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by
A.J. Swoboda
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March 30 - June 17, 2019
more critical than a gift is how we handle the gift.
the worst thing that has happened to the Sabbath is religion.
Sabbath forgetfulness is driven, so often, in the name of doing stuff for God rather than being with God.
Because we pastors rarely practice Sabbath, we rarely preach the Sabbath.
To image God is to work and rest as God worked and rested.
The Sabbath teaches us that we do not work to please God. Rather, we rest because God is already pleased with the work he has accomplished in us.
We worship the God who invented the weekend.
In 1793, France, in an effort to increase human productivity, de-Christianized the calendar by modifying the seven-day week to a ten-day week.
Adam needed food, water, rest, and relationship. In fact, God’s design for humanity was complete only in relationship with God and others.
It is one thing to have a need. It is another thing to come to recognize and deeply appreciate that need and be humble enough to have it fulfilled.
Sabbath and restoration are quite synonymous in God’s vocabulary.
God had to institute Sabbath law because humanity had failed to live the intent of God’s rest.
Adam and Eve’s first impression of God would have been that God was no slave driver.
Sabbath is a scheduled weekly reminder that we are not what we do; rather, we are who we are loved by.
A rest is not the only thing that matters. What matters even more is the consistency and rhythm of rest that we enter into.
And in our Sabbath play, we discover that to play is to pray.
“Sabbath keeping is a spiritual strategy: it is a kind of judo. The world’s commands are heavy; we respond with light moves. The world says work; we play. The world says go fast; we go slow. These light moves carry Sabbath into our days, and God into our lives.”
we will have jobs in the new Jerusalem. We will work. As Eden was a place of work, so will heaven be. Work was not a result of sin.
As I read the Gospels, it became clearer and clearer to me that Jesus himself was not selfless. Jesus went into the mountains and prayed to the point that even his disciples could not find him. Jesus ate. Jesus drank. Jesus slept. He took care of himself. And never once was Jesus hurried from place to place, controlled by a busy schedule. Jesus lived a rhythm completely different from anyone around him. The rhythm of his life was, in itself, a prophetic act against the rhythms of the world.
I have never once seen someone accidentally keep a Sabbath.
Each generation has its own neuroses.
the Bible has a word for Sabbath minus any work: laziness. Likewise, the Bible has a word for work without a Sabbath: slavery.
we find that Jesus calls himself both the “Lord of the harvest” (Matt. 9:38) and the “Lord of the Sabbath” (Matt. 12:8).
We rarely rest because the work is done.
the Sabbath is such an important rhythm because it dethrones our workaholic tendencies and reminds us that the ultimate work is not that which can go on a to-do list.
Sabbath is not the result of all the work being done.
“Sabbath . . . is not defined in terms of cessation from activity, but cessation from the kind of activity involved in the labours of the other six days.”
Sometimes we say yes because we will lose our job if we do not, or we might lose a friendship, or we may be kicked out of our cherished organization.
No is one of the hardest words for any person to learn—particularly religious people.
we prefer to say yes to keep everything going smoothly rather than take a stand on the things closest to our hearts in fear that we will be seen for who we really are.
God’s rest is always more effective than human work.
For the Christian, a no should be spoken with the discernment of what God has spoken yes over.
We must be sensitive to what God has called us to in order to be free to say no to other prospects.
Being a Sabbath-keeper is basically the art of letting people down at a rate they can handle.
Not every need represents God’s will for our lives.
we are freed from any kind of messiah complex that maintains that we must do something about everything.
The status quo of our lives is that we live in a Sabbath deficit.
we must also see that the Sabbath helps to usher in that same peace that was shattered by the dark power of sin. In short, Sabbath is a glimmer of Eden’s shalom in our world marred by chaos.
shalom should be personal and systemic.
At their core, most Western people are deeply pragmatic. We will do something if it is practical and the result happens immediately. We rarely do things simply because God has invited us to do them.
The principle is this: the Sabbath is opposite day.
The Sabbath offers us a counterrhythm to whatever we have been doing for the workdays.
a day of sacred assembly.
The Sabbath, alongside other celebrations such as Passover, the Festival of Unleavened Bread, and the Festival of Weeks, was not celebrated individually or in isolation but was a sacred day for the community to gather.
Sabbath as such has never existed as individualism or isolationism.
In his book Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam
A peg community is a place we go to feel alive. An ethical community is a place we go to die.
What is so threatening about a day of rest?
“How do I make time for the Sabbath?” Again, we cannot make time. We are human. God makes time.
were I to cheat on my wife, I would lose my job. If I stole from the church, I would be run out of town. If I lied about the church finances, I would be in huge trouble. If I worshiped another god, I’d be removed. There are nine commandments that, if I chose to break, I might lose my ministry over. But if I did not keep a Sabbath day, I would probably get a raise.
