in words.  "Ubi caritas et amor. Deus ibi est." (where there is charity and love, God is present there.)

After two years in ministry, I had the "Yes!" of my vocation squared away. I wouldn't have said so at the time but I was longing for an "And ..." There was something more. Something else. Something I was missing. Something of God's presence come alive to me on that bench.

To come back to that same bench 16 months later and realize I am now living out God's "Yes! And ..." was humbling and beautiful and God's presence come alive to me all over again.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what are your "Yes! And ..." stories?  Where have you seen God go beyond necessary provision into the realm of reckless blessing? Or maybe your story is one of waiting, as mine was, with a Yes but no "and" anywhere to be found.

St. Lesslie

So you know how can hear about someone, all your friends talk about them & you kind-of reckon that you'd get along if you ever met. Such has been my relationship with Lesslie Newbigin ... until last night.

Lesslie Newbigin is a stalwart of Christian mission and ecclesiology.  Since both of those themes resonate loudly through the church's current "missional" impulse, you can appreciate how I felt I knew him even before picking up a small work, Is Christ Divided? A Plea for Christian Unity in a Revolutionary Age, that was left in my new church office by my predecessor.

The title (well, that and the fact that it was 40 pages & I was mighty sleepy) spoke to me, especially in advance of our Election Day Communion effort next Tuesday. The pastors who initiated this effort had hoped for 300 participating churches.  So far, there are 700 and more joining by the day.  Why would this gesture be met with such overwhelming, positive response? What is it we are hungry for, after all?

"In the middle of this world God has set His church as His witness.  He expects His Church to be recognizable as His family. He expects that the glory which He gave to His Son, and which has been given to us, will be visible to the world in the common life of a redeemed brotherhood. He expects that the world will be able to recognize that the Church is the place where His love is actually at work drawing together into one men every sort and kind." -Lesslie Newbigin

He goes on to tell of his missionary service, preaching in remote villages of Southern India.  He says that the Christians there would meet inside the church building but then would gather all the other villagers eager to hear Newbigin's message. As he preached out from the church onto the streets and sidewalks, he always felt keenly aware that, if the people inside the church weren't living lives shaped by the Gospel he was preaching, his words would inevitably fall flat as people glanced over his shoulder, into the church thinking, "But that is the most mean-spirited woman in the village." Or, "That man regularly swindles us at the marketplace."

We needn't buy a plane ticket to engage missions in this day and age.  We are all quite proximate to one another now.  But proximity itself has not bred unity, otherwise why would virtues like tolerance and understanding need to be taught?  For many, this effort can feel a bit mired.  It's all well and good to say something along the lines of "let's focus on the essentials that unite us," until we realize that we cannot even properly manufacture that list without argumentation and factions and prejudices.  

"How can the Church give to the world the message the Jesus is able to draw all men to Himself, while it continues to say, 'Nevertheless, Jesus is not able to draw us who bear His name together'? How will the world believe a message which we do not appear to believe ourselves?" -Lesslie Newbigin

As I read this, I understood why Election Day Communion felt like the right step for me to take.  As I proposed it to Church Council and others, I heard echoes of Newbigin's refrain in their responses as well.  Let's be a counter-witness.  Certainly not on the strength of our own charity toward one another.  Certainly not on some saccharine ideal of humans tending toward the good.  Let us reach out to one another, fumbling and incoherent as these efforts may regularly be, because we cannot live with the way things are.  And we long for the day when Christ himself will put all things to rights.  In the meantime,

"None of us knows exactly what we ought to do, exactly what kind of unity He wants for us...But we do know - unless we shut our eyes -- that these divisions are contrary to His will, and that we ought to repent of them and turn together to Him." - Lesslie Newbigin

On All Saint's Day, I am grateful to celebrate the faithful legacy of Lesslie Newbigin. I look forward to enacting not only his ideas but also the words of Scripture itself:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith ...