"The Delight of Sabbath" August 26, 2007 Proper 16, Pentecost 13

(First read the passage for this sermon: Luke 13:10-17)

Day-to-day life once had a rhythm – and that was healthier for human beings!

In the 18th and 19th centuries, when we were an agricultural society and before electricity, the rhythm was imposed by nature. Farmers could only work during daylight. They had to quit when it got dark. And there was the rhythm of the seasons. There were seasons of activity – planting, growing, harvest – and then came winter, when there was no choice but to rest!

Beginning in the late 1800s, our economy became more and more manufacturing-based, and people began moving off the farms and into the cities. But even in that economy there was a rhythm of work and rest. To do his work, a worker had to be at the plant, where the machines were! And even before labor unions, when the work week was six days and the work days were 12-hours long, the plant was closed on Sundays. There was rest on the sabbath day.

In the 20th century, more and more folks came to work in offices. For most people, there was the 40 hour work week. And a person had to be at the office for the most part, with his co-workers, to do his work! And most offices were closed on Saturdays and Sundays! (Remember weekends for play and rest?)

Now, there is no longer an imposed rhythm of work and rest. Much of that is because of technology that has vastly improved productivity, but with tremendous human cost. With widespread use of the Internet and remote e-mail access, pagers and then cell phones and lap tops, and now Blackberries and iPhones, now there is arrhythmia during the week. Now, a person can work from any location, any waking moment. Since that’s possible, more and more bosses expect their employees to be available 24/7. And even when that’s not true, then these technological tools enabling 24/7 productivity feed our own guilt, because of the pressure we place on ourselves, if there are any waking moments during which we are not “doing something constructive!”

In the midst of this arrhythmia, an ancient and fundamental teaching of the faith carries exciting possibility. Indeed, it is nothing less than counter-cultural resistance! I’m talking about receiving the gift from God of a day of sabbath each week. Sabbath time is a delight!

Many think of “sabbath” in negative terms. That’s because it was culturally enforced for so many years, and people lost sight of why. People had lost their Biblical literacy, and were no longer formed to receive the Sabbath with joy and delight. If you are older than 50, “sabbath” means blue laws, and restrictions, and not being allowed to do what you want to do!

In fact, Jesus encounters such a restrictive, legalistic view of sabbath, in this morning’s passage from Luke. You remember that he was teaching in a local synagogue during a sabbath service, and just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.

How the other worshipers rejoiced at this healing! But the leader of the synagogue, angry because Jesus had broken the rules, kept saying to the crowd, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day." Isn’t that asinine? How legalistic, how restrictive, how counter to God’s desires to consider healing to be work – work that is prohibited on the sabbath. Jesus points that out, in his response to the synagogue leader! The sabbath is a gift, for the health and freedom of human beings!

There are two reasons given in the Bible for receiving the delight of sabbath time. One reason is to receive the gift of rest! That is because, in the first creation story in Genesis, God rested on the seventh, perfect day. (See Genesis 2:2; and Exodus 20:8-11) So, think about this: a hammock on a screened porch; a cold glass of lemonade; a gentle breeze; a nap! Isn’t the opportunity to rest delightful? Receive that gift! Observe a day of sabbath once a week!

The other reason in the Hebrew Scriptures for observing sabbath is to have a day to remember that you are free from whatever might enslave you! This is the presentation of the sabbath in Deuteronomy (5:12-15). You were once slaves in Egypt, and you had to work every waking moment. But you are slaves no more! Take a day a week to celebrate the freedom God has given you! You who check your office e-mail and voice mail seven days a week: wouldn’t one day a week of freedom from that slavery be delightful?

During the sabbath, you do not need to be producing anything. You do not need to be accomplishing anything. You do not need to be doing anything “constructive.” Sabbath is a different quality of time. It is time to receive from the Holy Spirit. It is time for immersion in worship and the study of God’s word. Sabbath is time of openness, to listen for what God is speaking to you and to us as a congregation. (That is why there must be no committee meetings in-between the services on Sunday mornings. When we do that, we treat this sabbath time as nothing special. It becomes the same kind of time that produces such anxiety during the rest of the week: time during which we need to worry about what we’re accomplishing.) In terms of our accomplishment-driven culture, as Marva Dawn describes it, what we do here on Sunday mornings is a waste of time! We practice counter-cultural resistance!

And for the rest of this day? There is so much you can do to receive the delight of sabbath time! Rest in the hammock, if you wish. That’s enough for this day! If you want to be active, do only those things that you love to do! Do nothing that depletes your energy! Instead, spend sabbath time doing that which re-charges your batteries!

How can you remind yourself that this is holy time? There are many practices that can be adapted from the tradition. What about lighting sabbath candles on Saturday night, as the sun goes down, to celebrate that the sabbath is beginning? How about buying flowers for your house or apartment or dorm room to welcome Queen Sabbath? On the morning of the sabbath, what about using special, flavored coffee, better than the coffee you usually drink? What about using the good china and crystal for your sabbath meals? What about drinking the best wine, better than you usually drink, to celebrate the sabbath day?

What an opportunity God our creator gives us on this day. It is a day of delight and pleasure, for us to receive! It is a day to enjoy the present moment – free, for one day a week from regrets about the past and anxiety about the future. It is a day a week of holy time. Sabbath is a foretaste of the feast to come, an experience of paradise!

Thanks be to God, who gives us all good things! Amen.


Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia