More than self-indulgence and productivity
About 10 years ago, I decided to obey God by honouring his command to keep a Sabbath.
At my gym, they say that the first step to achieving your fitness goals is to commit to stop getting any worse; maintaining your current fitness level is the foundation for improving it. Accordingly, I began by committing to not get any worse at Sabbath keeping.
The next thing I did was take careful stock of how I spend my time. There are no extra hours in the week; if I was going to begin observing a Sabbath, I would need to begin by having the time to do so. I started by committing to spend one day every two months in rest, silence, and prayerful reflection at the local monastery and by spending one night a week at home.
That’s all: not 52 days a year, just six days and 52 evenings. My hope was that if I could begin to live into this rhythm of Sabbath keeping, I could gradually move up to 52 full days a year.
The next question was, what should I do during my Sabbath time? When I looked to my Christian community for answers, I found there were very few available. Few of my friends kept a Sabbath, and when they did, their practice didn’t extend beyond attending church on Sunday mornings where they would often cram in business meetings or other church-work-related activities to maximize their time. This did not seem to be what Sabbath keeping was all about.
Sabbath keeping in the secular world
I actually found more information on Sabbath keeping in the business world and in fashion magazines. Many business leaders have found a money-making justification for Sabbath keeping: resting one day a week makes you more productive on the other six.
But rest for the sake of future productivity is at odds with the biblical spirit of Sabbath. God didn’t rest on the seventh day so he could work harder for the next six. Increased productivity may be a byproduct of Sabbath keeping, but it is not why God commanded us to keep the Sabbath.
Fashion magazines also praise the idea of Sabbath. Take a bubble bath! Have some “me” time!
But this version of Sabbath honours only the bath taker. Sabbath isn’t just about me; in observing the Sabbath, one is both giving a gift to God and imitating him. Exodus 20:11 tells us that God “blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Sabbath keeping certainly benefits us as individuals, but it is ultimately about the God who created us and loves us.
Sabbath keeping in Judaism
Next, I looked to Judaism. Over hundreds of years, Jews have managed to hone the art of Sabbath keeping into a series of intricate laws and regulations. If I had grown up in a Jewish home, my pre-Sabbath task might have been to pre-tear enough toilet paper for my family, because one of the things you are not allowed to do on the Sabbath is tear anything. This seems like a legalistic nightmare; why do Jewish people still find it so important?
My husband and I once had the opportunity to participate in a Sabbath dinner with some Jewish friends. It was then I realized why Sabbath is so important and why our Jewish friends think it’s worth all the extra effort.
The Jewish Sabbath begins when the sun goes down on Friday – at whatever time that might be. Up until that moment, there is a frenzy of activity to ensure everything is ready. When the sun is setting, a candle is lit and a blessing is said to mark the start of Sabbath. What follows is a leisurely meal filled with traditions enjoyed as a family.
One of the most beautiful traditions is the blessing of the children, at which time parents place their hands on their children’s heads and speak a blessing over them. Can you imagine the beauty of dedicating a time each week to blessing your kids? What effect might that have on a parent? On a child?
That evening, as we drove home, I felt a deep sadness and jealousy that I had not found a way to achieve that sense of peace, that sense of rest, that sense of communion with God and with those closest to me on a weekly basis.
Now, I am not suggesting that Christians embrace the strict regulations of the Orthodox Jewish Sabbath. Indeed, the New Testament makes it clear that in Jesus Christ, Sabbath has a new meaning. Paul says that the Sabbath, like other external signs of religious devotion, are not the things that save us. He writes to the Colossians, “Therefore, do not let anyone judge you…with regard to a religious festival…or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ” (2:16–17).
Marking a time of rest
But there is something in the Jewish Sabbath that is absent from most Christian Sundays: a visible break from the rhythms of work and world, a time wholly set apart, and perhaps, above all, a sense that the point of Sabbath, the whole focus of Sabbath, is toward God.
Sabbath time begins and ends with the lighting of candles. As the sun sets on Saturday, Jewish people light a havdalah candle. Havdalah means separation, and the lighting of this candle marks the separation of Sabbath – time set apart for God – from the rest of the week.
There is a benefit to beginning and ending Sabbath time in a special way in order to mark that time as set apart from regular time. Sometimes I light a candle, other times I say a prayer thanking God for Sabbath. Reminding myself that Sabbath time is special time affects how I spend it.
Jewish rabbis say the emotion that should accompany any spiritual practice is kavannah, which means intent or direct purposefulness. To act with kavannah is to approach the things God commands us to do with the intent to honour God in our actions – whether we feel particularly close to God at that moment or not. If you wait to practice Sabbath keeping until you feel like observing it, you may never practice it at all. Sometimes, Sabbath is an amazingly powerful and emotional time of connection with God, and sometimes it’s not. But I evaluate the time based on my intentions, on kavannah, rather than on the quality of the emotional high I receive.
Getting started
The New England Puritans summed up their thoughts about Sabbath this way, “Good Sabbaths make good Christians.” If you do not already practice Sabbath keeping, it’s never too late to start. First, commit to not get any worse at Sabbath keeping. After that, there are two important things to remember:
- Be intentional. Simply wanting to observe Sabbath will not make it happen.
- Don’t let it become legalistic. Sabbath is a gift, not a burden.
Any step you can take toward a greater obedience to God is always worth the effort. God loves us enough to command that we look after our relationships with him and others by taking a day to rest and reflect. That makes him a God like no other, and that is why he is the God that I serve.
Rachel Twigg Boyce is the pastor of House Blend Ministries, an initiative of the Mennonite Brethren Church of Manitoba. House Blend desires to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God in Winnipeg’s West End. When she’s not working, Rachel can often be found drinking coffee, walking her dog, or doing both at the same time.
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