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Believe it or not, I love talking about Sabbath. Anyone who knows me knows that I have not figured out how to practically integrate a consistent Sabbath practice into my week. I've sometimes said, jokingly, that I am a workaholic who is not in recovery (all due respect to workaholics and those who love them.) I love working and it is really hard for me to pull away from it. That said, it is a good and faithful thing to confess and practice this truth: God started the world without me, and God can keep the world spinning without me. Like you, I need one day a week where I remind myself that Sabbath is a gift AND a commandment, an invitation AND a necessity. I am still on the journey of living into this and I am grateful for this series we’ve been in: Sabbath as Resistance. But I gotta tell you why I LOVE talking about Sabbath, even as I fail to observe it on a regular basis. PAUSE: I really wanted to write a several page essay on this, but Rev. Ben Richards gave me a 700 word limit for this blog. I got it down to less than 800. He’ll be fine. Ha! UNPAUSE When we first hear the commandment in Exodus 20 to “observe the Sabbath and keep it holy,” the reason is because God is holy and this is what God did. It is a command about our devotion to God and being the people of God. But the second time we hear this commandment, in Deuteronomy 5, an additional reason is given - it is to remind us that “we are no longer slaves!” And this evolution of meaning and motivation for the Sabbath command gives us a lot to think about. I love talking about Sabbath because I need regular reminders that I am no longer a slave. Like we sang last Sunday, I need to sing the chorus “I’m no longer a slave to fear, I am a child of God, “ to my soul as often as I can. I must confess that one of the drivers of my busy life is a voice in my head that tells me “Derrick, you exist to work.” This voice sounds a lot like a slave-master threatening disaster if I can’t continue laboring from sunup to sundown everyday. (If you know the Exodus story, there are some parallels.) I have gotten used to living under the rule of this voice. This voice is often louder than the loving voice of Jesus who says “I no longer call you a servant, I call you a friend.” And this is why Sabbath as Resistance is so important. Speaking for myself, a prerequisite of taking a day off for rest, rejuvenation and play is resisting the voice in my head that says my work is what determines my identity, my value and my very life. The command to Sabbath is a command to ignore Pharoah for one day. The invitation to Sabbath is an opportunity to trust that God can hold us and preserve us in a way that our work can’t. Even a few moments of resisting the voice that denies our Belovedness are a few moments that become “holy unto the Lord.” So I love talking about Sabbath but ultimately, Sabbath is about grace - and God’s grace is greater than Pharaohs, greater than hard work, and greater than my ability to get a full day off. So with all that said, I want to invite you to observe the Sabbath this weekend - if not for the entire weekend or an entire day, observe it for a few minutes. Take 6 minutes and listen to “No Longer Slaves.*” Take those few moments to contemplate the ways that you are loved, valued, accepted and embraced by God and that is all free to us through Jesus Christ. Whether it is a few minutes or an entire day, that space created where we resist the slave-master voice in our heads will be holy unto the Lord. Derrick Scott III *Blogger’s Note: I am well aware of the theological beliefs of the writers of the song “No Longer Slaves” as it relates to queer inclusion in the church and the world. I choose to sing and share this particular song over and over again because regardless of their position, they have given this song to the Church that I am a part of since Christ says, “I AM A CHILD OF GOD. ” Put another way, I sing and share this song as an act of sacred resistance. They’ll be fine.
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