Mark 2:23-28

 Last Sunday our theme was regarding family relationships and a couple people brought up questions and thoughts about Sabbath as a part of a strong, healthy relationship with God and with one another.  The point is that without a practice that fulfills the need for Sabbath, our relationships degenerate into a constant series of obligations and demands.  The result is inevitably to be feelings of shame, guilt, defensiveness, hostility, and unforgiveness. Without Sabbath we are not going to have the resources needed to be healthy in our relationships with God, with family, or balanced within ourselves.

How much Sabbath is needed?  How do you know if what you are doing is Sabbath? The answer is a tough one.  You know when it’s right because it fulfills your needs to be spiritually healthy. The first issue is that much of what we do is not Sabbath.  Obligation is a tricky thing. On the one thing we have to seek consistency.  However a great many of us are seriously over committed.  We add more and more to our lives until there is never a break. This is potentially quite destructive. It will end up with a breakdown of relationships and seriously impair our ability to be healthy spiritually.  Occasional reevaluations are needed, looking over our activities and choices to see if we are including time for celebration, rest, and enjoying our relationship with God.

Sabbath can take many forms.  One monastic community that I visited has three Sabbaths in each day; besides the day of rest on The Lord’s Day.  One of the Sabbath’s is in the form of gathering for tea.  There is the obligation to be there, everyone in the community must attend.  But that obligation is out of a sense of love and appreciation for the community.  If someone is ill or impaired they would obviously be excused.  But one would never even consider working through these breaks.  They are a gift from God and to be enjoyed.  At the break for tea there is a tremendous amount of preparation for something so simple.  The serving of the tea is done in such a way that those in greater authority serve the community.  The gathering has a sense of being a sacrament of service and love.  It is a spiritually healing and renewing experience.

The problem is that if we attempted to transplant that experience to another gathering it would not have the same outcome.  The sabbaths that are effective grow out of the relationships that they serve.  When Jesus said, ‘”The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath;” he was emphasizing that sabbath is something that cannot be created by law. It has to emerge out of the grace and love that is shared in community, in family, and in our relationship with Christ.

This does not mean we are less than intentional about creating sabbath.  Whether it is a quiet time of meditation, a choice to enjoy an activity together, or sharing a meal, we have to choose sabbath. It doesn’t tend to happen by accident.  There is a line that one has to walk between legalistically making ourselves slaves to tradition and being undisciplined in creating the structures needed to ensure healthy sabbath.  Somewhere between those points is what will work for oneself; one’s family, and one’s community.

The point is you know it when you encounter it.  It is more than just that it “feels good.”  The regular practice, the setting aside of time for sabbath bears a tremendous fruit of joy, spiritual strength, and a healthy relationship with God.  God becomes less a judge hovering over us and more our provider and security.  It is the gift of wholeness that continues to enable us to thrive.

Have a good sabbath and celebrate that God’s love is for us all.

Peace,

Pastor Jack