Live the Trinity

Sabbat- (or) Holy Advent, part VI

Richard M. Wright

(The Sabbat- is going somewhere… trust me.)

This Sunday is the first in the season of Advent. The word advent comes from Latin and means simply “coming.” Normally we think of the (first) coming of Christ. But as our pastor Jay Hogewood along with Christian tradition remind us Advent is about both the first and the second coming of Christ. Indeed the season of Advent begins by looking forward to the second coming. The song of Advent begins on an eschatological note.

In other words… Advent is a season in the Christian calendar when we not only look backwards but also look forwards. Advent straddles the past and the future.

So what does this have to do with Sabbat-?

Speaking of beginnings… look at the creation story/ies of Genesis 1 and 2. (My personal theology is heavily creational and begins with and emphasizes the book of Genesis. Manifesto available on request.) Genesis 1 emphasizes what God does. God speaks… creates… names. Human beings are described in royal terms (1:28) – they have power and responsibility within creation. Genesis 2 emphasizes what human beings do. They are necessary for creation to continue (2:5). And now they name things. (What scholar Terence Fretheim calls “creaturely creation.”) Human beings are described in terms of service (2:15).

And what marks the transition between the first and second stories? Between how God creates and the beginning of creaturely creativity by human beings? Between power and service? Between “the heavens and the earth” and “the earth and the heavens”? Between the “grandeur of God’s cosmic designs” and the “commitment of creation to live in harmony within God’s world” (Samuel Balentine, The Torah’s Vision of Worship, 83)? Between…

A ritual world in which the liturgy of creation might be sustained (Genesis 1:1-2:4a), and a relational world in which God invites humankind to share responsibility for the maintenance, development, and restoration of God’s purposive designs for the universe (2:4b-25). (ibid., 81)

“By the seventh day… God rested…. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy” (2:2-3a).

More on this next week…

Sabb- (or) Holy Liberation, part IV

Richard M. Wright

(The Sabb- is going somewhere…)

Are we slaves?

(Say whaaa-?)

That is an offensive question but bear with me. One of the speakers at the (can you guess?) Catalyst Conference was Gary Haugen who works with the International Justice Mission which basically finds and rescues people from slavery. No kidding.

Even in countries where it is illegal some people sometimes engage in slavery. Haugen described a brick making complex somewhere in Asia where people – including husbands and wives and children of all ages – were forces to make bricks 12-14 hours each day and 7 days a week. Beatings for failure to keep quota. No escape. And no rest from work.

That – among other things perhaps – is a key characteristic of slavery. Working without ever resting.

Rewind a few millennia. The Hebrews are former slaves about to enter the land of Canaan. God through Moses reminds them of ten things. The fourth – which is the longest commandment so maybe it is rather important – says:

Observe the sabb- day and keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. ¹³ Six days you shall labor and do all your work. ¹⁴ But the seventh day is a sabb- to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work– you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. ¹⁵ Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the sabb- day (Deuteronomy 5:12-15).

Fascinating. Why should you observe this day of rest/fun/worship/prayer? Because once you were slaves but now you are no longer. Sabb- in part represents the opposite of slavery. Perhaps freedom. Liberation. (More about that next week.)

(So if we choose not to practice Sabb- are we choosing to live like slaves?)

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).