THE FREEING POWER OF SABBATH
(Preached on Sunday, July 1, 2007)
For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. -Galatians 5:13
If we had walked the streets of, say, Richmond, Virginia (or Philadelphia, or any number of other colonial cities) about 231 years ago, we would have seen large posters on buildings C signs with big, bold red letters proclaiming a single word: AFREE!@ Those signs would stir our hearts, for at that time, in those places, that one word signified what was desired above all else. In Richmond, Patrick Henry would have summed up the thoughts of many in a rousing speech just days earlier: AGive me liberty or give me death!@
If we were to walk those same streets today, we might see very similar signs, pasted in shop windows still. The same bold red letters: AFREE!@
Only, its not the same, is it? These signs do not stir our hearts. They may not even draw our attention. We are so used to seeing them. Book clubs offer free volumes, but you have to buy several more. Cereal boxes contain free gifts, worth no more than they cost. So, when we see that word, AFREE!@ today, we know that it does not stand for something more precious than life itself. It probably signifies something that is worthless or deceptive.
How did this word suffer such abuse? When did Ano tyranny@ (what Patrick Henry wanted) become replaced by Ano obligation or cost@ (what modern consumers want)? What does it say about us as a nation when we devote more time and attention to the Afreeing of Paris@ (not the city, but the rich little socialite) rather than the freeing of millions of immigrants living in the shadow of fear, or the millions of women and children facing starvation in Darfur, or the millions of men, women and children living without good health care in this country?
On Wednesday we will celebrate freedom as we remember our national Independence Day. Fireworks will light up the night sky in hundreds of towns across the country. People will gather to hear bands or orchestras play patriotic music and politicians will give speeches highlighting the importance of our freedom. Freedom is a core value grounded in the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; yet the concept has evolved through time. These days freedom seems to mean Afreedom@ from obligation to anything beyond us. Freedom of speech has come to mean that we can say whatever we feel, no matter if it is right or kind or even fair C without threat of reprisals. The crisis over Don Imus=s deliberate denigration of the Rutgers women=s basketball players and the subsequent discussion about the content of hip-hop lyrics demonstrate how far we push the envelope. The Klan has employed the right to freedom of assembly for more than a century to legitimate its rallies celebrating their hatred of and terrorist activities toward African Americans, Jewish Americans and Latino immigrants. Sometimes freedom seems to mean compromising our ethics and values for the sake of doing what feels good; we justify our vices by saying, AI=m grown. I=m free to do whatever I want as long as I don=t hurt anybody.@ The latter part of that statement, however, is often compromised for the sake of the former. We cite freedom to legitimize bad behavior. But is this really the freedom that the founders of our nation, the authors of those important national documents we so revere, really had in mind?
More importantly for us gathered here today, is this the freedom that Paul proclaims when he writes: AFor freedom Christ has set us free?@ Definitely not. In our Ado your own thing@ world, where one is supposed to stand apart from the crowd, Paul is a real anachronism. If your basic understanding about freedom is rooted in a philosophy of individualism, you will find yourself quite far from Paul=s belief in freedom. In fact, freedom for Paul is the opposite of independence.
For Paul, it is not just freedom from, but freedom for. When Paul speaks about Christ setting us free, he is talking about freedom from the purity laws, which though intended to bring people closer to God actually got in the way of people having close relationships with God; of feeling God=s loving acceptance and presence in their lives. They also got in the way of people having close, loving, supportive relationships with one another. So, Christ set us free for loving one another.
When Paul talks about freedom he holds up a vision of freedom from the prisons of prejudice and from social requirements imposed by cultural traditions that we=ve inherited and passed on from generation to generation. It is freedom from a world of domination and oppression, into a world of mutual acceptance and care for one and all. Freedom for Paul isn=t a call into a world where you get what you want when you want it; it is a call into a world where life is shared and offered without qualification. For Paul freedom is rooted in love of one=s neighbor. That is why he calls us not to submit to any yoke of slavery C neither the slavery of ritual, purity laws nor the slavery of self-indulgence of the flesh, giving in to the Ado you own thing, as long as it feels good and doesn=t hurt anybody else@ mantra.
This is the very opposite of the hedonism that our culture mistakes for freedom. This freedom is a glimpse of our destiny C a life of loving and being loved, by caring for one another and by bearing one another=s burdens, just as Jesus loved and cared for us and bore our burdens.
Free from self-indulgence, we are free for the self-emptying that builds community and strengthens relationships.
How do we embrace this freedom? Paul tells us: ALive by the Spirit.@ One clear practice that can help us live by the Spirit is to keep Sabbath. One of the symptoms of our captivity to hedonistic self-indulgence is our sense of never having enough time. It is actually the prime symptom of our slavery. We work to support lifestyles that we have become convinced are signs of the good life and of God=s blessings. But we end up slaves to work, to the clock, to the almighty dollar, and we end up with damaged relationships, with one another and with God.
The ordering and use of time is powerfully symbolic.
Slaves cannot take a day off. Free people can.
When we stop work each seventh day, we remember and show the world that God is God, Ruler of Time, and therefore God has set us free and given us the power to order our lives according to God=s time. Stopping work every seventh day reminds us that we do not cause the grain to grow. It also reminds us that our greatest fulfillment does not come through the acquisition of material things, but in nurturing and growing relationships, beginning with our relationship with God.
Keeping Sabbath enables our spirit-side to grow. By disciplining ourselves to regularly take our hands off the controls, we become more observant of the power of God at work in the world. Just imagine what would happen in our lives and in our communities if we left our computers off and our cars in the garage one day each week? Might we begin to recover from our national addiction to over consumption of the world=s good things, if we all refrained from shopping one day a week? Might we be healed of the depression that affects so many of us, the anxiety always to do better and achieve more, if we set aside ASabbath Time@ each day to rest deeply in God?
You see, Akeeping Sabbath@ is not just about taking one day a week to spend one hour in worship. That is part of it. It is important to gather with the broader community on a regular basis to worship. This is important for helping us remember that our freedom is freedom for loving others, not just self-indulgence. But mostly Sabbath is a time for rest and renewal, a time for just Abeing,@ not doing. In that time we are able to reorder our priorities, remembering who is God, and what our role is as God=s children.
It is not so important what you do in these mini-Sabbaths, as it is important that you do them. The important thing is to regularly take time to do one thing only C and do it in a way that is totally and completely focused on that activity, seeking to know the presence of God in that time. It might be washing the dishes by hand, in a reverent manner that pays attention to the light falling on the suds, the feel of the warm water and the slick soap, the resistance of the dish to the sponge or cloth scrubbing it clean. It may be flopping on your back and watching the clouds roll by overhead, or walking out at night before going to bed and gazing up at the stars. It may be taking a few hours, going to a park, or garden, or the beach, and sitting there with your favorite book of poetry. The point is: do what gives you joy, in a simple way, that connects you to life and to the rest of creation, and do it for the glory of God.
Thomas Merton once noted that the rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of contemporary violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence. More than that, Merton said, it is cooperation in violence. The frenzy of all this activity destroys one=s own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of one=s own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful. To experience the silence and rest of God we must rest and let our souls be still. When we do, through keeping Sabbath, we will discover the freedom which comes from the Spirit of God, the freedom for which Christ set us free.