Keeping Sabbath: Christian Ethics for the 21st Century

Keeping Sabbath: Christian Ethics for the 21st Century Hebrews 4:9-16
By Molly T. Marshall
Professor of Theology and Spiritual Formation
Central Baptist Theological Seminary

• Sabbath as Anticipation
• Sabbath as Practice
• Invitation to Perseverance and Rest
• Background of Hebrews
• ENDNOTES

[This sermon was delivered at the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission annual conference on February 28, 2000, at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas]

The first time I gathered with the Texas CLC was in 1984 when we met at Gambrell Street Baptist Church. I had been a professor of theology for all of nearly a month at that time, and I was more than a little frightened. It was quite a gathering; in the words of Darrell Adams, it was the world`s "religious zoo." Ken Medema, Bill Pinson, Howard Hovde, C.W. Brister, and a very conservative woman whose name I have repressed. We focused on the family; I offered a paper that decried the subordinationist model of Christian marriage. I certainly resolved that issue for all Baptists, didn`t I? As I recall, we had some lively conversation! It is a foundational memory for me.

The second time I was invited, we met at Broadway Baptist Church-that would have been 1994. The CLC sponsored a women`s gathering on "Making Peace" prior to the larger gathering. The annual conference focused on congregational ethics, as I recall.

I remember it as a time of hope (as well as pain).

Now we are here once again. It is a jubilee year-a year to consider the past and contemplate the future. I am grateful that the CLC is observing its five decades of ministry, serving as moral conscience for thousands of Texas Baptists, and beyond.

Joe [Haag] gave me a great deal of freedom in choosing what to speak on this afternoon. I must confess that it has been a struggle to decide. The theologian in me wanted to lecture on the renewal of trinitarian theology or the burgeoning interest in pneumatology (the doctrine of the Holy Spirit) or how to resacramentalize Baptist theology; the prophet in me wanted to articulate the demonizing of institutional life in America-even, or most especially, the church. (Dilday was right, you know).

It is a more personal note you will hear this afternoon as I call us to an ethic of sabbath-keeping. This is my jubilee year also; so I speak out of my own heart`s need to be attentive to the spiritual discipline of sabbath. Perhaps this can be God`s invitation to you as well: receive the Sabbath. Heaven knows we need it, for we are the tired, the battle weary, the earnest, and yes, the aging. Jubilee is for weary, exhausted people who want to enter a new chapter in their lives, as Maria Harris has suggested.[i] I think most of us can fit this description!

We find the first mention of Jubilee in Leviticus 25, where God instructs the people to observe a Sabbath for the Lord when they enter the land given to them by God. In this passage lies the professor`s favorite text: 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" (v. 4).
The rhythm of work and rest in the seven days, the seven years, and seven weeks of years culminates in a year of Jubilee. The best we can tell, this was never celebrated fully in the life of the people of Israel. The fullness of shalom, sabbath-rest is yet to come, which is the focus of our text in Hebrews.

Background of Hebrews

The preacher who wrote the sermon, which we call Hebrews, is speaking to a small congregation, perhaps located near Rome. This house church of Jewish Christians, which has already endured considerable suffering, is encountering an even more severe threat. In CE 49, they had been expelled from Rome by the emperor Claudius and, according to Acts 18:1-2, Priscilla and Aquila were among this group. (This may be one of the reasons Priscilla has been linked to Hebrews. I will resist the temptation of trying to make a case for her authorship). Now, about 15 years later, this church is facing another crisis; while we are not told explicitly what it is, the language of the whole text suggests that martyrdom may be looming on the horizon. The Preacher thus focuses on the cost of discipleship as these Christians may be targeted for arrest and their lives placed in peril.

The year CE 64 is remembered for the great fire in Rome. In the dim recesses of our memories we connect this devastation with Nero, and rightly so. Blamed for his own

negligence or culpability in the disaster, he sought to shift the blame onto the Christians who remained in the city, gathering in house-churches. "To suppress this rumor," the Roman historian Tacitus wrote, "Nero fabricated scapegoats, and punished with every refinement the notoriously depraved Christians (as they were popularly called)" Annals of Rome, 15.44.[ii] Thus the threats were real and near; no wonder many Christians fled to the catacombs as places of sanctuary. No wonder their faith was being severely tried.

The Preacher reminds them of the faithfulness of Jesus and exhorts them to follow his example. They could be confident that they would not be abandoned to a hostile or indifferent world because of the fidelity of their high priest; thus, they can remain faithful too, and not turn back.[iii] Tom Long observes that the congregation is threatened then and now with "discouragement because they cannot see anything past their own role, their own moment in history."[iv] We Baptists have similar fears and wonder about our future, hence the words of the ancient writer can reassure us also.

Invitation to Perseverance and Rest

Our Scripture offers us an invitation to perseverance and to rest. It is an interesting combination. Chapter four begins with the reminder that the exodus generation was disobedient, sinful, rebellious, and lacking in faith. You remember the story. Camped at Kadesh-Barnea (Numbers 13-14), a point of entrance into the Promised Land, the people lose faith. The report from the spies was negative, they "seemed like grasshoppers" compared to the strength of the people and their cities. The minority report from Joshua and Caleb was ignored. Numbers 14:10 puts it starkly: "the people responded to the Lord with hardness of heart." God`s wrath-which we prefer never to mention-was kindled against them, for they had treated God with contempt. Exasperated that after all the miraculous provision during the desert crossing the people still would not trust, God prevents them from entering the land of promise. Only those who believed could go forward. We know that only too well in the reconfiguring of Baptist life. The best days are not behind us!

"Hardness of heart" is a serious condition in Scripture; in the words of New Testament scholar William Lane, "it is choosing to listen to human voices of despair rather than listening to the voice of God."[v] All of us have done far too much of that!

The promise of entering God`s rest was left unfulfilled for them; now, in this lengthy sermon, the Preacher warns a fragile congregation not to repeat their forebears` mistake and fail to persevere. God continues to offer the promise of Sabbath rest for the people of God, "for whoever enters God`s rest also ceases from…labors as God did…" (Heb. 4:10). "Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, that no one fall by the same sort of disobedience" (v. 11). The Preacher goes on to speak of the significance of listening to the word of God– that they might be discerning about the truth of their spiritual condition. God knows the "thoughts and intentions of the heart." Nothing about our lives is hidden from God; this can both give comfort and discomfort. Yet it is a calm reassurance that God is concerned about the whole of our lives. It is a warning to keep one`s heart supple, open to God. God has not just spoken in the past; God speaks and is addressing them in their time of need. Sometimes God`s word to us is to "remember" what God has already done; sometimes it is a new word such as has been spoken through the Son (Heb. 1:2). God`s word stirs both memory and hope.

Now we need to back up a bit. It is important for us to try to understand the idea of "God`s rest" and how it relates to "Sabbath-rest." Whereas in the story of Israel in the wilderness, it related directly to the "land," in its larger biblical sense, it has to do with the hallowing of time that goes back to the beginning story. Too often in our teaching of creation, we separate the six days from the seventh, as if they are unrelated. We are used to thinking of humans as the "crown of creation" finished on the sixth day. Actually, in the thought of Jürgen Moltmann, it is Sabbath toward which the whole of creation moves.[vi]

The words of Genesis 2:2, "On the seventh day God finished God`s work," seem strange. We are used to thinking of the seventh day as the day God rested. In Exodus 20:11 it says: "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth." The ancient rabbis puzzled over this seeming contradiction and, according to Abraham Heschel, could only draw one conclusion: "obviously . . . there was an act of creation on the seventh day. Just as heaven and earth were created in six days, menuha was created on the Sabbath."[vii] Menuha "rest" is what completed the creation. The Hebrew word vayinafosh means "God took a breath." The rabbis related this to God`s earlier work of breathing nephesh soul into the world. This is a way of acknowledging the degree to which humans participate in the life of God.

God hallowed and sanctified the seventh day; this is the first time we have a concept of the Holy in scripture. (Amazingly it had to do with time, not with nature.) Sabbath is known in the ancient tractates as the "day when God came in." Even today in the streets of Jerusalem you will hear the words "shabbat comes into Jerusalem."

We are not used to celebrating God`s rest; we want God to be quite busy, creating and redeeming. And we try to pattern our lives after this perception. Moltmann suggests that if we neglect the biblical teaching about the rest of God we will find the meaning of human life in our work and busy activity; "and rest, the feast, and their joy in existence are pushed away. . . ."[viii] Anything non-utilitarian is devalued. Rest is God`s gift; and it is not relegated to when we fall exhausted between the sheets at night.

The Exodus commandment to "remember" the Sabbath day 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 rest on one day because God did. In the words of Dorothy Bass, "In both work and rest, human beings are in the image of God."[ix] "To act as if the world cannot get along without our work for one day in seven is a startling display of pride that denies the sufficiency of our generous Maker."[x]

Sabbath as Practice

So what does keeping Sabbath mean for us today? Does the true "rest" only lie beyond death, as some interpreters have read the Hebrews text,[xi] or can we build its hallowing rhythm into our lives now? I think we can, but not without great intentionality. Perhaps the first thing we need is to understand more about Sabbath before we can understand our deep need for it. Heschel writes: "Unless one learns how to relish the taste of Sabbath while still in this world, unless one is initiated in the appreciation of eternal life, one will be unable to enjoy the taste of eternity in the world to come."[xii]

While I was a doctoral student, I had the good fortune to spend the better part of a summer studying in Israel at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute, located between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. While there, I attended the lectures of Rabbi Pinchas Peli, a remarkable scholar and man of faith. (He was the 25th generation of his family to produce a rabbi). I found his lectures on Sabbath captivating.[xiii] He taught us that Sabbath allows us to enter a sanctuary of time; all week long we do; on Sabbath, we are; this is the meeting point of the holy between God and humanity; we must not continue creating without communing with the Creator. Sabbath speaks of freedom and redemption; freedom to "feel as if your work is completed." This would be a revolutionary idea for a people who were once slaves in Egypt, who had no control over their pattern of work. Wendell Berry`s poem, Sabbaths, captures this idea: "the field is tilled and left to grace. . . ."[xiv]

Work and rest are intimately related. When we work well, offering it up to God, we are then led to rest well in the time where God meets us. In Judaism the rabbis did not believe you could automatically move from one mood to another, to make room for God within life required attentiveness. Thus there were distinctive practices that led from the six days of work into the seventh day of rest. Shabbat began with a woman lighting the candles, bearing light as did God in the beginning of creation. In Hebrew the days of the week have no name; it is the first, second, third day of Shabbat; we are to live all week with what we observed on the Sabbath. "The more you enjoy yourself the more you`ve fulfilled the Sabbath," said Peli. This is a wonderful balm for many of us with Puritan penchants who think that enjoying ourselves too much is a sure way to perdition!

What practices might we undertake to shape Sabbath rest? In a sense we find ourselves in the same place as the early Christians who sought to hallow the Lord`s Day after a long day of work; it is not a day protected from encroachment from life`s other obligations, as was the Jewish Sabbath. We may remember an earlier day of blue laws when commerce and amusement were carefully regulated. Stores were closed, shopping ceased, and only the vilest sinners dared go to the movies on Sunday. (I still can`t do it!) These prohibitive approaches may have inculcated a legalism that we are still trying to exorcise. We must see Sabbath as grace, not law. Again Bass is helpful to us. She writes: "As the new century dawns, the practice of Sabbath keeping may be a gift just waiting to be unwrapped, a confirmation that we are not without help in shaping the renewing ways of life for which we long." [xv]

The specific help is the presence of God. As the rabbis say, God comes in the Sabbath. God promises to meet us in the time made holy by our encounter. Once again Heschel offers wisdom: "All week we think: The spirit is too far away, and we succumb to spiritual absenteeism, or at best we pray: Send us a little of Thy spirit. On the Sabbath the spirit stands and pleads: Accept all excellence from me. . . ."[xvi]

All of us long to hear God clearly; we desire specific guidance on difficult moral issues and have trouble not confusing the voice of God with the loudest voices of our day. We long to hear the blessed reassurance that we are loved and delighted in for who we are, not what we have accomplished in the past week. Our frenetic activity usually serves our own interests of power or control, not the One in whose name we say we are acting. Perhaps we do not hear because we do not place ourselves in a "posture of receptivity" in the words of Richard Foster. Sabbath can cultivate such attentiveness.

Recently I have been writing curriculum for Journeys, the American Baptist Sunday School quarterlies. It is a daunting assignment. I have been working on the Advent texts. As I wrote on the story of the Annunciation, it dawned on me that the reason Mary was able to hear the words of God`s messenger was because she had practiced hearing God all of her life through the practices of Sabbath: in worship, scripture reading, prayer, song, and quiet contemplation.

The Sabbath preserves created things from being slaves to work, and, as Moltmann puts it, "fills their restless existence with the happiness of the presence of the eternal God. On the Sabbath all creatures find their own place in the God who is wholly present."[xvii] In a sense, it is a rehearsal for life, as Don Hustad has described it. Sabbath points toward how God means for us to live all the while.

Sabbath as Anticipation

In an 8th century mystical book, The Book of Creation, the writer notes that Sabbath has to do with all the dimensions that define our lives: time, space, and the personal. Every human relationship must consist of these three. Thus, our practice of keeping Sabbath must be attentive to who we really are.

· Time. Heschel says this is where we have the most problem. "Indeed we know what to do with space but do not know what to do about time, except to make it subservient to space. Most of us seem to labor for the sake of things of space. As a result we suffer from a deeply rooted dread of time and stand aghast when compelled to look into its face."[xviii] Sabbath time gives meaning to all the other time of our life. Sure, the minutes and hours tick by at the same pace, but time has a depth, a richness, forged in communion with God. Overworked Americans need rest; it might help us all to think about a Sunday afternoon nap as a way of honoring God. Even better, we need to find short sabbbath`s all the while-times when we shut the door and just breathe! (Martin Marty recommends two naps a day!) We need to be reminded that we "do not cause the grain to grow and that their [our] greatest fulfillment does not come through the acquisition of material things."[xix]
So what about the minister? The healthy ones find time for sabbath-keeping; it is the keeping of their own souls. The practice of self-care: walking, reading to nourish the heart-not to prepare a sermon, gathering with friends, listening to good music . . . all of these can allow one to "receive the day" as gift.

· Space. It is helpful for us to recall that Sabbath is spent both in the space of worship and at the table, focal places of community. The time spent singing, praying, listening, and hearing the word of Scripture in worship is rightly completed by the shared meal. The Sabbath and Jubilee traditions always found a place for the stranger. Providing welcome in worship naturally leads to setting another place at the table. We may not be able to break bread "with glad and generous hearts" until we learn to put our feet under the same table with those whom we might consider "strangers." We must receive all as Christ, in the words of St. Benedict. And this leads us into the third dimension, personal relationship.

· Personal. A Christian Sabbath should be concerned about communion with the risen Christ and with all the members of his Body. I fear that we overlook those closest to us as we try to keep hectic schedules. Keeping Sabbath has to do with strengthening our family relationships as well as widening the circle of our concern. Acts of charity are always acceptable on Sabbath, as Jesus` ministry clearly taught us.

· Indeed, in this time characterized by relationship to God, we can come to value all those relationships that make us whole. Perhaps our lack of Sabbath has to do with our paltry efforts to build and strengthen community.

· You may find it odd that I have spent so much time focusing on Sabbath, quoting rabbis, when we as Christians observe a different day for worship. Yet they have much in common, and it is important to preserve the link between the Christian feast-day, Sunday, when we celebrate the resurrection, and Israel`s Sabbath which prefigures the consummation of time, when God moves us from this temporal sphere into the eternal.

And this is their link: Sabbath points toward the fullness of relationship with God and all others in the creative work of the world; Easter enacts the new creation in the raising of Jesus. They are drawn together in the world to come. Sabbath comes; God comes, inviting all into the feast of eternal joy.

"So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God; for whoever enters God`s rest also ceases from labors . . . as God did . . ." as did our high priest, Jesus Christ the Lord.

May it be so in our day and forevermore, Amen.

ENDNOTES

——————————————————————————–

[i] Jubilee Time: Celebrating Women, Spirit, and the Advent of Age (New York: Bantam Books, 1996), xv.

[ii] Cited in William L. Lane, Call to Commitment: Responding to the Message of Hebrews (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1985), 24.

[iii] Ibid., 56.

[iv] Thomas Long, Hebrews, Interpretation: A Biblical Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1997), 60.

[v] Lane, 64.

[vi] Jürgen Moltmann, God in Creation: A New Theology of Creation and the Spirit of God (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985), 6.

[vii]Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath (New York: The Noonday Press, 1951), 22.

[viii] Moltmann, 276-277.

[ix] Dorothy C. Bass, "Keeping Sabbath," Practicing Our Faith: A Way of Life for a

Searching People, ed. Dorothy C. Bass (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1997), 79.

[x] Ibid., 86.

[xi] F.F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, The New International Commentary on the New Testament

(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964), 78.

[xii] Heschel, 74.

[xiii] Notes from Rabbi Pinchas Peli, Ben Gurion University, Lectures at Tantur Ecumenical Institute, Summer 1980.

[xiv] Cited in Bass, 77.

[xv] Bass, 76.

[xvi] Heschel, 18.

[xvii] Moltmann, 287.

[xviii] Heschel, 5.

[xix] Bass, 88.

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