Sabbath: My Favorite Commandment

To start (and if you’ve read this blog at all you will know this), I don’t believe that we have to keep the Law of Moses as Christians today but there is one law that I have found myself in the habit of keeping:  Sabbath.

The only thing that I was taught growing up about Sabbath was that we didn’t keep it anymore but there is really so much more.  We really need to be teaching Christians about Sabbath, we need it.  In the crazy, run-around world that is American culture, we need to take a break and I have found myself doing this about once a week (usually Thursday though since I work on Saturday…i didn’t even write this post on my Sabbath).

We shouldn’t be forcing people to do it or guilting them into it (which is really two sides of the same coin) but we really should be encouraging it.  I know some people see Sunday as a kind of Christian Sabbath but it doesn’t really work as one (and its incorrect theology).  God didn’t design the Sabbath as a day of “worship” but as a day of rest.  I don’t do anything on this day besides things that I actually want to do.  I don’t do any shopping and I don’t go to the post-office. I don’t visit relatives or keep any meetings.  I don’t pay bills or do any housework.  I let the world stay as it is for one day and really this is the Spiritual lesson of Sabbath:  God can run the world just fine on His own.

Although I believe that God wants me to love Him and others as much as I possibly can (and that He has a plan/mission for my life), Sabbath reminds me that it isn’t my job to save the world.  I can’t fix everything.  I can’t control others (I have enough trouble controlling myself). I must let some things be.  I can take a deep breath and realize that the world is in God’s hands.  I should stop worrying and start trusting.  God’s plan will work out.  God’s way will win.

But my first rule of Sabbath: NO CHURCH!!!!  Trust me, its work.  God didn’t put “church” into the Sabbath; the Jews did. They decided that they should go to the Synagogue on the Sabbath but God never said so.  Going to church is such a laborous task for me that I couldn’t even try to convince myself (or God) that it wasn’t work.  Even in the best churches, mutual edification, bearing one another’s burdens, participating in the mission of God, are all hard work.  Actually, the best churches are the ones that do this hard work.

I just wanted to encourage you today to take a break and rest.  It is one of God’s gifts to us.  We should use it.

One of God’s greatest gifts has basically been ignored by a bunch of legalists so that they don’t look like they are keeping a law.  Silly, isn’t it.