We do not love God because God is useful to us. We love God because God is worthy of being loved. “God is interesting,” writes Gunton, “in and of himself.”51 Or to echo Karl Barth: “God is.”52 Sabbath, likewise, should not be understood in merely useful or pragmatic terms. A Sabbath is done out of obedience to God, not to get something. While there are endless benefits to keeping a Sabbath, we do not do it for the benefits, in the same way that we do not enter a marriage in order to make love. Sex is a benefit of marriage, not the reason for marriage.
