3rd Sunday of Lent (the Sabbath Rest)

Today's first reading offers us the establishment of the 10 Commandments—and especially the 3rd Commandment, to “keep holy the sabbath day”. Some time ago, I heard an audio lecture by Dr. Tim Gray[1] on formed.org that gave me perspective on this commandment, and from it, what we have traditionally called the Sunday obligation.

Today’s reading declares: “In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them; but on the seventh day he rested.”  More than simply having rested, the Book of Genesis

says, “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work he had done in creation” (2:3). 

Our life with God began in the Garden of Eden, but more than just a garden, it was intended to be a state of existence to experience God’s beautiful order, and even more, to experience God Himself. Properly understood, it was a sanctuary. We know well how all that fell apart, and that humankind lost touch with our sanctuary. 

Let’s leap forward to the time of Moses. God called him to liberate His people. After 400 years, they had virtually no sense of God any longer. In the Egyptian culture, and specifically, as slaves, their identity was primarily associated with their work.  

God told Moses to gather the Israelite leaders, to tell them that He wanted them to take a break from their work, to get away for awhile, to encounter Him in an act of worship. In fact, he said to Moses, “…say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD: Israel is my son, my firstborn…. Let my son go, that he may serve me’” (4:22-23). It’s worth noting, the word ‘to serve’ in Hebrew is avad. In this context it means to serve God, as in worship. In Greek, translated as leitourgía (or ‘liturgy’, as we say it), inferring that work of the people is for God. 

Pharaoh objected: “Why, Moses and Aaron, do you make the people neglect their work? Off to your labors!” (Ex 5:4)…..Increase the work for the men, so that they attend to it and not to deceitful words” (Ex 5:9). Again, for the word ‘work’, the Hebrew verb is avad, but in this context, it refers to actual labor. 

Pharaoh made the work even harder, to further distract the people from rediscovering their God and their self-identity as children of God. God’s response was to attack the infrastructure upon which Egypt’s economy was built: the crops, the river, the livestock. The plagues occurred on an interval of every seven days, the Sabbath, the very day He wanted His people to be able to serve Him. 

          Eventually the people were freed to gradually rediscover their God and their identity: the Exodus. Soon after, God gave them the Commandments, among which was the 3rd: “Remember the sabbath day—keep it holy. Six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God…For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them; but on the seventh day he rested.” (Ex 20:8-11). More to the point: Keep it holy, guard it from mere self-interest and the work of the world. Preserve space in your week to remember your God, and therefore who you are.  

The Sabbath rest isn’t mere inactivity or idleness. It’s a call to make that day about the things that give one’s life true meaning and connection with God. It certainly seems as though our culture doesn’t want us to rest in our Creator, and thus it continues to expand our workload. It seduces us with—or imposes upon us—more things to chip-away at our Sabbath rest: more youth sports, constant connection to our work by means of technology, more forms of mindless entertainment on bigger screens with higher resolution, more platforms of social media that persistently beckon us.  

Rather than Sabbath rest, we have something called the weekend. While the Sabbath-rest was intended to help us consider our transcendent reality, to get to the deeper truths that are part of what gives life meaning, the weekend is more about catching up on tasks or to merely be distracted. For sure, our six-days of work, our entertainment, and the things we enjoy can serve purpose in our lives, but if that’s all we have, if we don’t regularly go deeper and re-discover our identity as God’s children, we lose our sense of self. 

God gave us that Commandment—keep holy the Sabbath—and thus the Church holds-up the obligation of Sunday Mass—to fulfill that command. The Mass is not the Sabbath, but it’s a vital part for sure. The church building, and what we do in it, is meant to recapture that sanctuary that Adam and Eve knew. I mentioned the word avad-leitourgía, to serve. Again, the word liturgy means “the work of the people”. It might sound odd to say that we come here to work, to serve, to offer ourselves back to God. But God says to the world around us, “Give my sons and daughters a break, that they might come and serve me”.

Our worship of God is not because He needs anything. It's because we need to remember who we are in relationship to Him. If it feels like you can’t immediately change the entire structure of your Sunday, maybe begin with baby steps. First, recognize the need; secondly, have the desire for it; third, take it to prayer; and fourth, trust.

[1] Keep Holy the Sabbath by Dr. Tim Gray, formed.org