Remember the Sabbath Day

A Message From Keith A. Russell, Editor-in-Chief

Remember the Sabbath Day

Dear Readers:

This issue of The Living Pulpit examines a rather complicated but important topic for contemporary preaching. We are exploring the meaning of Sabbath. What does it mean to keep the Sabbath? How do we understand the tradition of Sabbath as received through the Torah and what implications are there for preaching from within the Christian tradition? Does the exploration of Sabbath-keeping confront us with issues of rest and re-creation? How do we understand rest and re-creation in our contemporary context? What is the relationship between the contemporary emphasis on leisure and the biblical notions of rest? How do we understand the Sabbath in relationship to larger structural problems in society regarding inequality of wealth and resources around the world? Do we in the West dare speak of Sabbath, given our policies of exploitation of both labor and natural resources in other parts of the world?

This quarter's issue is a rich and varied conversation about these questions and others. Partners in the conversation include Jews as well as Christians, theologians as well as pastors and laity as well as clergy. I am intrigued by the fact that many of the writers for this issue are women. More women than men responded to the invitation to write on this theme. I am not entirely sure what this means, but I am fascinated by the response. Are women less likely to suffer from the workaholism that characterizes many males in this culture (particularly in the church) and, therefore, more interested in the topic of Sabbath? What other factors might be at play?

I am sure that it is dangerous to make generalizations such as the one suggested above, but as a male with workaholic tendencies, I am fascinated by who responded to the invitation to write for this issue. I am also grateful to those who have written on this theme because I have been confronted by concerns which are not easy for me to consider and I have been helped to review the nature of my own preaching as regards this central biblical teaching. I confess an absence of concentration and consideration of Sabbath-keeping in both my teaching and preaching. I have been encouraged to consider my own lifestyle and work/rest ethic as a result of editing this issue.

Perhaps you will experience similar questions and concerns as you read through our journal. I hope that some ferment will be generated in your thinking. This issue might be particularly relevant for use in adult classes within the life of the church and synagogue. There is a suggested outline included in this issue on how to use The Living Pulpit in the life of congregations. I hope that you find this new feature helpful.

As always, we look forward to hearing from readers. If you have questions, suggestions, or reactions, please share them with us. We hope this varied presentation on the theme of Sabbath will challenge, comfort and help you.

Sincerely yours,^

Keith A. Russell Editor-in-Chief

THE LIVING PULPIT ·

BOARD OF TRUSTEES Keith A. Russell, Chair David H.C. Read, Chair Emeritus Walter J. Burghardt, S.J.

Robert 8, Birge George Gallup, Jr. DaleT. Irvin Anne Hale Johnson Thomas G. Long Henry Luce ill Bonnie A. Rosborough William C. Simpson, Jr.

Thomas L. Stiers Darla Dee Turlington

OFFICERS Keith A. Russell, Chair

David H.C. Read, Chair Emeritus

Walter J. Burghardt, S.J. President Robert B. Birge Executive V.P. & Publisher Anne Hale Johnson Vice-President Bonnie A. Rosborough Vice-President Robert P. Ziegert, Treas.

Thomas L. Stiers, Sec'y-

EDITORIAL BOARD Keith A, Russell Editor-in-Chief David H.C. Read

Robert B, Birge Executive Editor Walter J, Burghardt, S.J. Associate Editor Ginger Grab Managing Editor Judith Hoch Wray Assistant Editor William J. Carll l l Fred Β. Craddock

C, Welton Gaddy Dale T. irvin Henry hi Mitchell George F Regas Bonnie A. Rosborough William C. Simpson, Jr. Thomas L Stiers Barbara Brown Taylor Felicia Thomas John W. Wtmberly, Jr. Paul Zahl

Stan Park, Art Director

Production: F.W- Communications

ARTICLES ON SABBATH

Sabbath: Finishing and Beginning Jürgen Moltmann 4 We are invited as God's companions to God's Sabbath celebration of creation

Sabbath: The Culmination of Creation Ellen F. Davis 6 The uniqueness of the Israelite Sabbath celebration has far-reaching implictions for our lives today

8 Sabbath and Sunday Belong Together What Christians can learn from the Jewish Sabbath celebration

Walter J. Burghardt, S.J.

Jesus, the Sabbath and Rest Judith Hoch Wray In early Christian understanding Jesus himself is the model of rest Our Jewish Heritage: Sabbath as a Symbol of the Unseen An historical overview of the Sabbath

William C. Simpson, Jr.

It's A New Day Marjorie Procter-Smith The Christian "new day" celebrates God's new creation in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus

And You Shall Call the Sabbath a Delight A rabbi considers three motifs that underlie the Jewish Sabbath

Shlomo Baiter

The Practice of Keeping Sabbath: A Gift for Our Time Dorothy C. Bass The Sabbath commandment comes as a judgment on us and our society

Honest Sabbath Moments Modern adaptations to the joy of Sabbath rest

Barbara Silversmith

Chase's Sabbath Sabbath does not let the world be what it is the rest of the week

Larry Rasmussen

Sabbath and Compassion Martha J. Home Sabbath observance includes compassion for those dependent on us Observing the Sabbath in Psalm 127 A unique and creative reading of Psalm 127

Rickie Dale Moore

On Women and Sabbath Rest Sabbath rest is both a discipline and a grace

Penelope Mark-Stuart

Sabbath: The Sacred Rest That Builds the Soul The gift of Sabbath rest

B. Michael Watson

Sabbath: A Call for Restoration and Release Keith A. Russell

Jubilee offers a radical challenge to our practices of justice and equality

Sabbath Time Nancy Bloomer Understanding Sabbath time transforms a potentially negative experience

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2 · THE LIVING PULPIT/ APRIL-JUNE 1998

ADVISORY BOARD James Fenhagen James L. Kidd Elisabeth Schüssler-Fiorenza ! Carol L Anderson James Forbes Thomas C, Lament Donald W. Shriver, Jr. Craig B. Anderson John T. Galloway, Jr. William N. Lovell Jude Siciliano, O.P. Eugene C. Bay Langdon Gilkey Barbara Lundblad Gardner C. Taylor Robert McAfee Brown Peter Gomes Martin E> Marty Richard L· Thulin Francis J. Buckley, S.J, David W. Good Elliott J. Mason, Sr. Patrick Thyne | Frederick Buechner Douglas John Hall M. Douglas Meeks Phyllis Trible I Richard D. Burke Holland Lee Hendrix Christopher L. Morse Thomas H. Troeger | John B, Coburn Adelaide F. Hixon Stephen J. Patterson Don M. Wardlaw ! Robert T. Cornelison Robert S. Hundley Ruth T. Plimpton William H. Willimon Harvey Cox Edwina Hunter Larry L. Rasmussen Erica B. Wood ¡ Joan Delaplane, O.P. Bishop Leontine Kelly Dietrich Ritsch! Jeremiah Wright Margaret A. Farley Geffrey B, Kelly Arthur A. Rouner, Jr.

QUOTATIONS ON SABBATH In the Hebrew Scriptures 30

In the New Testament Scriptures 31

Leaders & Commentators 32

Theologians & Philosophers 33

Scholars & Teachers 34

BOOKS ON SABBATH The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel 35

IDEAS FOR PREACHING ON SABBATH Preaching Sabbath on Sabbath Bonnie Rosborough 36

On Snowstorms and the Sabbath Donna Berman 37

Sabbath: Our Need For Meaning Martin E. Marty 38

The Sabbath Song: An Alternative Vision Kendra Haloviak 40

Sabbath: Recreation and Liberation Barbara Reid 42

The Jubilee of Jesus Bruce Chilton 43

Leader's Guide for Adult Education Ginger Grab and Judith Hoch Wray 44

Preaching the Lectionary Judith Hoch Wray 47

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ABOUT THE LIVING PULPIT; Founded in 1992, the inaugural year issues were entitled Hope, Faith, Love and Evil.

1993 issues were: Justice, Earth, Prayer and Anger. See back cover for other years' titles and to order back copies. 1998 titles: Easter, Sabbath, Death and Peace.

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SABBATH: Finishing JÜRGEN MOLTMANN

GOD saw everything God had made, and behold, "It was very good," and yet on the seventh day, God "finished" God's work.

The finishing of Creation consists in the Creator's rest. God "finishes" creation by "resting."

When someone "retires," people immediately ask, "What are your plans?" And the unfortunate workaholics among us speak with pride of their "productive retiremenf and even write self-help books about it, so that nobody can accuse them of being idle beneficiaries belonging to an over-aged, passive population. That is why we - especially Christians and theologians -appreciate the continuously creating God so much, whose successful images and likenesses can surely only be continuously creative people. We are hectic workaholics, wretched like Faust, "inhuman, lacking rest and peace." To work without ceasing, that's no problem for us. But how can we find rest?

God meets us here in a very different way: God, who comes to rest; God, festive and full of blessings; God, who enjoys the vision of all God's creatures and is, in the tranquility of the Sabbath, wholly at peace. God does not "rest" in the sense of taking a break now and then, in order to gather strength for further tasks. That would be easier for us to understand: "You deserve a break today...at MacDonald's." No, in God's case the opposite is true. This rest, this joy, this simple being-there on the Sabbath is the meaning of God's entire work. The seventh day is rightfully called the "celebration of creation." It is the "crown of creation." For the sake of this celebration everything which exists was created.

FINISHING In order not to celebrate alone, God created the

heavens and the earth, the dancing stars and the swaying seas, the fields and the woods, the animals, the plants and last of all, human beings. They are all invited to God's Sabbath celebration. They are all - each in its own way - God's companions in celebration. That is why the Lord, as it says in the Psalms, is "pleased" with all works of creation, and why also the heavens "extol" the glory of the Eternal. Everything that exists has been created for God's delight, because everything that is,

comes from God's love. In creation, God went out of Godself. In God's

rest, God returns to Godself. In creation, God engaged God's creatures. In God's rest, God gives them space. A wonderful atmosphere of relaxation fills God's Sabbath. That does not mean the Creator is indifferent to the creatures - on the contrary; it reflects a relaxed pleasure in them - "and behold, it was all very good." This gives the creatures their freedom and fills them with the desire to be. Whenever someone is loved in such a way that love is fulfilled in him or her, finding everything to be "very good, whole and beautiful," that person is gripped by a profound joy to be alive and is able to experience time as fulfilling. When the Creator comes to rest, then the creatures come to themselves and are able to bloom like flowers in the sun.

God no longer influences them, no longer intrudes, works no more on them. Yet God is wholly open toward them and perceives each creature's happiness and suffering. God no longer speaks, but rather listens to their exultation and their laments. Through God's creative acts the creatures experience the Creator's power. In God's Sabbath rest, however, the Creator "experiences" the creatures and "feels" their impulses and movements.

The Sabbath is the day in which we can experience God's silent and restful presence. Certainly, it can only be experienced by those who themselves come to rest and who let their souls be still. We could probably do without many meditation techniques and tranquilizers if we remembered the Sabbath.

RESTING On the Sabbath, what is blessed is not a living

creature, but rather a time, the "seventh day." This also is remarkable, for time is not an object; it is invisible, fleeting and ephemeral. We human beings cannot understand it, nor can we hold on to it. God does not bless this day through activity, but rather through God's rest; not by creating, but rather by being there.

But how then do the creatures come to their rest? "Our heart is restless in us," wrote Augustine, "until

4 · THE LIVING PULPIT/APRIL-JUNE 1998

and Beginning it finds rest in thee." This restlessness is not limited to the hearts of people. It torments all earthly creatures who have to endure mortality. On the Sabbath God does not bless this or that particular creature, but rather one time for all living creatures who exist in time.

God's very first blessing is not directed to the chosen people Israel or to the promised land of Israel, but rather to the universal Sabbath, the feast of creation. That is at any rate how Israel has understood the passage since the Babylonian exile. The Sabbath is the "Jewish cathedral" (Abraham Heschel), for Judaism is, as no other religion, the "religion of time." In the limited temples of the peoples, heaven and earth touch, but in the Jewish Sabbath, time and eternity touch. That is why the Sabbath is both a day of remembrance of the original creation and a day of hope in our final salvation. Beginning and End are present on this day, interrupting time and indeed rescinding it. On this day death is abolished, for life is experienced so deeply that it is eternal.

By working on six weekdays we harmonize with the creating God; by honoring the seventh day we harmonize with the resting, happy God who delights in God's creatures. The idea is not only that we human beings come to rest in body and soul, finding peace. The true intention is for us to stop intervening in nature on this day, to stop hurting it, and instead to perceive it and esteem it as God's beloved creation. The true meaning of the Sabbath is ecological. Related to it is also an esthetic aspect: Only someone who comes to rest and has nothing planned is able to perceive the beauty of things. He or she sees the flowers and the sunset, a painting or a vase or a beloved person with unintentional/unexpected pleasure.

The Sabbath is wise environmental policy. In the law regarding the Jubilee year, every seventh year the land is to lie fallow, in order for the earth to "celebrate the great Sabbath of the Lord" (Lev 25:4) and so that "the land can find rest." If the people leave the land in peace every seventh year, they will

enjoy all the blessings of the Creator. If, however, they disregard the "earth's Sabbath," then "I will scatter you amongst the heathen and your land will become deserted and your cities destroyed" (Lev 26: 33). Why? Because that will allow the land to celebrate its Sabbath, while you are trapped in enemy land. To put it in modern terms, this is an ecological interpretation of Israel's Babylonian exile: because Israel ignored the earth's Sabbath in God's land, it had to remain in a foreign land for 70 years. Then the land was able to recover and to celebrate its Creator. The Jewish Sabbath is full of thankfulness for the work of creation and echoes with the praises of the Creator for the Creator's goodness.

BEGINNING The Sabbath also harbors an unheard-of future,

for the day which marks the finishing of creation also opens up the entire creation to the Kingdom of God's glory. That is why the rabbis have so often said: "If Israel would truly honor just one Sabbath, the Messiah would surely come immediately."

Christians celebrate the day of Christ's resurrection, the "day of the Lord," the "endless Feast" (Athanasius). It is the first day of the new creation of all things and of their salvation from time and death. Whereas the Sabbath allows us to look back thankfully at the good work of creation, the Christian celebration of the resurrection opens up the outlook into the future of the new creation. Whereas the Sabbath allows us to share in God's rest, the Christian resurrection feast allows us to share in God's glory. Whereas the Sabbath is a day of thought and thankfulness, the celebration of the resurrection is a day of beginning and of hope.

"A Christian is an eternal beginner," as the Jewish scholar Franz Rosenzweig once said. May God bless us with God's Finishing and God's Beginning, so that we might come to rest and to know the power of resurrection.

Jürgen Moltmann is Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at the University of Tübingen. His most recent book is The Coming of God: Eschatology.

THE LIVING PULPIT # 5

ELLEN F. DAVIS

''Remember the Sabbath day, to sanctify it " (Ex 20:8).

THE best way I know to find a preaching angle on any biblical passage is to ask, "How does this passage overturn my ordinary ways of looking at

the world?" The assumption behind this question is that the Bible consistently challenges us to fundamentally new ways of thinking, to the radically changed mindset that the New Testament writers call metanoia (literally, "change of mind"), repentance.

With respect to the Sabbath commandment, the challenge is easy to identify, at least for the modern North American professionals who read this publication, and the others who listen to them preach. For we are habitually busy; arguably, ours is the most work-oriented culture in the history of the world. It is hard to escape the impression that many of us value ourselves in part because of om busyness. We do not admire couch potatoes.

A 70 hour work week, a car phone and a beeper that make us accessible at every moment - for us, these are status symbols; though, from a different perspective, they might be seen as signs of oppression. But the Sabbath commandment - the most frequently reiterated of all 613 commandments in the Bible - demands that we break the habit of constant busyness. Far from congratulating us on the ability to keep working despite physical, mental and emotional exhaustion, the Bible declares that the failure to set appropriate limits on work is a criminal offense of the highest order: "Whoever profanes [the Sabbath] will surely be put to death. Indeed, everyone who does work on it, that soul (Hebrew nefesh) is to be cut off from among her people" (Ex 31:14b). The workaholic falls under the death penalty, which ancient Israel reserved for the gravest crimes against God and humanity.

Whether Sabbath violators were ever actually executed is highly questionable. Nonetheless, the strong biblical rhetoric is not empty. The threat of death must be seen as the flip side of the promise of life which attaches to the injunction to keep the Sabbath: "for it is holy to you" (Ex 31:14a). Sabbath is not vacation: literally, vacant time. Rather, it is holy-day, filled with extra significance. Sabbath is dedicated time, "sanctified" (Hebrew qiddesh,


I The

"set apart") for all living souls - slave and free, human and animal - to enjoy themselves in God's company. Sabbath is "holy to you"; it is your opportunity to discover and become your full self through relaxing in the presence of the One in whose image you were made. Jewish tradition imaginatively expresses the promise of full human life inherent in the Sabbath commandment with the legend that everyone who observes it gains an "extra soul" for the day, a sort of spiritual supplement to enhance the benefit they derive from God's good company.

Sabbath is a distinctly Israelite institution. No other people in the ancient world observed a weekly holiday. Unlike other holidays, even in Israel, Sabbath does not sacralize important natural events (e.g., the New Moon, harvest and planting times). Its very "unnaturalness" underscores the fact that Sabbath is an element of revealed religion, a mark of God's freedom and special relationship with Israel. The Sabbath commandment is one of the "Ten Words" that form the heart of the Sinai revelation; and significantly, it is the longest of them. About a third of the Decalogue is devoted to Sabbath remembrance and further, to recounting what Israel is to "remember" on that day.

The Sabbath rest memorializes two acts of God: the seventh-day rest from the work of creation (Ex 20:11 ) and Israel's deliverance from slavery in Egypt (Deut 5:15). The two memorials complement one another. First, Sabbath offers a vantage point for re-viewing our relationship with God the Creator. The institution of Sabbath rest is an invitation for Israel to share in God's freedom, the Creator's "day off." Moreover, it points to the great story of God's granting freedom in history. It is crucial to remember that Israel was freed from slavery for one purpose only: "Let my people go, that they may worship (or 'serve') me" (Ex.7:26). Freedom from slavery is at the same time freedom for worship. If we fail to use our liberated energies to enjoy God, then, the Exodus story implies, we might just as well go on serving Pharaoh!

The first chapter of the Bible implies much the same thing. The most remarkable aspect of the so-called Priestly creation story is that humanity is created for no utilitarian purpose whatsoever. This is in sharp contrast

Culmination

with the Babylonian creation myth, which may have been known to the biblical writers. There human beings are invented as a labor-saving device for the gods. They are made to do the "grunt work" in the universe, maintaining the cult and temple of the chief god Marduk, tasks that would otherwise fall to the lesser gods. Once the gods have come up with this way of securing their own leisure, they are so pleased with themselves that they throw a big drinking party to celebrate! But Israel makes the startling affirmation that humans are created "in the image of God" (Gen 1:26-27). In other words, we are not divine slaves but rather something like children. This is further confirmed by the institution of the Sabbath as the culminating act of creation (Gen 2:3). Humanity is intended from the first to share in God's rest and (dare I say it?) recreation, a privilege normally reserved for family and other intimates.

Through the Sabbath, then, God acknowledges us as family members, beloved children. Reciprocally, it is the occasion for us to acknowledge God as sole Creator. In the one psalm specifically designated "for the Sabbath day," the ancient poet exults: "I sing with joy over the worL· of your hands" (Ps 92:5), using the biblical codeword for creation. Jewish tradition maintains that on the Sabbath, it is forbidden to alter things from the state in which they were created: raw food cannot be cooked, wood cannot be kindled into fire, fields cannot be plowed. From earliest times, followers of Jesus have not felt bound by strict Sabbath observance (Mark 2:23-28). Nonetheless, it is worth considering what spiritual gain we might receive if we disciplined ourselves regularly to take our hands off the controls, to stop our restless tinkering with the world, precisely in order to observe the power of God. This question is especially urgent for us in this generation, who now confront the terrible ecological devastation wrought by our undisciplined and unloving manipulations of "the work of God 's hands." Jürgen Moltmann observes, "There will never be peace with nature without the experience and celebration of God's Sabbath."

Might we enhance our own capacity as peacemakers - which is the special identity of the children of God (Matt 5:9) - between humanity and nature, if we left our computers off and our cars in the garage one day each

ifCreation

week? Might we begin to recover from our national addiction to overconsumption of the world's good things, if we all refrained from shopping one day a week? Might we be healed of the depression that affects so many of us, the anxiety always to do better and achieve more, if we set aside "Sabbath time" each day to rest deeply in God?

Such fanciful scenarios may seem hopelessly out of step with the times. But the Sabbath commandment forces us to ask if it is not, in fact, the other way around - namely, that we are out of step with God's time, and that "the whole creation is groaning" (Rom 8:22) as a result? Paul enables us to imagine our burdened creation looking for the freedom which is the sure sign of God's presence, as it "waits with eager longing for the children of God to be revealed" (Rom 8:19). Could it be that revelation depends upon the deep rest of Sabbath, when humanity sees the world for what it is - the work of God's hands - and thus realizes its own true identity as children of the God who is already providing and doing for us "better things than we can desire or pray for" (Book of Common Prayer). We can afford to rest. Indeed, can we afford not to?

Ellen F. Davis is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Va. A recent book is Imagination Shaped: Old Testament Preaching in the Anglican Tradition.

Treasure of heart for the broken people, Gift of new soul for the souls distrest, Soother of sighs for the prisoned spirits -The Sabbath of rest.

I. Luria, Sabbath Table Hymn, (1560)


SABBATH and Sunday WALTER J. BURGHARDT, S.J.

IN the Christian mentality there is a traditional tension,. if not an endless embarrassment, between two holy days: the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Sunday. We

speak of our Sunday as "replacing" the Sabbath, and in so doing we don't quite know what to do with what we have "replaced." For all practical purposes it has disappeared, is no longer of concern to us. I suggest that at least two reasons persuade us to make the tension fruitful. Both have to do with creation, but in different ways.

I. A first reason for recapturing the Sabbath takes me

back to a sermon in 1994 in which Jürgen Moltmann opened Christian eyes to a fascinating, and theologically acceptable, way of embracing both, and in the process enriched our Christian spirituality. "Whereas the Sabbath allows us to look back thankfully at the good work of creation, the Christian celebration of the resurrection opens up the outlook into the future of the new creation." The best of Catholic theology has consistently insisted that Catholicism is not an either/or but always a both/and. With respect to the Sabbath, Moltmann suggests something similar for all Christians.

It is a vision of an end and a beginning. If, for Jews, the Sabbath celebrates an end that culminates in God's own rest, for Christians, Sunday celebrates a new beginning where Jesus' resurrection foreshadows our own rising from the dead.

What does God's "rest" mean? Not a break from inactivity. God's rest is simply God-being-there; God's rest means God celebrating God's creation. Listen to Moltmann again: "In God's work, God was free from God's works; in God's Sabbath rest, God becomes free from God's works. In creation, God engaged God's creatures; in God's rest, God gives them space." A wonderful atmosphere of relaxation pervaded God's creatures as well. It was a serene, beautiful world, where all was ordered to man and woman, and man and woman were ordered to God. And this is the way it will be at the end, when not only God but all of creation will be completely at rest.

The story of grace, God's free, unmerited gift, did not begin in Nazareth. It began when "a wind of God swept over the waters" and "God said, 'Let there be light,' And there was light" (Gen 1:2-3). It continued as God shaped

sky and earth and sea, plants and fish and beasts. It climaxed in twin images of God, similar but not the same, empowered to love God and one another, commanded to care for all God had wrought.

We need the Jewish Sabbath - especially among Christians for whom Sunday rest has gone the way of Sabbath rest. We need to look back - restfully, thoughtfully, thankfully - on "everything God had made," and to see, through God's eyes, that "it was very good" (Gen 1:31), a restful contemplation that could be a precious preludete Sunday's hope, to Jewish scholar Franz Rosenzweig's description of a genuine Christian: "A Christian is an eternal beginner. All's well that begins well!"

Π. A second reason for recapturing the Sabbath takes me

back to a personal experience in 1966. During an international, interfaith conference on Vatican II at the University of Notre Dame, Lutheran theologian and wordsmith, Joseph Sittler, expressed a "feeling of disquiet" with the council's Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. Reducing that feeling to a theological proposition, he suggested that in that otherwise splendid document

... the doctrine of grace remains trapped within the rubric of redemption, while at the same time the joys, hopes, griefs and anxieties that evoke the document are most sharply delineated under the rubric of creation... What is required is nothing short of a doctrine of grace elaborated as fully under the article of God the Creator as a doctrine of grace has been historically developed under the article of God the Redeemer (Vatican II: An Interfaith Appraisal [Univ. of Notre Dame, 1966] 426). Elsewhere Sittlerwarnedusthatthis separation of creation

and redemption is our basic ecological error. The reason why we can worship nature in Vermont and simultaneously manipulate nature in New York is that, in our view, the redemption wrought by Christ leaves untouched the creation wrought by God. And once we wrench redemption from creation, once we put nature "out there" and grace "in here," as long as we omit from our theology of grace humans'transaction with nature, it is irrelevant to Christians whether we reverence the earth or ravish it.

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Belong Together • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ^

Little wonder that for centuries we have misunderstood and misapplied God's command to humanity in Genesis, "Subdue the earth and have dominion" over sea and air and "every living thing that moves upon the earth" (Gen 1:28). Only recently have we begun to realize that those twin commands mean not despotic control, but reverential care. It is the kind of care the Israelite kings were to exercise as God's viceregents on earth, not only for the poor, for the widow and the orphan and the stranger, but for God's "things" (that ice-cold word). In fact, all of us, as images of God, as God's representatives and conversation partners in the world, are to cherish every facet of God's creation, from rich earth to giant redwood, from the microscopic amoeba to the prowling panther to the shooting star, as a precious gift of a loving Creator.

God has given us not despotism but stewardship. And a steward is one who manages what is someone else's. A just steward cares, is concerned, agonizes. Stewards may not plunder or waste; they are responsible, can be called to account for their stewardship. "The earth is the Lord's, and all that is in it" (Ps 24:1).

It is such care for creation that Sabbath "rest" promotes. For that rest is the contemplation which Carmelite contemplative William McNamara defined as "a long loving look at the real." Each word in that definition is significant. The "real" is not some abstraction we mistakenly imagine mystics adoring. The real is all that actually is, the "concrete singular" of philosophers. It's God's sun setting ruddy over western hills, the gentle deer in graceful flight, Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," a child nursing a chocolate ice-cream cone, a striding woman with wind-blown hair. It's Christ Jesus, alive and wondrously well.

All this, and more, we "look" at. Not just eyes; the whole person, flesh and spirit, mind and senses, in a posture of awe, entranced, enraptured. A "long" look, not in terms of measured time, but unhurried, unharried (we do not time the Last Supper, the New York Philharmonic). Not an acquisitive, possessive look; rather, a look that mimics the love our imaginative Creator experienced when seeing that every work of

divine art "was very good." For a Christian, such a Sabbath would be a precious

prelude to Sunday. Contemplation of the Creator God active and at rest should lead into worship of the Redeemer Christ who "has appeared, bringing salvation to all" (Titus 2:11).

An ideal, this transformation of a Christian's weekend? Yes, but what is Christian life without ideals, without goals beyond our present reach, without St. Paul's "forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead" (Phil 3:13)? And might it not prove a happy stroke of Christian outreach to our Jewish sisters and brothers, this admission in practice that the Sabbath has religious significance for us not incompatible with Judaism's veneration for creation and reverence for "the land"? And might it not be, for Protestant and Catholic alike, a rich response to John PaulII's call for contemplation of nature's beauty, recognition of its restorative power for the human heart, his bold assertion that Christians must ' 'realize that their responsibility to creation and their duty toward nature and the Creator are an essential part of their faith"?

Those powerful words stem from John Paul's message for the World Day of Peace, Jan. 1,1990, happily entitled "Peace with God the Creator, Peace with All of Creation." Peace. Judaism's shalom. Not simply the absence of war; not a tenuous truce. Intimate communion with a God who shares Godlife by shaping images of Godself. Sacrificial love for every man, woman and child, but especially for the oppressed, for the orphan, the widow, the stranger. And, so powerful a lesson from the Sabbath, reverence for the earth, for the expanding universe that conceals and reveals ever-expanding traces of its Creator.

Sabbath shalom is still precious in its own right, and yet it is a fitting prelude to Sunday shalom, to Paul's "Christ is ourpeace"(Eph2:14). Sabbath and Sunday belong together.

Walter J. Burghardt, S.J., President and Co-Editor of The Living Pulpit is founder and director of the project Preaching the Just Word, which stresses biblical justice, i. e., fidelity to relationships (to God, people and earth) that stem from a covenant. His 12th collection of homilies, Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters, has recently been published by Paulist Press.

THE LIVING PULPIT @ 9

Jesus, the SAB JUDITH HOCH WRAY

OUR society, which has majored in the skills of work and minored in the fine art of leisure, knows little or nothing of rest. Today, psycholo

gists and sociologists bemoan the workaholism that addicts not only individuals, but also families and institutional structures, such as corporations, churches and schools. Work has become "the drug of choice" for many in our culture, an addiction which numbs feelings, substitutes for authentic relationship with others, endangers health, and (ironically) inhibits productivity. Rest may be something for which our overworked and stressed-out society yearns, but rest is neither a common experience nor a popular topic of Christian proclamation at the end of the twentieth century.

Ask about rest of someone connected with church or synagogue and the response is usually, "Oh, yes, you mean rest, like in the sabbath." The most familiar reference to rest is indeed the sabbath, the seventh day, on which God rested, and on which God commanded rest for everyone and everything (Gen 2:2-3; Deut 5:12-15). A few groups of people, observant Jews, Christians and Muslims practice sabbath-keeping and some find joy in that. Musicians will speak of the value of rest: space, quiet space, assists the listener in hearing other sounds; rests are an integral part of the rhythm of the music, the ebb and flow that establishes mood and meaning. For the remainder of the western world, a theology of rest has rarely been explored.

A call to rest characterized by sabbath-keeping might invite the recognition of the hubris demonstrated by our insistence on poorly imitating God, thinking that the world, or at least our world, will collapse if we cease working for one day out of every seven. A willingness to examine the life of Jesus and the claims of the early church critically may expand our view of sabbath, or more specifically, of rest.

Jesus, according to the gospel accounts, practiced and proclaimed rest, both in the context of and apart from sabbath. The gospel writers tell of Jesus' challenging his contemporaries' understanding and practice of the sabbath (Mark 2:23-3:6; Matt 12:1-18; Luke 6:1-11; John 5:1-18). Jesus challenged a legalistic interpretation of sabbath that ignores the needs of people. Unfortunately,

the early church's attempt to redefine sabbath has resulted more in the dismissal than in reformation of sabbath practice. And Christian theologies of sabbath, developed through the centuries, have rarely incorporated the perspectives offered by early Christian proclamations of rest that move beyond the sabbath-keeping practices inherited from our Jewish ancestors.

As we seek to be faithful in the twenty-first century, perhaps we do well to listen to Matthew's gospel, the only canonical gospel in which we hear Jesus proclaim:

Come to me, all you that are weary andare carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matt 11:28-30). This intriguing saying placed in the mouth of Jesus

immediately precedes the sabbath controversy narrative. For Matthew, it is not enough to tell the stories of Jesus' healing on the sabbath and of Jesus' disciples plucking grain on the sabbath to illustrate that "something greater than the temple is here" and that "the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath." Matthew frames the sabbath-controversy narratives with two texts (Matt 11:28-30, Matt 12:17-21) unique to his gospel to teach about the one who is greater than the temple.

Jesus himself is the model of the rest that the sabbath was meant to portend. When the hearers wanted to know what was meant when Jesus offers to give rest, when disciples wanted to know what they were to learn from the one who was gentle and humble in heart, Matthew knows where to find the answer; he turns to the Law and the Prophets and quotes (loosely) from Isaiah 42:1-4:

Here is my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not wrangle or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. He will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick until he brings justice to victory. And in his name the Gentiles will hope (Matt 12:18-21). For the evangelist, this is a description of the peaceful

Messiah, the one whose proclamation of justice comes without threat to the already weak and abused, the one

10 e THE LIVING PULPIT/APRIL-JUNE 1998

BATH and Rest who offers rest as lord of the sabbath. In the immediate context, the evangelist uses the Isaiah text to explain Jesus' order not to make him known (Matt 12:16). Yetthe Isaiah text about one who "will not wrangle or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets... will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick" comes nearer to resembling the description of Jesus as the one who is "gentle and humble in heart" than to explaining an order to tell no one of a healing. It appears that the gospel writer here interweaves the secrecy theme (Jesus' insistence that those who recognize him tell no one: Matt 8:4; 9:30; 12:16; 17:9) with his understanding of the peaceful (or restful) Messiah. The theme of Jesus as model for rest and the "peaceful Messiah" motif from Isaiah are strictly Matthean. For Matthew, Jesus is not only the model of sabbath rest (Matt 11:28-12:21), Jesus is also the resting place.

For Jesus, as we meet him in Matthew, rest was not about sabbath-keeping (Matt 11:28-12:13), nor was it (merely) some future reward for faithful action today. For Jesus, rest was inextricably linked with one's relationship to the world, to the community and to God. Rest included the experience of moving through life with tranquility, empowered to do justice in an unperturbed state of body / mind / spirit (Matt 12:17- 21), trusting in the certain grace of God.

About 100 CE., Christians were singing this hymn, probably as part of a communion liturgy, celebrating the all-encompassing rest they experienced from being filled with Christ's Spirit.

Fill for yourselves water from the living spring of the Lord, because it has been opened for you. And come all you thirsty and take a drink, and rest beside the spring of the Lord. Blessed are they who have drunk from it, and have rested by it. Hallelujah! (Odes of Solomon 30.1-2, 7) This expectation of Christians' dwelling in a state of

rest and the Christ-centered proclamation of rest found in Matthew were minimized or lost for various reasons. As the early Christian church struggled for its own identity, many leaders rejected the doctrine of Sabbath rest inherited from Judaism (e.g., the Epistle of Barnabas). Later,

the church rejected gnostic versions of the gospel (e.g., the Gospel of Truth) that had been able to incorporate a more Christ-centered understanding of rest into their theology. Perhaps we "threw the baby out with the bath water." It is necessary neither to recapitulate Torah-defined Sabbath-keeping nor to embrace gnosticism in order to reclaim the fullness of rest, today and everyday.

Now is the time to rethink, not only our sabbath-keeping practices (or lack thereof), but also our theology of rest. Our failure to articulate a theology of rest may be symptomatic of our continuing failure to embrace fully the all-sufficient grace of God. The One who is Rest continues to call through the centuries, "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."

Judith Hoch Wray is assistant editor q/*The Living Pulpit. This article is informed by her dissertation, Rest as a Theological Metaphor in the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Gospel of Truth: Early Christian Homiletics of Rest.

...taken in a symbolic sense, the words "And the Sabbath of the land shall be

food for you" (Lev 25:6) are to the point; for nothing is nourishing and enjoyable food, save rest in God, securing as it does

for us the greatest boon, the peace that is unbroken by war.

Philo, On Flight and Finding

(first century, C.E.)


Our Jewish Heritage: ¡SABBA WILLIAM C. SIMPSON, JR.

JEWISH festivals are always more than commemoration. These celebrations recreate and re-live an event from the salvation-history of a faithful people

or witness to a significant teaching. In every festival there is presented again a truth not readily seen. Three pilgrim rituals,pesach (Passover), recalling God's deliverance out of Egypt; shavout (weeks), related to the harvest but also the gift of the Torah; and sukkoth (tabernacles), celebrating God's providence and faithfulness, were so important in Israel that all males were required to come to the Temple during the year to observe them.

But Sabbath, or Shabbat, in Hebrew, taken from the verb shavat, "to cease" or "to rest," was unique, for it was a celebration not limited to men. It embraced everyone, male and female, young and old, in a continuing, weekly re-living of the faith-experience of creation and providence. Its celebration was centered not in the Temple but in the home. Typically it began at sundown with the oneg Shabbat, sharing food prepared in advance, music and fellowship, to recall the festive words of Isaiah, "call the Sabbath a delight" (Isaiah 58:13). It concluded with havdalah, benedictions recited over a cup of wine, spices and a braided candle. This prayer set apart sacred from secular, light from darkness and Israelite from Gentiles.

Sabbath is the only observance mandated in the Ten Commandments brought from Sinai. Its real significance did not come, however, until after the fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonia Exile, 586-538 B.C.E., when the temple and all outward vestiges of the Jewish faith were lost. Sabbath was now observed as a continuing witness to the Babylonians and to one another of their identity as God's people, which pointed to something no longer visible, their covenant with Yahweh. It proclaimed confidence in God's faithfulness: "More than Israel kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath kept Israel." Years later, the Talmud and the Midrash expressed the truth that "if you wish to destroy the Jewish people, abolish the Sabbath first."

By the time of Jesus some 39 specific forms of work were prohibited by the rabbis. Two gospel accounts reveal Jesus' teaching. In the first, the disciples were hungry and plucked ears of grain on the Sabbath. The rabbis had decreed such strict observance that one could

not enter the field on that day (Dead Sea Scrolls, Zadokite Document 10.44ff). Jesus reminded the Pharisees that David had eaten the bread of the presence ( 1 Sam 21:1 -6). This, according to Josephus, was baked and held to the following Sabbath for the priests. Jesus sought to illustrate a higher truth.

I tell you something greater that the Temple is here. And if you had known what this means, "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, "you would not condemn the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath (Matt 12:6-8).

For Jesus, the Sabbath represented the reality that was unseen, the spirit of the law, which was greater than what could be readily seen, the law itself.

The second incident involved a healing on the Sabbath. The Pharisees questioned Jesus. His reply was a rhetorical question asking whether they would rescue a sheep out of a pit. "How much more valuable is a human than a sheep!" The law had become so rigid that a lamb or calf bom into a cistern could not be rescued {Zadokite Documentigli ff). Rabbis went so far as to debate if a cripple could carry his wooden leg out of a burning house on the Sabbath. It reminds me of the modern debate among orthodox rabbis as to the legality of wearing hearing aids on the Sabbath!

The early church focused on the resurrection event as the nexus of their faith. Because the first Christians were Jews, they often celebrated the Sabbath and then observed the first day of the week as the Lord's Day. As the church moved further into the gentile world, Sabbath had less significance. Sunday soon was invested with many of the same practices that had belonged to the Jewish Sabbath. Whenever possible, work was avoided and the day was seen as sacred, pointing to the unseen reality of the risen Christ.

In the year 789 CE., Charlemagne decreed that the Lord's Day or new Sabbath would be observed throughout the land. This enforced observance remained, with varying conformity, across Europe until the Reformation. The general position of the reformers was that Sabbath observance was part of the law and not required. However, because it was in the interest of humanity and in keeping with honoring the risen Lord, it would be observed. Calvin, for example, responded to a dispute


ΤΗ as a Symbol

in Geneva in 1537, occasioned by a citizen named Colinaeus, who had rather unorthodox teachings on the Sabbath:

... there is no doubt that by the Lord's coming the ceremonial

part of his commandment (on the Sabbath) was abolished.

For he himself is the truth, with whose presence all figures

vanish. He is the body, at whose appearance the shadows

are left behind. He is, I say, the true fulfillment of the Sabbath

(Institutes, II. 8.31).

Calvin counters with two reasons, both scriptural and reasonable, for the Lord's Day to be observed in Geneva:

[1] to assemble on stated days for the hearing of the Word,

the breaking of the mystical bread, and for public prayers (cf.

Acts 2:42): [2] to give surcease from labor to servants and

workmen. There is no doubt that in enjoining the Sabbath the

Lord was concerned with both (Institutes, II 8.32).

The most detailed expressions of Sunday observance came in the American colonies under Puritan influence. The first Sunday statutes were passed in Virginia in 1624. These were expanded in New England with the institution of the "blue laws," so called because they were printed on blue paper, in New Haven, Conn., beginning in 1638. In his history of the colony (1781), the Tory clergyman Samuel Andrew Peters supplied a list of 45 "blue laws" ostensibly drawn up by zealous Puritans. All of New England enforced strict observance of the Sunday Sabbath. After the American Revolution, blue laws generally were repealed. Many such statutes remained, however, and during the Prohibition movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many states enacted new types of blue laws governing the sale and use of liquor and tobacco and providing for censorship.

Repeated challenges to the constitutionality of blue laws have been made, particularly the Sunday closing laws, which require the closing of retail stores and other businesses. Many recall that until recent years, it was illegal to drive an automobile or purchase a newspaper in the Methodist community of Ocean Grove, N.J., on Sunday. Federal courts have consistently ruled Sunday closing laws to be a valid exercise of police power by legislators and not a violation of constitutional guarantees of religious liberty. In 1979, for example, the United States Supreme Court refused to hear challenges to the

of the Unseen

Sunday closing laws of New Jersey and Texas on the grounds that any change in such laws must come through legislation. The general practice, however, has been to abandon these laws as an intrusion into individual secular expression.

It could be impossible as well as inadvisable to consider a return to mandated enforcement of Sunday observances, but the wisdom and scriptural basis of such commends itself. The transcendent God who created the universe and continues providentially to reign calls us to a weekly recreation of nature and a witness to God's claim over us. Sabbath provides a conviction that the world is both intelligible and purposive, that while human experience is capricious, everything ultimately has meaning. The God who created the world revealed the Divine in the Christ, whose presence is unseen, but real.

Our observance of a Lord's Day continues to recognize the berith, the covenant relation that says that the world belongs to God and not to us. As creatures we are dependent on the providence of the One who calls us to hallow or set aside a portion of each week to honor the Creator and respect all creation.

William C. Simpson, Jr., is Senior Pastor at Front Street United Methodist Church in Burlington, N.C. His most recent book is The Wonder of Christmas.

V VE all hold our common meeting on the day of the Sun, because it is

the first day, on which God changed the darkness and matter in his making

of the world, and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose

from the dead.

Justin Martyr, Apology, (2nd century)

THE LIVING PULPIT® 13

Ifs a New Day MARJORIE PROCTER-SMITH

WHEN my son was very young, perhaps three years old, we were attending a small United Methodist Church with a simple sanctuary.

All of the furnishings were moveable and quite plain, and the only visual elements were the large cloth banners that hung from the rafters overhead. We had begun attending the church in the fall, during the "green" Sundays after Pentecost. But when we walked into the sanctuary on the first Sunday in Advent, my son stopped abruptly, staring up. Pointing to the purple and blue Advent banner, he announced breathlessly, "Look, Momma! It's a new day!"

His intuition had served him well. Not only was it a new day in the liturgical calendar of the church and a new beginning of the Christian year, each Sunday is a new day in the church's life. Christianity is a religion deeply embedded in time. From the beginnings of the Christian movement, interpreting and using the language of time has been characteristic of the way Christians live in their world. Jesus' coming into the world and his teachings and healings were seen as signs of the breaking in of a new age, a "new day" in the unfolding history of the world. Since the first Christians were Jews, they interpreted this temporal shift from a Jewish perspective. Jewish expectation of the end of time, a period to be accomplished by dramatic cosmolog-ical signs and portents, influenced the Christian interpretation of the events of Jesus' life and death. And after Jesus' death, the day on which he was raised and appeared to his followers became the turning point for that inbreaking new era, the "Lord's Day," the first day of the Jewish week.

Here the followers of Jesus marked their difference from their Jewish kinfolk. The Jewish week was punctuated by the weekly observance of the seventh day, the Sabbath, in recognition and reiteration of the day of God's rest at the end of creation. But Christians, many of whom continued to observe the Jewish Sabbath, added a new element to the week's observances, the observance of the first day of the week. And as the Sabbath commemorated the completion of God's creation of the world, the Christian first-day commemorated the beginning of creation. The Christian day of worship, reiterating the day of Jesus' resurrection, at the same time recalled the first day of creation, on which God separated light from darkness. Thus the Christian "new

day" celebrates the beginning of God's new creation in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, in the appearances of the risen Christ to his friends and followers, in the sending of the Holy Spirit, all on the first day of the week.

This is a very different emphasis from the Jewish day of rest on the seventh day. How do Christians observe the Sabbath? What are our obligations, if any? It should be clear from this very brief examination of the origins of the Christian day of worship that the combining of the meaning of the two days is historically indefensible. It can also be argued that to attempt to apply the meanings of the Jewish Sabbath to Christian Sunday is to show disrespect to our Jewish kinfolk. Sunday, speaking biblically and theologically, is not a day of rest but a day of worship. However, early Christians did not reject the Jewish Sabbath. Jewish Christians continued to observe the Sabbath, and gradually one aspect of the Jewish interpretation of time influenced the way all Christians, Gentile and Jewish alike, arranged their time. The Jewish day, unlike the Roman day (and our day) began (and still begins) at sundown rather than at midnight. Thus the Sabbath begins at sundown on Friday. Christians adopted this way of reading time, and thus Sunday began at sundown on Saturday, with an observance that came to be known as a vigil.

Adapting yet another Jewish theme of the first century, the vigil was regarded as a time of expectation and waiting. Recalling the many parables of Jesus that refer to the coming of the long-awaited One in the watches of the night, Christians, too, stayed awake and prayed and sang throughout the night, concluding their vigil with the celebration of the eucharist meal of the Risen One, recalling his appearance to the disciples at Emmaus in the breaking of the bread. This expectation of the imminent return of the Risen One gave the early Christian observance of the Lord's Day its urgency and immediacy, its strong sense of being in every way the breaking in of a "new day."

Marjorie Procter-Smith is Le Van Professor of Worship and Preaching at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Her most recent book is Praying With Our Eyes Open: Engendering Feminist Liturgical Prayer.


And You Shall Call the S A B B A T H a Delight SHLOMO BALTER

THE question has often been asked: Is there a unique expression for the spirit of Judaism? In the text of the Ten Commandments, the most representative

monument of Jewish teaching, such a term can be found. The Ten Commandments have been translated into all tongues and its vocabulary has become part of the literature of all nations. Reading that famous text in any translation, Greek, Latin or English, we are struck by a surprising fact. No matter what language translation we consult, there is one Hebrew word for which no equivalent has been found. In the Greek translation of the Bible, called the Septuagint, we read sabbaton; in the Latin of the Vulgate, sabbatum; in Ararmic, sabbatha; in the King James Version, the Sabbath.

Perhaps the Sabbath is the idea that expresses what is most characteristic of Judaism. Ahad-Ha-Am, the brilliant Hebrew thinker and essayist, expressed this idea when he wrote: "More than Israel has kept the Sabbath, it is the Sabbath that has preserved Israel." If Judaism is to have any significance today, I believe that we must begin by trying to understand the meaning of the "Sabbath," and to adopt its values as part of our life and culture.

There are three leading motifs enumerated in the Torah and developed by the sages in their interpretation of the Sabbath. The first is the idea of creativity - for the Sabbath is associated in Jewish tradition with the completion of the task of creation, when God surveyed all that He made and found it "very good." By keeping the Sabbath, the rabbis tell us, we testify to our belief in God as the creator of the universe.

The Talmud mystics tell us that when the heavens and the earth were being called into existence, matter was getting out of hand and the divine voice had to resound, "enough! So far and no further!" Humanity, made in the image of God, has been endowed by the Creator with the power of creating. But in our little universe, too, matter is constantly getting out of hand, threatening to overwhelm us and crush our soul. By the means of the Sabbath, called "a memorial of creation," we are endowed with the divine power of saying "enough! " to our environment and we are reminded of our potential victory over all material and ecological forces.

The second motif in the Sabbath is the idea of holiness.

The reference to the Sabbath in the Ten Commandments bids us to "Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy." "Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." The term holy or holiness has lost significance for us today. It is the term that has either been completely omitted from our vocabularies - or else has been relegated to a derogatory or humorous sense. However, this concept of kedushah - holy - is the expression/^ excellence that lies behind every commandment, mitzvah and action in the life of a Jew. Our thoughts, our consideration for the rights and dignity of others, our habits of respect for learning and ethics - social, economic and religious - yes, our very existence, all stem from this value concept - called kadusha - or holiness. The only explanation the Torah gives for the keeping of the Sabbath is "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Why? Because "The Lord blessed the Sabbath and hallowed it."

The Sabbath planted a heaven in every Jewish home, making each home a sanctuary, the father a priest, and the mother who lights the candle an angel of light. The Sabbath banishes care and toil, grief and sorrow, even mourning is suspended on the Sabbath day.

The third motif is the idea of covenantship which regards the Sabbath as a sign of God's covenant with Israel. Sinai, the decisive moment in Israel's history, initiated a new relationship between God and humanity. God became engaged to a people. Israel accepted the new relationship; it became engaged to God. Sinai is both an event that happened once and for all, and an event that happens all the time. All generations of Israel, we are told by the rabbis, were present at Mt. Sinai. Everyone stood at the foot of Sinai and beheld the voice that proclaimed, "I am the Lord thy God. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy."

The dignity of being a Jew is in the sense of that commitment; the Jewish Sabbath revolves around faithfulness of Israel to the covenant. The Sabbath has proved to be the great educator of Israel in the highest education of all, namely, the laws governing human conduct and life. When we understand this we are truly able to say: "And you shall call Sabbath a delight."

Shlomo Baiter is Rabbi of the Conservative Synagogue, Adath Israel ofRiverdale, Bronx, New York.


The Practice of Keeping ¡SAB DOROTHY C. BASS

ONE Saturday night a few years ago, a few teachers were sitting around a dinner table. Tomorrow, we whined, would not be a happy day; each of

us had to grade piles of papers we had promised to return on Monday. In fact, we started to boast in an odd sort of way, competing to see who had to grade more, who worked hardest, who was most put upon by the demands of his or her job.

That's when it hit me. Yes, we might occasionally break one of the other commandments - but if we did we would be ashamed, not boastful. I could not imagine this group sitting around saying, "I'm planning to take the name of the Lord in vain," or "I'm planning to steal, or commit adultery." But our approach to the Sabbath commandment was different. We had become so captivated by our work, so impressed by its demands upon us and by our own indispensability, that we had not even thought about this commandment since confirmation class - and there all we learned was that it meant we had to go to church, something we all still did. We were in the habit of church-going, but we were a long way from keeping the Sabbath holy.

This captivity - this complex of stress and anxiety that comes from feeling we have too little time - is rampant in our society. The arrangement of time is one of the basic building blocks in a society's way of life - and in our society, these blocks are building not a habitable dwelling, but an all-night arcade. Workers in every segment of the economy- from Wall Street lawyers to factory hands and hospital aides on double shifts - put in significantly more hours than comparable workers did a few decades ago. There is a brisk market in devices that claim to save time (interesting phrase - does it come from banking or from religion?). But somehow these devices never quite deliver.

In this situation, the commandment not to work on one day in seven comes as a judgment, on our society and on most of us. But this commandment also comes as a gift. It invites us into a way of life that is responsive to God's active presence in our lives and in the world. Considering the why of Sabbath-keeping will help us to see this.

The Ten Commandments appear twice in the Hebrew scriptures-once in Exodus and once in Deuteronomy. Remarkably, this commandment, and only this one, takes

quite different form in these two places. Both versions require the same behavior - work on six days, rest on one. But they give quite different reasons. What is wonderful is that each reason arises from a fundamental truth about God's relationship to humanity.

The Exodus commandment is grounded in the story of creation. The human pattern of six days of work and one of rest follows God's pattern as creator; God's people are to "remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy" because "in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it." Sharing this pattern of work and rest, human beings live in and as the image of God. By resting on that first seventh day, the theologian Karl Barth has pointed out, God declared as fully as possible just how very good creation is. Resting, God took pleasure in what had been made; God had no regrets, no need to go on to create a still better world or a creature more wonderful than the man and woman. Part of Sabbath-keeping, following this commandment, is entering into the glad circle of gratitude where this truth is acknowledged. In this glad circle, we know that not our efforts, but God's, are the source of life; and we know creation - nature and one another - as gifts to be enjoyed, not as natural or human resources to be used.

In Deuteronomy, on the other hand, the commandment is grounded in the experience of a people newly released from bondage.

Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lordyour God commanded you. 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-you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien iny our towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember thatyou were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Slaves cannot take a day off. Free people can. When

they stop work each seventh day, the people will remember that the Lord brought them out of slavery, and they will see to it that no one within their own domain, not even

1 6 · THE LIVING PULPIT/APRIL-JUNE 1998

BATH: A Gift For Our Time

animals, must work without respite. Sabbath rest is a recurring testimony against the drudgery of slavery.

These two versions of this commandment distill two of our most basic beliefs about who God is and what human beings are most frilly meant to be. They speak of creation and exodus; they call us to know ourselves as human beings shaped in God's image and trusting in God's provision, and to treat neither ourselves nor others as slaves.

As Christians, we also celebrate the new creation on each weekly day of rest and worship. The first day of the week was special to the earliest Christians: Sunday, the day on which the disciples had first encountered the risen Lord, became a day to gather, eat together and rejoice. Over the centuries, it became almost all Christians' day of rest as well. Although obligation has sometimes overruled joy in our Sunday observances, the basic meaning of the day is there to be claimed and proclaimed, as we celebrate each week God's victory over death. Sunday worship is not just about "going to church"; it is about taking part in the activity by which God is shaping a new creation. Worship is an essential part of a day that declares this, and so are other forms of play, rest and companionship.

It is time for us to help one another to step off of the treadmill of work-and-spend and into the circle of glad gratitude for the gifts of God. The practice of keeping Sabbath provides a regular reminder of God's creative, liberating and redeeming presence, not only in words but also through a practice we do together in response to that presence. But even beyond this, there are other benefits of Sabbath-keeping, and these could spill over to bless the whole world.

The practice of keeping Sabbath bears much wisdom for people seeking ways through the crises of these times and the stresses of contemporary life. "The solution of mankind's most vexing problems will not be found in renouncing technical civilization, but in attaining some degree of independence from it," wrote Abraham Joshua Heschel in The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man. Sabbath-keeping teaches us that independence. Refraining from work on a regular basis is a way of setting limits on behavior that is perilous for both human welfare and the

welfare of Earth itself. Overworked Americans need rest, andwQ need to be

reminded that we do not cause the grain to grow and that our greatest fulfillment does not come through the acquisition of material things. Moreover, the planet needs a rest from human plucking and burning and buying and selling. Discerning how to keep Sabbath in the particular context of each community will be a challenge, but it is one well worth accepting.

Dorothy C. Bass directs the Project on the Education and Formation of People in Faith at Valparaiso University. She edited and wrote the chapter on "Keeping Sabbath" in Practicing Our Faith: A Way of Life for a Searching People (Jossey-Bass, 1997).

'...thy torch doth show the way'

o. , day most calm, most bright! The fruit of this, the next world's bud, The endorsement of supreme delight, Writ by a Friend, and with His blood; The couch of Time; Care's balm and bay; The week were dark, but for thy light Thy torch doth show the way.

George Herbert, "Sunday'!

THE LIVING PULPIT· 17

BARBARA SILVERSMITH

O, begin! Fa some part of every day for prívate exercises... Whetheryou like it or not, read and pray daily. It is for your life; there is no other way; else you will be a trifler all your days... Do justice to your own soul; give it time and means to grow. Do not starve yourself any longer. - John Wesley

From the Historic Examination for Admission as full member of an Annual Conference, questions formulated by John Wesley and required for answering by every Methodist preacher: (5) Are you resolved to devote yourself wholly to God and his work? (17) Areyou determined to employ all your time in the workof God? (19) Will you observe the following directions? (a) Be diligent. Never be unemployed. Never be triflingly employed. Never trifle away time; neither spend any more time at any one place than is strictly necessary, (b) Be punctual. Do everything exactly at the time. Anddo not mend our rules, but keep them; not for wrath, but for conscience 's sake.

OKAY, I'll admit it. I didn't practice what I preached. Last month, in a sermon on sexuality, I asked my congregation to "get real!" and

honestly address today's issues which face pre-teens through retirees about sexuality. But, when I spoke to my ministerial colleagues at our fall gathering about a much more intimate subject, spirituality, I stuck to the "traditional tune" of praying and reading scripture. Yes, I do believe with all my heart Wesley's words in the first quote above. But I have serious questions about Wesley's second set of admonitions - particularly for us super-dedicated (sometimes driven) types who serve as pastors.

So, with the preachers I led at that district meeting, I tried to be playful about spirituality, and gave each person a chunk of clay for playing with the ideas I was presenting. I wanted them to understand that in this subject of spirituality, no one is an expert - and we need to play with the many ways of spiritual formation, just as they were invited to play and "form" their clay. And, of course, I encouraged them as a basic in this process to take and enjoy their Sabbath day. After all, if the Creator of the world took one out of seven days off in the process of creating our Earth, how much more we creatures need the same! How wise our Jewish "cousins" are, each Friday at sunset, as they stop, light the Sabbath candles and remember ; "So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation" (Gen 2:3).

But truth to tell, I wasn't real with them about what

really works for me. I wonder if that is because we church professionals, sad to say, are not very trustful of each other. I have continual problems disciplining myself to take time off totally - to take a Sabbath day of real rest from my ordinary weekly activities. After all, most of the tasks of ministry are absorbing - after a dozen years in the local church, I am still fascinated by crafting a sermon, or really paying attention to a parishioner reflecting on life from a hospital bed.

Nevertheless, I often fail to pray or read the Bible. Yes, I believe those two disciplines are the basics for the abundant life -just as food and drink are essential for basic life. But what I've really learned is that there are many different kinds of "spiritual" nourishment which offer good nutrition. Each person needs an individualized diet - and I hope our Creator balances it. When Wesley speaks of devoting oneself to God and God's work at all times, I wonder if Wesley would agree that flopping on my back and watching the clouds roll by is part of God's work - it's part of my Sabbath practice.

Now, here's what I really mean: Tradition teaches classical disciplines. Richard J. Foster, in Celebration of Discipline: The Path of Spiritual Growth, names 12. He calls fasting, meditation, prayer and study the inward disciplines. Outward disciplines are explained as simplicity, solitude, submission and service. The corporate disciplines he calls confession, worship, guidance and celebration. But what really works for me - my personal nutritious diet- is my own non-traditional adaptation of

© T H E LIVING PULPIT / APRIL-JUNE 1998

ΑΓΆ Moments

these. For solitude, I walk my dogs. For study, I read many other things besides the Bible. For confession, humbling myself, I work in the garden. So, I literally ground myself by working the earth - gardening keeps me humble.

Since this piece began with a confession, I might as well surface my addiction to ideas - that's my excuse for the colossal Cokesbury bookstore charges I run up year after year. There are, of course, always great new books about prayer, (e.g. Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki's In God's Presence), which I can read instead of praying!

My Sabbath practice one week consisted of several hours of shoveling gravel from a pile to the dog pen. While I was shoveling, I was praying - a long confession was needed that day. Out of that came these words to you! Also, the physical work gets the endorphins active in my brain -1 feel more alive. Hard physical work reminds me that I have a body which still works if I work it. But most important, I try to write each day. I sit at my computer for an hour and think theologically.

For example, a while ago on the interstate, I passed a truck with the bold message: 1-800-Call GOD. In smaller letters, GOD was explained as Guaranteed Overnight Delivery. Do you think those who use this shipping service really send their merchandise out on a wing and a prayer? This kind of playful thinking offers me Sabbath moments. There are other ways to do this. Several of my colleagues follow the example of AI Hubler, a now-retired pastor, who, when serving a local church, would sit in the sanctuary of his charge daily and write a letter to God. That can be Sabbath rest!

If I do not write on any day, I feel crabby, sad and disconnected from my Maker by the end of the day. If I don't write the second day, my husband notices that I am crabby, sad and disconnected from the source of my strength. By the third day, I'm sure my friends, coworkers and parishioners notice how "unreal" I am. By the seventh day - well, my life would desperately need sweetening.

So, what's my real message? Allow yourself that which gives you joy - then do it for the glory of God. That's where I differ with Wesley in that second quote; what may look like idling to others may be replenishing

for you. I've always claimed that I managed motherhood by never doing less than two things at once: talking on the phone while emptying the dishwasher, etc., etc. But now, I think the secret of serenity is to take mini-Sabbaths, to take time to do one thing only -even if it is simply to hand-wash a sweater, and to pay attention to the light falling on the suds, the smell of the wet wool, the satisfying sense of kneading with the muscles of my hands.

One Monday morning I took a Sabbath and brought one book of poetry to the Cleveland Botanical Center. Sitting there in the garden, I met a fellow who was puttering about in one of the perennial beds. Somehow the conversation came round to the fact that he was an Episcopal priest from quite a distance out of the city, who volunteered at this garden center every Monday. This was his Sabbath - concentrating wholly on an activity outside of his ordinary ones, helping to perfect a place of beauty and order.

As I reflect upon all this, I see that one gift leads to another - by beginning with the three things I love to do, the other "necessaries" in spiritual life do get attention-though not in the traditional way. I manage to make a Sabbath out of many moments during the week. Perhaps it would be best to take 24 hours strictly off and away from "the job," but I've been real with you on how all this has really worked out for me. How does all this happen for you-honestly?

Barbara A. SilverSmith is Associate Pastor of Church of the Savior (United Methodist) in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

Anybody can observe the Sabbath,

but making it holy surely takes the rest

of the week.

Alice Walker,

In Search of Our Mothers ' Gardens


Chase's LARRY RASMUSSEN

4 4 A NCIENT WISDOM," an article by Nan f \ Chase in Hemispheres, an in-flight airline

X jLmagazine, described her discovery of the sanity of Sabbath in a society that boasts, rather than repents of, offering everyone everything all the time. Sabbath on such saturated and frenzied terrain, she writes, is a "mental health tool" that can "work for anyone, no matter what religion you practice (or don't practice)." It is "a way to stop the onslaught of obligations, improve your social life, keep the house clean, revive your tired marriage, elevate spiritual awareness, and improve productivity at work, all overnight and without cost!" Given results like these, Chase's conclusion that Sabbath is the greatest gift the Hebrews gave humanity comes as no surprise.

Sabbath, for Nan Chase, began in the marriage counselor's office. During the second session (it turned out to be the last) Nan and Saul hit upon a day off together once a week. A disarmingly simple solution, it worked -for the marriage, for the family, for their harried lives. Furthermore, it didn't entail new commitments. No elaborate rituals, no hours in prayer or study at synagogue. It did bring them to reading the theology of Sabbath together, however, and from there they entered upon a broadening fascination with ancient wisdom and its relevance.

Chase's discovery of Sabbath as an effective "mental-health tool" is undoubtedly significant. Her life, including her career, is the better for it. A saving rhythm insinuated itself into her otherwise zany week; needed relaxation was nicely coupled with recreation and good eats; and, perhaps most important, that always elusive quality time with spouse and kids reappeared just when it and the marriage seemed to be slipping away. Little wonder her happy testimonial to thousands of crammed airline passengers finishes with the comment, "I look forward to my weekly holiday." Scolding Nan Chase for an utterly utilitarian and secular use of Sabbath probably isn't in good taste. Her search for a sanity-inducing "weekly holiday" only reflects the cultural narcissism and solipsism of millions of her compatriots and may even be the right remedy for the most anti-Sabbath society in history.

But does a healthy day off constitute Sabbath, even when it is considered "ancient wisdom" reborn? Maybe it is, if in due course it leads the Chases from

the good of bodily rest and enjoyment of one another into wonder and praise of God. After all, one of the two remembrances in "Remember[ing] the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy" is cher le 'ma 'aseh b 'ereyshit (in remembrance of the events of creation). All interference in the natural order is disallowed and all the "tilling and hammering and carrying and burning" (Dorothy C. Bass, Keeping Sabbath) that tallies as the relentless human transformation of the material world is forbidden. Don't even think about commerce. "Lay off all work" is the command.

The grandeur of the universe is to be appreciated on its own terms, apart from any human use and as a steady reminder of our total dependence upon that which is not of our doing. All things bright and beautifiil, great and small, wise and wonderful, flow from their source in Eloheynu, the Creator and Sustainer of all that ever was, is, and shall be. So lose yourself in wonder at the giftedness of life, its pleasures and its God. Pray, read the Torah, and enjoy. Rabbi Heschel's response to the remembrance of the events of creation is the right one: "Just to be is a blessing; just to live is holy." So perhaps the Chases have it right after all, if their discovery of true wealth eventually leads them to the Source itself and quiet praise of God.

Yet there isn't a clue anywhere in Nan Chase's Hemispheres gospel that Sabbath bears a second remembrance: zeycherle ' tziyat mitzrayim (in remembrance of going out from Egypt). Sabbath, after all, is post-Exodus legislation. It is remembrance of liberation from slavery and the passionate God who struggles against all the anti-life forces loose in the world, just as it is remembrance that the People of God are chosen as joint participants in the sublime cause of just community. Their righteousness is their part in a redemption encompassing history and nature together.

Chase's Sabbath fails here. It divorces spirituality from politics and economics. In the biblical Sabbath there is no such divorce, no sundering of worship and prayer from the Monday work of justice. Or, more precisely, whenever such sundering does occur in the biblical drama of this avant-garde people, it invokes God's wrath. The God of the Sabbath rejects "the noise of solemn assemblies" (Amos) and raises up a prophet to remind the people yet one more time that ritual and morality are two


SABBATH

manifestations of the same life and calling. Awe and wonder before the God of life ("in remembrance for the events of creation") is coupled with fiery discontent over life's violations ("in remembrance of going out from Egypt"). The God who spins out galaxies without end and assigns the cells of all creatures their unending tasks is the God of divine pathos who commands human transformation of the world in accord with the canons of righteousness. The Creator redeems, and the Redeemer creates, in a reach that spans inner spirit, social and cosmic realms.

Blessings, Nan Chase. I wish you well in your unfolding discovery and celebration of Sabbath. It may improve your life in the way you say, for a season. You are right that we would all sing our lives a little better with Sabbath than without. And you are surely right that Sabbath is a great Hebrew gift. Yet whole lives are not possible in a broken world. Sabbath, then, is not about adjustment, relief, mental health, or haven. And it does not let the world be what it

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION

1. Publication: The Living Pulpit. 2. Publication No.: 1059-2733. 3.DateofFiling:March7, 1998. 4. Issue Frequency: Quarterly 5. No. of issues published annually: 4. 6. Annual subscription price: $39. 7. Complete mailing address of known office of publication: 5000 Independence Avenue, Bronx, NY 10471-2804. 8. Full names and complete mailing address of publisher, editor and managing editor; Publisher: Robert B. Birge 5000 Independence Avenue, Bronx, NY 10471-2804; Editor: Dr. Keith A. Russell, American Baptist Seminary of West, 2606 Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA 94704; Managing editor, Virginia Grab, 51 Montgomery Street, Tivoli, NY 12583; 10. Owner: The Living Pulpit, Inc., 5000 Independence Avenue, Bronx, NY 10471-2804; 11. Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders owning or holding 1 percent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities, None. 12. The purpose, function and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for federal income tax purposes has not changed during the preceding 12months. 13. Publication name: The Living Pulpit. 14. Issue date for circulation data below: Oct-Dec, 1997.15. Extent and nature of circulation. A. Total no. copies (net press run) Average number copies in each issue during the preceding 12 months,

is the rest of the week. To say it with a slightly different twist: the remembrances

that keep the Sabbath Day holy are not a creation and projection of ourselves, even for our own good. The Sabbath command is not our own voice replayed as God's, and certainly not as a weekly private enclave in a world of public pain. Sabbath is a word of life that is rather strange to us and that comes by opening ourselves to God. Sabbath and its remembrances are a creation and projection not of ourselves, but of God. Keeping the Sabbath, then, means joining God as mystery that surpasses us and purpose that outstrips us. Graciously, it also happens to include the burning mysteries of our own meager and precious lives.

Larry L. Rasmussen is Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary, New York City. His most recent book, Earth Community, Earth Ethics (Orbis, 1996), won the Grawemeyer Award in Religion.

14,500. Actual no. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 15,000. B. Paid and/or requested circulation, 1. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors and counter sales: average each issue: none. Actual no. copies of single issue published nearest filing date, none. 2. Paid or requested mail subscriptions, average, etc. 10,345; single issue, 11,579. C. Total paid and/or requested circulation: Average, etc. 10,345; single issue, etc.: 11,579; D. Free distribution by mail, samples, complimentary and other free, Average, etc.: 350; single issue, etc. 400; E. Free distribution outside the mail, Average, etc. 500; Single issue, etc. 575; F. Total free distribution; Average, etc. 850; single issue, etc. 975; G. Total distribution, Average, etc. 11,195; Single issue, etc. 12,554; H. Copies not distributed: 1. Office use, leftover, spoiled, Average, etc. 3,305; single issue, etc. 2,446; 2. Return from news agents Average, etc., none; Single issue, etc. none. I. Total: Average, etc. 14,500; single issue, 15,000. Percent paid and/or requested circulation, Average, etc. 92, Single issue, etc. 92. This statement of ownership will be printed in the April-June, 1998 issue of this publication. Signature and title of editor, publisher, business manager or owner, Robert B. Birge, publisher. Date: March 7,1998. I certify that all information furnished in this form is true and complete.


MARTHA J. HÖRNE

IN North Carolina in the 1950's, everyone knew that Sunday was not like other days. In the town of my childhood, almost everyone went to church on Sun

day. There was one Jewish synagogue in town, certainly a few atheists and agnostics, and probably some Seventh Day Adventists. The population was overwhelmingly Christian, however, and most folks spent several hours in church each Sunday.

My family was no exception: busy with the activities of the Altar Guild, acolytes and Sunday School, we rarely missed a Sunday. The day was marked by certain rituals. On the night before, shoes were polished, satin sashes and hair ribbons ironed, Sunday dresses and suits neatly pressed. There was the rush to get out of the house on time, lest someone else arrive before us and take "our" pew. Once in place, the ritual continued, as voices were lifted in the familiar and stately cadences of the Book of Common Prayer. Church was followed by a family dinner of fried chicken, rice and gravy, with the afternoon spent reading or visiting with members of the extended family.

It was a familiar routine, repeated in the homes of many of my friends. Sunday was a day to refrain from our daily work and to worship God in church. Not that there were many options: public and private offices were closed, and "blue laws" kept retail stores tightly locked on Sundays. The laws were effective, but we knew that it was really God 's law that made Sundays different. "Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy," was the fourth of the Ten Commandments we memorized in Sunday School. It was God's wish that we should keep the Sabbath by resting from all labor, and that no member of our family, no employee and no household visitor worked on that day. Furthermore, we were to remember that God himself ( and it was "himself in those days) rested from the work of Creation on the seventh day. If God observed a Sabbath, so should we!

We were not troubled by the fact that the seventh day of the week was Saturday instead of Sunday. We understood that Sunday was the Lord's Day, and therefore holy, because it was on Sunday that Christ had risen from the grave. So Sunday became our Sabbath, and we tried to keep it holy, as God had commanded.

Scholars who trace the development of Sabbath observ-


SABBATH ance in ancient Israel note that the earliest formulations command that agricultural work cease on the Sabbath, while later formulations state that all labor should be stopped. Over time, other changes occurred. By the time of the dedication of the Second Temple in 516 BCE, the keeping of the Sabbath was clearly linked to the corporate worship of God in God's sanctuary. The commandment to desist from labor had been combined with an admonition to keep the Sabbath holy by assembling for worship. What was once a negative prohibition : "do no work" gained a more positive dimension: "Honor God by keeping the Sabbath and by assembling for worship in God's sanctuary." A common day of rest made possible a time for corporate worship.

The keeping of the Sabbath has become a low priority for most Americans. For many, perhaps most, there is no day of rest. Offices and stores are open on Sundays, work spills over from weekdays whose hours are stretched to the max, household tasks demand to be done, and many people need Sunday wages in order to survive. We have lost Sunday as a day of rest.

Old Testament scholar H. H. Rowley observed that "It is significant that in our day impatience with the Sabbath as a day of rest is the accompaniment of the widespread abandonment of the Sabbath as a day of worship." Behind that statement lies an awareness of the necessity of time for worship - not just time to say the prayers and sing the hymns, but time to be still and to be caught up in the presence of God. The pages of scripture are full of stories of God's coming to people during times of rest.

When work and the countless demands of daily life fill all our hours; when our minds are preoccupied by relentless demands and distractions, it is not surprising that we fail to apprehend the holy in our midst. "The day of rest is not a special time that can conjure up holiness," writes Niels-Erik Andreasen, "It contains no magic... .It is the setting aside of all other preoccupations that sanctifies this day... .Holiness can only be experienced by providing it with the occasion, which is setting aside all other preoccupations."

While the Exodus account of the Decalogue cites God's own example of resting from work on the seventh day, the Deuteronomic account sounds a different note: "You shall

and Compassion remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out thence with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day." God showed mercy on the people of Israel, delivering them from their time of trial and toil. God's people are to behave in a similar fashion, therefore, having mercy on those who are burdened, giving them a break from their labor, as God gave the Israelites a break from theirs.

Note the long list of those who are not to work on the Sabbath: "You, or your son, or your daughter, or your manservant, or your maidservant, or your ox, or your ass, or any of your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you." Children, servants, strangers: like the animals in the list, these are people whose lives are dependent on the support and care of others. There is more to the Sabbath than the cessation of labor; Sabbath observance includes an act of compassion towards those who are dependent on us, or those who cannot care for themselves. To keep the Sabbath is to honor God by having compassion on the weak and lowly.

Much is said, these days, about the need to recover a sense of Sabbath in the church and in society. A recent conference at the Seminary where I work identified "more Sabbath time" for faculty and students as a goal. I'm sympathetic to the intent. I know that our lives are too

τ Xhe Sabbath or Sunday.. .is a time to affirm that living, not work, is our real goal. We work to live;

we do not live to work. Work itself should become increasingly unalienated and expressive of

creativity. But, in unredeemed time, we still live in an age where much of the work by which we live

is alienated work. Sabbath or Sunday becomes the time to celebrate unalienated work, those activities

by which we recreate ourselves, whether that be conversation, lying about and reading, playing games

or even puttering in our gardens,... Without the regular celebration of the Sabbath, the world sinks

totally into alienation. Through learning to keep the Sabbath, we may redeem the world from

alienation, or as the rabbinic tradition puts it, if Israel can keep faith fully two Sabbaths in a row, they

would bring in the messianic age.

Rosemary Radford Ruether, Women-Church

frenetic and frantic, that we need more time for rest and reflection. What concerns me, however, is our tendency to think of "Sabbath time "as time just for ourselves - a break from our normal routines and responsibilities, and a chance to pursue our own interests and projects. Have we lost an understanding of Sabbath that is "other-directed" - that points beyond ourselves to God, of course, but also to those who are dependent on us and need a compassionate response from us?

In the Talmud, Rabbi Johanan declared that if Israel could achieve the perfect observance of two Sabbaths, redemption would be at hand. We no longer look to the Law, nor to any righteous deed of our own for salvation. That has come in Christ. But a recovery of the Sabbath might offer more than a respite from our labor and a time to gather for corporate worship - as important as they are. The recovery of ritual - and time to observe it - might make us more open, more receptive to God's presence in our midst. Perhaps most important of all, keeping the Sabbath might remind us each week that we were once slaves whom God delivered from bondage, and call forth from us those acts of compassion that are the true knowledge and service of God.

Martha J. Home is Dean and President of The Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia in Alexandria, Va..


FUTILE LABOR VS. FERTILE LABOR:

RICKIE DALE MOORE

Observing the ¡SAB

THE short psalm ascribed to Solomon in the 127th division of the Psalter offers a suggestive, if indirect, resource for observing the import of the

Sabbath. Unless the Lord builds the house,

those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city,

the watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain that you rise early and go late to rest,

eating the bread of anxious toil (w. l-2a). The psalm begins with the subject of house building

(v. la), then moves on to the matter of guarding what has been built (v. lb), before arriving at a pointed statement which shifts address to the reader in asserting the vanity or futility of human toil (v. 2a). Building, toil, vanity - all are terms which certainly accord with the ascription to Solomon, reminding us of another portion of Hebrew Scripture associated with this regal high-achiever. Ecclesiastes' emphasis on the vanity of human toil, together with its subdued but persistent undercurrent of exhorting the enjoyment of one's present portion of life, have prompted some to see this heavy book, in the end, as making a rather strong, if indirect, argument for the merits of a Sabbath-oriented life.

But where is the Sabbath in this psalm? It comes in the simple and certain acknowledgment at the end of verse 2:

For He grants sleep to those He loves (v. 2b). This statement is a rejoinder to the preceding conclusion about the futility of, as we call it, "burning the candle at both ends." When it comes to building projects, our conventional wisdom says, uWork, work, work! " But this poem counters our anxious obsession for work with God's gift of rest. It is a gracious rebuke of our workaholism.

We put stock in our efforts and our initiatives as if our lives depended upon them, only to learn too late, perhaps like Solomon, that real life comes as a gift from a loving source. Life isn't made "the old-fashioned way," as the investment firm's advertisement claims, "because we earned it." God's Sabbath calls our work to a halt in order to give us a chance to remember and to observe whence our life really and truly comes. Since

God is the source, His portion of rest yields more than all of our toil.

The last half of the psalm, which has often been accused of changing the subject, actually serves to elaborate what the Sabbath-receiving life of the Lord produces.

Children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward (v. 3).

These are the beneficent terms of God's labor contract: in the place of vain labor, we are offered labor which brings forth children. Sons and daughters, far from representing a change of subject, constitute the very house that the Lord sets out to build. Just as we are prone to think "toil" when it comes to the activity of building, we are inclined to think of a building when it comes to the matter of a "house." But this poem again subverts our vain inclinations.

For the house which the Lord is involved in building does not consist of bricks or lumber, but rather and precisely of sons and daughters. That's the kind of house that the Lord had in mind when He promised Solomon's father, David, "I will build a house for you" (2 Sam 7:11). How deeply the world view of this psalm makes this connection can be seen in the fact that the Hebrew words for "build" (banah), "house" (bayith), "daughters" (banoth), and "sons" (banim), all come from the same Hebrew root (bnh)\ This psalm ingeniously works (or plays!) with words from the same root family in order to display family as the supreme fruit of all work.

The psalm has another important connection to make. In reference to guarding the city, the other human endeavor initially lifted up for consideration, the poem finally wants to insist that having children - not military strategy, not security systems, not insurance policies -having children is ultimately our best protection against the life threats that we so fear. Just as this psalm offers rest as the surprising answer to the futility of our self-grounded efforts at construction, it proposes having children as the surprising alternative to our vain efforts to secure and sustain ourselves.

In contrast to the unfortunate one who trusts in the "watchman (who) stands guard in vain" (v.lb) is

24 · THE LIVING PULPIT / APRIL-JUNE 1998

BATH in Psalm 127

the "blessed one" whose house and years are filled with children.

Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one 's youth

Blessed is the one whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame

when they contend with their enemies in the gate (w.4-5).

The threat of a cursed life of vanity, which is introduced in the first verse of the psalm, is at last answered in the final verse by the promise of a blessed life. The blessed life, here, finally consists in nothing other than the plenitude of one's children, and what's more, the blessedness is secured and protected by nothing other than the children themselves!

It might seem odd that such wisdom, as this psalm offers, would be ascribed to Solomon. After all, this king is known for an excessive, not to mention oppressive, building program that led to a broken kingdom (if you follow 1 Kings) and to an epithet of utter futility (if you follow Ecclesiastes). Moreover, Solomon is known for perverting the blessing of procreation, through his presumptuous indulgence with a thousand women.

On the other hand, this wisdom may suit Solomon a lot better than it suits us. For we live in a society that conditions us to take nothing as seriously as our work. Our doing is our ground of being. Our language, no less than the Hebrews', reveals our world view in this regard. And so when people ask, "What do you do?" or "What are you?" we tell them about our work. And as regards children, we are conditioned to experience them as dependents, minors (!) who depend upon our livelihood, more often than as blessings upon which our very life depends. Children who grow up as burdens rather than as blessings inherit the burden of their progenitors: they must "make something of themselves"; they must do something significant if they are ever to be anything significant. So human "doings " become the source and the end of human beings. Human beings are left to become mere means. No wonder our Western society has developed such an aggressive work ethic and has worked its way to

such amazing and efficient methods of, among other things, preventing conception and procreation. When the means (our children) impede our end (our work), we work out a way to stop them. But nothing remains to justify stopping our work.

Thus we construct a world without Sabbath and (increasingly) without children, God's two holy witnesses against the vanity of our doing and the emptiness of our being. It is a world about which this psalm and Ecclesiastes both warn us, a world whose final epithet has already been written:

Unless the Lord builds the world, Then for its buiders, all is vanity.

Against this curse there is offered a blessed hope. Hopefully, our epithet, unlike Solomon's, has not yet been written.

Rickie Dale Moore is Professor of Old Testament at the Church of God Theological Seminary, Cleveland, Tenn. His is founding co-editor of the Journal of Pentecostal Theology, published by Sheffield Academic Press.

In human love, as depicted in this book (the Song of Songs),

the true Sabbath is reenacted: the delight in creation; the delight God takes in creation and creation takes

in God; the emerging of all of creation-animals and plants, stars and moon-

to share in the joy of lovers. A new creation or re-creation story, a redemption of the story of

the Garden of Eden, is offered in the Song of Songs.

Matthew Fox, The Reinvention of Work


On Women and ¡SABBATH/tei PENELOPE MARK-STUART

WHEN I was growing up, Sabbath Day was indeed a day set apart. We knew we must "keep it holy" (Ex 20:8), and for my family

this meant attending church every Sunday, illness being the only acceptable excuse for absenteeism. Coming from such a large family, seven children, at least five of whom were home at any one time, our church-going always seemed on the scale of a small invasion! And what a handsome-looking picture we made too, "all in our places with bright shiny faces," thanks to the tireless efforts of my mother who spent enormous amounts of time curling hair, tying shoelaces, finding errant socks and generally getting us all "church-ready."

We had special clothes which we wore only to church - our "Sunday best." And as nice as I supposed they made me look, I hated them with a purple passion! A young lady in those days always wore a dress to church, slacks being an abomination before the Lord our God, even in the unmerciful deep-freeze of a northern Ontario winter. With a dress of course, one had to wear leotards - detestable things that insisted on twisting and contorting themselves around my legs the minute I got them on, making it look as though I was executing a perfect pirouette just standing still! And summer or winter, everyone of the female persuasion was expected to wear a hat in church. My hat was possessed of a decidedly nasty disposition and constantly dug its elastic strap into my chin every time I tried to speak; thus did I adhere to St. Paul's edict that women keep silent in church long before I even knew that Scripture passage existed!

After church, our house grew warm and fragrant with the sanctified smells of my father's Sunday breakfasts -bacon and eggs, or pancakes and sausages. And of course the instant we got home, Mom started preparing the roast for Sunday supper; so soon this delicious aroma was mingling with the others and rising like a home cooked incense right to the very nostrils of the Almighty.

With the luxury of hindsight, I can see now that my childhood Sabbaths were celebrated quite differently by men than by women. The Hebrew Scriptures detail three fundamental elements of Sabbath observance: assembly (Lev 23:3), sacrifice (Num 28:9-10) and rest (Ex 20:8-11). But it was my experience that while women might attend

the assembly, they often had to sacrifice their rest to do so! Childcare could not be put on hold simply because it was Sunday, and in those days this was considered women's work. Certainly my mother would never have thought to take a nap in the afternoon - there just wasn't time, what with the special cooking chores, looking after little ones and entertaining visitors who often dropped by Sunday afternoon or evening. Housework, other than the mountain of dishes we kids had to clean up after supper, was to be avoided on Sundays, but frequently my mother and whichever of her daughters were old enough, exercised a special dispensation to play a hurried and surreptitious game of "Hide The Mess" if unexpected company was spied coming down the walkway! All in all, the women I knew growing up were as likely to be as tired on Sunday as any other day of the week.

Now here we are, some 30 years later, and I wonder, has much changed for women? Women are still the primary care-givers to children and the elderly. We are still responsible for most of the housework, only now we usually hold down full-time jobs outside the home as well. Mandatory overtime, stores and businesses open seven days a week, and home offices all conspire to fill up more and more leisure time. Rest, on the Sabbath, or any other day, seems just as elusive as ever.

And the fatigue women experience today can exact a pernicious toll on their bodies and spirits. Judith Duerk, in A Circle of Stones: Woman's Journey To Herself discusses how some women are actually relieved to contract some horrendous disease such as cancer, since they can, for the first time in their lives, get the rest they so desperately need - and not feel guilty about it! What a pathetic and telling statement about the mindset of contemporary women, that they feel they must "do it all" and not get tired doing it! Is it any wonder that depression is the number one presenting mental illness among women? For these women, and many more like them, getting enough rest has become a matter of survival. But hasn't our God already made provision for this and don't we then have the right and duty to claim it?

Sabbath rest is both a discipline and a grace. Since it comes as a gift from the very heart of God, we cannot disregard it as an unnecessary or optional part


SABBATH:

The Sacred Rest ThatBuMs The Soul B. MICHAEL WATSON

OUR Creator God gives good and perfect gifts. One of God's wonderful gifts is Sabbath rest. We are free to accept this gift and experience a

wonderful renewal that nourishes the soul. We are wise when we accept God's good gift with joy and with thanksgiving.

The created order has within it a divinely composed rhythm that leads to an abundant life. When we dance to that rhythm, we are blessed. Ignoring this rhythm threatens our spiritual formation and endangers the soul. We have been created in the image of God, but we are also in the process of becoming. Our spirits are being formed and recreated moment by moment. To be reformed in the image of God requires the sacred rhythm of work, play and rest.

Consider the human body. Physical exercise is most productive when balanced with periods of rest. Muscles are stressed during the exertion of a physical workout. We are told that muscle cells are actually lost in the process, yet the body relies on the period of rest to replace lost cells and add new ones for the strengthening of the organ. Actually, it is in the period of the rest that the muscle grows, and without that rest the stressed muscle would fail entirely. In this sense, real body building is accomplished after the physical workout while the body is at rest.

Soul-building also demands periods of rest. As it is with the body, so it is with the soul: stress tears down and

(continuedfrom page 26) of our Sabbath observance. It is as mandatory as the call to holiness. No doubt it will take some sacrifice to reorder our lives to be faithful to this call, but when we can still the activity of our bodies, even for a short time, we free our spirits for communion. If, in our busy lives, we find we can take no time for sunsets or symphonies, walks in the woods or weekend retreats, we will starve ourselves as surely as if we'd stopped eating.

Perhaps pastors and pastoral ministers, too, need to extend certain understanding and compassion to the woman who occasionally decides to drop the kids off at Sunday school and spends that hour worshipping God in the midst of a long hot bath or from under the quilt on

rest builds up. God gave us the sacred gift of Sabbath rest to enable our souls to have the times needed to enlarge and grow.

Jesus understood the importance of Sabbath, but he did not view it legalistically. In Mark 2:27, Jesus said: "The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath." As with every spiritual discipline, keeping a sacred Sabbath rest is not to be practiced with drudgery or with disdain for human need. Sabbath is sacred when kept with gratitude. Also, there are times when genuine compassion calls us to give up Sabbath rest in order to meet the pressing demands of another claim upon our lives. Jesus responded to the man with the withered hand and healed him on the Sabbath, but he was wise enough to take time apart to feed his own soul.

The Creator has offered us the freedom to rest. We can refuse this gracious gift to our peril. We can gratefully receive the gift of sacred rest, and in the words of Psalm 37, "Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for God." We can allow God to calm our troubled souls. When the stress of life and the anxiety of daily living drains our soul, we can find our rest in the Sabbath of God's renewing grace. We can dance to the rhythm of God as we experience the creative strength of Sabbath rest.

B. Michael Watson is Senior Pastor at Dauphin Way United Methodist Church in Mobile, Ala.

the living room sofa. Can we not learn to see Sabbath rest itself as sacramental, as an act of worship, or is our God a God only of our rising up and not of our lying down as well?

Women, (or men for that matter), need not feel guilty about answering the holy call to rest. Rather than ignoring our fatigue, or despising it, let's hear in it the emphatic, clarion call of God summoning us to a celebration of sanctified rest, and, (to paraphrase George Herbert), "let our weariness toss us to God's breast."

Penelope Mark-Stuart is writer-in-residence at Salty Christian Enterprises in Amherstberg, Ontario.


SABBATH: A Call For Restoration and Release KEITH A. RUSSELL

JESUS introduces his public work in Luke (4:1-16) with a proclamation of "Jubilee." Reading from the prophet Isaiah, Luke's Jesus declares:

The Spirit of the lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor

He has sent me to proclaim release

to the captives and recovery of sight to

the blind, to let the oppressed go free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor

Jubilee is from a Hebrew word (yobel) which means "ram" and, by extension, ram's horn. Jubilee is used in the Hebrew Scripture to designate a certain moment in the sacred calendar of Israel, the 50th year, whose onset was announced by the sound of a ram's horn trumpet (Lev 25:9-10). According to Leviticus 25:8-55, Jubilee is a call for liberty: the release of indentured workers, the restoration to clans of family farms which had been lost to creditors, and the temporary relief for humans and the land itself from the burdens of agriculture.

The practice of Jubilee has its origins in the tradition and laws around keeping the Sabbath (Ex20:8-ll, 34:21; Deut 5:12-15; Lev 23:3) and the Sabbatical year (Lev 25). The seventh day is the Sabbath; the seventh year is the sabbatical; the year after the seventh Sabbatical is Jubilee. Sabbath, Sabbatical and Jubilee all share common themes: restoration, release and rest. The seventh day is a time for rest and recreation; the seventh year is a time for restoration and relief, and the seventh Sabbatical is a time for redistribution and renewal.

A recent conference of Baptist Bible scholars and theologians meeting around the theme of Jubilee concluded:

...the Biblical institution of the Jubilee year provided the

people of Israel an occasion for practical action and for

worship. Regarding the former, the Jubilee prescriptions were

designed to restore, at regular intervals, social and economic

relationships to health (Hebrew: shalom). As the community

celebrated Jubilee, it recognized that there was a basic

standard of economic justice which must be maintained for

all members of the community. In addition, Jubilee was

recognition that there was a level place, a home, representing

ethical imperatives, core beliefs and symbols of faith, to which

all members of a covenant community must periodically return.

I would suggest that one of the most challenging aspects of keeping Sabbath in our world would be to reintroduce the concept of Jubilee to our churches. How could we introduce structural practices in the lives of our churches that would lead to a restoration of persons and possessions every 50 years? What would it look like if churches were to practice the kind of radical economic sharing which Jubilee suggests? Is it possible to redistribute wealth within a congregation every 50 years so that no one would be poor, hungry or in need? Would congregations on the basis of Jubilee be willing to share whatever resources they had accumulated with the poor and needy in their community? Could we declare that every 50 years we are going to start over? We could forgive debts, economic and spiritual; redistribute wealth among the faithful; and provide new services to the community.

Even as I write this I realize how strange and offensive it sounds. Why are we so shaped by the standards of a world that allows for no forgiveness, little charity, and no sharing based on need? How did we in the churches get so removed from biblical notions of justice that the concept of Jubilee sounds un-American and unacceptable?

It would be easier on us if Sabbath were primarily about rest in only a personal sense. That is, however, only the beginning understanding of the more comprehensive notion of restoration and release which originates in creation itself. How could we open ourselves and our belief communities to a consideration of Sabbath, Sabbatical and Jubilee? It might be difficult to do, but what a rich arena for exploration, growth and change. How might one construct a preaching/teaching agenda on this topic?

Keith A. Russell is Editor-in-Chief 'o/The Living Pulpit and President of American Baptist Seminary of the West in Berkeley, California.

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SABBATH Tune NANCY BLOOMER

UNTIL two months ago I had served as a parish priest for 10 years without a break. I had often day-dreamed about having a sabbatical

leave. Now, through circumstances that were unwanted and unplanned, I am having that long-awaited furlough.

, It was an adjustment at first to think about this time off in positive terms, as Sabbath time, which means a period of time for rest and worship. A more negative view calls it " unemployment" or " down time," since I resigned my parish position because of illness and too much stress. What we call something matters. When I think of this period of my life as unemployment, I get scared and begin to worry and fret about the future. When I think of it as a gift from God to be used for God's purposes, then it becomes an exciting adventure.

Sometimes we have to be knocked down in order to get what we need. Sometimes we have to fail in order to find what is most important. God may even be behind such maneuvers even though we resist seeing it that way. So how does a knocked down, dragged-out clergywoman spend a Sabbath? First, I moved. The geographical cure has benefits. Then I rested. Like being on retreat, I spent a lot of time at first sleeping, reading and watching old movies. These healing activities are gradually erasing the effects of too much stress for too long a period. Watching Doris Day in Lullaby of Broadway may not seem like a religious activity, but it is, I believe, God-given. Boy meets girl. They dance and sing. They overcome obstacles and finally achieve happiness. I come away from this afternoon indulgence thinking, "Things turn out." And isn't this the crux of God's redemption? Things turn out. Obstacles are overcome. Be patient and let God do God's work.

Third, I am working out and swimming at the local Y. Physical activity is important for getting in touch with the inner sources of renewal. But rest and exercise are not enough. Sabbath means "worship" as well as rest, so I have been setting aside time each day for long, silent, times with God. I don't talk to God; I don't tell God what I want or need; I simply and quietly spend time with God, knowing and being known.

On Sundays I attend a local church and have the privilege of worshipping with others. At first this wasn't a joy. I was approaching worship as a "religious professional," mentally taking notes, critiquing the sermon and taking a head count. This phase quickly passed, though; now I am a parishioner. I chat with my neighbor in the pew; I gratefully receive the Holy Communion from a different side of the altar rail. When I was celebrant, I used to say the familiar invitation to communion: "The Gifts of God for the People of God. Take them in remembrance that Christ died for you, and feed on him in your hearts by faith, with thanksgiving." Now I am the "you." We all sin and fall short of the glory of God. We all need the gift of Christ's new life.

Scott Peck writes, "When we realize that everything that happens to us has been designed to teach us what we need to know on our journey of life, we begin to see life from a different perspective." Sabbath time provides the opportunity to reflect on and accept the teachings into which God is leading us. I didn't think I needed it. Yet, I now think of it as a God-given gift so that I can learn what God wants me to know. And what does God want meto learn?

First, I can trust God. God knows what God is doing. My agenda often gets in the way. My fear blocks out faith. I am learning that "All shall be well. All shall be well. All manner of things shall be well."

Second, my soul's health is important to God; therefore, it should be important to me. As a parish priest, I was more concerned for the souls of others than I was for my own.

Third, the key to everything is gratitude. Seeing the glass half full rather than half empty is not just good advice; it is the key to experiencing the fullness of life God wants for us. Even in illness, even in uncertainty, I am learning to give thanks. I know that I can give thanks because I belong to God and am sustained by God's love.

Nancy Bloomer is an Episcopal priest living in Essex Junction, Vt.


HEBREW SCRIPTURES Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy.

Exodus 20:8

.. .he said to them, "This is what the Lord has commanded: Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord; bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning.'"...Mosessaid, "Eatittoday,fortoday isaSabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none."

Exodus 16:23,25-26

But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work - you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it. Exodus 20:10-11

You shall keep the sabbath, because it is holy for you; everyone who profanes it shall be put to death; whoever does any work on it shall be cut off from among the people. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall be putto death. Therefore the Israelites shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a perpetual covenant.

Exodus 31:14-16

Speak to the people of Israel and say to them : When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land shall observe a sabbath for the Lord. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in their yield; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath for the Lord: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.

Leviticus 25:2-4

Then the land shall enjoy its sabbath years as long as it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its sabbath years.

Leviticus 26:34

But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work - you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

Deuteronomy 5:14-15

...and if the peoples of the land bring in merchandise or any grain on the sabbath day to sell, we will not buy it from them on the sabbath or on a holy day; and we will forego the crops of the seventh year and the exaction of every debt.

Nehemiah 10:31

Happy is the mortal who does this, the one who holds it fast, who keeps the sabbath, not profaning it, and refrains from doing any evil.

Isaiah 56:2

If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Isaiah 58:13-14

• THE LIVING PULPIT / APRIL-JUNE 1998

ON THE MANY VIEWS OF SABBATH

NEW TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES Every Sabbath he would argue in the synagogue and

would try to convince Jews and Greeks. Acts 18:4

EDITORS' NOTE: The first disciples of Jesus were Jews, Jews for whom Sabbath-keeping was part of their Jewish identity. The early church, seeking to establish its own identity separate from Judaism, recognized both the thoroughly Jewish nature of Sabbath and the need to disassociate itself from that Jewish doctrine. Thus early attempts to relate Jesus to the Sabbath and to claim rest as a (tChristian " doctrine often presented Sabbath and Sabbath-keeping practices in a negative light. Preachers are urged to consider this historical setting for the Sabbath narratives, so that today we will not continue the anti-Jewish sentiment implied in some of these texts.

He said to them, "Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while." For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.

Mark 6:31

Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Matthew 11:28-30

One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?"...Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath." Mark 2:23-24,27-28

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak later about another day. So then, a Sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; for those who enter God's rest also cease from their labors as God did from his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs. Hebrews 4:8-11

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath, they were watching him closely. Just then, in front of him, there was a man who had dropsy. And Jesus asked the lawyers and Pharisees, "Is it lawful to cure people on the Sabbath, or not?" But they were silent. So Jesus took him and healed him, and sent him away. Then he said to them, "If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a Sabbath day?" And they could not reply to this.

Luke 14:1-6

Since it was the day of Preparation, the Jews did not want the bodies left on the cross during the Sabbath, especially because that Sabbath was a day of great solemnity. So they asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified men broken and the bodies removed.

John 19:31

On the Sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. Acts 16:13

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it. Hebrews 4:1

NRSV


QUOTATION LEADERS AND COMMENTATORS

The Sabbath is God's special present to the working man... William G. Blaikie

Our modem spirit, with all its barren theories of civic and political rights, and its strivings towards freedom and equality, has not thought out and called into existence a single institution that, in its beneficent effects upon the laboring classes, can in the slightest degree be compared to the Weekly Day of Rest promulgated in the Sinaitic wilderness. Pierre Joseph Proudhon,

De la Celebration du Dimanche (1850)

Shopping malls are our modem cathedrals of consumption. It used to be the church where you saw fellow community members. Now it's the mall. The parking lots are filled. There's an almost sacred quality given to the act of consuming. There's a certain standardized feeling in the malls, just like the old cathedrals of yore.

Michael Kearl, Seeds, Nov. 1996

Hail Sabbath! Thee I hail, the poor man's day. James Grahame, The Sabbath

Everywhere I go it seems people are killing themselves with work, busyness, rushing, caring and rescuing. Work addiction is a modem epidemic and it is sweeping our land.... I call it the cleanest of all the addictions. It is socially promoted because it is seemingly socially productive.

Diane Fassel, management consultant, Working Ourselves to Death

As we keep or break the Sabbath, we nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope by which man rises.

Abraham Lincoln

I believe that the institution of the Sabbath is one of the greatest benefits the human race ever had.

Henry George, (19th century)

Sunday is nature's law as well as God's. No individual or nation habitually disregarding it has failed to fall upon disaster and grief. Daniel Webster

The longer I live the more highly do I estimate the Christian Sabbath, and the more grateful do I feel to those who impress its importance on the community.

Daniel Webster

... spiritual bankruptcy is the final symptom ofworkaholism; it usually heralds a dead end. It means you have nothing left....Fortunately, when the workaholic downward spiral is reversed, spirituality is one of the first things recovering people gain.

Diane Fassel, management consultant, Working Ourselves to Death

Through the week we go down into the valleys of care and shadow. Our Sabbaths should be hills of light and joy in God's presence; and so as time rolls by we shall go on from mountain top to mountain top, until at last we catch the glory of the gate, and enter in to go no more out forever.

Henry Ward Beecher, (1813-1887)

The Relaxation Response can be evoked only if time is set aside and a conscious effort is made. Our society has given very little attention to the importance of relaxation. Perhaps our work ethic views a person who takes time off as unproductive and lazy. At the same time, our society has eliminated many of the traditional methods of evoking the Relaxation Response. Prayer and meditation, as practiced by the ancients, have become part of our historical memory. Herbert Benson, M.D.,

The Relaxation Response

32 Φ THE LIVING PULPIT/APRIL-JUNE 1998

ON THE MANY VIEWS OF SABBATH

THEOLOGIANS AND PHILOSOSPHERS The Sabbath can be called a mini-Jubilee:

no one works, everyone shares. Arthur Waskow in The Reinvention of Work by Matthew Fox

The Sabbath is a world revolution. Franz Rosenzweig, letter to E. Rosenstock, 1924

The real enemies of our life are the "oughts" and "ifs." They pull us backward into the unalterable past and forward into the unpredictable fixture. But real life takes place in the here and now. God is a God of the present. God is always in the moment, be that moment hard or easy, joyful or painful.

Henri Nouwen in Christianity Today, 11/11/96

We have lost a sense of Sabbath in our lives- a sense of joy and delight, a sense of what we do when we come face-to-face with the mystery of existence itself.

Matthew Fox, The Reinvention of Work

The Sabbath is the visible sign of the insufficiency of the material and the need for its re-integration with the spiritual. It is a standing protest against the doctrine of wage-slavery.

L. Roth, Jewish Thought

O what a blessing is Sunday, interposed between the waves of worldly business like the divine path of the Israelites through the sea.

Bishop Samuel Wilberforce

The perfect Sabbath rest is the attuning of the heart to the comprehension of God.

Maimonides, Tzavaah (1135-1204)

(Sabbath is) an antidote to the enormous anxiety we have about the fragility of the world.

Walter Brueggemann in Talking About Genesis: A Resource Guide

Perhaps God is not partial to the city or the desert. What might interest him on his strolls in our cities could be to find oases of spirituality where there are individuals capable of waiting and hoping instead of hurrying and worrying.

Alessandro Pronsato in The Desert: An Anthology for Lent, ed. John Moses

The demands to work all the time as the measure of one's worth have grown so endemic that one needs to make little vows and rules for oneself to resist them. The weekly celebration of the Sabbath should be both a way of renewing oneself and creation in its authentic balance and rhythm, anticipating the ultimate redemption of all things.

Rosemary Radford Ruether, Women-Church

O what their joy and their glory must be, Those endless Sabbaths the blessed ones see! Crown to the valiant; to the weary ones rest: God shall be all, and in all ever blest.

Peter Abelard, Hymnus Paraclitensis (1079-1142)

And therefore Moses often in his laws calls the Sabbath, which means "rest," God's Sabbath (Ex 20:10) not humanity's and thus he lays his finger on an essential fact in the nature of things. For in truth there is but one thing in the universe that rests, that is God.

Philo, On the Cherubim (first century, CE.)

People must be so empty of all things and all works, whether inward or outward, that they can become a proper home for God, wherein God may operate.

Meister Eckhart, in Breakthrough: Meister Eckhart 's Creation Spirituality in New Translation, M. Fox

THE LIVING PULPIT· 33

QUOTATIONS ON THE MANY VIEWS OF SABBATH

SCHOLARS AND TEACHERS Who worships on Sabbath eve is as Cod's partner in creation.

Hamnuna. T: Sabbath

Had Judaism brought into the world only the Sabbath, it would thereby have proved itself to be a producer of joy and a promoter of peace for mankind. The Sabbath was the first step on the road which led to the abrogation of slavery.

H. Cohen, Die Religion der Vernunft

The Falashas...were some generations ago sorely harassed by hired missionaries to name the Savior and Mediator of the Jews. They spoke wiser than they knew when they answered, "The Savior of the Jews is the Sabbath."

J.H. Hertz, Daily Prayer Book

The Sabbath is the choicest finit and flower of the week, the Queen whose coming changes the humblest home into a palace. Judah Halevi, Cuzari (1135)

The tumult of my heart is stilled, For thou art come, Sabbath, my love!

Judah Halevi

There is no Judaism without the Sabbath. Baeck, speech 1935

More than Israel kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has kept Israel.

Ahad HaAm, HaShiloah (1898)

All that is divine in the world is brought into union with God. This is Sabbath, and the true happiness of the universe.

Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath

The Sabbath is the incomplete form of the world to come. Hanina ben Isaac

The Sabbath has been instituted as an opportunity for fellowship with God, and for glad, not austere, service of Him. Judah Halevi, Cuzari

To observe the Sabbath is to bear witness to the Creator. Mekilta, to Ex 20:13

One does not nap on the Sabbath in order to work better the next day, even on the Torah, for Sabbath rest is for Sabbath enjoyment, not for the sake of a weekday's work.

SeferHasidim

Thou hast given us in love this great and holy day. Zadok, Tosefta Berakot

The Sabbath was given only for pleasure. Hiyya ben Abba, Pesikta Rabbati

The law of the Sabbath is the quintessence of the doctrine of ethical monotheism....It is the epitome of the love of God.

H. Cohen, Die Religion der Vernunft

Is there any institution that holds out a greater hope for humanity's progress than the Sabbath?

Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath

Shabbes is the Queen of the week. Talmud, Shabbat


BOOKS & ARTICLES

ON THE THEME OF SABBATH

In Love With Eternity Theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel, who taught

at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York for many years and died in 1972, is one of the great interpreters of Judaism. He made a unique contribution in helping Christians understand Judaism.

In his book, The Sabbath, which came out in 1951 and had its 25th printing in 1997, Heschel gives us an interpretation of the Sabbath that is both profound and ecstatic. Heschel is profound in his understanding of the meaning of time in the Jewish experience, particularly as it relates to the Sabbath. He is ecstatic as he writes about the exhilarating possibilities opening up to humans as they enter into peace, joy and holiness on the Sabbath.

Heschel thinks of religious experience in terms of time and space. He regards time as more important than space, and reminds us that "the Bible is more concerned with time than with space. It sees the world in the dimension of time." According to Heschel, "The God of Israel was the God of events: the Redeemer from slavery, the Revealer of the Torah, manifesting Himself in events of history rather than in things or places." There is no doubt in HeschePs mind that "Judaism is a religion of time aiming at the sanctification of time. " Before any holy places or sanctuaries were established, the Bible says that "it is holiness in time, the Sabbath, which comes first."

Most modern cosmologists think of time as starting with the Big Bang when the universe was created. In the Bible we read that "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth" (Ex 20:11). In Genesis 2:2 we read that "On the seventh day God finished the work he had done, and he rested on the seventh day...God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it." So God blessed the Sabbath day.

Nearly everyone thinks of time in chronological terms; one moment following another, one hour or day succeeding another. To think of time in this way, as linear or chronological, is only natural. But Heschel understands time, as do many theologians and philosophers, in another way, too. When we talk about eternal life, or life everlasting, we are speaking about time above time. St. Augustine was fascinated by the subject, as was the great

philosopher/theologian, Paul Tillich, whom I studied under at Union Theological Seminary in the 1930s. Tillich did not believe life after death for humans meant living one moment after another in endless chronological order. He believed in the "eternal that is neither timeless nor endless." In his book, The Eternal Now, he wrote: "There is no time after time, but there is eternity above time."

It is this characteristic of time (or eternity above time), of eternal life (which we find impossible to define) that provides the springboard for Heschel5s ecstatic remarks about the Sabbath. In his view, the Sabbath is more, much more, than a day ordained by God for rest. HeschePs genius was expressed in part by his recognition that the ancient rabbis were right to conclude that there was indeed "an act of creation on the seventh day" and the universe was not complete until this act of creation took place. "What was created on the seventh day? Tranquility, serenity, peace and repose. " Menuha is the biblical word to describe this final creation of God - on the seventh day - and it describes the essence of the good life, "the state in which there is no strife and no fighting, no fear and no distrust." Heschel goes on to say that "In later times menuha became a synonym for the life in the world to come, for eternal life."

For Heschel the Sabbath must be spent "in charm, grace, peace and great love... for on it even the wicked in hell find peace." It is a day on which we should live independent of technical civilization: the Sabbath is "a day for praise, not a day for petitions." Heschel says, "The Sabbath is no time for personal anxiety or care, for any activity that might dampen the spirit of joy. It is a sin to be sad on the Sabbath day."

And so for Heschel the Sabbath is not just a day for rest and relaxation, but one for rejoicing and thanksgiving, a day "to be in love with eternity." Heschel truly believed that "there was adestiny that would save the people of Israel, acommit-ment deeper than all interests - the commitment to the Sabbath."

One of Heschel's thoughts that might be comforting to preachers is this: "One must abstain from toil and strain on the seventh day, even from strain in the service of God."

—Robert B. Birge


• IDEASI

Practicing What We Preach BONNIE ROSBOROUGH

IN what is halfway between a joke and a jibe, those whose vocations lie elsewhere will sometimes tease clergy, "You ministers only work one day a week, on

Sunday! " Work on Sundays we do - long and hard. Others' Sabbath is our day- on-deck. So one preaching on the Sabbath about Sabbath best weigh this irony, taking careful inventory of how he or she spends the other six days and nights of the week. Do you, the preacher, have, take or make Sabbath time? Or, like me and most clergy I know, do you fill the week with a busyness that belies your best Sabbath exhortations? • I once heard William Sloane Coffin remind his congregation that we'd best not try to improve on God; and if God rested on the seventh day, then so should we. But how often we who are entrusted with the wisdom of this insight act as if the world would simply fall apart if not for our attentions. What an offense this display of pride must be to our Creator! And what a dissonant chord it must strike in our parishioners' ears!

Any preparation for a sermon on Sabbath will employ the usual preacherly tools: exegesis, prayer, analysis, imagination, application, etc.; and will involve the usual processes: writing, reworking, rehearsing, and so forth, as is the preacher's practice. It seems likely, as well, that preparing a sermon about Sabbath would also include experiencing Sabbath: suspending our busyness and entrusting self to the One who declared creation good. Prepare for preaching by spending an afternoon looking at beautiful paintings or listening to great music. Take an aimless walk. • The Deuteronomic code enjoins Sabbath observance as an occasion to recall the Exodus and God's precious gift of freedom. Yet are we who would urge the celebration of such freedom upon others not ourselves prone to being enslaved by exceptions, real and imagined, placed onus in the preacher/pastor role? Are not our own needs to meet these expectations oppressive? As I write this I am wrestling with an inability to adjust my work schedule to accommodate and rest a broken foot. I literally do not know how to stop the stampede of perceived obligations. And frankly, I am terrified to try. What if it is discovered I am not needed? What, if in relaxing my tidy control of life, I release the chaos that surely roils just

beneath its surface? While the particulars of this neurosis may be unique, I suspect I am not alone in a certain slavery that looks like overwork and represents a refusal to enter stillness and a failure to trust the grace that awaits me there. Any honest preaching of Sabbath from the perspective of the liberation themes associated with the Exodus story will include an acknowledgment and confession of these chains (or others unique to you).

Such Sabbath preaching will recognize how perceived expectations enslave us and consider how our expectations can function to inhibit and burden others. Making ourselves mindful of this binding/releasing dynamic that is like hand and glove for the peacher/pastor will bring added integrity to a Sabbath sermon. • Finally, as a Christian, I know Sabbath in the tradition of Easter, the joyous recollection and celebration of that day when Christ conquered the powers of death. My beloved childhood pastor was routinely hospitalized after Easter, exhausted by its demands. He who bore the Good News, instead of being reborn by its power, was undone by its weight.

The stresses of Easter come on preachers in miniature every Sabbath, for every sermon in the Christian year is a proclamation of the resurrection. However, we often preach as if the message is a burden to bear - as if it is ours to raise the dead. How often we refuse the Spirit's animation of even our tired bones, spent imaginations and flagging faith. Preparing to give a sermon on Sabbath, especially when it is understood in the tradition of Easter, best begin with receiving - taking the Good News and all its attendant power and mercy into our lives.

Preaching Sabbath on the Sabbath is tricky, especially for those of us who resist the message in our lives. Talking Sabbath talk without walking Sabbath walk won't do. So prepare to preach Sabbath by replenishing your reservoir of trust in the good sovereignty of God, release yourself and others from the burdens of unreasonable expectation, and appropriate for yourself the Good News of Easter.

Bonnie Rosborough is the Pastor of the Broadway United Church of Christ in New York City.

3 6 · THE LIVING PULPIT/APRIL-JUNE 1998

On Snowstorms and The ¡SABBATH DONNA BERMAN

ONE of my congregants once said, "I love when there's a big snowstorm because then I'm forced to stay home and relax." It's true. We are

all under pressure to do so many things, to "multi-task," as those in the computer world call it. We are like jugglers keeping hundreds of balls in the air at the same time, afraid that if we are not adequately vigilant all of them will come crashing down around us. As my congregant's comments suggest, it usually takes an act of God to make us take a moment out of our frenetic lives for true, life-giving rest. • Few of us take advantage of the act of God that regularly beckons us to take a break. The book of Genesis states u-va-yomha-sh'vi-i sha-vatva-yi-na-fash,"Onthe seventh day God rested and was refreshed." The word va-yi-na-fash is from nefesh, meaning "soul" or "breath." It seems that the text is telling us that on the seventh day God took a breath and in doing so God's soul was refreshed. • If God could stop the work of creation to take a deep breath, so can we. In fact, we must. No matter how gratifying our work, no matter how compelling our jobs, we regularly need to step back from our lives to see where we are and to decide where we want to be going. Too often people forget that important work until they face a mid-life crisis or some other dramatic or traumatic moment or milestone. The Sabbath affords us the opportunity to reflect on the meaning of our existence, to evaluate and reevaluate what we are about so that our lives can be fine-tuned as we go along.

Many of us labor under the misconception that if we stop for even a moment, if we lose the slightest bit of momentum, we will be taking a step backwards; everything will come crashing down around us. I know that when I am on a strict exercise regimen and running consistently, I have to remind myself that one or two days off a week will not thwart my goal to run a certain distance, or to attain a certain speed. On the contrary, time off will actually help me meet my goal because it will make me less likely to get injured. It will also probably heighten my enthusiasm for running and it will give me renewed energy when I return to it. Very often after a day off I make a quantum leap forward in my progress. The Sabbath functions in the same way. It can enable us to

return to our work with fresh eyes and new enthusiasm. But the goal of the Sabbath is not just to make us work

more efficiently. The Sabbath is a goal in and of itself. There is an art to it. As peace is not merely the absence of war, so, too, rest is not merely the absence of work. Rest is replenishment of body and soul. It is about sleeping enough and eating good, health-giving foods. It is about nourishing our creative selves by listening to music or trying our hands at drawing or going to a museum or planting a garden or knitting or doing crafts or just dancing around the living room. Rest is about connecting with our family and friends, whom we love and cherish but don't get to be with enough. Sometimes rest is about having time to think and reflect, to have firn and laugh. The Sabbath is a delicious day which invites celebration of all our senses. Each week it arrives with infinite potential. It is a gift waiting to be unwrapped. • The Sabbath is also subversive, because in many ways it represents a challenge to the materialism and over-consumption which are hallmarks of our culture. The Sabbath is not about things, it is about relationships to each other, to ourselves, to the earth, to God. Traditional Jews remove themselves from the world of business and technology on the Sabbath. They don't carry money or transact business and they don't use the telephone or car or turn lights on or off. For them, the Sabbath is an opportunity to return to a simpler life, to turn from immersion in the temporal to contemplation of the eternal. • On the Sabbath Jewish people greet each other with the words, "Shabbat Shalom," which literally means "Sabbath Peace." But the word "shalom" suggests more than peace; it suggests wholeness. To say "Shabbat Shalom" is to wish someone the wholeness that comes from ceasing to be the fragmented selves we often are during the rest of the week. To greet someone with the words "Shabbat Shalom" is to say, "may this be a day of wholeness and holiness for you." Certainly the potential for that kind of grace beats a snowstorm any day.

Donna Berman is Rabbi Emerita of Port Jewish Center in Port Washington, NY. She is currently a doctoral student at Drew University in New Jersey.

THE LIVING PULPIT © 37

SABBATH: OW MARTIN E. MARTY

AS a little boy I used to sit under a pulpit whose loving pastor regularly wanted to console us with promises of paradise. Combine

words like The Depression, drought, and dust bowl and one can see why we Nebraskans did dream of a better time and place. • Time: the pastor's description of time in paradise is what stuck in our impressionable minds. I've tried it out on others in other faith traditions and find that many heard versions of the same account. There was a mountain one mile wide and high and long—not having seen a mountain from our plains we could only imagine such a curious geological formation—to which a sparrow came every hundred years. This sparrow evidently had strange tastes, since, we were told, it pecked at the mountain and took a beakful of it away each visit. After the mountain had disappeared, the preacher went on, one second of eternity would have elapsed.

His rhetoric must have been effective, for I remember this well after more than sixty years. His intentions had to be evangelical. But the effect of such an annual recounting was devastating to all of us little boys if on that Sunday afternoon the regular dust swirling across the plains or the very rare rain kept us indoors from noon until supper. If that was a millisecond of eternity, we found it hard to picture wanting more of it.

The pastor spoke of the day on which we heard the gospel, the good news, about eternity as "Sabbath," a Christian improvisation that related loosely to the Saturday observed by Jews, none of whom any of us had ever met. Sabbath was characterized by rest. So was paradise, or heaven. 0 It happened that my father was a church organist, and 1 was a child who sat frequently in a pew near the bench. So I heard plenty of funeral sermons and prayers.

Playmate Leland Knippel had died of scalding. His mother was washing clothes in an old wooden Maytag, and Leland climbed up the side and tipped it over on himself. Now I heard the minister trying to comfort us by saying that Leland had "entered his eternal rest." He was not even tired yet, rest-less as he was when we played. But yet he got put there with all the great-grandfolks of the congregation, people we used to wave at on a summer's

eve as we passed "The Old People's Home." All they ever seemed to do was rest. Now they were to be rewarded with more rest—while only that sparrow came by every hundred years to enliven things?

If I sound a bit flip about all this, let none of it be interpreted as a slam at biblical, classically Christian prayer, or 1930s-style preaching phrases. Not at all. The whole purpose is to suggest that connecting Sabbath with rest, with mere rest, does us and the Sabbath a disservice. • A peek inside any expansive Bible dictionary will inform the reader that behind the Hebrew use of the term was a Babylonian sabattu, which meant the "day of quieting of the heart." One learns there that as the Hebrews took over such a term or concept, they must have been moving from nomadic to agricultural society. Nomads had livestock to attend to seven days a week, and còutinot easily have taken a day off for the Lord. Only agricultural people could. (We learn as we read on that sabattu was not the derivation of sabbath, but that they both drew upon a common root in West Semitic languages.) And, as learning progresses, comes dictionary word that in many scriptural contexts, the implication of sabbath was not mere rest but rather desistance, abstention, a letting go and a ruling one's self off from work and its attendant anxieties that do not permit quietness of heart • Now we are coming into a zone that I think will address contemporary audiences better than "rest." Most of us are not agricultural people but urbanités and, as such, have reverted to nomadism. In a two-car, two-job family era -and even singles may have two cars and two jobs -it has become difficult to "keep the Sabbath" the way post-Puritan America did by legislation until the middle of the century now ending. Sociologists find that within three decades pulpit words promoting legislation that would enforce Sunday-closing have virtually disappeared. The preacher knows that her congregation will hurry from the benediction to the mall or supermarket, because that afternoon is the only relatively clear one. For that matter, the preacher's spouse is probably mentally revving up the engine of her auto as the sermon about the Sabbath leisurely meanders; if it is cut short he can see the kickoff at the pro football game. • The Sabbath has to be portable. People can make


Need for Meaning provision for it. At our house for the 22 years from the birth of our first son until the college departure of the fourth, we had a 7:00 curfew on Saturday for the family, including the father even when he was a performer of late-afternoon Saturday weddings. As teens, the offspring were free to "violate" our family-appointed Sabbath to do their dating, but we found that voluntarily—all this was voluntary—they tended to protect it. Not once did the parents break the self-imposed rule. We were not trying to get points with God. We are Lutherans, and hence very legalistic about not letting that be the intention or impression. We were not pointedly preoccupied with holy things. It was a night to watch hockey on TV, to catch up on reading, to shine shoes, perhaps to play games. We wanted to show the children that they took priority over everything that would distract. And we were participating in a vocational response built on the notion that our busy and troubled and troubling lives need "desistance" and "abstention." That is what is important about the time and space dedicated so we can be refreshed and God can work on and with us in renewing ways.

I have no idea whether today's nomadic families or singles can find the same time every week for such creative quiet, or at least alternative to schedule-keeping. But I do know many contemporaries who have found

ways to tilt an hour-glass in the mind and to set aside spaces in the heart for such quiet. • Our great need, I would contend, has not to do with getting more rest, though it can be welcomed. Our need is for meaning, for finding the "why" that makes our "how's" possible. We are, most of us, in danger of committing the sin of sloth. That is one of the deadly or capital seven. But sloth did not mean lazy restfulness or restful laziness. It meant acedia or accidie, the inability to rejoice in the spiritual good that comes our way, to "get up" for anything. The medieval people spoke of the daemon meridianus, the noonday demon, that came when the sun shone and there were no shadows to offer contrast in life. • The Sabbath in the mind and heart and, where possible, on the weekly calendar - one hopes, built around public worship on Sunday - is designed to leave an opening for God in Christ to dispel the noonday devil, to help us overcome sadness or listlessness in the face of spiritual good. It can be worked at but, better, Sabbath can be played with, in a spirit of lightheartedness that inspires alertness and makes us ready for the things of God.

Martin E. Marty is the Fairfax M Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at The University of Chicago and director of the Public Religion Project.

REST can be found in the most unexpected ways... Many years ago we knew a family, a mother, father

and five children, one of whom, a little girl, was bom brain-damaged. She could not sit up and was unable to speak She died before reaching adolescence. She spent her apparently useless short life lying in bed in the sunniest room of the house.... Several times during the day one or the other member of the family would go up to the girl's room and keep her company. When she died people sád it was a blessing. But the family mourned for a long time. We asked the mother, "Why does the death of this child who has never spoken or moved

among you make you all feel so deeply bereft?" "You don't understand," was the answer. "Whenever one of us was sad or happy, joyful or depressed, we would go to her room and laugh or cry or just put our head on the pillow next to hers. The room was always quiet. When we left we would feel restored." "But she could not even speak," I said "That's right," her mother answered, "she could not even speak."

I've never forgotten the story of the little sick girl and her apparently useless life in whose presence her parents, her brothers and sisters and their friends found rest and felt restored.

G. Peter Fleck, The Blessings of Imperfection: Reflections on the Mystery of Everyday Life


The SABBATH Song: KENDRA HALOVIAK

THROUGHOUT the ages people have been singing God's song in a strange land. In Israel's tradition God's song was, in the words of Walter

Brueggemann, both a song of hurt and a song of hope. It was a song that acknowledged painful present realities while celebrating an alternative future.

The song of God began as a groan. Intense hurt made words impossible. Enslaved in Egypt, Israel knew hurt and groaned to God. The groans were a response to Egypt's system - its rigid hierarchy, its forced labor, the murdering of Hebrew children. And the moment Israel groaned, Egypt's system was called into question. The claims of the Egyptian empire began to unravel, because God heard the groans:

"Then the Lord said, Ί have observed the misery of my

people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account

of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and

I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians'"

(Ex 3:7-8).

• Deliverance! Freedom! Equality! Justice! Israel's groaning became a vision of an alternative future. And the vision led to a new way of living and to a movement. To emphasize the movement, Israel physically moved from Egypt toward Canaan; and the movement took them toward Mount Sinai.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Six days shall thou labor and do all thy work-

But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God:

in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor

thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant,

nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates;...

(Ex 20:8-11, KJV).

QMy earliest recollection ofthat Sabbath commandment is as a memory verse in kindergarten Sabbath school. As youngsters we only had to memorize "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." Later, in grade school, we had to memorize the whole commandment. So I practiced it again and again with my classmates, trying to get it down to a word formula so we could recite it and get out to recess.

As teenagers we never had to recite Exodus 20:8-11, but we debated what it meant. I should say, we debated the part that says, "Thou shalt not do any work." Did that

mean no swimming on Sabbath? What about bike riding? What about calmly playing catch? What about eating out on Sabbaths? Working in a health-care profession during Sabbath hours? Then as we became busy college students we asked: is homework from religion class okay to do on Sabbath?

But we didn't read the whole text. We stopped at the "work" part instead of the "people" part. We totally neglected the part about who it is that does not work: you, your children, your servants (both male and female), animals, strangers. Why should servants not have to work? Why would the commandment require animals to rest? Who is the "stranger"? The New Revised Standard Version calls this last category of person "the alien resident in your towns." That is, those people in our communities who work around the clock just trying to survive. They are to rest on Sabbath, too. • We often forget that it was freed slaves who journeyed from Egypt to Sinai. And God gave them the Sabbath. They knew what it meant to be a slave seven days a week. They knew what it meant to be a resident alien. They knew powerlessness first hand. To a bunch of just-freed slaves, God gave the Sabbath. And on that day, like no other, they celebrated their equal status before God! Everyone rested!

As a Seventh Day Adventist, I am grateful to be part of a faith tradition that values the Sabbath. On the Sabbath arbitrary human labels such as "master" and "slave" are destroyed. Society's distinction between "citizen" and unregistered alien is obliterated.

In the community of Israel the Sabbath became an ongoing challenge to injustice. In the words of Abraham Joshua Heschel, the Sabbath is "participation in the spirit that unites what is below and what is above." • According to the Exodus account, Israel is to keep the Sabbath because of creation, "for in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth." The Sabbath looks back to creation; to the way things were meant to be. Before one brother said of another, "Am I his keeper?" Before we had to learn that the answer is yes. Before Egypt. The Sabbath invites Israel back into true humanness, wholeness. •According to the Deuteronomy account of the Sabbath


An Alternative Vision

commandment, Israel is to keep the seventh day holy because of redemption- in celebration of God's actions to fiee them from slavery: "Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day" (Deut 5:15).

Because of creation and because of redemption, Israel was to keep the Sabbath. Keeping the Sabbath is not merely about how one defines "work" in order to abstain from it. Keeping it is about the people who rest on that day - all people, every single person redeemed by God for a new way of living! Q But sometimes their vision grew dim. Sometimes hope faded. At times they forgot their groans of hurt in Egypt, their song of hope during the Exodus, their spirit-filled imagination of a just world. And so God gave Israel the Sabbath, a day each week to remember: as God had led in the past, so God would lead in the future. The Sabbath was the music that took the groans of hurt and the words of hope and created a song.

The Sabbath song is also a song of inclusiveness, a song that affirms the place of every person in God's family - the resident alien, the immigrant mother, the Korean family that lives next door, the Latino teenager, the man dying of AIDS, the women of all races who know domestic violence, all of society's marginalized. The Sabbath is a sanctuary for the alien, a sanctuary where there is always room for another person, because it is a place in time, not space. • In the New Testament, Luke records a scene with a group of people who thought they were keeping the Sabbath, but who had forgotten the Sabbath song:

Now [Jesus] was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for 18 years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment. " When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, " There are six days in which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day. "

But the Lord answered him and said, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for 18 longyears, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day? " When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing (Luke 13:10-17). A descendant of the freed Israelite slaves, this bent-over

woman entered the synagogue that Sabbath, knowing what it was like to live under a burden. Like the slaves in Egypt, she was unable to walk straight and tall, or to look slave masters in the eye.

But God had a new alternative for her! That Sabbath she met the Lord of the Sabbath song. That Sabbath was a day of deliverance from all that dehumanized her. The moment of equality that comes in the Sabbath became, in the person of Jesus, a lifetime of living justly and treating people with dignity, with equality. The practice of the Sabbath critiques and overcomes distinctions of power. It is a radically different ordering of heaven and earth. It is God's ideal. It is the way of Jesus. O Christians are called to keep the Sabbath as Jesus kept it. We are called to be serious about justice and about equality. The gospel is about challenging the powers that silence bent-over men, women and children. It is about singing God's song. It is about singing the Sabbath song.

Rendra Haloviak is a Seventh Day Adventist minister currently enrolled as a PhD. student in New Testament at The Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Cal.

Christian liturgical consciousness can be greatly enriched by new

contact with the Jewish heritage of Passover, the Sabbath meal, the

hallowing of Sabbath, and even by limiting consumption according to

the rules of kosher.

Rosemary Radford Ruether, Women- Church


¡SABBATH: Recreation and Liberation BARBARA REID

SUNDAYS havechanged. Inmyyouthmosteveiyone I knew observed Sundays in a similar way. We rose early and put on our best clothes for Mass, had a

leisurely big breakfast afterward and visited with relatives in the afternoon. The adults read the paper, napped, watched a game on TV and caught up on the family doings. A festive dinner and early bedtime topped offa day of worship, rest and relatedness. No one considered doing housework or yardwork; no one went shopping (veiy few stores were open).

Today many get their "Sunday obligation" out of the way on Saturday afternoon; dressing up is no longer customary; festive family meals are a rarity; many people work and shop on Sunday inawaythatmakes it barely distinguishable from other days of the week. As more and more people experience burnout and exhaustion, fall prey to addictions, and search for meaning in their lives, it is possible that revival of Sabbath observance can offer us a way of recreation and liberation.

BIBLICAL ROOTS Christian practice is rooted in, though distinct from, Jewish

tradition. In two different versions of the 10 commandments two different reasons are given for the injunction to Israel to "keep holy the Sabbath." The first account, Exodus 20:8-11, grounds the Sabbath command in the creative work of God. There are two salient notions in this text. First, Sabbath is a day to be kept "holy," qödesh, that is, "separated, set apart," from the other six. As Abraham Joshua Heschel points out. God's creation of aday that is holy is a radical departure from accustomed religious thinking. One might expect God to create an object or a place as holy, able to be set apart and consecrated. Instead, God gives us a day in which we can become attuned to "holiness in time."

Second, Sabbath rest is patterned on God's repose at the completion of creation (Gen 2:2-3). Sabbath rest has both a negative and positive aspect. Negatively, it is refraining from all work. Positively, it is recreative, i.e., it engenders peace, joy and harmony. Both aspects allow one to enter into the true purpose of Sabbath: to create a holy people, united in worship of God. Sabbath rest is not only humanitarian, but opens the space in time to allow mind, body and heart to turn from engagement with the created world to the mystery of creation and the Creator. Such an endeavor is not individual; Sabbath forms the whole worshiping community into a new people of God.

In the second account of the decalogue in Deuteronomy 5:12-15, the command is the same, but the motive is different. Sabbath is for remembering God's liberation of Israel from servitude to Egypt. Sabbath is the great equalizer. All, from least to greatest, keep a day of rest: householders and all their family, servants, even foreign guests, and beasts as well. • Sabbath is a time to make present again God's liberation of the oppressed. In our day, cessation of work for one day a week could initiate the liberation of those caught in unbridled production and consumerism. As well, it could begin to halt machinations of exploitation of the poor. Sabbath allows for letting go into God's providence. Exodus 16:17-30attestshowdifficultthisistodo. Certain Israelites tried to gather more manna on the Sabbath even though they had been given a double portion the day before. Likewise, the prophet Amos denounces those who make a mockery of Sabbath. They "trample upon the needy," chomping at the bit for the end of the Sabbath so they might resume cheating the poor (Amos 8:4-6). • That Jesus observed the Sabbath is attested in texts such as Luke 4:16. There are, as well, a number of incidents recounted in the gospels in which Jesus is accused by other Jewish religious leaders of breaking the Sabbath. In one such account, where Jesus heals a man with a withered hand, he poses the question to his opponents, "is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?" (Mark 3:4). In the story of the healing of the woman bent double, Jesus accuses his critics of hypocrisy and queries, "Does not each one of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or your ass from the manger and lead it outfor watering? This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the Sabbath day?" (Luke 13:15-16). • Jesus did not do away with the Sabbath, but his interpretation of the regulations surrounding Sabbath practices was at odds with that of certain other Jews. Jesus breaks Sabbath rest by healing in order to preserve and recreate life. The joy of Sabbath is a foretaste of its eschatological completion. We yet "strive to enter into that rest" (Heb 4:11).

Barbara E. Reid, O.P., is Associate Professor of New Testament Studies at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, ΠΙ.

42 m THE LIVING PULPIT /APRIL-JUNE 1998

The Jubilee of Jesus BRUCE CHILTON

THE Gospel according to Luke portrays Jesus entering as a matter of custom into a synagogue in Nazareth, a small village in Galilee, where he had

been brought up (Luke 4:16). He reads scripture there for the congregation in a manner which is portrayed as according with normal practice (Luke 4:17-19). And yet, when he is done reading, everyone in the synagogue is staring at him (Luke 4:20). He only adds to their astonishment by saying, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your ears" (Luke 4:21); they actually attempt to stone him after he makes a series of antagonistic statements (Luke 4:22-30). They are in the act of casting him down from a cliff, the usual preliminary to stoning, when he departs from them.

The story seems to involve an almost surreal emphasis on how people were surprised and then scandalized by Jesus. Comparison with what happens to Paul in a synagogue in Turkey (Acts 13:13-52) has led to the suspicion that Luke-Acts is providing us with a model of how, in general terms, the gospel was received badly in synagogues. Still, Luke 4 so precisely speaks of the surprise in the synagogue, immediately after Jesus' reading, that it seems obvious that something about his citation ofthat scripture caused conflict.

The actual text he cites provides us with a vital key to what Luke would have us understand. Jesus is claiming that he has been anointed "to preach release to prisoners, and renewal of sight to the blind, to send the oppressed into release, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:18b-19). There are two levels at which this statement is surprising. First, Jesus is speaking as if he were personally proclaiming a year of Jubilee, the festival of the Sabbath of sabbath of years when release would be practiced throughout Israel (see Leviticus 25). Second, Jesus' "reading" is no reading. He drops a phrase from Isaiah 61:1-2, and adds one of his own, a phrase that speaks of giving renewal of sight to the blind.

Both these levels are startling for what they inherently assert concerning the authority of Jesus. Jesus in effect, becomes the trumpet which, according to the Torah, announced the onset of the year of Jubilee. (In fact, yobel, from which we get the word, "jubilee," actually refers to such a trumpet in Hebrew.) Second, in using

scripture to announce scripture's year of release, he also changes the scriptural text itself.

His reference to the renewal of sight to the blind is notable, because in the Aramaic of the period of Jesus the "blind" are those who do not see the meaning of scripture. An example is provided in the Isaiah Targum 42:7, with its reference to the effort "to open the eyes of the house of Israel who are as blind to the law " (italics indicate what is innovative in the Targum as compared to the Hebrew text of Isaiah). Jesus is saying that, in remolding scripture, he is making the meaning of scripture clear to those who were blind. He claims to speak fulfillment in the ears of the congregation in the interests of opening their eyes.

In fact, it may well be that the Old Syriac version of Luke 4 provides an even more accurate impression of what Jesus said than the Greek text does. Syriac is closely related to Aramaic, and there is evidence that ancient oral traditions of Jesus' sayings may be reflected in the Old Syriac version from the second century. It has Jesus "cite" Isaiah in the following way (italics again indicating what is innovative):

The spirit of the Lord is upon you Because he has anointed you...

Here, Jesus changes the scripture into a conversation between himself (addressed as "you") and the God who anoints him to fulfill the task of preaching release and opening of the eyes. Later in the passage, he responds in this conversation to announce what "I" will do.

The entire scene permits us an insight into the Jubilee of Jesus. He announces the Sabbath of sabbaths, not because it corresponds to any particular calendar he keeps, but because he understands himself to be empowered with God's own spirit. He fulfills the meaning of scripture by his willingness to change its letter and opens his ministry in Luke with a program of release, which amounts to news of triumph to the populace of Galilee suffering from debt, as well as to the giving of hope of similar forgiveness to those throughout the Mediterranean world.

Bruce Chilton is Bernard ladings Professor of Religion at Bard College and Rector of the Free Church of St. John the Evangelist. His most recent book is Jesus' Prayer and Jesus' Eucharist: His Personal Practice of Spirituality (Valley Forge: Trinity Press International, 1997).

THE LIVING PULPIT 43

From Text to Life: SABBATH

Leader's Guide GINGER GRAB and JUDITH HOCH WRAY

WELCOME to our most recent feature article in The Living Pulpit. We believe an interested and educated pew will call forth an exciting

living pulpit, so we have developed this guide to assist Adult Education classes in their study of this issue of The Living Pulpit. We invite church leaders to share the riches found in these pages, so that the whole church might be built up.

Writers in this issue approach Sabbath from various perspectives. To facilitate group study and discussion, the editors have identified at least eight themes: these are organized into class sessions of varying lengths; some themes are appropriate for extended or multiple sessions. Use themes and activities in any order. Adapt each class session for your particular group.

Theme Mi Introduit

1. Read the opening paragraphs of articles by Home (page 22), Mark-Stuart (page 26), Marty (page 38), and Reid (page 42), in which each author remembers childhood Sundays. Share stories of Sunday memories from your own lives. How have your Sundays changed over the years? What has been lost by these changes? What gained? What do we need from the past that we have lost as a society?

2. For historical highlights of Sabbath observance, read Simpson (pages 12-13). Discuss: What do you think he means by the title, "Sabbath as a Symbol of the Unseen"?

3. Read through the scripture texts (pages 30-31). What surprises you in these texts? What clues do the New Testament scriptures offer about how Jesus and the early church thought about and practiced Sabbath?

4. Read through the quotes (pages 32-34). Each person pick one or two quotes that catch your attention, either positively or negatively. Share these quotes and your response to them with the group.

As a group, begin to make a list of questions that these quotations raise about Sabbath. Pick one or two questions and discuss how they relate to your understanding of Sabbath.

5. As a class, prioritize the questions and insights about Sabbath that the class will discuss in the next few weeks. The leader will find help for future classes in some of the following class outlines.


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A. Creation and Celebration 1. Read Genesis l:l-2:4a. ThenreadExodus 20:8-11. 2. Read article by Moltmann (page 4-5). Moltmann says

that in order not to celebrate alone God created us. How could this understanding of our relationship to creation transform our lives? How do you celebrate companionship with God? How might you celebrate this more in your life now? How do we as a church celebrate companionship with God? How might we do this more? B. Sabbath and the Environment

1. Read Exodus 23:10-12 and Leviticus 25:1-7. If you live in a farm community, or know about farming practices, discuss the relationship between wise land use and the land Sabbath commanded in these texts.

2.Moltmann (page 5), says "Sabbath is wise environmental policy." What do you think he means by this? Are his ideas practical? Can they be used today? If so, how? C. Sabbath, Time and Joy

1. Read quotations by Scholars and Teachers (page 32) and book review by Birge on Abraham Heschel (page 35).

2. Discuss the role of time, as understood by Heschel and Paul Tillich (in Birge). What is your understanding of time? Reflect on the relationship between creation and eternity and the present moment. How does an understanding of time affect daily attitudes and behavior? How has your attitude toward time changed? Why?

3. Read the opening paragraphs by Home (page 22), Mark-Stuart (page 26) and Reid (page 42), in which each author remembers childhood Sundays. For discussion: Notice that many memories of childhood Sundays include the custom of shared meals with extended family and friends. How are the understanding of time and the practice of hospitality related? Do you find that the virtue of hospitality is less or more evident in your life today? How do the pressures of our current emphasis on working and consuming interfere with the offering of hospitality? What can we do as individuals to reclaim the virtue of hospitality? What can the church do?

4. Based on the quotes by Scholars and Teachers (page 32) and book review by Birge (page35), discuss the role of

for Adult Education joy intherabbis' and HeschePs understanding of Sabbath In what areas of your life do you experience joy? How might joy play a larger part in Sunday worship?

tabbaih, Ï. Read Deuteronomy 5:1-15. 2. Several of the writers in this issue point out the

different reasons given for the Sabbath commandment found in Exodus and in Deuteronomy. Read Burghardt (pages 8-9), Home (pages 22-23), Mark-Stuart (page 26) and Haloviak (40-41) to consider the Deuteronomic commandment as a call for justice and compassion. Discuss.

3. Read article by Mark-Stuart (pages 26-27). Discuss how child care and house keeping arrangements keep us (esp. women) from partaking in real rest.

4. Read article by Rasmussen (pages 20-21). Rasmussen says, "Sabbath is not about adjustment, relief, mental health or haven." What, according to Rasmussen, is Sabbath about? Should we try to incorporate his insights into our own practices? If so, how might we do this?

What is helpful in the idea of rest as adjustment, relief, mental health? What in these concepts can get in the way of our relationship with God?

5. Read article by Davis (pages 6-7). Davis says "If we fail to use our liberated energies to enjoy God.. .we might as well go on serving Pharaoh." How do we serve Pharaoh? Give concrete and specific examples. How can we use our "liberated energies" to worship God? Give concrete, specific examples.

^ ^ • M N JÊÈÊÈÊÊÈËÊÊÊÊM 1. Begin wifh the scriptures (page 30-31). Read the

editors' note. What in these rexts might contribute to negative attitudes toward our Jewish brothers and sisters? Imagine and discuss the dilemma that must have been faced by early Jewish-Christians who wanted to affirm their Jewish heritage while embracing Christianity.

2. Read article by Moltmann (page 4-5). Reread the last two paragraphs aloud. What does Moltmann see as the differences between Sabbath and Sunday? What are the connections between Sabbath and Sunday?

3. Read Procter-Smith (page 14). What does she say are the distinctions between Sabbath and Sunday? How does she differ from Moltmann on this? How are her views similar?

4. Read article by Baiter (page 15). Baiter lists three motifs that underlie the Jewish Sabbath. How do these basic motifs relate to Christian understanding ? How is the concept of holiness expressed in Christianpractice?

5. How does each of the above writers ( Baiter, Procter-Smith and Moltmann) suggest we incorporate Sabbath practice into our Christian lives? Discuss.

A. Jesus and Rest 1. Read aloud Matthew 11:28-12:21. Note howthe saying

about rest in Matt 11:28-30 and the quote from Isaiah 42:14 in Matt 12:18-21 frame the Sabbath controversy stories in Matt 12:1-13. Discuss howyou think these verses about Jesus (Matt 11:28-30 and 12:18-21) might be intended to influence our interpretation of the Sabbath controversy stories between them

2. Read Wray (pages 10-11). Discuss Wray's definition of rest. What does it mean to find rest in Jesus? How would life be different if we practiced this kind of rest? Give concrete, specific examples. How can you find rest in Jesus?

Describe someone you know (or have read about) who finds "rest," who "moves through life with tranquility, empowered to do justice." B. Transformation Thinking

1. Read article by Bloomer (page 29). For discussion: What is the difference between unemployment and rest? How can unemployment become Sabbath time? What kind of thinking makes such a transition possible? What needs to happenin order for you to learn to rest without trying to ftilfill some utilitarian purpose?

2. Share with the group: Describe a moment in your life when what seemed like a bad experience was transformed in your understanding so that you could receive it as a gift from God. What areas in your life could benefit from a similar transformation in thinking?

C. Transformation Living 1. Read articles by SilverSmith (pages 18-19), Berman

(page 37) and Marty (pages 38-39). For discussion: Are you one of those people who manage life by "never doing less than two things at once"? Discuss the positive and negative values of such a lifestyle. Discuss your own experiences of what SilverSmith calls "mini-Sabbaths," taking time to do one thing only and enjoying all of the sense experiences ofthat

(continued on next page)


Uadeñ Guide

activity. Make plans for some mini-Sabbaths this week 2. Covenant with others in the group to keep a time and

activity chartfor one week Do a "sabbath-search": How do you find rest in your life? What do you love doing, yet rarely make time for? Begin to identify small sections of time that can be cmvertedintosabbathmoments. Bring the chart and the results ofyour "sabbath-seardtf'backto the group for further discussion next week.

/ .. . . - •: > -

A Jubilee Justice 1. Read Leviticus 25:8-17. Note that the land belongs to

God and that any transfer of property is really only transfer of rights to the produce. How does this biblical understanding of property critique or support the more modemidea prevalent in the North American culture of the right to own private property? As a class try to formulate a Christian position on property.

2. Read article by Russell (page 28). Imagine and discuss what would happen in your church, your community, your place of woik, the international community, if all debts were forgivenintheyear2000. What would be the negative effects? the positive effects? Who defines what is "positive" and what is "negative"?

3. Role-play. Divide the class into three groups - debtors, lendas and religious leaders (realizing that among the religious leaders are both debtors and lenders!). The religious leaders moderate a discussion between the debtors and the lenders about the theory and implementation of a year of Jubilee. Conclude with a group discussion about insights gained from this role-play.

4. Russell asks, "Why are we so shaped by the standards of a world that allows for no forgiveness, little charity, and no sharing based onneed?" Using clay or fingerpaints, invite each person to explore the "shape" impressed on us by that world. Share creations with the group.

Discuss: What influences us to conform to these standards? Can we as individuals and as the church work against these standards? Should we? Using clay or fingerpaints, as a group, imagine and create an alternative "shape" for community transformed by biblical economic standards. B. Jesus and Jubilee

1. Read Luke 4:1-22 and Isaiah 61:14. Discuss the similarities and differences between Jesus' reading of the

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Isaiah passage and what you find inyour Bible. 2. Read Chilton's in depth study of the function and

meaning of the differences between Jesus' reading and the Isaiah text (page 43). Discuss. Chilton understands Jesus as a Jubilee preacher. How would that understanding of Jesus modify our actions as Christians?

¡lili #i|^^ 1. Read article by Rasmussen (page 20-21). Rasmussen's

discussion of Chase's spirituality includes a criticism of her individualistic approach. She divorces "spirituality from politics and economics." Do you agree with this critique? Why or why not? How can we heal such a divorce in our spirituality? Give specific, concrete suggestions.

2. Read Berman ( page 37). Bermanmakes a connection between wholeness and holiness. What do you see is the connection between your own wholeness andholiness?

1. Read article by Moore (page 24-25). Moore says children are a protection against life's threats. What does he mean by this? Do you agree? How do your children add to your stress? How do they protect against stress? How does society contribute to the stress of child rearing?

Discuss how the church can help parents relieve the stress of child rearing and experience their children as blessings.

2. Read Bass (pages 16-17). Bass says that our captivity, the "complex of stress and anxiety" in our lives, stems from feeling we have too little time. Where in your life do you feel the stress and anxiety of "too little time"? What tasks weigh on you, causing stress and anxiety? In what ways are these tasks unavoidable? In what ways can they be let go of?

Bass says, 'Hie commandment not to work on one day in seven comes as a judgment on our society and on most of us. " What does she mean by this? Do you agree?

3. Read first paragraph of article by Wray (page 10) and articles by Davis (pages 6-7) and Bass (pages 16-17). In what areas of our lives, as individuals and as a society, do you see harmful effects of workaholism? How can we free ourselves from the claims of workaholism and consumerism?

Ginger Grab is managing editor and Judith Hoch Wray is assistant editor q/The Living Pulpit.


Preaching the Lectìonary:

Preaching S A B B ΑΤΗ ¡living S A B B ΑΤΗ JUDITH HOCH WRAY

JESUS was a Jew! Since Sabbath-keeping was one identifying characteristic of observant Judaism, anyone who preaches with reference to the historical

Jesus will, from time to time, be confronted with the relationship of Jesus and the early church to the Sabbath. What we as preachers are more likely to ignore is the lifestyle of clergy and laity alike which often denies the wisdom of Sabbath rest. The articles on Sabbath in this issue will challenge that omission.

The following list of appointed lectionary texts directly addressed by writers of this issue of The Living Pulpit confirms that, while the number of texts cited is few, the perspectives about and insights from those texts are plentiful. It may be obvious from the list of writers who refer to the Sabbath commandment in Exodus and Deuteronomy that anyone wishing to preach on these texts will do well to immerse herself or himself in the journal from cover to cover. Our writers include Roman Catholic, Protestant (including Seventh-Day Adventist) Christians, pastors, lay persons, scholars and Jewish rabbis.

Many of these authors have as much to say about living Sabbath as about preaching Sabbath. I, for one, am convinced that one of the biggest contributions to living pulpits throughout North America (and beyond) may come from the challenge and the invitation to the spiritual disciplines of rest, of hospitality and of justice-making presented in this issue. If we, as preachers begin to practice what we preach - or practice and preach the kind of Sabbath observance practiced by Jesus - we shall see and participate in an empowered, rather than an exhausted, church.

Please don't take my word for it. Prayerfully read the scriptures and the articles and other resources in this volume of The Living Pulpit. Both your preaching and your living may be transformed.

::::::::::::::::::::: YEARC-1998 ::::::::::::::::::::

4/11 Easter Vigil Gen 1:1-2:4 : Donna Berman helps us hear

the text say that on the seventh day God took a breath and in doing so

God's soul was refreshed. Walter Burghardt says God's rest means God

celebrating God's creation. Jürgen Moltmann says when the Creator comes to rest, then the creatures come to themselves and are able to bloom like flowers in the sun. Ellen Davis reminds us that God created humans not as divine slaves but something like children. Marforie Procter-Smith notes that the Sabbath commemorated the completion of

God's creation of the world and the Christian first-day (Lord's Day) commemorated the beginning of creation. According to Heschel, the Bible sees the world in the dimension of time, notes Robert B. Birge in book review. See also Barbara Silversmith, Barbara Reid, Penelope Mark-Stuart, Bonnie Rosborough said Judith Hoch Wray.

5/24 Easter 6 John 5:1-9 : Wray notes that Jesus challenged a legalistic interpretation of Sabbath that ignores the needs of the people. Note: The limits of this appointed lection probably reflect the concern that the Sabbath discussion in vs. 10-17 represents an early Christian anti-Jewish polemic that need not be repeated today.

8/23 Proper 16[21] fea 58:9b-14 : William C. Simpson, Jr., describes the festive celebration of Shabbat, which embraced everyone and was not limited to men The Sabbath is a day for praise, to be spent in charm, grace, peace and great love, says Heschel in review by Birge. See also Shlomo Baiter.

Luke 13:10-17 : Jesus' interpretation of Sabbath regulations was at odds with that of certain other Jews, notes Reid. Kendra Haloviak comments that for the woman who had been bent over, the Sabbath was a day of deliverance from all that dehumanized her.

9/20 Proper 20[25] Amos 8:4-7 : Reid draws our attention to the prophet who denounces those who make a mockery of the Sabbath.

10/4 Proper 22[27] Ps 37:1-9 : B. Michael Watson invites readers to receive the gift of sacred rest, as in Ps 37, "Be still and know that I am God."

Ps 137 : Throughout the ages people have been singing God's song in a strange land, says Haloviak.

::::::::::::::::::::: YEAR A-1998/1999 :::::::::::::::::::: 1/31 Epiphany 4 Matt 5:1-12 : Davis links our identity as peacemakers with celebration of God's Sabbath.

4/3 Easter Vigil Gen 1: l-2:4a : [See Easter Vigil C]

5/30 Trinity Gen 1:1-2:4 : [See Easter Vigil C]

7/4 Proper 9[14] Matt 11:16-19, 25-30 : Wray notes that

Jesus challenged a legalistic interpretation of Sabbath that ignores the needs of the people.

7/18 Proper 11[16] Rom 8:12-25 :cc\s the vMe creation groaning because we are out of step with God's time?" asks Davis.

8/29 Proper 17[22] Ex 3:1-15+ : The claims of the Egyptian empire began to unravel because God heard the cries of Israel, notes Haloviak.

(continued on next page)


Preaching the Lectionary:

Preaching S A B B A T H I living S A B B ΑΤΗ

10/3 Proper 22[27] Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20+ : The

Sabbath is subversive, representing a challenge to the materialism

of our culture, says Berman. Davis notes that the Sabbath rest

memorializes God's seventh-day rest from the work of creation.

According to Heschel, the Bible sees the world in the dimension of

time, notes Birge in book review. The practice of Jubilee has its

origins in the tradition and laws around keeping the Sabbath, notes

Keith A. Russell. Haloviak reflects on the Sabbath commandment

and who it is that does not work. Dorothy C. Bass notes that the

Exodus commandment is grounded in creation. See also Martha J.

Home, Martin E. Marty, Reid, Mark-Stuart and Rosborough

Phil 3:4b-14 : Burghardt invites

Christians to a new ideal for the weekend.

11/1 All Saints

Matt 5:1-12 : Davis links our identity as peacemakers with

celebration of God's Sabbath.

11/7 Proper 27[32] Amos 5:18-24 : Larry L. Rasmussen

reminds us that the God of the Sabbath rejects "the noise of solemn

assemblies."

::::::::::::::::::: YEARB -1999/2000 :::::::::::::::::::::::

12/12 Advent 3 Isa 61:1-4, 8-11 : Bruce Chilton

explains how Jesus changes this text when he reads it in the

synagogue in Nazareth.

12/19 Advent 4 2 Sam 7:1-11 : Rickie Dale Moore

observes that the house promised David consisted of children, not

bricks and mortar.

3/5 Epiphany 9 Deut 5:12-15 : Simpson notes that

Sabbath is the only observance mandated in the Ten Command

ments. The Sabbath is subversive, representing a challenge to the

materialism of our culture, says Berman. The practice of Jubilee

has its origins in the tradition and laws around keeping the Sabbath,

notes Russell. Haloviak elaborates on the redemption and

inclusivity of the Sabbath commandment. The Deuteronomic

commandment is grounded in the experience of a people newly

released from bondage, says Bass. Davis says the Sabbath

memorializes Israel's deliverance from slavery in Egypt. See also

Home, Baiter, Rasmussen, Reid and Wray.

Mark 2:23-3:6 : Davis points out that

the followers of Jesus have not felt bound by strict Sabbath

observance. See also Watson.

3/26 Lent 3 Ex 20:1-17 : The Sabbath is subversive,

representing a challenge to the materialism of our culture, says

Berman. Davis notes that the Sabbath rest memorializes God's

seventh-day rest from the work of creation. Procter-Smith notes

that the Sabbath commemorated the completion of God's creation

of the world and the Christian first-day (Lord's Day) commemo

rated the beginning of creation. According to Heschel, the Bible sees

the world in the dimension of time, notes Birge in book review. The

practice of Jubilee has its origins in the tradition and laws around

keeping the Sabbath, notes Russell. Haloviak reflects on the Sabbath

commandment and who it is that does not work. Bass notes that the

Exodus commandment is grounded in creation. See also Home Reid,

Mark-Stuart, Rosborough and Marty.

4/22 Easter Vigil Gen 1: l-2:4a : [See Easter Vigil C]

6/11 Pentecost Rom 8:22-27 : icls the whole creation

groaning because we are out of step with God's time?" asks Davis.

x/xx Proper 4[9] Deut 5:12-15 : [See notes, Epiph 9 B.]

Mark2:23-3:6 : [See notes, Epiph 9 B.]

x/xx Proper 6[11] Ps 92:1-4,12-15 : Davis comments on this

psalm specifically designed "for the Sabbath."

7/15 Proper 10[15] Ps 24 : Stewards can be called to account

for their stewardship, notes Burghardt.

7/22 Proper 11[16] Eph2:ll-22 : Sabbath^a/om is afitting

prelude to Sunday shalom, to Paul's "Christ is our peace," says

Burghardt.

8/26 Proper 16[21] 2 Sam 7: l-14a : Moore observes that the

house promised David consisted of children, not bricks and mortar.

11/1 All Saints Ps 24 : Stewards can be called to account for their

stewardship, notes Burghardt.

11/11 Proper 27[32] Ps 127 : Moore offers an insightful

reflection on Ps 127 as a resource for observing the import of the

Sabbath.

:::::::::::::::::::: YEAR C - 2000/2001 ::::::::::::::::::::::

1/21 Epiphany 3 Luke 4:14-21 : Reid notes this passage as

an example of Jesus' observing the Sabbath. Russell calls attention to

Jesus' proclamation of Jubilee, a call for liberty. Chilton provides an

insightful analysis of the significance of Jesus' Jubilee proclamation.

2/18 Epiphany 7 Ps 37:1-11,39-40 : Watson invites readers

to receive sacred rest, as in Ps 37, "Be still and know that I am God."

2/25 Epiphany 8 Ps 92:1-4,12-15 : Davis comments on this

psalm specifically designed "for the Sabbath."

4/1 Lent 5 Phil 3:4b-14 : Burghardt invites Chris

tians to a new ideal for the weekend.

Judith Hoch Wray is assistant editor q/The Living Pulpit.


^ s

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