Rhythms of Life: Sabbath Begins on September 18 @ 11:45 AM

On Sunday, September 18, about 30 minutes after worship ends, Queen Anne UMC will begin a 7-part series on the spiritual practice of Sabbath-keeping. Each class will last about 1 hour. Bring your own lunch and a little food to share with your neighbor, and come ready to be challenged to live your life with a new rhythm.

We live in a fragmented world. We work too hard. We live far from our families. We move too frequently. And, we struggle to find balance. As a practice, Sabbath reminds us that we are called to center our lives not on the fragmentation of our own making, but on the integrity of our God. Sabbath disrupts the routines of our creation, and it reminds us of God’s holy creation. Many people think of Sabbath as a solitary retreat – getting away from life, but it isn’t that at all. Still others shrink from the idea of Sabbath because they hold old memories of dour and joyless Sabbaths – days when nothing was permitted. Yet, Sabbath is an immersion into life lived in the fullness of God, in the midst of community, and with joy. Sabbath is an entering into God’s rest for the sake of all of creation. It celebrates creation. It creates a standard of justice. And, it reminds us to live in the midst of God the other six days of the week.

This curriculum is a video-based curriculum and features people like Brian McLaren, Majora Carter, Bill McKibben, Amy-Jill Levine, Jack Sasson, Ellen Davis, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Norman Wirzba, Lauren Winner, M Douglas Meeks, Robin Jensen, and Phyllis Tickle. These are some of the most sought after speakers in our country. They are scholars, practitioners, new monastics, environmentalists, community builders, and dreamers. Come and join the conversation. Come and taste the Sabbath.

Please send inquiries to office@qaumc.org.

Queen Anne United Methodist Church

1606 5th Ave W

Seattle, WA 98119

206-282-4307

Progress on "Rhythms of Life: Sabbath" - a Video Curriculum

Yesterday, I showed the first session of my new video curriculum on Sabbath-keeping. It's a great resource for congregations that features Phyllis Tickle, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Amy-Jill Levine, Ched Myers, Robin Jensen, Norman Wirzba, Ellen Davis, Walter Brueggemann, Lauren Winner, Brian McLaren, Dorothy Bass, Majora Carter, Bill McKibben, and Jack Sasson. Each session is about 15-20 minutes long and comes with discussion questions and a handout with defined terms and other relevant information.

I am deeply grateful for all of the people who have appeared on this video. I am still in process of editing all of the sessions. Each presentation will be a bit different as I receive feedback and input from each focus group that sees it. I will be scheduling full viewings of the entire curriculum this August.

I want to thank Bill McKibben for sitting down with me when he was in Seattle this week. And, I also thank Yes! Magazine for allowing me some of Bill's time while he was here to speak for their event.

This is my first attempt at video making. My hope is to build a whole series of curricula on spiritual practices called "Rhythms of Life." If you are interested in partnering with me on this venture, give me a shout!

Passionate about a Project: Living Sabbath

For the past few years, I have been obsessed with the idea of Sabbath. It is a foreign concept to most Christians, although it shouldn't be. In Luke, in Jesus' first public act, he takes a scroll from Isaiah and proclaims the "Year of the Lord," otherwise known as the "Jubilee" or the "Sabbath Year." Christians are missing a great deal of our religious underpinnings by not knowing more of the principles of Sabbath and by not practicing Sabbath-keeping as a core part of our religious observance. And so, I began to search far and wide for resources that would introduce my congregation to Sabbath as well as to other spiritual practices that tie liturgy with life in the larger world - resources that would initiate people into rhythms of life that embody what following Christ really means in the everyday world. What did I find? Not much.

There have been inroads made in recent years, primarily through the new monastic movement and its leaders/communities, by Paraclete Press, and by a few very cool folks and organizations (Sojourners, etc) to drag the Christian narrative back to life in ways that challenge economics, our ideas of neighborliness, and our commitment to peace. I am very grateful for these offerings. Yet, I believed that I had a dream for something that wasn't being done. Why, I finally wondered, was I waiting for someone else to do it? Thus began my journey.

This has led to a two point ministry obsession: Create a Christian community based on the principle of Sabbath and create actual space that lives out the Sabbath principle.

What is this?

Sabbath, contrary to most Christians' understanding, is not a day off from work that Jews take each week (although observant Jews don't work on Sabbath). Sabbath is a measure of justice in the Bible that is known through a weekly observance of the cessation of work, observances of rest for the land, and periodic return of hereditary land and forgiveness of debts. It is a holistic approach to community building that holds at its core the centrality of God's generative and redeeming power. Sabbath is the most frequently invoked idea in the Old Testament, and as I said above, it is the central ethic in the witness and ministry of Jesus Christ. In the two renditions of the Ten Commandments, there are two different but complementary reasons for keeping Sabbath: 1) Rest on the seventh day because God rested from creating on that day, and 2) Rest on the seventh day to remember that God brought you out of the land of Egypt (that is, remember that you are no longer a slave and your lives should be lived in freedom not enslaved to labor or any other false idol). At its most basic, the weekly observance of Sabbath has two commandments - be joyful and don't work. Sabbath years enhance and intensify to weekly Sabbath.

A community that holds these ideals before them would be a powerful and alternative witness in our world. Of course, these are core values within the Jewish tradition, but they would look and feel different within a Christian community. Traditional monastic communities highly value these principles. And, emerging from new monastic communities are fresh ways of approaching Sabbath. However, I found that before I could invite people into community based on Sabbath, I had to educate them.

I began what has been a year and a half project to create a video curriculum to introduce people to Sabbath-keeping. It has been a rich time filled with wonderful conversations with Dorothy Bass, Amy-Jill Levine, Brian McLaren, Jack Sasson, Walter Brueggemann, Ellen Davis, Norman Wirzba, Majora Carter, Ched Myers, Phyllis Tickle, Douglas Meeks, Lauren Winner, and I have two upcoming interviews with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and Bill McKibben (if timing can be worked out). It is a seven part series with videos about 20 minutes each. I will begin focus groups in July. Currently, this series is attached to my dissertation, but I hope to find a distributer so that people in congregations can have access to these fantastic people and what they say about Sabbath. If you are in the greater Seattle area and would like to be part of the focus groups, please let me know.

The second part of this project is to take a motel along Seattle's Aurora Avenue, an area known for prostitution and drug trafficking, and turn it from a place of exploitation to a place of Resurrection and Sabbath. I dream of having one of the many abandoned lots along Aurora turned into an organic garden and bird sanctuary. This is putting flesh on the Sabbath principle. Sabbath is not an idea; it is a lived reality in which no one has too much and no one has too little. It is known communally by care for one another. It is the reality of living in God's presence.

If you know a commercial realtor, an artist, a gardener, a person gifted in prayer, an architect, a construction worker or carpenter, or people who might be interested in this, please let me know. I am trying to pull together a group of people who can transform this obsession turned dream into reality right along Aurora and in the abandoned places of cities near Seattle.

Phyllis Tickle - Spiritual Disciplines Video

Advent is wholly concerned with time - the beginning of new time and the ending of old time. Throughout Advent, Christians prepare their hearts for the coming of the Christ-child and for the second coming of Christ the judge, who comes to right the injustices of this world and to redeem the brokenhearted and downtrodden. This season is often confusing for many lay people. When the apocalyptic stories from both the Old and New Testaments are read, people are left wondering why such strange stories are being told during this season of waiting for "Sweet Little Jesus Boy." Yet, to be a faithful Christian is to learn to live in a different time - time that ushers in an end to the pain and injustice of this world in order to make way for the fullness of time lived completely in God. So, while there is much joy in Advent and Christmas, much hope, much light, and much to sing about, there is little "sweet" about these seasons that bear witness to God's light of peace piercing the darkness of our world. One only need read the Magnificat or the Benedictus to learn the core meaning of this most precious season.

Christians - faithful Christians - discipline their lives for living in different time. From prayer to special holy days to rituals that bind us to the past while making room for the future, it is our holy and sacred duty to continually place ourselves in a receptive posture to receive the gift of God's holy time.

Here is an excerpt from an interview with Phyllis Tickle, in which she talks about the power of spiritual disciplines to bring us into God's time. I hope you enjoy. As I continue to work on my doctoral project about Sabbath, I will post more and more videos from those who have gifted me with their wisdom. I thank Phyllis more than she can ever know for spending this day with me and for sharing in laughter, in story, and in life. From one Southerner to another, I can say honestly that "she's good people." Thank you, Phyllis.

The question I ask tonight is, "How is Advent helping you reshape time?" Or, perhaps, "How is the time of Advent reshaping you?"

Taking the Sabbath Pledge

Christians have, at best, an ambivalent relationship with Sabbath-keeping and, at worst, an adverse response to the idea of it. This may be due in part to many years of dour Sundays lived in towns with blue laws* when all of the fun was squished right out of life. But, this isn't what Sabbath should be. And, with increased pluralism and diversity in our communities, we will never return to the time of blue laws and set aside Sundays. I invite Christians back to a regular practice of celebrating the Resurrection - real celebration - with joy and fun and laughter and precociousness. I invite you to retouch some practices from our Jewish roots, especially Sabbath-keeping, which instruct us to rest, to cease, and to remember the primacy of God in our lives. I ask you to pledge with me to set aside one day a week - a full day - and let it displace the centrality of work and labor, to remind you of how beloved you are to God, to welcome the stranger, to laugh with friends, to break bread in thanksgiving, to participate in Holy Eucharist, and to remember that God offers this day of rest to all people; therefore, I ask you to refrain from the production/consumption process this one day. Do not let your rest be dependent upon another's labor - at least not directly. If you are interested in this pledge, please comment or email me. Let's build a new community of Christians who understand that despite the pressure of this world for us to labor without ceasing that we are free in God. Let us build a community that remembers that we are not the Great Creator, God is. Let us celebrate the diversity of creation by ceasing our usual demands placed upon the earth, letting it rest as we rest.

Technically speaking, Sabbath, which comes from the Hebrew word "Shabbat" (or "Shabbos") means in its most simplest form "to cease." Within Jewish custom, Shabbat begins at sundown on Friday and ends at sundown on Saturday (following the order in Genesis, which places the beginning of days and sundown and not at sunrise). Two candles are lighted symbolizing the setting apart of this day as a holy day, the most holy day, of the week. A special meal is eaten often times with extended family or friends or even new acquaintances in attendance. Songs are sung, specific prayers are offered. Dinner is long and carries late into the evening. Synagogues conduct services on Friday evening and on Saturday morning. Saturday includes corporate worship and fun with friends and family People are invited to nap/rest and to spend time learning the Torah. Couples are encouraged to have sex. Basically, there are two Shabbat injunctions: Cease from work. Experience Joy. Shabbat ends with the lighting of one braided candle, symbolizing the coming back together of the holy and the profane.

Shabbat is a gift from God. In Jewish poetry, it is described to as a bride or a queen. It is a joyous time during which the cares and stresses of the rest of the week can be set aside in order to enter into a mystical time of abundance, laughter, joy - shalom. Shabbat is the living out of shalom (peace, wholeness), which has yet to be fully realized on earth. It is a taste of what God wants for the world.

Very early in Christian history, as Christian communities increasingly comprised Gentile members instead of Jewish members, the sect moved from celebrating Shabbat to celebrating the Lord's Day. For a short while, many communities celebrated both days. However, with the Hellenization of Christianity there came a de-Judaising of our practices and customs. It is my opinion that this began with the best intentions - at least I hope that this is so. Communities were faced with this simple question: Do people who are not Jewish and who will never live in Israel need to convert to Judaism in order to belong to a Christian community - to follow Christ? Early Christian communities were divided on this issue. Some maintained that Christians did need to convert to Judaism, but others did not. Paul, who was born a Jew, believed that the expectation of conversion placed an undue burden on people who were not and would never be culturally Jewish or live in Israel. And so, within a few decades after the death of Jesus, Christianity evolved from a sect of Judaism into its own religion. As its own religion, it defined itself over and against its parent. By the the middle of the Second Century CE, Christians had stopped celebrating Shabbat. Only the Lord's Day remained as their weekly commemoration. In the beginning days of Christianity, the Lord's Day was not a day of rest. It was a day for Christians to gather, to seek forgiveness/reconciliation, work out problems, and participate in the Eucharist/holy meal with one another. However, they continued to work and did not join in the Shabbat rituals and customs of their Jewish brothers and sisters. In 321 CE Emperor Constantine decreed, "On the venerable Day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed." The Emperor wedded the cessation of work with the Lord's Day.

As time went on Christians continued to struggle with the full expression of the Lord's Day. Many early leaders referred to it as the 8th Day - a day out of time as humans understand it, a day that celebrates new creation. As Genesis tells of the first creation, the Resurrection of Christ invites us into a second creation. The 8th Day mirrors the 1st Day in this way. There are other Christian practices that echo Jewish ones. Corporate worship, a holy meal, prayers, learning, reconciliation, hospitality to the stranger - these are all things embedded in the Jewish practice of Shabbat. Christianity kept them and often added new interpretations for them. Christianity did not keep the Jewish practice of refraining from 39 activities listed in the building of the Tabernacle. Christianity, in not requiring conversion to Judaism, also left behind dietary rules, circumcision, and various kinds of dress codes and holiness practices.

By the 20th Century CE, especially in American Protestantism, the Lord's Day had become a hybrid experience. Work was taboo in most places. Most communities had actual laws that forbade their opening or operation.* But, it was also a dour experience. The Puritan practice of long solemn prayers infused most of Protestantism. Games that could be associated with gambling were forbidden. Dancing and other suggestive activities were disallowed by many denominations. Protestantism in general and the Lord's Day in particular had become solemn in nature and not joyful - not an experience of the Resurrection.

By the 1980s, blue laws had lost their hold. Businesses were open on both Saturday and Sunday. No longer was there a day during the week that the State demanded to be observed as a day of rest. New ethnic groups and religions started to be found in traditionally homogenous Christian neighborhoods; they brought with them their own holidays, observances, and customs. The Protestant calendar was yielding to a more inclusive calendar. Overall, I think this is wonderful. We should not rely upon the State to force us into religious practice. We should not force our calendars on other peoples. We should not depend upon our employers or the government to make our holy days special. But, for the first time in American history, Protestants were and are being called to be responsible for their own faith identity and their own spiritual disciplines. This is a difficult thing for people who have not had to intentionally attend to these things.

Today more people are apt to live away from extended families. More often than not, both parents are working, or there is only one parent in the household. Businesses are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. With smart phones and the internet, the office is just a click away. No longer are we "at work" or "at home." Work comes with many of us wherever we go. Fewer people are getting married in their 20s. Fewer people are having children in their 20s. Families come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and colors. Schools are less geographically based; for example, your kid may go to one school, but your next door neighbor's child may attend another school. All of this describes a world that is increasingly fragmented as well as diffuse. People are pulled in many different directions and many of the boundaries upon which we once relied are not there to help us move away from work and into rest or away from labor and into leisure. Many of the activities upon which we relied to give us a sense of identity and a sense of community are gone. This fragmentation of experience affects all of us in one way or another. And, what once would have been shared experiences are less natural and given. They must be sought out.

Christians would do well to understand that to be a faithful follower of Jesus, especially in today's fragmented world, we must attend to our spiritual practices, be regular in our practices, and insist upon the separateness of holy days. If we do not attend to these things, we will continue to live divided lives - half here, half someplace else. Reimagining Shabbat for Christians in this postmodern age is one way that I think we can begin to reclaim right relationship with time, with God, with our place in relation to other creation, and with ourselves. If one looks at Jesus' life and teachings, the centrality of Sabbath is evident. Whether he is teaching in a synagogue, declaring the Year of the Lord's Favor, welcoming the stranger, or healing the ill, Jesus is making room for all people to enter into the fullness of God - the Shabbat vision. Jews call it shalom; Christians call it the Kingdom of God. As his followers, are we not to do the same? To seek ways for all people to enter into the fullness of God? To live whole lives? To be free of oppression? This is the Shabbat vision, and it is one that we can imagine anew for ourselves, pulling in part of our Lord's Day traditions, retouching the traditions of our Jewish brothers and sisters, and by imaging new practices that have yet to be born among us.

Please take the Sabbath Pledge:

I pledge to take one day a week during which I will:
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. While I may work six days, on the seventh day, I won't work; I won't ask anyone to work for me; I will not expect my rest to depend upon another's labor. If God can create the whole of the universe in six days and rest on the seventh day, so I can rest one day a week. (See Exodus 20:8-11).

I will rest for God. I will celebrate this scripture from Deuteronomy: "Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day." I am not a slave. Nor shall there by slavery in God's holy kingdom.

I pledge to reflect upon the first story of Sabbath, which appears before the 10 Commandments. Read Exodus 16. In it God provides manna for people in the wilderness, and they are instructed not to take more than their share, but to take a double portion before the 7th day, on which they shall rest. This story binds Sabbath and justice, Sabbath and abundance. What can you do - what practices can you incorporate - on your Sabbath and in your everyday living that remind you of justice and abundance?

*Blue Laws - According to Merriam Webster: "a statute regulating work, commerce, and amusements on Sundays"

The first known blue law was in 1762 in Connecticut.

Sabbath Poems - Wendell Berry

As I've been thinking a lot about worship this Sunday during which we will remember our saints and as I've been thinking a lot about the election next Tuesday, this poem by Wendell Berry came to mind. It comes from the book "A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems, 1979-1997." Every Sunday after church Wendell Berry walks the grounds of his Kentucky farm and then writes. This is the collection of the ideas and thoughts that came to him during his walks. Here is one poem:

"A gracious Sabbath stood here while they stood
Who gave our rest a haven.
Now fallen, they are given
To labor and distress.
These times we know much evil, little good
To steady us in faith
And comfort when our losses press
Hard on us, and we choose,
In panic or despair or both,
To keep what we will lose.

For we are fallen like the trees, our peace
Broken, and so we must
Love where we cannot trust,
Trust where we cannot know,
And must await the wayward-coming grace
That joins living and dead,
Taking us where we would not go--
Into the boundless dark.
When what was made has been unmade
The Maker comes to His work."

Thank you, Wendell Berry.

Abundance in an Economy of Scarcity - This Week's Lectionary

The US economy is in quite a bit of trouble with investment houses, insurance companies, and banks failing and teetering on the edge of failure. Even government bailouts seem to have had little positive effect in curbing the panic on Wall Street and around the globe. Today the market fell another 450 points, which, in real money, totals $700 billion. That's a lot of zeroes. That's a lot of money. That's a lot of scarcity. Our lectionary readings for this Sunday may have more important and direct relevance this week than on other Sundays.

If you are following the continuous reading, this week's scripture is Exodus 16:2-15 - the story of manna from heaven. This lesson instructs, tells, and reminds us that God's economy is not bound by the economies of our making, which are based on a zero-sum society - a place of scarcity. God is a different power that makes life abundant even in lean times, even when we are in the wilderness, even when the stock market tumbles. Our text this week is not about a Santa Claus God, but a God that calls people to structure their lives around a different economy that believes in abundance such that all are cared for during lean and difficult times. In God's economy we both receive a gift from God and we are required to share the plenty with others. God's economy reorders how we structure the world and it calls into question our reliance upon certain ways of believing and behaving.

When Christians read stories of our ancient mothers and fathers, we often pass them over too lightly. We miss the depth of life they offer us. Even the stories that make for good Sunday School get dumbed down and prettied up. Take the story about manna falling from heaven. This comes right after Miriam dances for joy after the people pass through the Red Sea and Pharaoh's army is swallowed by the water. The people move from a time of joy at their good fortune to despair at perceived scarcity. They say, "If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpot and ate our fill of bread..." (v2b). Pharaoh's economy makes sense. In his book "The Covenanted Self" Walter Brueggemann says,

"People in our tradition of faith have endlessly struggled with a departure from the myth of scarcity, a liturgical, imaginative, political, economic act of resolve to situate our lives outside this powerful ideological claim. Did you notice I used the word 'departure?' The Biblical word for departure is Exodus. Exodus is not just a geographical event. It is an economic act. It is an imaginative act, to begin to live without permitting the necessities of Pharaoh to dictate the circumstances of our life. Pharaoh, then and now, is endlessly powerful in his definitions of reality, and it is not easy to depart"(pp 113-114).

Brueggemann finds the answer to Pharaoh's strong grasp in a three-fold communal response of "counter-practice" that is a turning away from Pharaoh. In order to break from the economics of scarcity, Israel had to "leave" Egypt, they had to "believe" that "food will be given" to them during their time in the wilderness, and then they had to "share" (pp 114-115). He goes on to say, "Sharing in covenantal solidarity is what distinguishes Israel from the 'atheists of scarcity' who turn neighbors into competitors for bread and finally into enemies with whom there must be endless wars for control of the bread supply" (p 117).

It's no less difficult for us to believe in God's ability and agency today. We live in a world completely circumscribed by production and consumption. Furthermore, Americans have created a myth about ourselves that declares the unlimited potential and ability of each person to accomplish on his or her own whatever he or she would like, if only enough work, know-how, and good ol' moxie are employed. In many ways this is a wonderful characteristic, but it has its limitations. It also inscribes in our hearts a reluctance to believe in the agency of another, particularly God. The idea of receiving a free gift from God seems, somehow, wrong, unfair, ridiculous. People get what they work for. People receive what they make in life. While on many levels we know that people don't always receive what they deserve - for good or ill - on a deep and primal level we do believe this. We have structured our whole economy, our whole lives, even our churches on this premise.

Is it possible to live lives of counter-practice when certainty has transformed into uncertainty? Can we believe in God's agency, in God's abundance, in God's economy when our own economy is in shambles? I believe we must do just this and more. It's time for congregations to enact policies of abundance during this time of scarcity and to make real in people's lives the claim made in the Exodus story. It's time that we allowed God to move among us in unexpected ways, offering us wonderfully fragile bread for a journey to places unknown through territory that can be daunting and stark. In the end this is an invitation to a life of Sabbath and not just a weekly observance of it. Receiving from God the necessary bread for the journey as a free and unwarranted gift is a radical departure from the normal way of operating. It is counter-intuitive; it is counter-practice. Sabbath, if you want one word for it, is God's Economy.

"Crappath" - When Sabbath Goes South

For the past couple of months I have been trying to faithfully keep Sabbath. Every Sunday evening I light a candle, turn off the computer, and begin a day of remembering God's day of rest. While I know that the Sabbath is properly from Friday evening to Saturday evening, I observe from Sunday evening to Monday evening, and I have tried to stay clear and mindful about how I spend that time. That is, until this week.

One of the things that I do every Sunday is call my mom. I am, after all, a good Southern reared girl with a deep sense of family. I touch base with my sister and my mom. When I was growing up I remember my parents calling their parents on Sunday. It is a Sunday ritual in my life. Sunday when I picked up the phone to call my mom I saw that I had an email. For, you see, I have a Blackberry, which is a completely evil tool. I couldn't resist checking the message. It was a reply to an email that I had send previously in the day. And it was an upsetting email. For the past day I have been unable to stop thinking about it, about work, and about my shortcomings at work. In checking that email I tossed this week's Sabbath time right into the crapper.

I have really enjoyed the past couple of months Sabbaths. After demarcating Sabbath time from the rest of the week by lighting a candle and saying a prayer, I read fun books - nothing about work. I sit on my deck, listen to the trees rustle in the breeze, make dinner and eat with family, sleep well, and spend time with friends. I turn off the computer, leave work stuff alone, and don't spend money. It's true that I have struggled to find a rhythm and a set of rituals that feel authentic and right. Being a Christian doesn't bring with it easy to use observance related activities! I enjoy the celebration of the Lord's Day, but I also have been craving that sense of relief that I have discovered in observing Sabbath.

Today was a disappointment. My actions were a disappointment. Why didn't I just leave the email alone? My refusal to do so underscores how far I have to go in remembering that my work is not the most important work; God's work is. The world will wait one day for me to check email. And perhaps if I can learn this lesson then I can get back to observing "Sabbath" and not "Crappath."

Practicing Sabbath...Is it Possible?

For a little over three years, I have wondered if/how Christians can keep Sabbath? I suppose more accurately I have wondered if I can keep Sabbath. It has become clear to me that if I mean what I say when I profess God to be at the center of my life or that I intend to live in the center of God, it is incumbent upon me to give God God's day - to rest as God rested, to engage in acts of worship, and to participate in the act of justice of allowing all the earth to rest as well. So I am committing to keep Sabbath in my own way.

The evolution from Sabbath to the Lord's Day was a natural one for Christians. Initially we were not asked to give up Sabbath but to add a day of joyful celebration and communion on the eighth day, the day that Jesus was raised from the dead. It didn't take long, however, for the Lord's Day to supplant Christian observance of Sabbath, and thus began our tradition of meeting and worshiping on Sunday. In many places, the Lord's Day retained a sense of Sabbath, even though we weren't remembering and keeping the seventh day as commanded by God.

Even when I was growing up Sundays were lazy days. We got up and went to church. Other than a few choice restaurants the entire town was shut down. Nobody went to malls or shopped. Dinner was a big family affair, but mostly we didn't do a lot of cooking on Sunday itself. Food was prepared the day before or cooked by a crock pot to allow us time to attend worship and come home to a steaming hot meal. I'm sure that other families, towns, and cultures had/have their own traditions. However, in the United States, with increasing secularization and awareness of other religions the lazy Sunday has disappeared. Those few who attend worship squeeze it in between brunch with secularized friends and the afternoon soccer game/birthday party. Sabbath is gone and so is the Lord's Day...and I feel it...AND I'M A PASTOR.

In an effort to quell this growing desire for more intentional spiritual practice and more serious commitment to discipleship, I have been talking with several people about covenanting to keep Sabbath - of a sorts. The overall vision is to begin by covenanting around Sabbath, eventually covenanting around Sabbath, Sacraments, and Service. At some point I would like to see an intentional living community in which people give a specified amount of time 1-2 years (you can stay longer if you like) in the community and give time for the benefit of the neighborhood. And one day I hope that we can add a farm/retreat center. For many years I have wanted to participate in this kind of intentional and deep Christianity and it seems that I need to take responsibility for making this happen.

So, I'm starting with Sabbath. Twenty-four hours (evening to evening) of resting as God rested, having fun with family and community, and worshiping the Author of us all. I pledge to do this for at least one month and then assess how things are going. I am interested to see how this Sabbath experiment works for all of us who are covenanting to do this.

As always, I'm interested in your thoughts... My file on Sabbath and the Lord's Day is growing leaps and bounds!

Committing to Sabbath...Maybe

I have written several posts that highlight my increased awareness that Christianity - and the people that make it up - would be stronger, more spiritual, more connected to God and one another, more committed to justice, and more healthy if we were to embrace the practice of Sabbath. I have preached on this in my church and I have read widely about the importance of setting aside one day for God. I guess it's now time to put up or shut up, so I've decided to try keeping Sabbath...in my own way...soon.

What I've learned is that I am not particularly invested in keeping Sabbath as defined by observant Jews - that is, by refraining from the 39 activities used to build the Temple. I have also learned that keeping Sabbath will be less informative to my spiritual life and less effective if I do it alone - outside of community. So, I've been meeting with a friend for several weeks to discuss what Sabbath might be for a group of Christians. And now I've talked with a few other friends who have mentioned some interest in joining the conversation.

This conversation is only part of something I've dreamed about for a long. Ever since divinity school I've wanted to be part of an intentional community based on Sabbath, Sacraments, and Service. Circumstances have been kind to me and I've had the opportunity to participate in a couple of intentional communities; they were wonderful experiences. They stirred up a sense of hope that a community centered on Sabbath, Sacraments, and Service is possible. The overall hope is to create a covenant community of just a few people who will covenant to a shared understanding of Sabbath and Service (and take part in Holy Communion regularly) eventually adding a living community in the city that will share Sabbath, Sacraments, and Service with one another. One day we will hopefully have a farm/retreat center.

In addition to these covenant communities, I see the addition of physicians, physical therapists, nutritionists, spiritual directors, life coaches, chiropractors, trainers, and other professionals who will work with people seeking a holistic approach to life. The would help people set goals, keep focus, care for our bodies and connect them with our spirits. Eventually, this would become a holistic coop in which all people could participate, but one that would have a special emphasis for working class and poor folks who could never afford these services in the free market.

The goal is to create an ever-expanding community with varying commitment levels for people to seek centeredness in life with a core group focused on the power of Sabbath. This is a dream that has lived inside of me for a long time.

But I have to start somewhere and I'm starting with gathering serious people to dialogue about the initial covenant to Sabbath. I'll see where this goes.

Any history of participation in like communities? Let me know...

Americans No Happier Now Than Forty Years Ago

On April 2 the Wall Street Journal's podcast highlighted a study that says despite the gains in workforce productivity and an increased standard of living, men and women are no happier today than they were forty years ago. It seems that men work less than forty years ago, women work more than forty years ago, and both spend much more time sitting in front of the television. According to the study, we are not happier because we are not good managers of our down time. Rather than spending time with friends, at the gym, outdoors, in church (or other faith communities), Americans find it easier - if less satisfying - to sit at home at watch TV.

I know that after a long day it's my temptation to enter the fantasy world of television. I also know that I long to leave the boob tube behind so that I can more fully live my life. I wonder how church could play a role in lessening the effect of television in our lives, how community might supplant the temptation to isolate, hibernate, and fantasize, how discipline and order could help us live more routinized lives that take for granted slow time/down time/sabbath time.

Just thoughts after listening to a much too brief discussion...

good religion, bad religion

This post is similar to the one that I wrote just a few days ago, but the weariness of the people around me has been unrelenting. It seems that every time that I answer the telephone the person on the other end is stressed, tired, hurting, and guilt-ridden. And most of these folks have some bad religion to thank for it all. I thought that I would write a few thoughts to remind myself - and anyone who stumbles across these ramblings - that good religion exists, and that it invites us into the fullness of life and the wholeness of being.

Bad religion is everywhere. It tells us to give until we're depleted, deny the needs of our own souls, and "do" until we're dead. Bad religion coerces and threatens in order to get its way. I know that I fall prey to it more often that I'd like to admit. Sometimes my heart feels heavy, my soul empty, and my mind too full. These are results of bad religion making itself at home in me. It sets up shop. It guilts, coerces, and uses.

Good religion has no place for such things. Good religion invites us into the fullness of life and the wholeness of being. It invites us into Being Itself. Good religion begins with Sabbath. Sabbath is time for God and the standard for justice. Sabbath should never be skipped - yes, I'm "shoulding" on you. Sabbath gives us a rule that demands that we (and all who work for us, people and animals alike) rest from work. In a society in which we work all of the time, I wonder at the changes that taking Sabbath seriously would bring. When we begin with Sabbath, we give ourselves one full day a week to rest at the breast of God, breathing in God's life (ruach). Good religion begins with this concept.

Good religion has no place for violence, threats, and coercion. It doesn't need any of these things because its purpose is different from the purpose of bad religion. Whereas bad religion desires to consume us, good religion desires our perfection in love. Good religion invites us into the quiet of sanctuary and the stillness of prayer. In good religion, we live and move inside of the Holy. From this place of completeness we move into the world as God's witnesses and stewards. You see, whereas bad religion sends us empty into a wounded world, good religion sends us radically connected to Life Itself into the world. It makes a huge difference if we're starting with a full gas tank or an empty one.

I wonder what the world would be like - what we would be like - if we believed in a God that loves us rather than despises us, encourages us rather than threatens us, invites us rather than coerces us. God demands that we offer all that we have and all that we are to God. This offering, though, isn't the death of ourselves, it is our beginning. In the ackowledgement that the world and all that is in it belongs to God, we orient ourselves toward right relationship with the rest of creation. We don't give up on ourselves and give out. We fill up with the connection of life and the radicality of God.

Good religion is an invitation to Life. Sometimes I want to kidnap those around me who won't be still and allow Sabbath. And while my inclination toward kidnapping may be honorable, I believe that it is also a felony. So I pray. I pray that all who are weary, hurting, stressed, and guilt-ridden will experience Life radicalized in God. For those who struggle, I pray that the persuasive power of the Creator and Liberator will buoy them in their hard times and give them strength. I pray that God's grace will shower down upon all who are bending under the weight of their hearts and the pressures of the world. And for those who souls are empty and depleted, I pray for the awesome wonder of the universe to pour into them, the light of the stars offering warmth in the cold corners of their beings. I pray that we all learn to dance with delight completely assured that God is our dance partner, gently leading us through the moves.

lost sabbath, lost soul

Last week I attended a gathering of United Methodist clergy. The one sentiment that I heard more than any other was a desire for real and authentic worship. In the midst of planning and leading worship for others, clergy often forget to seek out worship for ourselves. As I looked around at the hundreds of people gathered, I could see the need; it was very noticeable. What this did to me, though, was make me more aware of all of our lost sabbaths. It isn't just clergy who miss out on spending time with God.

Sabbath is foundational to our identity as individuals of faith and as a community of faith. God commanded that we set aside one day a week to spend in worship and reflection. It's become anathema in the United States to do this, though. I would even speculate that it's more rare for progressive Christians than for more evangelical or conversative Christians to set aside time to honor God, family, and self. I spend a good deal of my time worried about and praying for members of my church who work on Sundays and who don't set aside a special holy time/day for their Creator.

We all pay the price for not spending time in communion with the Holy One. Not for a second do I buy the excuse that we don't "have" the time to offer God. We find time for movies, hobbies, friends, reading the paper, paying bills, and going on vacations. No, it isn't that we don't have the time; it's that we don't honor the time. For some reason we've stopped valuing Sabbath. We deny ourselves the important time of gathering with others who are on similar paths of exploration. We keep from ourselves the quiet that is needed to soothe our souls. We restrict ourselves and contend that our time is spent better elsewhere than in song, prayer, quiet, and community. Because of these choices, we lose and God loses.

I wonder how alive and vibrant we all would be, especially progressive Christians, if we valued our Sabbath. I wonder what it would be like to belong to a whole community that set aside one day to sing, pray, and break bread together. Some friends of mine contend that the hour or so that they spend alone suffices as their Sabbath, but I am referring to something deeper, more communal, more rooted in our rich tradition of holy Sabbath. I look at how busy progressive Christians are and how involved in working for the commong good, and it seems clear to me that we are groaning for respite and for holy communion - with God and with others.

We have something to learn from our Christian and Jewish brothers and sisters who take Sabbath seriously. Progressive Christians can become so action-oriented and so outwardly-focused that we forget to nourish our souls and our communities. A year of so ago I was sitting at a table with people from diverse faith backgrounds. Eventually the topic landed on the length of our respective worshiping bodies. When someone noted that their worship was one hour - no more, no less - another person from a more conservative background asked, "What's the rush?" What is the rush? Why do we feel that we've done God a favor by setting aside one hour on a Sunday? That's not Sabbath. That's giving God the bare minimum appointment. We have a lot to learn about about Sabbath and how it restores our community and our soul and honors the God who made us.

My prayer is that we begin to take Sabbath seriously. In a world that assaults our senses with news of school shootings, war, famine, ecological devastation, and financial and energy pressures we need time that is set apart. We need a day a week to spend with family, in public and private prayer, with friends, and having fun. And, we need to do these things on a day set aside just for them - no chores, no work, and no email. I pray for us to remember the Sabbath and to keep it holy just as God instructed and just as we need. It's time to leave behind the lost Sabbath and our lost souls.

*I'm writing this post using capitalization because it is easier for some people to read. I don't like using capitalization very much, but I'll do the best I can.