sabbath-part 3-its enemies

Yes the Sabbath has enemies. 2 key ones, in fact.

Busyness

Legalism

Busyness, the modern motto of being successful. Have you ever noticed, when greeting someone, how the answer to "how are you doing?" is often "busy"? Busyness invades our lives like a disease. The person who can multi-task is a role model. The busier we are for ever increasing lengths of time seems to make us feel as though our footprint on this planet is justified. And yet, life is well laden with examples of the need for balance between work and rest. Heart pumping rhythms, breath taking rhythms, sleep/work cycles, seasons, etc. all point to the need to cease busyness in order to prepare for renewed work. The mental state of busyness is one of the big challenges for the modern mindset to truly enter a Sabbath rest. I read a story, in a book on the Sabbath this morning (I'll talk more about this book in upcoming posts, however, the title is Sabbath, by Wayne Muller), about a doctor. He described how as a busy young physician, learning to function for long hours with little sleep was part of the learning curve. When meeting with clients and seeking to understand their concerns and problems, he would often order up loads of tests to determine what their situation was. He discovered after a while, if he would take a rest (a walk or something away from his busyness), he would come back renewed and actually able to listen to his patients and discern what their problems were. Then he might order up a specific test simply to confirm his hunches. More often then not, his discernments were bang on! What a powerful lesson.

Now, the other insidious enemy of Sabbath rest is legalism. Mark Buchanan felt that this was not so much of a problem nowadays as it was for the Jews of old. That may be true for many faith traditions, but it's a very profound insight for the faith movement (Seventh-day Adventists) that I'm a part of! Like the Jewish leaders of old that Jesus was often butting heads with (in love), it's easy to get so focused on what is/isn't permissible to engage in during Sabbath hours. I've experienced conversations about such topics and heard funny stories about how extreme such conversations can become. I think legalism, in the case of Sabbath, is focusing on some particular technical aspect of something and making it a rule for all thus robbing the concept of it's true creative beauty.

I can't help but wonder what it would be like if my denomination was known more for proclaiming the rich beauties of Sabbath mentality and how that can enrich one's life no matter what their situation is? What if we were known as a movement that helped people figure out how to take Sabbath rests, given the uniqueness of their circumstances, and gave them the confidence to do so, rather than being so focused on which day is the correct day? (Granted, I am making some blanket observations here that are not true for all as I know that many in my denomination do have a deep love for and balanced perspective on what Sabbath is all about) True, the Biblical Sabbath day has beautiful symbolism, but without a broader perspective on Sabbath rest it can become a burden. What if, when Sabbath was mentioned, the heart instantly thought of all the great opportunities of what can happen as opposed to all the things that can't happen? I think that Seventh-day Adventists are blessed with their historical interest in Sabbath and could use that as a platform to be an even greater blessing to the world than we've been to date.

May we learn to free Sabbath rest of it's enemies and in so doing find renewal for the God given responsibilities of life.