There is much in biblical ritual that was relevant to the desert cultures from which it originated. Pork has a tendency to become lethal when left out in the sun, so prohibitions against its consumption was a practical matter. Is it a coincidence that God, according to the Bible, forbids its consumption? It made sense at the time.
Something else that made sense at the time, but which has been abandoned by most Bible-followers is the rule around marking the Sabbath. Perhaps taking a whole day off every week (and even giving your slaves a day off) seemed excessive in agrarian societies.
Yet a lot of things in the Bible are plain common sense. The source of the Bible may not have foreseen electric refrigeration in every home, which makes pork less scary, but the source certainly understood the human need for rest.
Seven is an important number in the Bible. Not for nothing is it considered lucky. The Old Testament, the Jewish texts, tell farmers to let the fields go fallow every seventh year, a sabbatical, the Sabbath rest. Despite the religiosity of the folks in what became North America’s Dust Bowl in the 1930s, they forgot that the soil needed a rest. (Other factors combined, but overworking the land was a contributor).
Humans are even more fragile than the land we till, yet the belief that people deserve to experience at least one-seventh of their lives in some form of rejuvenating rest was largely abandoned even before electronic advancements made us accessible 24/7.
I know a lot of people who observe some form of Sabbath rest. Almost all of them are Jewish and their forms of observance range from one liberal rabbi whose rule is simply that he doesn’t do anything that feels like work to some Orthodox Jewish people whose proscriptions — avoiding electricity or automotive power, among many others — seem to me like an awful lot of work.
But some Christians also observe the Sabbath and, as I’m finding out, are defining it for themselves.
For Catherine Kelly, Sabbath-keeping means attending Sunday Mass at her Catholic parish, socializing afterward over coffee, then enjoying a day with her husband and kids, who are four and seven. They usually pack a picnic. Weather permitting, they go to the beach or for a hike. If weather is uncooperative, they eat inside. The key for Kelly is not having any obligations. They may share their lunch with another family, but she hesitates to make any commitments ahead of time.
Kelly is a full-time mom and part-time retreat director for St. Mark’s Catholic parish, which doubles as a local church and the Catholic chaplaincy for UBC. The Wisconsin native who married a Canadian is a former lawyer who studied at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, Calif. This month, she is leading a retreat on Sabbath-keeping and everyone is welcome (carey-edu.ca). When she told this to an evangelical pastor, the response was: Is Sabbath keeping a part of your practice? Is that a Catholic thing?
Well, she says, yes and no.
“It’s not really a term that we use,” Kelly says. When she grew up, her family would relax after Mass, enjoy a meal, simply spend time together. She didn’t think of it as “Sabbath-keeping,” though she does now. But, she adds, it doesn’t need to be on Sunday and it doesn’t need to be a whole day.
“You can have Sabbath walks or Sabbath hours throughout the week,” she says. “It’s an invitation to rest in the Lord and rest and reorient yourself.”
Muslims, she notes, pray five times a day, which is a form of breaking away from the daily routine.
I’ve always admired the concept of Sabbath-keeping — I belong to a Facebook group on unplugging, which I check religiously — and, given Kelly’s concept of it, I ask if my daily dog walk could be a Sabbath event.
Depends on what happening in your mind, she says. “The intention is to focus on God, be absorbing nature,” she says. Observing creation and letting go of worries is the focus. “It’s the sense of what is your purpose and what is your focus during that time.”
Simply put, it’s about healthy boundaries, she says, maintaining a sacred space that also extends to self-care in other ways, including healthy eating, getting enough sleep, exercising and unplugging to create balance in your life.
Between the complete abandonment of Sabbath-keeping and the strict legalism of the most vigilant interpretation, Kelly advocates whatever works for people who recognize the value of escaping the daily routine and finding the sacred in the everyday.
“The invitation is to rest and, for each of us, it may mean different things,” she says. “For someone like me, who is a mom, and I cook three meals a day every day of the week, not having to cook on Sunday is rest for me. But other people who don’t have time to cook during the week may enjoy making a big meal. That might be restful and delightful for them. For some people, doing yard work may be work, but for other people it’s very therapeutic to be in the garden, to be nurturing their plants and pruning back things and seeing the growth and development. It’s what feels like rest to you.”
@Pat604Johnson
