"For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." (1 Cor. 1:25)
Shabbat
Posted On: June 15th, 2007 at 11:20 am
Once again, MZ Hemingway nails it. In an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal entitled The Decline of the Sabbath, Mollie opines that the sweet hour of prayer may be in danger of extinction. Work and play seem to have taken over the Day of Resurrection. She writes:
"For many Americans, Sunday is unlike any other day of the week. They spend its luxurious hours curled up in bed with the paper, meeting friends for brunch, working off hangovers, watching golf, running errands and preparing themselves for the workweek ahead. But Sunday is also, for many, the Sabbath--a special day for religious reasons. Not that you would notice."
The Sabbath day has roots in both creation and redemption. The "seventh Day" is unique in Genesis, a day not punctuated by "evening and morning" but endless, eternal Day, typifying the endless day in the One who is the Day and eternal Light. The goal of all creation is rest in God and every creative day finds its fulness in the hallowed day of God's rest. In Deuteronomy, the rationale for the Sabbath is redemption. Slaves worked seven days a week; God's free people worked six and worshipped the God who frees His people on the 7th day.
As with all laws of the old covenant, the law of the Sabbath finds its fulfillment in Christ, who is our rest and who Himself rested on the 7th day in the grave, thereby bringing the Sabbath to its utlimate fulfillment in His death and our death in Him. In the new covenant, there is no sabbath "day" as such, but a recognition that whenever and wherever the Word is preached and heard, there is rest in Christ. Christian tradition saw fit to worship on Sunday, calling it "the Lord's Day," in recognition of the Resurrection and the new creation typology of the "8th day" signifying the new creation having dawned in Jesus' resurrection and our participation even now in that first day of a new creation.
We call it Sunday, the pagan name for the first day of the week. Curiously, the Russian name for the first day of the week is воскресенье - Resurrection Day! "I'll see you on Resurrection Day." Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?
There is a soccer league that plays on the school field next to our church on Sunday mornings. The neighbors used to complain about our cars parked on the street. Now the streets are clogged with soccer moms and dads. I have members who have become indentured slaves of their employers who demand they work on Sunday morning. One faithful member was disciplined by his employer for coming late (with notice) on Easter Sunday.
I find it a telling sign of our total depravity that we refuse to obey even a command to rest. We spend all week avoiding work, and then along comes the commandment that says "don't work," and immediately we chafe under the burden of not being able to work. The rabbis had to spell out 32 kinds of work you couldn't do on the Sabbath, so you knew what it meant not to work. You know there's something wrong when even rest becomes a burden.
Being Lutheran, I am not a Sabbatarian. If we want to celebrate the Sabbath according to the law of Sinai, we would need to stoke up the blood sacrifices and give up BBQ pork ribs and lobster as well. No pick and choose buffet religion when it comes to the Law of God. We'd also need to join our Seventh Day Adventist friends and worship on Saturday, the "7th Day.". (It always bemuses me how the local Seventh Day Adventist Church can rent their facilities to various Christian groups for use on Sunday. I guess theology and profit are separate categories. The same can be said for churches who rent their sanctuaries to groups who deny the Sacrament.)
I don't advocate a return to "Blue laws" and other left-handed measures more appropriate to Islam or orthodox Judaism. But I have adopted this piece of personal piety: As for me and my house, we no longer patronize businesses on Sunday. No shopping, no trips to Home Depot, no going out to eat. Someone had to be there on Sunday morning to get ready for me while I was worshiping the Triune God. There is something out of skew with that picture.
In support of our exiled brothers and sisters, who must serve their taskmasters and make bricks without straw on Resurrection Day, we will endeavor not to enable this. As with fasting and other outward disciplines, it isn't perfect nor will it commend you to God. But more often than not, we will go for a hike or a bike ride, play some music, read a book, nap, and generally participate in the sheer joy of doing absolutely nothing.
Yes, I know all the sharp penciled nay-sayers will find various and sundry hypocrisies in my little scheme - my watching the baseball game, NASCAR, Tiger Woods win another title, etc. There is a kind of legalism that finds fault with every discipline. I note that many sports have chaplains. I knew of a Lutheran pastor who chaplained the local race track community so that the racing folks could worship early Sunday morning before post time. This is a great idea. I also recognize that my EMT guy has to work on Sunday in case I collapse of a coronary while resting. Vocation is never a tidy thing, and for those whose vocations call them to service on Sunday, the Church must provide. In St. Paul's day, some congregations gathered at midnight, which apparently wasn't conducive to long sermons as hearers tend to tumble out of windows.
Father Kenneth Korby, who now rests eternally with Jesus, first introduced me to the concept of "worship, work, and play," which is also the slogan of Higher Things. He noted, "We worship at work, work at play, and play at worship. No wonder we're all messed up." How true it is! And how exhausting. Little wonder that the chief over the counter medications are for stomach problems and pain relief.
"We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred, gladly hear and learn it." The gift is found in the word "gladly." As Dr. Norman Nagel once preached: "Do you have to go to church? No, you get to. It's all in the way of gift."
Edited on: June 15th, 2007 1:24 pm
Comments:
Re: Shabbat
Posted On: June 15th, 2007 at 1:40 pm by Petersen
Well said and I agree.
Just some further thoughts.
We need to remember, as you hint, that the keeping of the Sabbath was a burden. All the Law is good for God, from whom it comes is good. But for sinful flesh, the Law is always an accusing burden. It was more than a hassle for our brethren who lived before the Resurrection to keep the Sabbath. It was painful, costly, and ever-accusing.
Part of our rest in Christ is that we stop counting. He rested for us on the final Sabbath and rose on the eighth day, the new day, the day outside of time and freed us from the endless and oppressive counting. We do not have to keep track. We are not held to that Law. All days are sanctified and all days are equal. Thanks be to God for that!
That being said, we live in strange in-between days, having been liberated but still afflicted and suffering under the fallen flesh. God's Law is both good and wise. Weekly rest from labor and worship are what God has given for our good. It is part of our creation, the way we were designed. Besides all that, the concrete man (old and new) benefits from external discipline.
Yours in Christ,
Dave
Re: Shabbat
Posted On: June 15th, 2007 at 2:16 pm by revcwirla
Nicely put, Dave. It makes me think further...
The rhythm of that wondrous week of days in Genesis has always fascinated me. Each creative day, which is a Word-event (dabar) is punctuated by night (there was evening and there was morning), and is overcome by the Light. Each creative day has its unique gift, still given and received in each of our days lived in the creation. All the days find their fulfillment in the Day unlike the other days, the one in which night is gone and Day is dawned forever. The six days of work were "good" and even "very good." But the day of rest is holy. The holying of our work is in our rest (faith) in the One who is our eternal Shabbat.
Re: Shabbat
Posted On: June 16th, 2007 at 5:11 pm by Clyde Crowson
Some interesting observations, but you used a convoluted logic in choosing your sabbath day. Christ rested the sabbath day after his death, in the tomb. He was resurrected as soon as the sabbath was ended. Sometime after sunset on the 7th day. He was also placed in the tomb before the sabbath day began. So even in death he honored and kept holy the 7th day. During his life on earth, he spent a great deal of his time trying to teach the Jews how to keep holy the sabbath day. Martin Luther made a very significant break with the Catholic church, but he kept THEIR sabbath day. Nowhere in the NEW covenat do you find any mandate to change the Sabbath from the 7th day to the 1st day of the week. Saint Paul met once on the 1 day of the week because he was leaving the area the next day. But he many times went into the the service of the Jews on Sabbath morning. It never ceases to amaze me how much effort is expended trying to MAKE holy the first day of the week. The Catholic church at least are up front with their reasons for worshiping on the 1st day.
Re: Shabbat
Posted On: June 16th, 2007 at 10:02 pm by revcwirla
"Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath. These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ." (Col 2:18)
Re: Shabbat
Posted On: June 19th, 2007 at 12:40 pm by dtp
5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
Romans 14:5-9 (ESV)
Re: Shabbat
Posted On: June 19th, 2007 at 1:13 pm by revcwirla
That's our freedom in Christ, who is our Rest. And that's why we don't need to expend any effort to make Sunday, or any other day, a holy day. It is noteworthy that Luther did not include the Sabbath in the 3rd commandment. He cited, "Thou shalt sanctify the holy day." The Sabbath was returned in later English versions of the catechism. His elucidation to the commandment is clear that it is not the day but the Word that sanctifies: "We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and God's Word, but hold it sacred, gladly hear and learn it."
Any attempts to explain Sunday as a Christian day of worship are purely on traditional grounds, as the above verses indicate. The same can be said of the liturgical year, including celebrations of Christmas, Easter, etc.
Re: Shabbat
Posted On: June 19th, 2007 at 1:22 pm by dtp
For the life of me, I still fail to see how those who would bind us again to the Decalogue, would overlook a passage like that in Sunday past's pericope,
"18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. "Galatians 2:18-19 (ESV)
If they would have us treat this a Law, then why not circumcision? Do 7th Day Adventists or 7th Day Baptists require circumcision as well? Or is it a buffet approach to the Mosaic Law, and interpretations of it by legalists?
Why not see the Rest as gospel, the incredible pouring out of the blessing of resting in Christ's love?
Re: Shabbat
Posted On: June 19th, 2007 at 3:22 pm by revcwirla
You know, I've wondered the same thing myself. I suspect (though I conjucture here), that 7th day worship is not running in the way of the distinction of the Law and the Gospel. One might be inclined to see a unique holiness of the 7th day based on Genesis 2 that is not shared in the other days. There is no explicit command connected with the 7th day in Genesis 2, only the observation that God rested on it and hallowed it. Only in the Sinai covenant does one find an explicit command concerning the Sabbath day, though the concept of Shabbat seems to be presuppositional at that point. Much depends how one unpacks the typology of the other six days as well as the 7th.
But that would lead us far from the original post, I'm afraid.
Re: Shabbat
Posted On: June 29th, 2007 at 10:37 pm by Nick Miller
Dear Rev. Cwirla,
Thank you for thoughtfully sharing your experiences on your forays into Sabbath-resting. I think you will find the experience spiritually and physically rewarding, both for you and your family.
I guess I'm not entirely clear on the theological basis of your efforts, as you seem to reject any notion of a required or Biblical Sabbath that would have ongoing currency. However, with no real theological basis it will, in my opinion, be hard to sell it to others. The forces of commerce, capitalism and entertainment are virtually invincible when going up against things labeled merely "good ideas to try," or even "worthy traditions." Our experiences in this country with the Sabbath have already shown this.
I personally believe that God made the Sabbath part of the ten commandments because he knew the human tendency to work and accumulate would override anything but a specific command. In this sense, the Sabbath command is an actual escape from labor, rather than being an added burden. This is also part of the reason it could never be successfully enforced by human law, as it involves the attitude of the human spirit.
To clarify some of your comments about Adventists, we draw a distinction between the moral, civil and ceremonial laws provided to Israel, That is why we do not believe that animal sacrifices, purification requirements, and other distinctly Jewish rituals continue. These were truly merely "shadows" of the substance to come in Christ. The ten commandments, however, we believe, pre-dated the Hebrew nation, and were not shadows, but foundational morality reflecting the character of God.
If you think about it, the only one that most people believe didn't pre-exist Moses was the Sabbath commandment. But as you note, the Sabbath was recognized in Eden prior to sin, and existed as a command prior to the ten commandments being given on Mt. Sinai. (Check Ex. 16.) It was celebrated by Christ, and by his disciples after the resurrection, and we believe it continues on to the present. Indeed, we believe it will be celebrated in heaven. (Is. 66:23)
Also, I am not sure why you would find it inconsistent for Adventist to rent their churches on Sunday. We believe that God has people in many churches, and we are all at different places in seeking to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. We can all help each other further down that pathway, both by sharing truths with each other, and by sharing buildings!
I raise these points not to engage in argument, but merely to provide clarification and to minimize misunderstanding. Indeed, I agree with Paul that judgment should not be passed in these matters, but each should be convicted in his or her own mind. But that does not mean there is nothing of which to be convicted!
I am a student of church history, and one of my favorite reformers is Martin Luther. But I do not agree with him on everything, and I suspect you do not either. But I'm sure that he himself would agree that the advancing nature of truth means that we should have moved beyond him by now in certain things. I appreciate your sharing your journey into developing an appreciation for a Sabbath rest.