Sabbath for the 21st Century
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their
vast array.
By the seventh day God had
finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all
his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy,
because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. (Gen2:
2-3) We hear in the book of Genesis.
Today we are talking about
Sabbath. We know it often as the name of a day of the week, as a part of the
Jewish and Christian tradition. But it’s much broader than that. Most spiritual
traditions celebrate some form of Sabbath. Before Hebrews, the Babylonians
celebrated a lunar Sabbath, also a day of rest. Buddhists use a lunar Sabbath
on the new, full, and quarter moons as a day for monks and lay people to feast
and reflect.
Sabbath is deeply rooted in the spiritual traditions that we
draw from. But as you know, we should never feel limited by those traditions.
They inform our faith; they do not dictate it. What I want to talk about to day
is a Sabbath for the twenty-first century. How can you and I take time out of
our busy lives to reorient ourselves, to touch the ground and reach for the
sky, time to remember what it means to be human.
Sabbath for the twenty first century isn’t an ancient
prohibition of work on a particular day of the week. It’s also not a day off of
work to run all the errands that you weren’t able to do the rest of the week.
The point after all, is to take time to refresh and renew. While it may feel
good to scratch those errands off your to-do list, that’s not the sort of
renewal I am speaking of. In fact it is the opposite of errands.
Sabbath
is the opposite, and perhaps the antidote to busyness. Our culture is steeped
in, what seems to be, a new obsession with activity. We are obsessed with
busyness. Perhaps it is the protestant work ethic on steroids. You know what I
am talking about, the incessant need to be meeting, building, driving or going
somewhere.
Before many of our meetings here at the Fellowship we begin
with a check in, it’s a time to share how your week has been and how you are
feeling at the moment. All too often, and I should say ministers do the exact
same thing when they gather, all to often, we greet one another with a list of
our overscheduled activities. We list them as a way of describing our life, as
if over scheduling our lives, living on fumes, living on the surface, is a
badge of honor. Rather than honestly saying that we feel run down, exhausted,
longing for support and in need of rest, we rattle off a list of activities.
This busyness is endemic. Some parents at least, are
beginning to see that it takes a toll on their children. Participating in
multiple sports leagues, arts programs and high-gear academics all at the same
time burns our kids out. Some parents are beginning to see that. We have yet to
see that their busyness is an outgrowth of our own.
Sabbath is an antidote to busyness. It is an intentional
carving out of time to focus on renewal. It’s not just time without work, it’s
time with an intention to tap into deeper sources of meaning. Every Sunday morning during the call to
worship, I say “This hour is sacred because we make it so.” It is our intention
and our effort that makes a moment sacred, not the time that it takes in the
calendar or the physical building. On Sunday’s this hour is sacred because we
who gather here make it so. But, in the rest of your life, what time do you
make sacred by recognizing it as such? It doesn’t have to be more than a few
minutes now and then.
Sabbath doesn’t require any special equipment or skill. It
can happen at any time of day, any day of the week. You don’t have to go
anywhere. The key is taking time, and consciously understanding that time as
different, as a time for renewal, a sacred time. The only thing Sabbath really requires
is for you to make it so.
But why? Why is he lecturing us about busyness, and giving
us one more thing to squeeze into our schedule? Why take a Sabbath?
Quite simply, because we have to. We are finite beings, with
pretty fragile bodies, minds, and spirits. Like everything else in our world,
rest is a necessary part of the rhythm of our lives. All life requires a rhythm
of rest. There is a rhythm in our waking activity and the body’s need for
sleep. There is a rhythm in the way day dissolves into night, and night into
morning. There is a rhythm as the active growth of spring and summer is quieted
by the necessary dormancy of Fall and winter. In our bodies, the heart
perceptibly rests after each life-giving beat; the lungs rest between the
exhale and the inhale.
Remembering the Sabbath is simply remembering that we are a
part of a rhythm of life. Notice, I say remembering the Sabbath. That is the
language that is used in the Bible where it is mentioned as a commandment. It
doesn’t say obey the Sabbath, it doesn’t say participate in the Sabbath, it
says remember the Sabbath. It’s a recognition that the time for rest is a built
in, necessary piece of life. We are just called to remember it.
When we take time to reorient
ourselves to what is good and true, the rest of live comes in more vividly.
Taking that time makes the rest of life better, and it makes us better at
living the rest of our lives. If you want it from a scientific perspective, Sabbath
provides a different mode for your brain and your emotions to function in. And
changing the modality of your brain is a critical piece of expanding your mind,
and keeping your intelligence flowing. We get stuck in ruts in our lives. I
don’t just mean eating the same thing of reading the same type of book. We get
stuck in the rut of thinking about the same things and thinking in the same
ways. The synapses in our brain, get fired over and over in the same direction.
As those neural pathways get more and more traveled, it becomes harder and
harder for us to think and to feel the full variety we are capable of.
Sometimes we just need to use a different part of the brain
to solve a problem, no matter how big or small. If any of you are writers of
crossword puzzlers you may know this phenomenon. Sitting and staring at a
computer screen or problem isn’t always what you need to solve it. You need to
get up and move around. My best sermon material typically comes to me when I am
running, not when I am buried in books or meditating.
So Sabbath isn’t a huge commitment, it’s necessary, and it
makes us perform better in the rest of our lives. That sounds like a pretty
good deal to me. So why not, why aren’t we all on board with this practice?
Because when we really pause,
when we really take a moment out, the silence and stillness is scary. We fear
that when we let our identity go beyond the busyness, there may be nothing
left. It can be scary. When we turn off the din of constant noise and visual
stimulation, we come to a void, a dark and quiet void.
That was one of the things that returned Peace Corps
volunteers share. Being in the Peace Corps is wonderful, but it’s also a very
isolating experience. When you are the only American in a village, you spend a
significant amount of time alone. In that quiet you get to know yourself very
well, which can be a good thing, or a very unsettling thing.
Silence is uncomfortable. Not just because we socially don’t
know what to do with it. It is uncomfortable because it brings us face to face
with a void. Spirituality is not for the faint of heart. Facing the quiet, the
void can be scary business, but that’s why we come here, to face that quiet
together.
And when we do face the quiet together, we are reminded of
the person under the busyness. We remember that every soul is sacred. We
remember that there is an interdependent web of life that supports us and all
that we love. In the quiet we find a new foundation, and perhaps most
importantly, we find peace.
I want to spend the rest of our
time talking about the what practicing a
Sabbath for the 21st Century might look like. We can start with the
spiritual practice that we all share in common, coming to church. Carving out
this time to come to worship is a huge piece of remembering the Sabbath.
Just coming to church doesn’t necessarily make it a Sabbath.
Last week we celebrated our shared ministry and the tremendous volunteer
contributions that many of our members make. I want to challenge those same
people to be sure that they are actually making their time at the Fellowship a
time for renewal, not a time for more busyness. Peter Walzer didn’t attend
worship for about two years. Yes, he was here, but he was attending to the needs
of our sound system, so he was always on duty. And because of their family
demands, this was the only time they could spend at the Fellowship. It was not
a good idea. Peter can tell you that.
So
we fixed it. Many of you have noticed that we have broadened our volunteer pool
to help run the sound and video on Sunday mornings. Everyone should get to come
to church some days and not work. Everyone should have the opportunity to
remember the Sabbath here at UUFLB.
But as I said earlier, Sabbath isn’t just about a particular
time or a particular day of the week. You can hold sacred time any day of any
week. It is sacred because you make it so. There are a thousand and one ways of
doing that.
Find a candle that holds meaning for you. It may be a
chalice or not. When you have set aside some tie – before a meal, meditation,
or simply quiet reading – set the candle in front of you, say a simple blessing
for yourself or someone you love, and light the candle. Take a few breaths. For
just this moment, let the hurry of the world fall away.
Or prepare a Sabbath meal. Shop for the ingredients that
bring you the most pleasure. This food is not so much for survival as for
sheer, savory delight. Take as much time as you like to feel, tastes, smell
each ingredient, every spice, bread, and vegetable. Decorate the table with
flowers, linens, and candles. Say a prayer or give thanks. Give thanks for the
earth and enjoy.
Your very own body has all the tools you need for a moment
of Sabbath, anywhere, anytime. One beautiful form of meditation is to simply
follow your breath. Sit comfortably, and close your eyes. Let yourself become
aware of the physical sensation of each breath, feeling the shape, texture, and
duration. Don’t change you breathing, don’t strain or push. Feel the rhythm. When
your mind wanders, as it will, don’t worry. Simply return your awareness to the
breath. Do it for a few minutes at first. And if you feel like taking a longer
Sabbath, then lengthen the time.
Of course many of us find refuge and Sabbath in nature. As I
said earlier, rest is a part of nature and creation, Sabbath time beats in
synchronicity with the rhythms of nature. Set aside a period of time and walk,
bike, sail, nap – anything that
allows your body to be soothed by the nourishment of the earth.
Whether you do it alone or with
other people, in silence, in nature, reading a book, cooking a meal, or just in
a brief moment of lighting a candle, know that you are worth the time. You are
worth taking the time to touch the earth and reach for the sky and remember
what it means to be human, to be connected.
Make your time sacred, and remember the Sabbath.
-Amen-
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