Sabbath keeping in a busy, busy world

I grew up in a family of Sabbath keepers of a certain kind.

Sunday was our Sabbath. My father did not work on Sunday. As a family, we attended Sunday services at the nearby Baptist church. My mother never cooked until after attending worship. In the mid-afternoon, the family ate the most special meal of the week. It was an event of thanksgiving. We played games, but even doing school homework was not a part of the Sunday routine. Taking a drive through the countryside in our four-door Oakland was a sometime special treat. We returned to the church in the evening for lots of singing.

The family understanding of our Sunday practices was that it was a fulfillment of the fourth of the Ten Commandments. We celebrated this special day on Sunday rather than Saturday because a new meaning had been added. Sunday was a day of celebration of the resurrection of Christ from the dead.

The seven-day week and a Sabbath are special gifts from Judaism to Western civilization. Other great religions of the world developed special day schemes, but nothing quite like the seven-day plan that is practiced by the Abrahamic faiths (Islam, Christianity and Judaism). The seven-day pattern can be traced back for another 1,500 years before Abraham to the Mesopotamians, but it was the Israelites under the leadership of Moses that perfected the system and gave it profound meanings.

Under Leviticus Law, every seventh year was a Sabbath year in which even the earth was given a rest. After seven cycles of seven years, the law required a year-long Jubilee celebration. In the year of Jubilee wealth was redistributed, debts were canceled and all prisoners and slaves were set free. The message is clear. It is the keeping of the Sabbath that sets things right, renews our faith relationship to God, offers new beginnings and establishes justice for all.

Sabbath became the great organizing principle of the Western world. Some people of faith claim holy status for the Sabbath because of the formation story of Genesis 1 in which God does good work for six days and then takes a day of rest from his work. Other people see Sabbath keeping as a wise practice that guides us to responsible stewardship of life. These two perspectives are not necessarily in conflict. Both are witnesses to the benefits of a pacing of life in which values are discovered and embraced.

Both of these understandings are under heavy attack by secularists who see nothing special about any day with the possible exception of payday. The pace of American life has become frantic, tragically unfocused and almost always anxiety filled. The good life is understood in terms of accumulation. There is no definition of what is enough.

Over the years, my life has been blessed with my contacts with Seventh-day Adventists. While living in southern California, my personal physician was a Seventh-day Adventist. He had received his medical training at the Seventh-day Adventist Loma Linda University and Medical School. More than any other doctor I have ever known, Dr. Bob Becker was disinterested in making money. He was interested in and committed to being a great family physician. Year after year, he was elected chief of staff at the local community hospital. If there were tensions between medical staff and hospital administration, I was never aware of it. He was a special influence on the entire community. He never pushed his faith. He was a committed Sabbath keeper.

I now live in an area with a large Seventh-day Adventist population. Quietly, they play a unique and positive role in our community. On occasion I have slipped into their Sabbath worship. I enjoy being in their presence. I appreciate their devotion. They close their shops on Saturday and dress and live simply. They operate a good quality parochial school for the training of their own, but many non-Adventist families, looking for alternatives to public schools, find their way to the Seventh-day Academy. These Sabbath keepers alter the flavor of our entire community.

In my personal theologizing, I have a special place for natural theology. In other words, my beliefs are informed by my observations about life. To be healthy, I must feed my body with healthy foods. To be alert and productive, I must get good sleep every night. To be a productive thinker, I must read or seek intellectual input every day. Singing a bit every day gives my life a special rhythm. Giving and receiving a few hugs every day keeps me human.

Life has rhythms and patterns that we cannot violate. The fourth commandment and Sabbath keeping are witnesses to the intrinsic needs of the life that is whole, productive, joyous and fulfilling.

One of my favorite spirituals is titled “Slow me down, Lord. I’m going too fast.”

Thoughtful Sabbath keeping does more than slow us down. Sabbath keeping brings us to a creative halt. Jesus said that human beings were not made for the Sabbath, but that the Sabbath was made for human beings.

Sabbaths are ours for the taking. The benefits are enormous.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister who lives in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.

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