Discovering the Way - Week 2

Series Introduction:

Welcome to Discovering the Way, a video series from Redeemer Anglican Church. When the Jesus Movement first began in the first century, it was initially called, “The Way, or the Path,” because it was clear from the start that following Jesus involved walking with him in the ordinary, everyday moments of life. Throughout the centuries, Christians have engaged in spiritual practices that help keep us walking in the Way of Jesus, and each week we’ll be looking at one of them. And I’m betting, that some of these may surprise you.

Introduction

Even though the world has seen a significant slow down with the disruption caused by the coronavirus, if your house is anything like mine, my days are still filled to the brim, and I still feel busy all the time. I keep finding myself looking at the clock and asking, “How is it already 3 o’clock??” I’m betting many of you are as well.

Even in our new circumstances, life can feel exhausting - one day bleeds into the next. We still have deadlines, we still have urgent emails, we still have digital learning, we still have to make dinner, and it goes on and on. Strangely, even the days where the to-do list is blank, we can still feel utterly spent and restless.

Today’s practice is about rest. True rest. A rest that nourishes the body and soul.

Today, we’re exploring the ancient practice of the Sabbath.

What is the meaning of the Shabot?

Many have heard of the Sabbath, and many of us already have an opinion on whether Christians should practice it or not. But I think there is a lot of misconception the practice of the Sabbath. Misconceptions about its meaning. So before we look at the practice, let’s look at the meaning

What’s the meaning of the Sabbath? Well, it has to do with a theme that runs throughout the length of the Bible, from beginning to end. A theme of God’s never-ending day of rest.

When you open the story of the Bible to the first page, we see that God creates the world in six days. Each day is marked by the phrase, “There was evening and there was morning.” But the seventh day is different. God stopped from his work of creation. In the Hebrew, the word is Shabot, “to stop or to cease.” God Shabot from his work, and his presence filled all of creation and the land is blessed to provide everything human beings need. And you’ll notice, “there was evening and there was morning,” that phrase is absent on the seventh day, because this day of rest and nourishment, is a day without end, and human beings are invited to live with God in this never ending day of rest.

Tragically, we forfeited that opportunity and were exiled out into the wilderness, and the land is cursed so that now our work has become a struggle and hard toil. In fact, the Bible describes our relationship to the land as like being enslaved to it.

But God wants to restore humanity back to this never-ending day of rest, so he chooses to give the people of Israel the experience of his rest, so that they could share it with others. He rescues them from slavery in Egypt and invites them to begin living as if they were already in that day of rest by structuring their life around several practices.

One of these practices was the Shabot, or the Sabbath. Each week, on the seventh day, the people would stop from their work in order to enjoy God’s presence and his world - and they did this as a way to regularly enact God’s promised day of rest in the here and now.

So then, in the New Testament, Jesus comes and he announces that God’s promised rest is now available to people through him. He calls himself the Lord of the Sabbath. He claims that by following him, people can experience the nourishing presence of God that characterizes that promised never-ending day of rest.

In fact, Jesus times his death for the end of the week, so that his body rests in the grave of the Sabbath, on the seventh day, and as the gospel of Mark specifically tells us, on the first day of the week, he rose from the dead. Jesus’ resurrection marks the first day of a new week, a new creation, a new world where the taste of God’s rest can be experience in the here and now through him.

So with all of that in mind, so how does practicing the Sabbath fit into the life of a follower of Jesus? It is not a legalistic practice to earn spiritual brownie points, nor is it a day for binge watching Netflix and not doing anything.

Practicing the Sabbath is a physical reminder that in Jesus we have been freed to experience fullness of life now, while we wait for God’s eternal rest to come in full. The world is not all work and draining labor and tiredness and business, we are not slaves to our calendars, because God’s promised rest is here in Jesus. And just like the ancient Israelites, when we practice the Sabbath, we intentionally live into that promised rest as a physical reminder of God’s faithfulness.

We of course can and should be living into that promised rest every day, but that’s a lot easier said than done, especially in a world as fast paced and busy as ours. And so, with anything that’s difficult, we need practice living in God’s rest. And this is what the Sabbath is all about.

What is the practice of the Shabot?

So how do we practice the Sabbath?

The first step is to pick a day when you and the family will Shabot together. I find it helpful to mimic the ancient Israelites and time your sabbath for sundown to sundown. So if you’re going to Sabbath this coming Sunday, you’d begin Saturday evening and go until Sunday evening.

The next step is to discuss with one another what would be nourishing for you? What activities foster a deeper awareness of God’s presence? Rest isn’t about inactivity, it’s about nourishment. Perhaps it’s worshipping in song or prayer, maybe listening to music, taking a nap, going for a hike or walk, reading a good book, spending time in your garden, doing something creative like painting or building something, taking time to have an afternoon iced latte, going for ice cream. It could also be some act of service that nourishes your soul: maybe writing a letter to a friend or baking cookies for your neighbors. Whatever it is, loosely plan your day of rest to include these kinds of things.

Lastly, have a way to mark the beginning and ending of this day of rest. Light a candle on Saturday evening and pray for the Spirit to speak in the coming day, and then light that same candle at the end of your Sabbath and thank Him for the taste of God’s rest he gave you. Perhaps let your Sabbath day begin and end with a special meal. However you do it, find a way to set this day apart by marking its beginning and end.

Three steps: pick a day, loosely schedule your day with nourishing activities, and mark its beginning and end with some sort of ritual.

Practicing the Sabbath is all about living into the truth that Jesus has freed us to experience fullness of life, filled with the nourishing presence of God, right now through him. And sometimes to be reminded of that, we need to Shabot, we need to stop, we need to Sabbath.