There Is a Day When the Road Neither Comes Nor Goes

Sabbath: Practicing Sabbath

Isaiah 58:1-14 (Is. 56)

February 8, 2009

There is a day when the road neither comes nor goes,

and the way is not a way but a place. Wendel Berry

-Most of our focus on Sabbath thus far has been the personal observance and practice of Sabbath as individuals – Sabbath is something we know we need – Sabbath, we have noted is essential to the rhythm of our lives

-We’ve recognized the need to be attentive to Sabbath as it calls us away from the frenetic activity, the stresses and demands of our lives – even out of the journey, as Wendell Berry has reminded us, to a place

-because Sabbath is a matter of personal choice and personal fulfillment, we usually see it as an individual practice

-there is no practice of Sabbath that, at some level, that isn’t personal and individual

-But when one looks at the biblical teaching around Sabbath, it becomes apparent that Sabbathwas primarily understood as a practice of the community – the rites and practices, the observances and rules, the laws of Sabbath were all directed, first, to them as a people, as a community

-they wereto keep Sabbath as a community

-Our predisposition in our 21st century North American culture is to first relate everything to the individual – we are an individualistic society

-But, not so of the ancient Hebrew community – their inclination was to hear everything, first, in terms of the society – of the community

-its not that they weren’t aware of themselves as individuals, it was that they were not aware of themselves apart from community, its just not where they began – they began with the community, the family unit and eventually considered the implications for them as individuals

-but, we tend to start with the individual, with ourselves, then the impact onour family or, perhaps, our closest circle of friends, and eventually the community and society

-this morning I want us to see how the Hebrew concept of Sabbath was community focused rather than individually focused – that it was first about caring for themselves as a society rather than, their own needs as individuals

-the emphasis on the observance of Sabbath as a community becomes apparent when we consider what scripture teaches about Sabbath and social justice

-this relationship between Sabbath and social justice has always been curious for me – that our observance of Sabbath is somehow wrapped up in our responsibility forthe welfare of the less fortunate – that Sabbath cannot be observed apart from a community’s practice of justice and mercy

-Sabbath and its relationship to social justice is a major theme that runs throughout the prophets– beginning with Samuel and continuing right through Amos, Isaiah and Jeremiah,and all the prophets, thereis the reminder to the community that the observance of Sabbath is meaningless to God, even hateful to God,if injusticeistolerated

-Samuel challenged the people with these words, “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings, as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen is better than the fat of rams.” (1 Sam. 15:22)

-Isaiah stressed the same point, “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? I have had enough of your burnt offerings…I cannot endure your solemn assemblies with iniquity…Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, remove the evil from before my eyes…learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”

-The reminder of the prophets to us, is that the value of worship is not just in the act of singing or praying – that the value of the Sabbath isn’t just in the observe of rest or other Sabbath activities – it’s not doing these things, or doing them the right way, that makes them pleasing God

-The value of worship and Sabbath is contingent upon the rest of our lives – Worship and Sabbath become the expression of our lives, not activities set apart from our lives – as if they happen outside of our lives – in other words, the prophets insisted that we don’t leave our lives behind to enter into Sabbath, we don’t leave our lives outside the door when we come to worship, we bring our lives into Sabbath, into worship – the content of our worship, the content of our Sabbath, is our lives

-The point the prophets were trying to make is not that we have to come to Sabbath or the practice of worship with perfect lives, but with honest lives – to present who we are, not who we think we should be

-we don’t become someone different in Sabbath,rather we express who we are

-so when Sabbath became just the keeping of the rules and when worship deteriorated into a rote repetition, divorced from who they really were, particularly as a community, God was not impressed

-And when they thought that by observing the rites and practices of Sabbath they were keeping Sabbath, God was offended

-We heard this in our passage read earlier from Isaiah 58 – God is speaking and he quotes the complaints of the people, “Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why do we humble ourselves and you do not notice?” – they don’t get it, their doing all the right things but, they think God doesn’t notice – so God goes on to answer their complaints – (Isaiah 58:3b-7; 9b-10)

-Then we pick it up in verse 13 (read) – see how he brings the practice of Sabbath into it? – remember what we said, Sabbath was the central observance of the Hebrew community around which everything else revolved – “if you keep from trampling my Sabbath” – how were they trampling the Sabbath? – he just told them, by not loosening the bonds of injustice, by not setting the oppressed free, by not sharing their food with the hungry and not bringing the homeless into their homes

-I suppose we could say, that what is upsetting to God was their hypocrisy – their insensitivity to the needs around them – religious people who go to church and pray and fast but do not practice what they believe – and to be sure that is offensive and wrong – and to be sure that is something we all, to an extent, are guilty of – we’re all hypocrites who at times say one thing and do another – but as offensive as their hypocrisy was to God, I’m not convinced that that was the whole story here, or even the main story here

-I think that what was really offensive to God here – what God wants them to see is that their tolerance of injustice, their failure to advocate for those unjustly treated, to feed those who lack good food, to cloth the naked and to house the homeless, is the practice of denying Sabbath rest – Sabbath was not just a requirement that each of them had to observe, it was a gift that they were to ensure everyone in the community, in the society, had the ability to observe – they were to see the gift of Sabbath as for everyone and to ensure that everyone could enter into the rest of God – that the Sabbath rest of God was accessible to everyone

-Do you recall the commandment we looked at a few weeks ago in our first message on Sabbath? – from Duet. 5: 14, “You shall not do any work – neither you nor your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave or your cattle or your donkey or any of your animals or the resident alien in your town, so that your male and female slave may rest just like you.”

-we noted then that Sabbath was a matter of justice and fairness – that the most vulnerable members of the society were to have equally access to the freedom of rest from their toil – they forgot that Sabbath was a celebration of their liberation

-So how were they denying Sabbath to the poor and the oppressed? – to the marginalized and the widow? – by keeping them were they were, by not addressing the needs of the poor and by keeping them on the margins they were denying them the ability enter fully into the rest of God

-I have not worked with the homeless a lot, but I am told by those who do that one of the major issues for the homeless (and anyone living in extreme poverty) is that of stress – I had never thought of that, but it makes sense – I am told that the homeless live with constant stress that far surpasses what we usually attribute to high-powered CEOs or certain professionals – their stress comes from constantly having to deal with the question of where is my next meal coming from, where will I sleep tonight? – in some cases, where will my next fix come from? – they suffer all the physical and emotional trauma that stress cause anyone, but its compounded by their generally unhealthy environment – so they, more than most, are denied the joy of God’s Sabbath rest – the same is true for the oppressed, the prisoner, the addict – whoever lives on the margins of our community – their ability to enter into Sabbath rest that is at the centre of our experience of the divine image in which we are created, is severely limited

-God was offended that his people were content to practice Sabbath, while there were those who by virtue of their circumstances could not enter into Sabbath rest

-What if we understood the responsibility to care for the poor and the oppressed as the call to bring them into the Sabbath rest of God – what if our observance of Sabbath included the commitment to extend to all, the invitation of God to enter into the joy of God’s rest – to see social justice as enabling all people to know the wholeness that comes when one experiences the shalom and rest of God

-When you serve at Out of the Cold you are practicing Sabbath by inviting other to experience Sabbath – when you encourage someone or share what you have with someone who doesn’t have, you are offering Sabbath – when you advocate for someone unjustly treated or speak up to correct a prejudicial comment, you practice Sabbath by offering the freedom of Sabbath – when you come along side someone, when you step out of your comfort zone to reach out to someone, you practice Sabbath – the gift of Sabbath keeping includes the giving of the gift we have received – it includes enabling people’s ability to receive the gift of Sabbath

-Listen again to the promise of God to the Hebrews, if they will practice Sabbath in these ways, (Isaiah 58: 8-14)