LENTEN
SERIES 2 – 7 March 2004 – Bishop Owen Dowling
Apart from Seventh Day Adventists, Christians from earliest
times have observed Sunday, the first day of the week, as their day of worship,
rather than Saturday, the traditional Jewish Sabbath. The reason for this, as
you probably know, was that from the beginning Christians kept a weekly
remembrance of Jesus’ resurrection. The rising of the sun on the first day of
the week reminded them, and reminds us of the experience of Mary Magdalen and
the first disciples in meeting the risen Jesus again after the horror of his
crucifixion. This pattern of experiencing the risen Christ in their midst on the
first day of the week is established in John’s Gospel Chapter 20, while in the
Book of Revelation, the writer, John, speaks of having his vision of the risen
Christ on the Lord’s Day while imprisoned on the island of Patmos. ‘The
Lord’s Day’ almost certainly refers to Sunday.
One of the very early accounts of Christian worship and the
eucharist outside the New Testament is one given by Justin Martyr, writing early
in the second century. He refers to the eucharist being celebrated ‘early on
the day of the sun’. The first Christians, of course, were Jews, and would
have been Sabbath-keepers every Saturday, but would probably have had their
eucharist either Saturday night or early Sunday morning before going off to
work. Sunday didn’t become an official weekly holiday until after the Roman
Empire officially adopted Christianity in the 4th century.
It is surprising, in a way, that considering all the
controversies in the New Testament over whether male Christians should be
circumcised, that there isn’t more controversy over sabbath observance, and
whether Christians were bound to it. We presume that the new Gentile Christians
were excused of this obligation, just as they were excused of circumcision and
the other detailed prescriptions of the Mosaic law.
Paul does speak in his Letter to the Romans of not passing
judgment on one another with respect to the observance or non-observance of the
sabbath, the new moon, or any other special religious day, or dietary laws, or
fasting regulations. He says this: “Some judge on day to be better than
another; while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be convinced in their
own minds. Those who observe the day, observe it in honour of the Lord. Also
those who eat, eat in honour of the Lord, since they give thanks to God
(literally in the Greek, “make eucharist to God”); whilst those who abstain,
abstain in honour of the Lord and give thanks to God.” (Romans 14:5,6)
This sounds very modern and enlightened. In a church and
community full of differing traditions we are not to judge one another or
accentuate division, or despise one another on the basis of whether or not we
observe this or that religious observance.
What Jesus, and Paul too, taught us is to observe the spirit
of the Law, rather than the letter of the Law. The spiritual freedom they
proclaimed was not meant to be a freedom which ignored the meaning and spirit of
what we find in the Jewish tradition. “I have not come to abolish the law and
the prophets”, said Jesus, “I have come not to abolish, but to fulfil.”
(Matthew 5:17)
So it seems clear that our duty and responsibility as
Christians is to think about the law of God, as summed up in the Ten
Commandments, and live out the spirit of them – explore their true meaning.
This applies particularly to the Fourth Commandment.
“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you
shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord
your God; you shall not do any work – you, your son or your daughter, your
slave, your livestock or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the
Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, but rested the
seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.”
Many Christians, myself included, do not believe that the
universe was created in six days, though we do believe that we live in an
ordered creation. We can identify with the first account of creation in Genesis
where humanly speaking God does a really good week’s work and then rests and
surveys the whole lot, whilst the commentator says “And behold it was very
good!” Not just good, but very good. The Jews had a special veneration for the
number 7 – a complete and indivisible number. So there is a symbolic message
in the seven days of creation of its completeness. As Haydn has the choir sing
in his great work “The Creation”, “Achieved is the glorious work”.
We also know that creation is an ongoing process, dynamically
happening all the time – creating and recreating. Why only the other day
someone published an insight that our skeleton is renewed every seven years.
When Jesus was criticized for healing on the sabbath, he said, daringly, “My
Father is still working, and I also am working” (John 5:17) The hearers were
so offended by Jesus’ contradiction of the static creation and strict Sabbath
observance that the sought all the more to kill him, says John.
There’s an interesting difference between the Fourth
Commandment as recorded in Exodus 20, and the other version of the Ten
Commandments in Deuteronomy 5. The reason for the sabbath commandment in
Deuteronomy, is that the people of Israel were to remember that they had been
slaves in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord had brought them out from there
“with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm”. In other words their Sabbath
observance was to remember that they were redeemed slaves, and that they
were therefore not to oppress their own workers, slaves or aliens, but show them
justice equal to the way they treated their own people. Their livestock and
their land are also not to be exploited.
The sabbath law is of course early labour law, and low of
environmental protection. The seven day cycle is applied also in seven year
cycles. A principle of resting is to be applied across all creation, as well as
a principle of work. Due refreshment and time for replenishment and re-creation
(or recreation as we pronounce it today) is to be given to all, the
highest and the lowest in the land and extended right across all our farming
methods. don’t abuse and exploit. Show care for it all.
There is no doubt that the sabbath principle is a principle
of health. It is a principle of treating people, animals and the creation in
which we are placed well. It is a way of caring for ourselves and caring for
others. It is a basis for having laws in the community that prevent people from
being exploited.
Everyone needs a balance of work and rest. To have no work is
soul-destroying or leads to sick or indolent communities where no one raises a
hand to help another. Not to have rest and recreation, a time for reflection, a
time for play, a time for fun or creativity is dangerous for any of us. We are
fortunate in our times to have a 2 day weekend, as it is called, though it’s
good to remember that Sunday, our day or worship is the start of a new week, a
day to discover resurrection and make a fresh start.
Many of our religious forebears were oppressed by negative
regulations about the Sabbath. Don’t do this, don’t do that until it became
a positive burden. The instrument of freedom and mercy was turned into an
instrument of sour-faced negativity. We can be proud to belong to a church
which, to counter the excesses of the early 17th century Puritans and
their very pious and strict Sabbath observance, issued the “Book of Sports”.
Every parish church was ordered to arrange games, folk dancing and the like each
Sunday, after worship, so that the people could not only worship, but engage in
healthy activity and recreation on Sundays. As you can imagine, the Puritans
were scandalized, but the sensible middle stream of the Church of England made
wise provision for the people, I believe, in the true spirit of the Fourth
Commandment.
You, me, or any one else will neglect the principle of this
very ancient commandment with a very contemporary meaning to our peril. We all
need, and our whole community, and certainly the contemporary workplace, needs
to keep a balance between work, recreation and rest. We need to watch for any
form of exploitation of people, animals or environment. Those who have been
oppressed or abused in the past need to make sure they don’t oppress or abuse
in their turn. Would that that lesson were learned and followed by persons,
families and nations!
And as we enjoy and are re-created by our worship each Lord’s Day, let’s exult in the creation God has given us and be renewed in the love and mercy which God continues to shower upon us ….. then go out to love and serve the living Lord in the week and life that lies ahead!