Lent Days 21-22: Sabbath

Today's reading from the Hebrew Scriptures is from Leviticus. Leviticus has a bad rep among progressives, because it is a book that has been badly misused by Christians who want to condemn and exclude LGBTQIA+ folks from the blessed community. So now, the very name of the book 'Leviticus" elicits a "NOPE" response in many of us, and that is too bad.

Much (most?) of Leviticus is about worship, about special days of holy rest, and about Sabbath.

The passage appointed for this morning, Leviticus 23:26-41 (you can find it here) concerns the establishment of two major Jewish observances/ celebrations, the Day of Atonement (think: at-one-ment!) and the Festival of Booths, or Sukkoth.

But the parts of the passage that spoke to me were about the Sabbath-keeping involved in those days and weeks. Over and over in the passage I read,

"... and you shall do no work that day" (verses 28, 31);

"It shall be a sabbath of complete rest..." (Verse 32);

"you shall not work at your occupations" (verses 35, 36);

"a complete rest on the first day [of Sukkoth]; a complete rest on the eighth day" (verse 39).

Jews are better at Sabbath than Christians. They work at it, they make it a priority, they weave it concretely into both faith and practice, and, as a result, they shine as an example that I really think we should more closely emulate.

The theology underlying Sabbath is one Christians share with Jews; we take Sabbath to remind us that God is God, and we are not; to remind us that even our holiest stories say that God took Sabbath after the work of creation; and also to remind us that we are not slaves who belong to other humans, but people wholly owned by God. (Of course, the legacy of slavery is very real and devastating, both for Jews and for African Americans.  In no way do I seek to minimize that.)

I had been pretty bad at taking a Sabbath until my partner, Sherry, decided she would start taking a day off (in addition to Sunday) from her work as a small-business-owner. This is a little tricky for her, a little more expensive than just working herself on that day (and not paying one of her terrific co-workers). But she came to the conclusion she needed it, and so she took the day I've always said was my sabbath, Friday.

Sabbath acquisition.

As a result, I started taking Friday more seriously as a day off, too.

Now Fridays are days when we rise a little later, when we cook most of our meals (but certainly also enjoy an evening out, too). Fridays are days when we might run errands or we might decide to watch every episode of a compelling Netflix series. They are days when we practice self-care-- haircuts, a monthly massage. Walks at the park or around the neighborhood.

We don't always do everything together on Fridays-- last week I had lunch and a movie with my friend L., and it was fabulous! But the rhythm of Sabbath is something we have developed together, which has made it easier to stick to.

Every so often, Sher has to work on Friday. After about a fifteen months of taking Sabbath seriously, those are hard days for me. My instinct is to work, too-- finish the sermon, get a head start on the bulletin for next week. My Sabbath is tied to her Sabbath. But my hope is to get better at taking it consistently, even when Sher is not available to share the day with me.

For a long time I've had MaryAnn McKibben Dana's book, "Sabbath in the Suburbs: A Family's Experiment With Holy Time," on my to-read list. Dana conducted a year-long immersion in practicing Sabbath with her husband and three children, and wrote about it. She was spurred on to doing this by a life that was crazy busy, as in, “Life felt like a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle with 600 pieces.” They found a way. I want to deepen my own Sabbath-keeping by seeking a way to practice it, even when I do not have my partner to share it with me.

How about you? How are you at taking Sabbath seriously? Maybe we (who have not already done so) should read MaryAnn's book together?