"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."
(Exodus 20:8-11 ESV)
I used to think, in my more individualistic/conservative days, that this Scripture was about the need to take a rest because, well, we all need it. Don't overwork, take time to worship, don't pursue the last dollar because God knows what is best for us as persons. The Sabbath is an important to a happy and balanced life in which we take care of ourselves in important ways. Spend time with God, with your family, with yourself.
Now, I still think that this is part of the Sabbath, but the more I have looked at Scripture I get the sense that this is not just a guideline for 'your best life now'. No, the Sabbath is also about how we look at the Other (as, indeed, are so many other issues). Consider these words not just to the head of the house (who likely would have read or heard it in the assembly)...it's also about a word for his family, his servants, his guests, and even his animals. The one who is the CEO of the extended family of 3500 years ago is told not just to rest for himself, but specifically that others who might work on his behalf are to rest as well.
This dramatically changes how we look at the concept of the Sabbath. While perhaps today we are not called to literally keep the Sabbath to the extreme that some Jews thought they should (cf. Matthew 12:1-14; Colossians 2:16-18), it's still a good thing to rest not just for ourselves but to give others as a break. What if we took this seriously? Would it change our shopping patterns? Change how we go and eat out for Sunday dinner? Would it change how we come home and turn on the TV for the Chiefs kickoff?
Let me say this as directly as I can: do we allow the way we consider our Sundays make it where others have to work? Sure, the Chiefs players are making huge money to play for our entertainment. But most of the service workers working to feed us or check us out at Wal-Mart on Sunday are some of the most economically fragile in our economy. They often considered the poorest, working the worst kind of shifts that likely few people want to really work. They are away from their families on days in which the rest of the family may be going to worship or are at play. But they work in order to provide for our 'day of rest'.
Doesn't this form of economic behavior go against the very spirit of the Sabbath? Might we even call it unChristian? While I don't want Blue Laws to return so that all shops and stores are closed on Sunday (as sometimes I still go out and eat or shop, or I might need to travel), Christians ought to be cognizant of their economic patterns on this day. By doing what is best for us, are we doing that which causes some form of harm (in relative terms) to our neighbor by making them work?
Sometimes we are oblivious to the needs of others. A number of years ago a church member was complaining to me about how she had invited a friend of hers to church but she could never come because she had to work on Sundays. She thought it was wrong that this woman had to work...but then she would spend her Sunday afternoons going to lunch, shopping, and even going to a movie. In other words, the things she was doing were directly leading to the conditions that made her friend have to work on a Sunday, yet she could not see this correlation.
Questions like this make us dig deep and see if we are part of the problem. It's not easy, of course...some workers like working on Sundays as they get paid more (which, again, is important for lower-wage workers), and many today think no differently about a Sunday than any other day. But for Christians who think Kingdom of God first, again the Sabbath should make us think about how we live on behalf of the Other, rather than ourselves alone.
As for me a number of years ago I stopped buying on the Sabbath as much as I could. Occasionally I will still eat out or shop or travel...but generally I try to avoid it as much as I can. I am a hypocrite in that I am not consistent in this, and I need to get better, but it's something where we can all make a difference.
After finishing this, I realized I wrote something about this three years ago. You can decide whether I wrote it better now or then.
