Remember The Sabbath

           Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work,  but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:8-11)

 

The first two commandments clearly dealt with the question of “If God is the one and only god, and the other supposed gods are not… The third commandment shifted in a way I didn’t address yesterday: “If God is the one and only God, and we are not…” In all three cases, they addressed the issue of how we should treat God, and they all make sense logically.

Today’s commandment continues the idea of “if God is God and we are not…” and explores how we reasonably respond, but it brings in an additional shift. While we are still exploring how we should respond to God, there’s an element involved of how we should treat ourselves and everyone else. However, there’s an element in today’s command that doesn’t follow logically.

The Sabbath seems to follow a different pattern, with a slightly different logic. When God put Adam and Eve in the garden, He told them to multiply and be the lords of the Earth. They could eat any plant they wanted except this one in the center of the garden. There are, in fact, two trees in the garden that were at any point denied to them. Because they broke the commandment about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they were denied access to the Tree of Life. With the Sabbath, we have the same idea and the same logic. If God is God, and we are not, then of course, He has the right to tell us “Don’t eat” and “Don’t work.” And it follows logically that if He has the right to tell us “Don’t eat” and “Don’t work” then we should not be commanding others to eat or work in a way that allows us to obey His commands but prevents them from doing the same.

And, as we have seen throughout history, when people get the idea that they have the right to command when people work, they tend to abuse the people they command. If they are God, they will not bow to another God who says people shouldn’t work on this day. That day becomes the symbol of their godhood. I’ve noticed this among employers. The moment I mention that I want Sundays off, they start backing away from hiring. If I won’t work when they say, well, I don’t have a job. Of course, that’s not quite the way they put it. They are as respectful of religion as the next guy, but they are the victims. They have a business to run, and while they allow a student to go to school instead of working several days a week, and they will make accommodations for someone who is working another job, somehow, they are the victims of their market, and can’t accommodate a person who wants to go to church.

We’re no better. The Seventh Day Adventists maintain that Saturday is our Sabbath. Another idea I’ve heard preached and taught in the past decade is that if Sunday isn’t convenient as our day of rest, whatever day is convenient will do. I understand and appreciate the difficulty some folks face and I’m not going to pound my fist on the Bible and scream about it, but I wonder how many of us would face persecution rather than break this commandment, and even more importantly, I find myself wondering to what extent we are seeking to obey His commandment, and to what extent we are trying to look good while effectively making ourselves gods over the Sabbath. We would be like God, declaring when and how we will celebrate a Sabbath. Like so much else, we like to make the Sabbath about ourselves.

This is the commandment that I think I struggle with the most, especially when I have a job. Sundays may be my only day off during the week. It’s a day in which I can catch up on my to-do list or pursue one of my vast number of hobbies and interests. I’ve been trying to build habits that free my Sundays, but that stresses other days. Yesterday, for example, I got cut free from work – too many employees, not enough customers. I took advantage. I went to the library, I grocery shopped, and I took a nap that was desperately needed after a bad night of sleep the night before. But at 8 pm, I was still working on this post, and I had to hurry up and clean the kitchen – putting away clean dishes that were drying, making Monday’s lunch, all because I “can’t” do it all today.

And as I look at today, I see a lot of “self” in the plans. Yes, I’m going to Sunday School and I should go to Church, but we’ll see. And after that, home, lunch, and then some options: possibly a nap, collecting some recipes from a book that has to go back to the library, reading some books, watching an episode of Poirot. It all sounds restful, but it also sounds like a singer warming up: mi, mi, mi, mi, mi. And I also know that one of the responses I’ve seen in myself has been a desire that the Sabbath would end so I can get back to doing something because “I’m bored.”

All of this is perfectly in line with what I’ve read about spiritual formation – that the biggest battle is with the self. I’ve fought the battle before, many times. I pray and end up lecturing someone who isn’t there instead of worshiping Someone who is. I’ve read more than once that we should look to see where God is working and go there. This seems to be where He’s working in my life.