Third Friday in Advent

Isaiah 56:1-8; Psalm 67; John 5:33-36

December 16: O Sapientia

This passage from Isaiah is full of promise for those who are waiting.  We often encounter the phrase “my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples,” and that is a powerful promise.  But I want to focus on what is needed for that to happen.  God promises to claim and hold all those who turn to God, specifically those who “keep my sabbaths.”  Three times in eight verses we hear this: to “the mortal,” “the eunuchs,” and “foreigners.” All who keep the sabbath of God shall be gathered into joyful prayer.  Isaiah doesn’t say, “Those who don’t murder, or slander, or covet.”  No, that sneaky little commandment, to honor the sabbath day, is the linchpin.

So what makes sabbath so important?  And why is it so hard to keep nowadays?

The real issue in this passage is fidelity, faithfulness to God and the covenant.  Sabbath is entered into not because we humans need rest (though we do), but as a way to remember and worship God.  It is “useless,” and therefore an offering of our most precious resource: time.  Our lives are limited, though we don’t know just how long they will be.  Most of us imagine they will be shorter than we’d like.  It’s tempting to pack more in, either to enjoy more or to imagine that we have made a difference (another enjoyment).  And our culture takes that human limit and pushes it to new limits.  Our consumer economy runs on more: more buying, more selling, more working.  The culture of productivity tells us that empty time is wasted time.   But even in ancient Israel, people were tempted to buy and sell and work on the Sabbath; after all, time is money!  And money, in that saying, is the real God of our world today.

On Monday I mentioned An Other Kingdom, a new book about creating alternatives to consumer society.  The authors suggest three areas to cultivate that other realm: time, food, and silence.  Sabbath touches on both time and silence, as we stop what we are doing and listen for God.  It requires trust that we will have enough time, and enough food and other necessities, even if we take that break.  

Sabbath is not a “day off,” if by that we mean a day away from our “work” in which we sandwich shopping and other chores.  Sabbath is a day to remember God, to slow down and let go.  It may come through hiking, or sitting in a chair.  It may mean being alone, or it may mean seeing friends.  What makes Sabbath is its uselessness, its emptiness, making a space for God to enter.

Perhaps Advent is a giant Sabbath, in which we wait for God to enter.  And perhaps, if we keep trying, our lives can become a giant Advent, a daily Advent in which we wait for God to enter.  Then, truly, we will be gathered into God and be one.  May it be so.

We have one more week to practice Advent.  Where will you make Sabbath this week?