For the past 5 months I have been immersed in studying and reading about Sabbath. I have been a part of a team who studied Sabbath in preparation of developing a theology of Sabbath for our church community.
We (our church congregation) spent six weeks in May and June on a theological journey through the Bible, and a little history, and discovered what it means to keep a Sabbath Day according to God's design. Sabbath is not something we hear a lot about in the Christian community. It has mainly been relegated to denominations such as Seventh Day Adventists or Seventh Day Baptists, or as a Jewish tradition. What we learned in our journey is that Sabbath is a practice modeled by God in the recording of Creation in Genesis 2:1-3. As beings created in His image, God's people model God. Sabbath is a gift from God where we can pause from work and find rest in Him. The other important thing we came away with from our time of study is that we cannot regulate Sabbath observance and practices for others, thus making it legalistic. Jesus had much to say about man regulating and legalizing practices of the heart in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7). Sabbath practices will look different for each of us. For example, yard work would be tiresome and dreadful work for me, but to my husband it is recreation and relaxation, and even a way in which he spends time connecting with God. Sabbath observance may happen on different days. Being in full-time ministry and working half the day on Sundays, I have practiced Sabbath on Friday for years. In response to our study, our congregation is going to stop scheduling meetings and classes after church on Sundays to free people up to practice Sabbath and spend time with their families.
For me, the thing that has spoken to my heart the most is that of leaning into God to create a rhythm of Sabbath throughout the week. The idea of taking mini Sabbaths each day with an extended Sabbath day once a week fits well with my practice over the years of keeping white space in my calendar. I really connect with the idea of receiving God's gift of Sabbath and pausing my day and my week to connect more with Him and to accept His gifts of rest, love, enjoyment, and refreshment.
We have a practice of ending each series with a Sunday devoted to celebrating what God has done in that series. I led our service that morning and below have included my call to worship that morning.
"Today is a
day of celebration.
Over the
past 6 weeks we have slowly unwrapped a gift –
A gift that
helps us pause and take in the glory and the grace of God.
We are busy
people.
We live in a
culture that values busy-ness.
There are
always things to get done – in our jobs, in our homes, our lists at times seem
never ending.
But today is
a day that has been set apart by God where we can pause-
We break the
rhythm of everyday life.
Let’s
practice that right now-
Everyone sit
still for a moment, breathe in deeply. Let it out slowly.
We have
paused the week,
we have
stopped the hurry and the running around, the focus on worries,
The busyness
of everyday life.
This morning
we have gathered together,
In the
tradition of our people,
And we enter
into the rhythm God has for us, His people.
We breathe
is His love.
We come
together to celebrate who God is
And to
celebrate who we are in Him.
We come
together to worship Him.
We come
together to enter into His rhythm.
We offer up
to him all that we are.
We offer up
to him the heavy loads of busyness, responsibilities, trials and suffering, the
hassles of everyday life.
And today we
receive from Him the gift-
to pause, to breathe, to celebrate, and to
remember who God is and who we are.
Thank you for this post, I really appreciated your thoughts on the sabbath, particularly the comments about not making it legalistic. Sabbath time is important to us as a family but we have to be flexible about when we take it and in the past I've felt guilty if it hasn't been Sunday afternoons. But recently I've let that go and found a freedom in it. Blessings x
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog, Janelydia! Blessings to you and your family as you practice Sabbath. :)
ReplyDeleteSelah...
ReplyDeletehow beautiful
Thank you, Barb!
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