True confession: I am a chronic commandment-breaker. I do it every week. In fact,

my job as a pastor demands it. Every Sunday, I go to work and violate the Fourth

Commandment: "Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy" (Exodus 20:8).

Now it's true that those of us on "temple duty" have long been excused from the

Sabbath obligation because of our work, but the irony of Sabbath-enforcers being

Sabbath-breakers is not lost on me. Nor is the fact that our Sabbath habits are

shared by ever growing numbers of people, who work or shop or play organized

sports on Sundays. We've lost our day of rest, and this concerns me, because I'm

convinced that nonstop activity harms people -- it threatens our health as individuals

and as a society.

So what can we do to reclaim the Fourth Commandment, especially as we work our

way through the season of Lent?

The place to begin is to see that a day of reflection and relaxation is a performance-

enhancer, not a productivity-robber. My friend Bill Parent, a Roman Catholic priest

and long-distance runner, reports that an almost universally recognized training

principle is that a runner becomes faster by taking a day off from training each week.

"The Sabbath principle," he insists, "is built into our physical bodies." There's also a

saying among artists that you must know when to stop painting -- if you don't, you'll

make one stroke too many and ruin the painting. Overworking can have the same

disastrous results as over-painting.

The next step is to assert that we are children of God, not slaves to a particular

shop, office, firm or corporation. The Sabbath reminds us of this fundamental

identity, one that we need to share with our kids -- young people who may be

thinking that they are slaves to school and sports and so many other timeconsuming

activities. Better Sabbath-keeping, I'm beginning to discover, could

actually make me a better father. The Sabbath is a reminder to me, and to my

children, that we are more than beasts of burden, more than cogs in a wheel, more

than students or workers who are valued for our contributions. On our day of rest,

we discover we are valuable simply because we exist.

It seems to me that Jews calculate their days correctly -- they start each day in the

evening, and begin with the refreshment of a night's rest. We would all be well

served, I believe, by beginning each week with a Sabbath, a day of peace, and using

the serenity of that day as the foundation for our ongoing activities. Call me

countercultural, even subversive, but I'm convinced that better Sabbath-keeping is a

key to rediscovering our God-given identity and enhancing our Monday-through-

Friday performance.

So go ahead: Reclaim a day of rest. For a pastor, it may be a Monday instead of a

Sunday, but the important thing is to embrace the Sabbath principle. You'll be

amazed by how much better you feel.

 

 

Find this article at:NCP Monthly May 2006

web: http://www.thepresbytery.org

Author's e-mail: henry@fairfaxpresby.com

Link to Henry Brinton's USA Today & Washington Post Articles Index Page

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