Hallowing Sabbath
There is work to be done this Sabbath day. With a variety of thoughts and feelings many of you are anticipating the congregational meeting following worship that will decide whether to call Dan Smith as Senior Minister here at First Church. You may have some worry, there may be relief that the day has arrived, and there may be a sense of hopefulness.
I say this simply to acknowledge the context in which you will hear this sermon. I am here with one of two hats I could wear – I am a member of First Church but today I am wearing the hat of Acting Associate Conference Minister, a hat I have worn here since Mary submitted her resignation and in partnership with another MA Conference staff person, Sue Dickerman. I do not intend to directly address the discernment that awaits nor do I hope to sway hearts or minds in one direction or another. I will be present at the meeting but in my official capacity and participating as such.
All these factors came into view as I perused the lectionary scripture readings for the day and the possible routes to which each may have led. The themes could have been construed as a message leading you, even directing you into the important decision you will be making.
Deciding to avoid such possibilities I went in another direction and chose words about Sabbath. If any connection is to be made it is that you approach this work of congregational life as centered and mindful of God in your midst as is possible. My sincere prayer is that you indeed find God working and moving in your conversation.
Now, on to Sabbath…Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room's only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacations. And every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.
The man flat lying flat on his back began to live for those one-hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside. The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color of the rainbow. Grand old trees graced the landscape, and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance. As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.
One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man couldn't hear the band -he could see it in his mind's eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words. Days and weeks passed. One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away. As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone. Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the world outside.
Finally, he would have the joy of seeing it for himself. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed. It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse- what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window. The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.
What would possess a man to spend one hour a day describing something that was not there? Sabbath. Sabbath is a state of mind, not a day of the week, writes Donna Schaper in her book Sabbath Sense. The man that told those stories was practicing Sabbath. He was naming the sacredness, the holy that is present in everything. His gift to his roommate was Sabbath.
“Sabbath comes from the word “to separate,” as in one of its roots, “sabbatical,” where scholars still separate “teaching time” from “study time.” Sabbath is the separation of time into different parts. Sabbath is neither rest nor labor but the separation of the two. Sabbath is the pause between them.
When you hear the Fourth Commandment to “Remember the Sabbath,” you feel the pause. In its original form of the Ten Commandments the Sabbath injunction is framed positively. It follows three injunctions that begin with “you shall not.” The rationale given for Sabbath refers to God’s creation of all that is. As it is told in the first creation story, which names seven days of God’s creating activity, by resting, God wove this day of rest into the very fabric of creation. Sabbath is the day where God shifted from let there be… to let it be… Sabbath for God and for us is a time to stop taking in and stop putting out to just be.
In order to rest, you must believe, you must trust God, and you must acknowledge that not everything depends on your own feverish activity. Have you ever thought about Sabbath as letting go of control and the belief that you can effect change and that everything depends upon you? Could we practice Sabbath as a relinquishment of sole responsibility? Can we let Sabbath be a time to take ourselves out of the driver’s seat and into the passenger seat recognizing God wants a turn at driving? What if Sabbath is time spent to nurture our partnership with God in all aspects of life? How well are we giving ourselves over to this lifelong enterprise with God?
There is so much pressure to do that it leaves us very little time to be. Our work lives, even our leisure lives are trapped in doing rather than being. The Sabbath is simply time set aside to be. It is hang out time with God. But because it is one of the Ten Commandments, I think we confuse Sabbath as duty rather than delight. We add Sabbath as another item on our “to do” lists rather than relishing, enjoying and actually delighting in our relationship with God.
Our culture values doing over being. Our spiritual lives have fallen victim to the consumer mentality. We keep shopping for something to balm the soul. The truth is the balm is not out there, it’s right here. It’s in you and me. It is a simple invitation to rest, to play, to delight and see the holy in all things. Sabbath is staring at a blank wall and seeing the world. Sabbath is finding your touchstone – a playful, restful route to the holy. Sabbath is time, precious time, spent not finding out who you are, but who God is. Sabbath is a state of soul – it is moments, not one full day – where being cracks into doing.
Sabbath is a process. It is a way of living. Sabbath is the spiritual choice to have our time for God’s own purposes. Sabbath is our way to honor God’s greatest gift – time.
The movie Cast Away brought this idea of time home to me. Tom Hanks plays a man named Chuck who works for Federal Express – you know, “your world on time.” The movie opens with Hanks lecturing to a Fed Ex work crew in Russia on the value of time. Nothing is more important than getting a package to its destination on time. Yet in his personal life, Chuck takes time for granted, that is until a plane crash leaves him stranded on an island for four years. His awareness of time drastically changes. In the end he realizes the value of being over doing. After he returns to his life he realizes that the most important lesson he learned on that island was to “keep breathing and wait to see what the tide brings in.” It is sad if it takes a plane crash and a return to survival mode to bring Sabbath home to roost within us. But creating Sabbath can be as easy as breathing and waiting to see what the tide brings in.
And that is what it takes to create Sabbath – intention. We have to choose participation – either in formal, structured religious institutions or in personal or communal spiritual practices of our own. We have to surmount the obstacles of obligation. If we do not separate our own time, no one will do it for us.
God invites us to spend time. God invites us to be more and do less. God invites us to look at a blank wall and see beauty or simply breathe or let go of our feverish activity to make things happen. However we create Sabbath in our lives, let us delight in time set aside to be. Amen.