For many of us, ... possibly most of
us, ... and this includes myself, ... when we hear these words, we react
negatively to some of the extreme ways in which this command has been
kept. Whether the extremes are seen in
·
the
ways in which Orthodox Jews or Seventh-Day Adventists observe Saturday, or· the ways in which some Christians used to observe Sunday;
many of us are much more aware of the ways in which this commandment can be used to restrict our lives than to enhance them.
There have
been examples, both within Judaism and (more often, I’m afraid) within
Christianity, of people who have made this commandment into a joyless
burden. Some people have tried to turn
this commandment into one more religious hurdle over which people were taught
they needed to jump to please a god who expected people to jump over religious
hurdles. This attitude was what Jesus
protested against when he declared in Mark’s gospel that “The sabbath was made
for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath.” (Mark 2: 27, NRSV)
But even though
Jesus made such a pronouncement, there have been many examples of Christians
who have turned the observance of the Lord’s Day into an onerous burden, rather
than as an occasion for joy.
Some of
you may have lived in places that had restrictive laws as to what you could and
couldn’t do on a Sunday. In many areas
of the United States, these laws were rather aptly known as “Blue Laws”. (And there are really very few people who
were sad to see these laws go – including many people of Christian faith.)
Some of
you when may remember, from when you were small, visiting a relative found in
many extended families, a lady - often a maiden lady - known as “the religious
auntie”. Now, this lady was formidable. She had strong views on just about
everything, including which other denominations were within the pale and which
were beyond the pale. She led a fairly
austere life, by choice, all week.
But then,
on Sundays (or Saturdays if she happened to be Seventh-Day Adventist) her regular weekday
austerities seemed vaguely libertine by comparison. And, if you were a child whose family was
visiting this aunt, you knew that your afternoon would not be spent in play,
but in sitting in your good clothing on a hard-backed chair, being seen but not
heard. Meanwhile, your aunt told the
other adults about the deficiencies in her minister’s view of the doctrine of
the Atonement.
And, for
this aunt, she felt that spending a Sunday afternoon in such a joyless way was
the most appropriate way to keep the commandment about the sabbath. As you can probably tell, I dare to disagree
with this formidable maiden lady, strongly.
It all
links up with the opening words of the Ten Commandments, the words with which
I’ve introduced each of these talks:
Then God spoke all these words:
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of
the house of slavery; ...
God
identified Godself, as I said in the first talk, as the One Living God, the God
who liberates slaves. The people who
received these commandments were a group of liberated slaves and their
children. Each generation was told to
regard themselves as liberated slaves.
A quick
question: What do slaves do that defines
them as slaves?
Answer: They work ... all the time.
Another
quick question: How often do slaves get
a day off from work?
Answer: Hardly ever.
This
weekly workless day was a sign of liberation.
Free people have the right to take a day off.
Linking
the weekly workless day with worshipping God was a recognition that God was the
source of liberation.
The
Sabbath celebration for the Jews was a celebration of liberation. That is why, even taking into account the
abuses criticised by Jesus, there was (and is) normally a sense of joy and
celebration in the Jewish Sabbath that was frequently absent from the austere
Puritan Sabbath.
And what
does this all say to us?
In our
culture in recent decades, we have become a society of workaholics. For many reasons, many people in our culture
have forgotten what it is to enjoy leisure.
The social
scientists who said thirty years ago that people today would be have four day
(or even three day) working weeks by now would be shocked to see the six day
(and even seven day) working weeks that are becoming the norm in many
occupations. The reasons are many: ...
economic, ... political, ... psychological, ... and others. The average person in employment today is
spending more time at their work, enjoying their work less, and accomplishing
less.
As well,
when people do have some leisure time, an increasing number of people appear
just as rushed during their supposed “time off” as they do in their working
days.
We have
become a society of workaholics.
In the
face of this reality, today’s commandment provides us with an alternative. We are told:
You are more than your employment,
much more. God created you to live, not
just to do a job. Rest. For God’s sake, take care of yourself.
And I did
not use the previous sentence lightly. ... For
God’s sake, take care of yourself. ... The instruction to rest is linked
with our recognition of the God who liberates.
There is an real connection between
our care of our own well-being and our relationship to God. Taking care of our own need for rest and
recreation (re-creation) is part of our worship of the God of liberation. So, when I said “For God’s sake, take care of yourself,” I meant it so that our
self-care was literally for the sake of God:
God who liberates us ... God who calls us to take care for our own
well-being.
Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your
work. But the seventh day is a sabbath
to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work ...
Despite
the joyless Sabbath of our Puritan ancestors, this is not just another pious
task. This is not an onerous
burden. This is not just some religious
hurdle to jump over. This is not just
another barrier between the super-religious and the rest of us.
Instead we
have an invitation to enjoy leisure. We
have an invitation to see our lives as far more than our work. We are encouraged
to see the leisure we enjoy as intimately related to the God who liberated a
gang of slaves, moulded them into a nation of free people, and gave them a day
off.
For God’s sake, take care of yourself.
In the first post in this series of articles, there is a general introduction to the series.
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