The Fourth Commandment:
Keeping the Sabbath
May 31, 2009
The Reverend Anne Felton Hines
I had a conversation with my younger sister yesterday – the one who had a bout of diverticulitis just two weeks before my first bout of it back in March. As we talked, we both admitted that on those rare days when we have no pressing demands at work or at home – no meetings, no appointments, no looming deadlines – we often feel at a loss as to what to do with our time! My sister is a community college professor, and when classes are finally over, and all the grades submitted, she tends to feel some anxiety, and even dread; and I knew exactly what she meant!
I always look forward to my vacations with great anticipation of all the free time I’ll have to just do nothing – or to do the somethings I never take time to do the rest of the year! And yet it is probably no coincidence that inevitably, on those first couple of days of my time off, I will still be tending to unfinished business; I may even be shut inside my office here, taking care of last-minute details. And now I wonder…Is it just too unsettling to wake up that first morning of vacation with no demands on me other than to “be still, look up and listen,” as our choir’s anthem suggests?
I don’t suppose that God experienced such discomfort on His first day of vacation. In the Book of Genesis, we are told that it took six days for God to create “heaven and earth…with all their array.” And then, according to the story, God “blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day he rested after all his work of creating.” He didn’t look around for something else to do; He didn’t feel guilty for not doing more; God simply rested.
And so it is that the fourth Commandment handed down to the Israelites when Moses met Yahweh atop Mt. Sinai, was that they should “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” Indeed, this was considered an important enough mandate that it takes up a third of the entire text of the Decalogue. . Whereas most of the Commandments that follow are one-liners – “Honor thy father and mother; thou shalt not kill,” etc., the 4th Commandment is quite detailed: “For six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath for Yahweh your God. You shall do no work that day, neither you nor your son nor your daughter nor your servants, men or women, nor your animals nor the stranger living with you. For in six days Yahweh made the heavens, earth and sea and all that these contain, but on the seventh day He rested; that is why Yahweh has blessed the Sabbath day and made it sacred.”
“Made it sacred;” wow! How many of us can say we make one day a week, “sacred?” I suspect not many. Indeed, we don’t even let children have a Sabbath day any longer, as they work on school projects, study for exams, and run from one extracurricular activity to another. We are a culture of “doers,” which wouldn’t be bad if we took seriously the admonition to “rest” when our work is done – or even when it remains undone.
I think that many of us believe deep down, that setting aside time for personal rest and renewal – especially an entire day! – is self-indulgent and irresponsible. Even when we do take vacation time, we’re never far from our computers and e-mail access. Heaven forbid that we should look un-productive or selfish!
But educator Parker Palmer insists that “self-care is never selfish; it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have – the gift I was put on earth to offer others.” With this in mind, you would think that ministers would be the best at keeping the Sabbath holy, for how else can we minister to others if we don’t take care of ourselves? And yet, at almost every single ministers’ conference I attend, there’s some workshop or conversation about “self-care,” because we clergy just don’t seem to “get it!”
Perhaps I’ve shared with you before about the one minister who seemed to truly know about self-care as a necessary part of her ministry. I met her while I was still in Seminary, but she was serving a church here in Southern California. She told some of us that she made sure to get a massage several times a week; it was what kept her centered and sane. One day, as she was walking out of her massage therapist’s office, she encountered a member of her congregation. The congregant said, “Why, Reverend, I didn’t know today was your day off!” My friend replied, “It isn’t; and if you ever see me doing this on my day off, I want you to report it to the Board, because this is part of my job!” She knew the part self-care played in her ministry to her congregation.
But shouldn’t self-care – a time for rest and renewal – be part of everyone’s job? Like having recess in elementary school – a chance to let go of the tasks for a little while, so that we can return with freshness and new energy?
I suspect the reason the fourth Commandment was one of the first in the list, is that without the ability to let go of our busyness for a time, we cannot develop the strength and wisdom needed to honor the remaining six Commandments.
For honoring the Sabbath is about more then merely resting. A 19th century rabbi, Samson Raphael Hirsch, taught that the root letters of “Shabbat” (or “Sabbath”) have two meanings. The first is to “cease from activity that is in progress;” but the second meaning is to “put everything in proper perspective.” God worked diligently for six straight days, accomplishing a different task each day; but when he rested on the seventh, he was able to look at all that he’d created, and view it as a Whole. We need to be able to do that with our lives.
Indeed, according to the Mystical Kabbalistic teachings, the Hebrew letters in “Sabbath” are the same – in different order – as in the word “teshuva,” which means to turn oneself around. Sabbath, then, offers us the opportunity to turn away from that which may have become routine and unfulfilling, toward a path that offers a deeper, more enriching way of life.
In his book, Losing Moses on the Freeway, Chris Hedges argues that the Sabbath isn’t only about one day, but about setting aside time to “nurture all that…makes life worth living.” It is about “honoring those we love and those who love us – honoring the essence of the divine” – of that which we cherish most deeply.
Which means it doesn’t necessarily need to all happen on just one day – which is good news for those of us who find it difficult to devote an entire day each week to letting go of obligations – especially if we have children, or elderly parents for whom we’re caring, or any number of other ongoing demands.
In reading the first chapter of Genesis, we find that at the end of each of those first six days, God looked at what he’d created and “saw that it was good.” What if, as a beginning to honoring the Sabbath, we simply paused at the end of each day and looked at what it had been – our triumphs, our losses, what we felt good about and what we wished had gone differently – and said simply, “It has been good?” Perhaps some days we’d only be able to say, “It has been what it has been;” but still we would be pausing, resting, and reflecting on our life. How many of us even do that?
Imagine the gift to our children if we taught them, before they drifted off to sleep, to pause for a moment and reflect on the day now ending? How might that change for them the meaning of their lives? How might that help them discern what is important, and what can be let go?
Taking some bit of time every day for “Sabbath” – for rest and reflection – feeds our spirit, and in so doing, offers us the vision and the strength to give ourselves more fully to our work, our families, ourselves, and the world.
According to Leonard Felder, Sabbath for traditional Jews “is the joyful envisioning of what the world will be like when the brokenness is repaired.” The fourth Commandment, he suggests, “challenges us not only to find a way to unhook…from the treadmill of our lives, but also to connect with a deeper spiritual vision of how we want the world to be in the future. Then, in the days ahead, we get a chance to take the small steps toward that vision.”
When we take time to rest from the routines of life – whether for an entire day or for 30 minutes each day, we may feel less overwhelmed by the demands of the world, and begin to feel more deeply our connection with all that is.
Our Unitarian Universalist faith has always called us to look beyond ourselves to those in need of our voice. Our Unitarian and Universalist ancestors have been a witness for justice and for peace, and they call to us still today to follow that path.
But we cannot be strong witnesses if we do not honor the sacredness of Sabbath time – whether one day a week, or thirty minutes each day. We cannot be present for others if we ignore our need for rest and communion with the Eternal – with the Holy Spirit of Life and of Love.
In just this past week, we have seen the basic human right of marriage denied, once again, to gay and lesbian couples, by a Court more concerned with placating a small majority than with their task of creating justice.
Just this past week, we have learned that access to basic human needs such as food, shelter, and health care will be denied to the poorest in our State – while the rich continue to avoid taxes on their yachts.
And just this past week, our children and grandchildren have been told that their educational needs will be curtailed even more, unless they are among the affluent.
Our Unitarian Universalist Principles call us to confront these difficult issues – to speak up for justice, and to walk in solidarity with those most vulnerable.
But in order to do that, we must give care to ourselves as well, lest we become paralyzed by exhaustion. We must take seriously the Commandment given to us so many centuries ago: “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy” – whether that Sabbath be one day of the week, or one segment of each day. It is sacred time. Take it. Open yourself to the gifts it offers you. Listen to its song.
“In the midst of the whirling day,…in the frantic pace of life,” let us “pause,…catch our breath,…loosen our grip on life….” Let us be grateful that “we are in process,” and “that the world is still to be created.” May we rejoice and be glad.
Amen.
© 2008-2010 Anne Felton Hines. All rights reserved.
