Last week during the sermon on Mark 3:1-6 (Jesus healing the man with the withered hand), our pastor made the point that the Sabbath was originally instituted by God to demonstrate to the Israelites that they were no longer slaves and had to work seven days a week (yes, the Pharisees messed that up a bit, but that was the original idea).
That single thought hit me like a ton of bricks.
I (and I suspect the bulk of my readers) can remember a time where on Sunday, everything was closed. You went to church, perhaps went to breakfast, and then spent the day doing anything other than shopping or working. These times are within my living memory.
Now, we are subjected to the 24 hour shopping cycle (similar in many respects to the 24 hour news cycle). We shop any time and every time - and for most that have Monday through Friday jobs, that shopping comes on the days that free. Saturday and Sunday.
Well and good - after all, this means that people are employed and revenue is being generated. Those are good things, right?
Right. Except we have effectively reached back to a time when all of us are working as if we were slaves.
Oh, we (the global we: our society, our Western Civilization) are not slaves to cruel masters like the Egyptians anymore. We are slaves to a more insidious master: our own selves. Or even worse, if we have the luxury of shopping on a Non-Sunday, of making slaves of other peole.
I can take myself as the example: do I really need to work on Sunday? No. I kid myself that I am somehow getting ahead of the curve (but I am really not, just layering the plate for more work). And do I need to shop on Sundays? I do it mostly out of convenience to my activities, but it could just as easily be a Saturday activity.
What would a Sunday look like if I went to church, worked at the rabbit shelter (Doing good there - that is still on the menu), and then just spending my time - consciously spending my time - resting. What would that look like?
It would look a great deal like someone trying to break free of the system and trying, in some small way, to live other than a slave.
Interesting way of looking at it. Never thought of it like that. I had thought of it more as just thanking God for all we have.
ReplyDeleteAnd I do remember those days. Then slowly it changed to afternoons for a few hours - so people could still go to church.
And now, only a handful of places stay closed on Sunday.
I never did either, Linda, until it was presented that way.
DeleteI did a bit better today. I tried to get everything done yesterday (but still ended up going to grocery store and the bank). I'll plan ahead a little better and see what next week brings.