Remember the Sabbath

Exodus 20:8-11

Remember the sabbath day, and 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; you shall not do any work--you, your son or your daughter, your male or female 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.

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Monday morning feels so bad,
Ev'rybody seems to nag me
Coming tuesday I feel better,
Even my old man looks good,
Wednesday just don't go,
Thursday goes too slow,
I've got Friday on my mind

"Friday on My Mind" by The Easybeats

Scholars say the Ten Commandments can be broken down in to three groups. The first is how we relate to God, the second is how we relate to creation, and the third is how we relate to each other.

The first division is easy to find. Starting with "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me" makes that pretty obvious. The Lord is our God and that's that. The Lord has saved us before and continues to save us. What's better than that?

The final third is easy to pick out too. You shall not murder, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, or covet are pretty obvious to what we have to do to have a civil society. When these obvious sins break into society, creation has hit the downward skids.

How we deal with creation is more nuanced. To keep something holy is to set it aside for a specific purpose. Scripture calls us to set aside the Sabbath. The Lord made the Sabbath so that we may rest. The Lord made the Sabbath so that the beasts of burden can rest. The Lord made the Sabbath and the Jubilee so that the land can rest. This is how we are called to relate to creation. Sabbath worship is our response to God's good gifts including creation and rest.

We are to be active, God creates and we are to follow God in what was created. But God rested too. Jesus took time from around his disciples to go and to be on his own to pray, rest, recover, and rejuvenate. God calls us to follow this example in the Sabbath. We are called to take time in the midst and presence of God to rest and recover.

Sabbath isn't the time to go out and party. It's a time to be with God and God's people. It's a time of prayer. It's a time to worship. Further, it's a time to anticipate with joy. Even all week long we should wait with joy for the Sabbath to come together as the community of God. It's good to have Friday on our minds.