Sabbath Wisdom

Abraham Joshua Heschel called the Sabbath the “bride of heaven” in his inspiring little book,“The Sabbath.” Heschel offered a necessary respite for me as I was struggling to respond to thedevastating critique of one Marxist author who suggested that capitalism would always run outof time and space. The problem with his critique was that I knew he was right.Kelly, my wife, and I had often discussed our frustration with the non-stop inclination to tear upland with yet another shopping complex while many shopping centers sat empty on deadconcrete land. When I look at the continuous drive to develop yet another shopping center, yetanother subdivision, yet another giant church building, I sometimes feel sick at what appears to be a total disregard for the wonder of the world around us.Combine our insatiable need to consume more and more space with our non-stop schedules andthe critique about running out of time and space seems accurate. Our inability to slow downmakes me think of Randy Stonehill’s indicting song, “Keep Me Running.”Keep me runnin' keep me movin' keep me always on the goKeep me makin' sure my footprints never showKeep me runnin' keep me movin' keep me numb from head to toeKeep me hiding where my past will never goIn the late 1980s, I served at a church where we were running and running and running. Weworked seven days a week and didn’t take vacations. We were on a mission to win the world, butwithin four years our relentless drive resulted in a church that fell apart with a total a 42divorces.In 91, Kelly and I walked out of organized church and decided never to return. I went back toschool with plans to leave ministry and pursue a life in film-making. But in the midst of my program, the Lord renewed a sense of calling to ministry, and I changed the focus of my studiesto relationships and rest. I had a vision to eventually develop a retreat ministry to teach andmodel a life of rest and relationship.Jump ahead to the late 90s, and I’m reading Heschel’s book, “The Sabbath.” In this treasure, I began to capture an image of how the Biblical pattern resists our consumptive use of time andspace and offers a clearer creational vision of rhythm. Heschel describes the coming of Sabbaththis way:

When all work I do is brought to a standstill, then candles are lit. Just as creation beganwith a word, “Let there be light!” So does the celebration of creation being with thekindling of lights. It is the woman who ushers in the joy and sets up the most exquisite symbol; light, to dominate the atmosphere of the home.

Sabbath Wisdom, Doug Floyd, 1/31/2009, 1

And the world becomes a place of rest. An hour arrives like a guide, and raises our mindsabove the accustomed thoughts. People assemble to welcome the wonder of the seventhday, while the Sabbath sends out its presence over the fields, into our homes, into our hearts. It is a moment of resurrection of the dormant spirit in our souls. 66 A thought has blown the market places away. There is a song in the wind and joy in thetrees. The Sabbath arrives in the world, scattering a song in the silence of the night:eternity utters a day. Where are the words that could compete with such might? 67 Zion is in ruins, Jerusalem lies in dust. All week there is only hope of redemption. But when the Sabbath is entering the world, man is touched by a moment of actual redemption; as if for a moment the spirit of the Messiah moved over the face of the earth.68

In Heschel’s description of Sabbath I hear a song of God’s grace and love sweeping over all andin all. This picture of beauty, of wonder, of harmony offers a starting place for me to consider afew thoughts on how I’ve begun to understand Sabbath in light of the rhythms of Scripture.In the movie “August Rush,” we see a glimpse of this harmony imaged as a song that pulsesthrough all creation. This song permeates the world that God has created and the world that manhas created. There are several scenes where the song is connecting characters and placestogether.In the beginning of the film, we see a young boy conducting a wheat field into a symphony of joy and dance. The same image is repeated later in the city when the same boy begins to conductthe sounds of the city into a song. But his beautiful music suddenly collapses. After a glimpse of harmony, he descends into cacophony of discordant city noises out of harmony.This makes me think of the experiments in dissonance by John Coltrane in songs like “SunShip.” While the music is still connected, it is connected on such an abstracted level that only afew people could honestly say the music is pleasing. Coltrane captures the chaotic energy of theage in his. There may still be a center but we feel as though we are spinning on an carousel thathas lost it’s bearings.Into the midst such chaotic dissonance, the Sabbath speaks God’s word of rest, peace, renewaland refreshment. The harmonic beauty of the Sabbath cannot be fully appreciated outside thecontext of the 10 Words. And these 10 Words cannot be fully comprehended outside the storiedcontext where they appear. (Note: I’ll be using 10 Words and Law interchangeably in this essay.)

The Blessing of the Law

The 10 Words appear at two places in the Bible: once when Israel has been delivered from theenslavement of Egypt and they are receiving God’s bridal gift of Torah at Mt. Sinai; and later

Sabbath Wisdom, Doug Floyd, 1/31/2009, 2

when the children of the wilderness prepare to enter into the Promised Land as a nation of priests.These two stories rest upon many other preceding stories. The story of Adam and the story of Abraham. In the story of Adam, we come to realize that humanity is under a curse that leads todeath and destruction. Yet, we also see a promise that God will break the curse and crush theserpent’s head through the son of Eve, the seed of Adam.A little later, we encounter the story of Abraham. God calls Abram out from the midst of his people to be blessed and to become a blessing for all peoples. Paul teaches us that Jesus is theseed of promise that comes through Abraham to bless the whole world. He also explains that theLaw was given as a guard and as a tutor for Israel until the fullness of this blessing had come.As we read back through Jesus, we see how the blessing to Abraham and the whole history of thechildren of Israel are leading to Jesus: the true seed who fulfills the promise to break the curseand crush the serpent’s head. According to Paul, through Jesus’ victory in the cross we are nolonger “under the Law.” But if we take a moment and think through the story of the Law from aHebrew perspective, we might see a different light.Listen to the promise to Abraham in a translation by Jewish scholar Everett Fox.

Yhwh said to Avram:Go-you-forth from your land, from your kindred, from your father’s house,to the land that I will let you see.2 I will make a great nation of youand will give-you-blessing and will make your name great. Be a blessing!3 I will bless those who bless you,he who curses you, I will damn. All the clans of the soil will find blessing through you! (Gen 12:1-3)

The promise is rooted in this world. It is a blessing to the people and to the soil on which theylive. “All the clans of the soil will find blessing through Avram.”Hundreds of years later, Moses prepares the children of the wilderness to enter into the land God promised by preaching a series of sermons that recount the Law of God while pronouncing the blessings of keeping the Law and the curses of forsaking the Law.