This week, as we gather for worship, we will be considering God’s establishment of the Sabbath as He finishes His work of creation and rests on the seventh day. It is important to remember that the opening chapters of Genesis set out for us foundational realities of the way the world was intended to function. Though these realities have been distorted and disordered by sin, they nevertheless are still at work in the world today. Unfortunately, when we think of the Sabbath, we too often immediately jump to rules, what we can or cannot do. In doing so, we miss the point of the Sabbath, which is that it is a day of joy and celebration.
To aid in your consideration and contemplation of the Sabbath and its beauty and wonder, I thought I would share some books that you might find helpful.
Sabbath Keeping: Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Life by Lynne Baab. Baab’s call to find a rhythm of rest is both an invitation into a new way of living along with some practical suggestions on embracing the importance of doing nothing. It serves as a guide to slowing down and enjoying a relationship with God.
Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now by Walter Brueggemann. An Old Testament professor, Brueggemann helps us understand how the original audience would have heard and understood Sabbath and then makes application for the modern reader. Excellent for seeing that the Sabbath is not simply about keeping rules but is about the restoration of the whole person and the whole society. Provocative and challenging to our world of 24/7 consumption.
*Sabbath by Dan Allender. Allender takes a sledgehammer to the myth of the Sabbath as a day of forced quiet and inactivity. Instead, he helps us re-capture the Sabbath as a day of delight for both body and soul. Allender seeks to answer this question: What would you do for twenty-four hours if the only criteria were to pursue your deepest joy?
*Keeping the Sabbath Wholly: Ceasing, Resting, Embracing, Feasting and The Sense of the Call: A Sabbath Way of Life for Those Who Serve God, the Church, and the World by Marva Dawn. The former book sets forth the Sabbath as a way to honor God, time, the week, the rhythms of life, and the needs of the heart and the body. It helps us see the Sabbath as the embodiment of shalom. The latter work points us to the role of Sabbath in the coming of the kingdom of God. It helps us see not only the impact of Sabbath on the individual but also the wider communities of the church and world and how Sabbath is meant to be evidenced in the life of the Christian every day, not just one day in seven.
One can also find reading about Sabbath keeping in books on the spiritual disciplines such as Kyle David Bennett’s *Practices of Love: Spiritual Disciplines for the Life of the World. But even if you don’t pick up any of these books, let us all commit ourselves to considering how we might more deeply embrace the beauty and the blessings of the Sabbath.
*(these books coming soon to the church library)
