Rabbis for centuries have said that the Sabbath is given to you, not you to the Sabbath. Jesus said this right to the very religious leaders who were giving him and his disciples a hard time about plucking wheat or healing someone. For Sabbath to be given, it is a gift. It isn't a gift if it comes with a bunch of strings attached. If someone gives me a new Tesla and proceeds to tell me how to drive it, clean it, care for it, and is constantly watching me...I would be tempted to just give it back. I mean, I would probably keep the Tesla, but just because it was a gift.
For a gift to be a gift, the one who gives releases control. The control of how it is received and used in the world. If the toy car you gave your niece for her birthday becomes a space shuttle, we can rejoice. If someone uses the couch you gave them like a dresser for their clothes, that is his call. When you give a gift, we let go of being able to say what is correct or proper.
We rarely have done this with the Sabbath...we have set out all sorts of obligations and definitions and "shoulds" and "oughts". No drinking, dancing, or doing anything fun. No going here or there. No grumbling about how long the sermon is...or whether you could skip church. No telling your aunt that Jell-O with vegetables in it tastes weird. What other "shoulds" and "oughts" are in your mental file cabinet with respect to the Sabbath?
We have to notice, name, begin to let go of how others defined and described the Sabbath so we have room for the Sabbath to be a gift to us.
That is my invitation for you in the coming days. Write down all the ways other people have defined Sabbath...then write your own definition.
It is only in us naming and claiming what ceasing for the sake of our relationship with God might be meaningful that we might find our ways back to the trace of God's grace in holy pause called Sabbath.
Blessings ~~
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