Sabbath Heart
by Esther Elizabeth

I grew up in a small Mennonite village in Ohio where Sunday Sabbath was practiced.  We had little choice but to observe Sabbath, for everything was closed except the church.  In the village there were no shopping malls, theatres, or bars, and we did not have television.  On Sundays the farmers didn't work the fields, no one mowed their grass, and our traditional Sunday meal (consisting of pot roast, potatoes, carrots and other vegetables) was always put into the oven prior to leaving for church. In the village of West Liberty, Sunday was a time for the whole community to pause, bless their work, reflect on their lives and give thanks to God for all that had been given.  

Some of my friends felt Sabbath Sunday was legalistic and oppressive, but I looked forward to it.  Sunday was the day my parents spent together, thus paying little attention to what I was doing.  Sundays were just for doing nothing - or whatever we wanted - after church.  I spent most of my day roaming the fantasy world of my back yard.  As long as I was quiet and didn't terrorize my sisters, I pretty much had free reign of the day.  Late afternoon and evening would be family time, which often consisted of long drives in the country (sometimes too long); or visits with relatives when my dad would always "volunteer" his four daughters to perform some of our best homespun music; then later, popcorn and homework.  I don't mean to glamorize the "good old days" - they weren't all good - but I liked having Sabbath because for one day each week not much happened. I got to be, more or less, just me. 

Times changed. I became an adult, moved away from the village and soon every day of my life became a day to produce, finish work projects, get groceries, clean the house, study and/or prepare for the coming week and hopefully collapse into bed early for a good night's sleep before the next day's overly-crowded agenda began. Then, about twenty years ago, when my life was out of control, running amuck in a frenzy of frantic busyness, I remembered how much I had enjoyed, and how much I missed, Sabbath days.  I decided to reinstate Sabbath.  My Sabbath was on Friday.  On that day I turned off the phone, the computer, and the television.  I didn't answer the door and gradually friends learned not to stop over.  I spent time journaling, praying, taking walks, making breads and soups, playing the piano and staring out the window to watch the clouds roll by.  Come Saturday, friends who knew about the soup-and-bread making on Friday, would visit.

I credit my very survival to this Sabbath time, for these days brought sanity and healing to my internal world, to my soul.  These days of quiet and space brought me closer to God and deepened our relationship.   It was on these Sabbath days when I began to wonder about what it might be like to live each day from a Sabbath heart, each day closely attuned to the heartbeat of God.

While I still try to honor one day of Sabbath a week, in truthfulness I often fill up even that day with busyness.  I do not, for the most part, live life from a Sabbath heart.   I am often far too busy, far too anxious, far too fearful about tomorrow.  Still, the hunger and the desire are there to feel closer to the heartbeat of the Mystery. I long to return to the natural rhythm which I believe God established: work hard; step back and look at what we have accomplished; see that it is good; take delight in it; bless it; and then rest.  Rest is the word that grabs my attention.  Rest is often the part that is overlooked or ignored, but rest is necessary for the well-being of all living things.  Even my house plants go through seasons of rest, of dormancy - times to lie fallow only to rise up with new growth.  Sabbath allows time to step away from the toxicity of life, feel our feelings, and gain some perspective.  Our world hungers for people who ground their lives in a Sabbath time of regeneration and reorientation, and who are willing to devote one day a week, or one week a month, or one month a year, to the God of our hearts. 

"Let the land of our lives lie fallow. Let the tiny country each of us comprises, whose geography we know so well, rest….Let the land of our bodies, our blood, our breath, and our bones rest…We need to be people whose every activity has an underlying residue of receptivity, quiet and contemplative being.  We need to be listeners: not only to the creation around us, but also to the creation and the land that we are…we need to practice Sabbath."  (paraphrased from a lecture by Maria Harris, author of Proclaim Jubilee. Westminster/ John Knox Press, 1996.)

My June 2003 journal entry

"I know your name,"

the wise elder declared.

"I could not possibly forget it

for you have told me time and time again.

Your name is BUSY.

In response to my question

How are you doing - you always answer

I am very Busy.

To my question

What has been stirring in your soul,

you answer

I've been very very Busy.

Busy doing what, only God knows.

But it is quite clear

That whatever 'it' is, you are

very busy doing it.

You, Madam Busy

would be wise to change

your name,

for if you continue to be Busy

little peace will live in your heart."

The call to, and the practice of, Sabbath has deep biblical roots.  It is a vital part of my Christian heritage.  It is the story of my people.  Even so, I must admit that I give it scant attention and practice it off-and-on at best.  And I must also report that I do not recount from my childhood memory banks more than a couple of sermons preached about Sabbath that amounted to more than a call to show up for church on Sunday.  My faith tradition never really wrestled with what it means to practice Sabbath, to live a Sabbath life, to be a Sabbath people.  And I confess that I too haven't wrestled well with this issue from the pulpit, in my writings, workshops or small groups.  

Biblical Sabbath

Sabbath is ancient wisdom.  Nearly all faith traditions teach about Sabbath, about taking a time of rest, of refraining from work.  The word Sabbath has roots in the Babylonian word, sappatu, which means: the time of quieting the heart; to stop; to have cessation of activity; to live in the present moment.  In the Jewish tradition, Sabbath runs from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday.  For Muslims, Sabbath is on Friday, and for Christians it is most often on Sunday.   Sabbath in the Bible holds several essential meanings.  Biblical Sabbath is the celebration of the creation of the universe. (Gen 2:19). It is also honoring the suspension of doing in order to be, which is grounded in the character of God.  God created the natural intended rhythm of work and a time to rest and reflect on the meaning of life and on the goodness of our work. According to the Exodus and Leviticus stories (Ex. 31 & Lev. 26), Sabbath is also the liberation of a people from bondage and injustice, the message being that the world can be liberated from all forms of oppression.  Sabbath, then, is also an expression of human freedom, equality, justice and dignity. 

"Sabbath represents both cosmic creation and social re-creation. These seemingly two separate meanings are in fact one. …times of rest from creating to celebrate the Creator of all creation; and times of enacting social justice; and times of freeing the earth from human exploitation; and times of release from attachments and habits, addictions and idolatries … The deepest root of social justice, according to biblical passages, is the profoundly restful experience of abandoning control over others and over the earth….Sabbath tradition taught a rhythm, a spiral of Doing and Being in which the next stage of Doing was always to be higher, deeper, because a time of Being had preceded it.  And in which we could bring a fuller, more whole self to Being because we had Done more in the meantime.  In which both Doing and Being were more holy because we had integrated them into a life-path."  (Rabbi Arthur Waskow -The Witness magazine. Jan. 2000)

Living Sabbath Heart

I am hearing the word Sabbath a lot of late.  I wonder if Sabbath is the next cheap buzz word, just as the word "simplicity" became a few years ago, losing some of its deeper meaning.  While much good came out of the simplicity movement, in truth the entrepreneurs of that movement turned simplicity into a lucrative business.  Books sold and a multitude of simplicity magazines hit the newsstands inviting us to go to this-or-that spa, or purchase this-and-that gadget which we needed to help simplify our life.  In many ways the core value of simplicity was cheapened.  So before Sabbath gets lost and is trivialized in the everyday language of our time, I want to look at what it really means to us.  I want to wrestle with what it means to have and to live out of a Sabbath heart.

Today, when I imagine living out of a Sabbath heart, I think of these qualities:

Present to the now;

Celebration;

Right relationships;

Gratitude;

Balance;

Restoration;

Re-creation;

Mystery;

Rest. 

And whatever else Sabbath heart might mean, I know that it has a lot to do with surrendering, trusting, and letting go.  And that is why I resist it.  I dream of living from a place cleared of life’s clutter; and I fear such a place bereft of all the activities and relationships that support my sense of self worth.  I am both drawn to, and resist living from, a Sabbath Heart.  It both excites and frightens me for the following reasons:

• I need to trust and understand that sometimes doing nothing, just being open to  letting things happen inside me, is as important as - and sometimes more important than - doing.   This taps into my fear of wondering who I am if I am not producing something. 
• I need to let go of control and just trust in the ebb and flow of the river of life; to trust there is a source greater than myself at work and at play in the universe.    This taps into my fear of wondering how things will turn out if I simply trust, if I am not so compulsive and responsible.
• I need to trust that I am carried by God's grace even (and perhaps especially) when I am not actively creating, producing or accomplishing.   This taps into the fear that I have to somehow earn God's grace, and/or that I will be found out to be deficient, lacking and dispensable. 
• I need to be present to each moment, letting each moment define me; present to my relationship with God; present to my sense of a rightful place in honoring all God's creation; and present to the reality that the true source of my livelihood is not my own capacity to produce, but God's.   This taps into my fear of just who I will be if I let the present define me instead of my past or my future or what I have accomplished.
• I need to become empty so I can become filled with the presence of God. I need to rest in God, trust God for tomorrow, and find God in everything, even in the empty spaces.  This taps into my fear concerning what will be left if I empty myself of all that is not mine to carry, empty myself of ego or of needing to be known.
• I know that those who truly live from a place of Sabbath heart are often considered by others to be lazy, odd and/or strange.  This taps into my fear of being different, of not being honored and accepted, and the fear that I will see myself as slothful, lazy, and irresponsible. 
• And this is the hardest one of all.  Living with a Sabbath heart asks that I live it week after week, without any guarantee that there will be any spiritual or material payoff.  I am invited to live it simply because it is God's rhythm for my life. 

A Radical Act

It is clear to me that Sabbath heart draws me to live in the rhythm of rest and restoration. This does not come naturally in a culture that encourages perpetual motion and end-to-end productivity.  Our world is too often governed by cell-phones, palm pilots, emails, do-it lists, constant chatter, frantic activity and multi-tasking, as if busyness were the measure of our self-worth.  To act as if the world cannot get along without me for even one day in seven is a startling display of my arrogance.  "Sabbath time can be a revolutionary challenge to the violence of overwork, mindless accumulation, and the endless multiplication of desires, [and] responsibilities" (Wayne Muller, Sabbath)

Sabbath practice - regular ritual rest - is hard work in that it is not just intensely personal, it is also profoundly countercultural.  It is countercultural and counter to the prevailing wisdom of free market capitalism.  It takes some real discipline and faith to believe that I am valuable, not because of what I am producing or consuming, but just because I am a child of the Beloved. 

Sabbath isn't meant to just restore us to sanity - it is not just for personal benefit.  I believe that Sabbath will help save the world from unjust practices, chaos, despair, and ruin.  Sabbath practice will restore the world to rightful order of equality, peace, right relationships and love.  I believe living from a Sabbath heart brings liberation, joy, rest, and appreciation for all that has been and is.  I know that Sabbath heart offers restoration, rejuvenation and freedom from deadlines, to-do lists, social and work demands.  I recognize Sabbath heart as sanctuary in time, of resting in shalom, peace, blessedness, renewal.  Therefore, boldly I suggest that a spirit of Sabbath living will change the world.

To keep the Sabbath is a radical act of resistance to a culture that has lost track of the meaning of life.  If I claim I want to live an alternative life style rooted in the Gospel, then I must live a different rhythm than that of our culture.  I must learn to see beyond the pervasive messages of productivity, compulsive activity, consumerism and materialism.  What integrity do I hold if I just talk about Sabbath and am not really willing to live it?

What would happen if we all slowed down?  What would happen if we would open up to quiet space to receive deeper and greater wisdom?  Could it not be that the practice of Sabbath could bring hope in this world ever spinning out of control?    Couldn’t our living with Sabbath hearts model an alternative way of being in the world?

© Esther Elizabeth    (originally written for Journey into Freedom #42 newsletter)