Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath.”
The Sabbath was made for us, to give us time of refreshment and peace. But it is a neglected piece of our lives today. We seem so rushed that we forget to take the Sabbath rest time. So many of us feel anxious and exhausted from our schedule that our life so often seems way too full, Sabbath was meant to give us break from all of that.
In her book Einstein and the Rabbi: Searching for the Soul, Rabbi Naomi Levy writes about Henry, a member of her congregation. Henry's internet startup was booming - he was making more money than he'd ever dreamed of. He was thirty-six, happily married with an adorable, energetic son.
"But something's missing," Henry told the rabbi. "I've got no right to complain. I feel like I've won the jackpot - health, love, family, success . . . [yet] I feel empty inside. It's sort of a nagging feeling like I've forgotten something, but I don't know what I've forgotten."
As Henry and the rabbi talked, Henry admitted that he was constantly distracted at home. He was always connected to either his phone or tablet. Playing with his son, having dinner with his family, going to bed at night - he was always "plugged into" the office and never completely engaged with his family.
Rabbi Levy said, "Maybe the thing you've forgotten is your soul and your soul's connection to the people you love."
"But, Rabbi," Henry said, "I'm living my dream."
"Henry," Rabbi Naomi responded, "your soul may have other dreams."
The rabbi asked how Henry and his family experienced the Sabbath. Henry hesitated. So, the rabbi said, "You've come here for my help, and here is my suggestion: try to experience a Sabbath day." And the rabbi and Henry talked about Henry turning off his "work mind" for a day and the whole family unplugging from technology, about lighting Sabbath candles on Friday nights as a way to welcome sacred time and a festive meal at home.
Rabbi Naomi did not hear from Henry for several weeks. Then he called. So how are the Sabbaths going?
"The first Friday night I just kept reaching for my phone, so I finally turned it off. But, Rabbi, it felt like an amputated limb. I kept listening for it and looking for it."
But?
"I feel like a father for the first time. I think I was just faking it before. I love playing with Jake and reading books and looking into his eyes . . . No more tech in bed, that's our new thing. I go to bed holding her in my arms.
"The weird part," Henry said, "is that taking Friday night as a Sabbath is actually affecting all the days of the week. The nagging feeling, it's gone. I feel rich." "You are rich," Rabbi Naomi said."
Naomi Levy describes the Sabbath as "the soul of the week":
"Some think of the Sabbath as a day of prohibitions - you can't do this and you can't do that. But the Sabbath is actually a day of permission. A day when we give our souls permission to dream again. How long can we keep racing around, spreading ourselves so thin, contorted by stress and worry? There's so much within our grasp that we keep missing." She writes.
The Sabbath was made for humankind.
But Jesus doesn’t stop there. On the Sabbath day, in the synagogue, he heals a man. Many are angry for his violation of the rule not to work (heal) on the Sabbath. Jesus said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?”
Jesus' healing on the Sabbath challenges the synagogue community's understanding of the Sabbath. They saw the day as a proscription from God when, in fact, the Sabbath is a gift from God. It is to do good. Save lives. Even our own.
The Sabbath is a time not to avoid but to do, to re-connect, to embrace the joys and meaning of life that the busyness of the rest of the week forces us to put aside. The busyness that too often helps us forget the people most important to us. Sabbath time helps us reconnect with our loved ones and to do good to all whom we meet.
The Sabbath - our Sunday - is God's "permission," God's blessing to stop and rediscover the wonder of his gift of time to all of us and the love that is ours to give and receive within that gift.
On this Sabbath, let us pause from the rush of life, and rest in this gracious gift from God.
Let me end with a Mary Oliver Poem…
“Just a minute,” said a voice…
By Mary Oliver
“Just a minute,” said a voice in the weeds.
So I stood still
in the day’s exquisite early morning light
and so I didn’t crush with my great feet
any small or unusual thing just happening to pass by
where I was passing by
on my way to the blueberry fields,
and maybe it was the toad
and maybe it was the June beetle
and maybe it was the pink and tender worm
who does his work without limbs or eyes
and does it well
or maybe it was the walking stick, still frail
and walking humbly by, looking for a tree,
or maybe, like Blake’s wondrous meeting, it was
the elves, carrying one of their own
on a rose-petal coffin away, away
into the deep grasses. After awhile
the quaintest voice said, “Thank you.”
And then there was silence.
For the rest, I would keep you wondering.
(Listen to God's voice in the silence saying, wait a minute...)
Amen.
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