Sabbath Keeping

I know... it's been a while since I've posted anything. (Not for lack of interesting thoughts flying through my head, but for lack of an available keyboard and internet connection when I have the time and inclination to write. Anyway...)

With Pastor Brian on sabbatical this summer (hey Brian - you're 1/3 done, how does that feel?) I've been paying more attention than usual to my own rhythm of work and rest, of busyness and stopping, of adding things to "The List" faster than I can check them off and not even wearing a watch.

My husband and I do devotions together each morning, and this summer we are reading Marva Dawn's "Keeping the Sabbath Wholly" - a re-read for me and his first time through. It's a great book on Sabbath keeping, in four parts: ceasing, resting, embracing, and feasting. We're just beginning the section on "ceasing," and it is prompting all kinds of great conversations between us. In the introduction to the section Dawn writes,

"We will consider many aspects of Sabbath ceasing - to cease not only from work
itself, but also from the need to accomplish and be productive, from the worry
and tension that accompany our modern criterion of efficiency, from our efforts
to be in control of our lives as if we were God, from our possessiveness and
enculturatin, and, finally from the humdrum and meaninglessness that result when
life is pursued without the Lord at the center of it all. In all these
dimensions we will recognize the great healing that can take place in our lives
when we get into the rhythm of setting aside every seventh day all of our
efforts to provide for ourselves and make our way in the world. A great benefit
of Sabbath keeping is that we learn to let God take care of us - not by becoming
passive and lazy, but in the freedom of giving up our feeble attempts to be God
in our own lives."

The first part of the book is about ceasing work. Stopping. And even the very first paragraph has helped the two of us start thinking about what we would like our day off from work, our weekly Sabbath, to be like. Dawn writes,

"Most Americans work five days a week and then spend the weekend trying to do
everything that needs to be done around the house and yard. Consequently, the
Sabbath day (whether that be observed on Saturday or Sunday) is not a day of
ceasing from work because the pressure of the work that "needs to be done" at
home matches the pressure of the work that earns one's salary. To cease working
on the Sabbath means to quit laboring at anything that is work. "

What would it look like if Christians actually managed to honor the 3rd commandment, not in a legalistic way, but as the great gift it is? To do all their work in 6 days, and then keep the Sabbath? To make community worship, time with family and friends, and not soccer practice, housework, or shopping the norm for any and every "day off"?

As a clergy couple, we both take Mondays off. (Contrary to the popular humor that says pastors work only 1 day a week, most pastors easily work 6 days a week, and many are tempted to go as close to 24/7 as they can). The problem at our house is that most of the housework, yardwork, and errand-running are left for Mondays. Not my idea of a good time. The to-do list at home is plenty long, and the pressure is on to get the house presentable, since there are still boxes in the living room from when I moved in 4 months ago. And yet, to leave that list for Monday means it's not actually a Sabbath. On the other hand, doing all the housework the rest of the week means we're going to be working harder those other 6 days.

We think it's going to be worth it. I'll let you know how it goes. Let me know how you keep the Sabbath at your house, both the struggles and joy it brings.

Isn't it amazing that such an old commandment/idea is still so radical today!?