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Remember the Sabbath
Sabbath-keeping is an essential component of the Judeo-Christian story. And in our fast-paced, "you snooze, you lose" culture, it ought to be reclaimed as essential component of the human story as well.
The admonition to keep Sabbath harkens to the earliest Hebrew texts, first with the mention of God's resting on the seventh day in the creation story, followed by the story of God raining manna down from heaven in Exodus 16, promising the Israelites bread for six days as long as they would honor a day of rest on the seventh. There are other references to resting throughout Hebrew Scripture, not only for people but also for animals, and including the practice of leaving a field uncultivated every seventh year.
Sabbath-keeping also made it into the "Top 10" of biblical mandates with its placement in the Ten Commandments as Number Four. It is significant to note that in the listing of commandments, the other nine all begin with "Thou shalt not" do this or that, but regarding the Sabbath it begins, "Remember the Sabbath..."
By Jesus' time, some of the Jewish leaders were taking the Sabbath too literally. They used it against people instead of as a gift from God for the sake of people, and they complained whenever they perceived that Jesus and his disciples were breaking the Sabbath by healing people or plucking grain. Jesus, a devout Jew, responded by reminding them that the Sabbath, like any Law, was made for the sake of humanity; humanity wasn't created for the sake of the Sabbath.
Modern Jews observe Sabbath, or Shabbat, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Some embrace the commandment to "keep and remember" the Sabbath as a means of becoming conscious of the day, of God, and to act and refrain from acting based on that remembering. As such, Shabbat offers an opportunity to practice living intentionally, becoming conscious of who we really are, and, as Abraham Heschel said, "to bring together the scattered forces of the self."
Christians have also woven Sabbath into our faith experience as well, though, to our detriment, not as intentionally as our Jewish brothers and sisters. Many Christians observe Sabbath in various ways on Sundays, including my own family, who practiced our own sort of Sabbath ritual during my childhood.
After worship we would spend the day together as a family, taking naps, playing games, reading books, and going for drives in nearby rural areas. My siblings eventually grew bored with the limited company of our family, and their combined teen angst won out over my parent's attempts to observe a family Sabbath, and even though we still went to church together, the rest of our Sundays soon became just a day like any other, much to our later regret.
Because we are part of such a fast-paced society of "doing" we rarely take the time for just "being" - and in so doing, many of us have lost the gift that Sabbath can bring to our lives, which is why I've been more intentional about practicing Sabbath in my own life.
Sabbath-keeping doesn't need to be literal or rigid. It was never intended that way - which is perhaps why, as I mentioned earlier, it begins with "Remember" instead of "Thou shalt not" in the list of the Ten Commandments. But it should be treated with reverence, both for God and for self.
So what might Sabbath-keeping look like? Maybe it could be something as simple setting aside a concentrated time of rest, meditation, or leisure once a week, or taking time in smaller doses throughout the week. Or it could be a lazy Sunday afternoon with family - cell phones, televisions, and computers turned off. And if Sunday is the only day you have to do laundry and pay bills, perhaps a regular evening walk with a loved one can be another way to experience Sabbath.
Whatever the case, the key isn't necessarily when or how one observes Sabbath time (if one is not of the Jewish tradition). The important thing is to put it into practice in some way, shape or form in our lives, in order "to bring back the scattered forces of the self."
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