Restoring Sabbath as the “Way of Life”

In the biblical story the practice of Sabbath is meant to reflect first the creative and the redemptive acts of God. Today, though, it seems that Sabbath has become more of a theological symbol than a real practice. Even those of us who practice Sabbath today seem to have the same problem the Israelites had: it is primarily a religious ritual that has little significance for life beyond synagogue or church walls.

Nothing could be more counter to the original vision of Sabbath. God’s creative and redemptive acts are not limited to a single day or confined to “religious” activities or people. The biblical teachings on Sabbath have as much to say about everyday life issues like agriculture, economics and politics as they do about religion. Or more accurately, from a Sabbath perspective there is no distinction between religious practice and, for example, economic practice.

The biblical story shows that Israel struggled with Sabbath practice much as we do today. There is an amazing story about an Israelite king (Josiah) where we read that the religious leaders had actually lost the scrolls of Torah that contain many of God’s most important instructions on Sabbath practice. The Israelites had drifted so far away from genuine Sabbath practice that they actually “lost” God’s original instructions on Sabbath. These scrolls were “discovered” when Josiah ordered a long overdue cleaning of the temple. Their discovery sparked a revival in Israel. I am convinced that rediscovering true Sabbath practice today would also spark a revival.

Nearly 1,000 years later we still find the Israelites struggling with Sabbath practice. According to the prophet Amos, the Israelites were participating Sabbath festivals and offerings but God told Amos that these practices detestable and meaningless because although they had all the trappings of Sabbath, they had none of the substance (Amos 5).

The shortfalls in Sabbath practice continue in the New Testament story. It is Sabbath practice that is the most common point of contention between Jesus and the religious authorities Israel. In their eyes Jesus was continually breaking the Sabbath while, like Amos, Jesus was actually seeking to point out that what they called “Sabbath” was a cheap imitation of the real thing.

What was missing from Israel’s understanding and practice of Sabbath? Why was it so challenging to get it right and why does it continue to challenge us today? We have tried to make Sabbath conform to our way of life, rather than to conform our way of life to the “Way of Life.” Like all the creative and redemptive acts of God, the Way of Life encompasses creation itself and all of human activity.

I want to highlight three fundamental but ignored aspects of Sabbath practice that can help guide us toward an understanding of the Way of Life that has the power to transform all aspects of our lives. These are the 1) ecological, 2) economic and 3) political practices of Sabbath.

Ecological Practice of Sabbath: Rooted in the story of creation, Sabbath is about both the creation and continued re-creation of life that is our ecological system. The first principle of Sabbath practice is to rest from work—the political and economic functions of our lives—and to honor something even more fundamental to our well-being, which is the ecological system itself. Sabbath practice calls us to continually look beyond our own lives, and see that we are part of a bigger picture and a living system.

The Sabbath rest also has a more direct and practical ecological function: it allows the land itself to rest. In the teachings of jubilee from Deuteronomy and Leviticus, we read that Sabbath practice mandated that every 7 years the land would rest for one year. Today, in our scientific world, we recognize this as a profound ecological principle to avoid over-taxing our resources—a principle that has renewed meaning in an era when resource depletion, ecological destruction and climate change threaten the future of life itself.

Economic Practice of Sabbath: Economic principles represent some of the most fundamental aspects of Sabbath practice. In addition to letting the land rest every 7 years, debts were also forgiven every 7 years and lands were returned to their original owners every 50 years, as part of Sabbath practice. The common interpretation of this is one of economic justice: redistribution of wealth to help the poor. Yet there is a more profound significance in our modern context.

This redistribution limits not only the monopolization of wealth, but it also limits economic growth itself! The Sabbath vision of economics was that each family would be assured enough to meet its needs, but it would discourage people from accumulating significantly more than they need. This, of course, is heretical in today’s economic system where the mantra is “more is better.” But let’s consider these modern realities of our global economic system: 1) We are witnessing a rising cost, both in environmental and human terms, of limitless pursuit for growth. The value of human life is frequently traded for profit and non-human life is often given no value at all. 2) We live in a world where a single person can be worth $50 billion while over a billion people struggle to live on less than a $1 per day. 3) Increased wealth does not deliver increased happiness or well-being. Bill McKibben, in his recent book Deep Economy, highlights global research reports that economic growth only brings us real satisfaction up to the point of meeting our basic needs (about $10,000). Certainly, people deserve a living wage, adequate health care, and food security, but beyond this we spend most of our time working to acquire wealth that does not make us any happier.

The Sabbath vision of economics provides a compelling critique of the world we live in today, and should lead us to question whether our way of life is in contradiction to the Way of Life. In the 19^th century, philosopher and political economist, John Ruskin, invented a comparison that may best describe our economic situation today. He contrasted wealth and illth. He used wealth to describe the outcomes of economic activities that enhanced life, not just for individuals, but for society and for our eco-systems. Illth, on the other hand, described the outcomes of economic activities that degraded life. I believe that what most of us consider wealth today, is really illth.

Political Practice of Sabbath: The political principles of Sabbath are embedded in Israel’s liberation for slavery in Egypt and the teachings of Jesus and the prophets. This is reflected in yet another aspect of the jubilee Sabbath cycle in the Torah: the liberation of slaves every 7 years. Additionally, the practice of debt cancellation also had significance for liberation from slavery, since many people were forced into slavery to reconcile debts. This is why jubilee, as a Sabbath practice, was a powerful moral tenet for the movement to abolish slavery in Britain and the US.

In the teachings of Jesus and the prophets we see true Sabbath practice as a challenge to unjust leaders. Amos rebukes religious leaders because they were practicing Sabbath on one day of the week, but the rest of week they showed no concern for the widow, the orphan or the poor. Similarly, Jesus used the Sabbath to highlight political injustice in society. In his first Sabbath sermon he read from Isaiah’s proclamation of jubilee for those who, even today, often have no political voice: the poor, the imprisoned and the lame. Even through his healings on the Sabbath he unveiled the hypocrisy of religious leaders. Rather than conform their societies to the vision of Sabbath, leaders had tamed the Sabbath to prop up their positions of religious and political power.

Sabbath practice, as the Way of Life, demands the same challenge to unjust leadership today. The vision of Sabbath, especially in the ecological and economic terms described above, should be a standard by which we judge the actions and priorities of our leaders and our society. And when leaders fail to meet this standard, like the prophets we must speak truth to power and act for change.

2007: A Modern Sabbath Year from Suffering and Debt

How do we move beyond the intangible and the theoretical to the prophetic and the practical? I want to leave you with one powerful, contemporary example of Sabbath practice. Today, the Jubilee 2000 movement is working to restore the vision of Sabbath to the global economic system. This is an international, faith-inspired movement calling for a jubilee for the world’s most impoverished countries: a cancellation of debts and an end to economic practices tantamount to debt slavery!

In ancient Israel debt often became a vicious trap: The poor might lose their land to wealthy creditors. In the end, their only option would be to sell themselves or their children into slavery.
The indefinite continuation of this process and the permanent enslavement of the poor is what jubilee was meant to address. Today, in the world’s most impoverished nations we see a similar vicious debt trap. These countries can no longer afford to repay debts without neglecting their people's basic needs. For instance, in 2005/06, Kenya's budget for debt payments was as much as for water, health, agriculture, roads, transport and finance combined.

One of the most powerful quotes we use to describe the issue of debt today comes from the former president of Tanzania speaking to the world’s rich leaders: “Must we starve our children to pay our debts?” It is a statement that echoes Hebrew prophet Amos, who complains, “The people of Israel have sinned… They sell into slavery honest people who cannot pay their debts, the poor who cannot repay even the price of a pair of sandals” (2:6-7).

Just as in Amos’ time, we are living in a world that is seriously out of balance. Every day, 13 percent of the world’s population goes hungry and more than 30,000 children die of easily preventable diseases. By committing to the UN Millennium Development goals to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015 world leaders acknowledged that things need to change.

That is why the Jubilee movement is designating 2007 as a Sabbath Year. It has been 7 years since the Jubilee 2000 campaign put debt on the international agenda and compelled rich world leaders to provide debt relief to more than 20 nations.

In accordance with the Sabbath Year, the Jubilee USA Network has introduced the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Extended Debt Cancellation (HR 2634) into Congress. This bill will provide full debt cancellation to all countries that need it to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals.

The highlight of the 2007 Sabbath Year is the “Cancel Debt Fast” advocacy campaign (read more at www.jubileeusa.org/canceldebtfast.html). This is a 40-day rolling fast, from September 6-October 15, during which it is expected that more than 20,000 supporters of debt cancellation will fast for a day or more and on the same day, contact their member of Congress to urge their support for the Jubilee Act. Supporters will be joining the Reverend David Duncombe who has committed to an open-ended fast beginning on September 6th, while also walking halls of Congress building support for the Jubilee Act.

I encourage readers to join the Jubilee movement and to participate in the Cancel Debt Fast as an incredible opportunity to restore a lost aspect of Sabbath practice, and as critical call to help millions who are literally starving for debt cancellation around the world. If our practice of Sabbath is only about saving souls and not actual lives, than we have veered dangerously far from the true Way of Life.