tl;dr: Sabbath is a reminder of the character of God, our own worth, the rejection of constant power at the expense of others, and liberation for the marginalized.
Our church is planning a sermon series on Sabbath. We have a very democratic preaching approach, where speakers are largely free to take their message in whatever direction they want. This is no guarantee that this how the series will actually go at our church, but I figured since I sketched out one particular flow of the idea, I would turn that into a post here.
Week 1: Sabbath as Worship
Sabbath reminds us of the character of God, which I tend to argue is the most important theological question at the basis of everything else.
These are a couple possible texts:
From Exodus 20:8-11:
8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
And from Genesis 1:31-2:3:
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 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.
The Sabbath is to be observed because God made everything in 6 days and then rested, making the 7th day holy. This is a God who is immensely creative, but it’s not perpetual productivity for the sake of constant growth. This is a God who gets to the point of supporting relationship with humans and says "ok, that’s very good, time to rest" (even though presumably God does not need rest in the way that humans do). So, the Sabbath is to remember the presence of that kind of loving God who created a very good world.
Week 2: Sabbath as Rest
If this is a God who rests and who prioritizes relationship with us, that God also cares about our wellbeing including the need for regular rest. One text I noted for that idea was Matthew 11:28-12:14:
28 “Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. 29 Put on my yoke, and learn from me. I’m gentle and humble. And you will find rest for yourselves. 30 My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light.” 12:1 At that time Jesus went through the wheat fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry so they were picking heads of wheat and eating them. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are breaking the Sabbath law.” 3 But he said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and those with him were hungry? 4 He went into God’s house and broke the law by eating the bread of the presence, which only the priests were allowed to eat. 5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple treat the Sabbath as any other day and are still innocent? 6 But I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. 7 If you had known what this means, I want mercy and not sacrifice,[a] you wouldn’t have condemned the innocent. 8 The Human One is Lord of the Sabbath.” Healing on the Sabbath 9 Jesus left that place and went into their synagogue. 10 A man with a withered hand was there. Wanting to bring charges against Jesus, they asked, “Does the Law allow a person to heal on the Sabbath?” 11 Jesus replied, “Who among you has a sheep that falls into a pit on the Sabbath and will not take hold of it and pull it out? 12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! So the Law allows a person to do what is good on the Sabbath.” 13 Then Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he did and it was made healthy, just like the other one. 14 The Pharisees went out and met in order to find a way to destroy Jesus.
Jesus says that his yoke is light. That doesn't mean that following the Way of Jesus is easy, but within this context of those being crushed by the world, his way will bring them rest. That transitions into one of a few stories of healing on the Sabbath and Jesus justifying that as because human lives are worth saving.
So, the Sabbath is a reminder of our worth. We need to take care of ourselves, including regular rest, but we also shouldn't ever feel like we are not good enough to have earned a rest. Our worth is simply in our humanity, not in being high enough up the societal scale of power.
Week 3: Sabbath as Resistance
This builds on that, and the one I will be preaching. In the Exodus versions of the Ten Commandments I noted above in week 1, it is clear that the Sabbath is also to be observed right down to slaves, animals, and immigrants living among them. That’s the radical part of it; the powerful can always rest because they can just make others do the work for them. That's true in the the Deuteronomy version of the Ten Commandments as well, but it also changes one other important thing. It gives a different reason why to observe the Sabbath: remember you were a slave in Egypt and God brought you out of it.
12 Keep the Sabbath day and treat it as holy, exactly as the Lord your God commanded: 13 Six days you may work and do all your tasks, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. Don’t do any work on it—not you, your sons or daughters, your male or female servants, your oxen or donkeys or any of your animals, or the immigrant who is living among you—so that your male and female servants can rest just like you. 15 Remember that you were a slave in Egypt, but the Lord your God brought you out of there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. That’s why the Lord your God commands you to keep the Sabbath day. (Deuteronomy 5:12-15 CEB)
This newly freed people aren’t allowed to just turn around and repeat the same injustices on others now that they have some freedom. So, the Sabbath is a reminder not to fall into the trap of constantly trying to increase our power and wealth, pushing others down along the way.
Week 4: Sabbath as Liberation
The final week is the other side of the resistance coin. If Sabbath as resistance reminds us of what to say no to, what do we say yes to instead? One possible text is Luke 13:10-17:
10 Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 A woman was there who had been disabled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and couldn’t stand up straight. 12 When he saw her, Jesus called her to him and said, “Woman, you are set free from your sickness.” 13 He placed his hands on her and she straightened up at once and praised God. 14 The synagogue leader, incensed that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, responded, “There are six days during which work is permitted. Come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath day.” 15 The Lord replied, “Hypocrites! Don’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from its stall and lead it out to get a drink? 16 Then isn’t it necessary that this woman, a daughter of Abraham, bound by Satan for eighteen long years, be set free from her bondage on the Sabbath day?” 17 When he said these things, all his opponents were put to shame, but all those in the crowd rejoiced at all the extraordinary things he was doing.
Update: I've now realized that part of this overlaps with the Matthew text I put in week 2, so one of them would likely need to change.
I noted that text when Diana Butler Bass had a good post about it recently when it came up in the lectionary. There are probably a few other Jesus healing on the Sabbath stories that would work just as well.
The point is: most of the healing stories are not just curing physical ailments; they also provide social liberation to be reintegrated into community. I know some disability theology people do some good work on that distinction as well, emphasizing wanting to be treated as an equal member of the community whether or not the disability ever is "cured." If we interpret Sabbath purely as "rest no matter what" then it is easy to turn that into a rule that stops you from doing that kind of liberation, but Jesus clearly took the side that liberating on the Sabbath is good and more in line with the real purpose. So, Sabbath is a reminder to imagine and work toward a more just world.
Tangent: Types of Justice Work
This process reminded me of another thing I encountered a while ago. I wish I remember the source, but I didn't take a note of it. It was in some book about the climate emergency. There was a point in there that brought up that there are (at least) four different categories of how we do work in the face of this emergency, and I think it is generally true of a lot of social issues. This is how I remembered them, which may or may not be entirely accurate:
- Reform: limiting the damage, working within existing systems. This may be the work of politicians (the good ones) and activists, for example, who generally cannot overhaul everything into a utopia overnight but who can identify those ways that current systems are causing harm and enact change to eliminate or at least blunt that harm.
- Healing and Restoration: aiding those who have already been harmed, to restore them back into society as soon as possible. This might look like a lot of great work from charities and non-profits who often aren't fixing the problem but are making sure that those hurt by it aren't abandoned.
- Resistance: directly calling out what is causing the harm, so people realize it is a problem that needs to be resolved. This might look like protests and petitions and calling your elected representatives.
- Alternative: modelling what an alternative system could look like. This is where, in my opinion, religious and other voluntary communities can truly shine, as they can demonstrate what it is like to live differently. Without this, it is hard for people to catch a vision of what even is the point of all this hard work.
None of these are ever sufficient on their own. For example, if we collectively only ever did reform without any others, we are limiting our imagination, allowing some to be hurt because at least it is less than before. If you never do any reform, it's a constant uphill battle demanding an absolutely all or nothing sudden change which is usually not realistic. Importantly, that does not mean that each one of us individually needs to do all of them. We can't. It's too much and we will end up doing most of it badly. Instead, some of us should be really good at reform, some really good at healing, some really good at resistance, some really good at building alternatives. Pick your lane and celebrate those in other lanes, not looking down on them as some form of lesser work.
I think about those fairly often, and I did again here, as all of those came up to some degree within the themes of what is accomplished by Sabbath well understood.