Keep the Sabbath? What's the Big Deal?

“I’d like to be remembered as one who kept my priorities in the right order. We live in a changing world, but we need to be reminded that the important things have not changed, and the important things will not change if we keep our priorities in proper order.” – Truett Cathy

Warning: this is a reflection blog and is a glimpse of how my mind works when thinking upon these topics. I have my opinion, of course, but it is just for us to reflect and I think we have to let God speak to us on this topic and strive to live out that conviction.

Your son or daughter has trained for years, sacrificing a lot for this moment. They longed for this special day for years, and as a parent you are so proud and excited for them. In some ways this is just as important to you because of all the sacrifice you had to give as well through driving to practice, paying for equipment and being there for them through all the ups and downs. Then you find out that this culmination of time, talent and practice is now to be demonstrated on Sunday, the “normal” day of Sabbath for the West. What do you do? Do you sacrifice because of the special day and not go, or do you go and know God will understand?

This just happened with a group of girls who worked all year to make it to the championships and refused to play because of their faith. Now they are Mormons, but they are certainly an example of living out convictions. They walked away from a championship trophy because they believe Sabbath is a holy day. How many of us would do that?

How many of us have missed events because we had to work, go to class, or another function that we thought we had to be at? Now, how many have given up an event because it conflicted with church? My goal is not to get into semantics about which day is Sabbath, but about Sabbath itself and what we have made of it in Western culture. How often do we go to church in order to rush out to another event, especially a sporting event our children are in today?

Imagine you have a child if you don’t, and not so hard if you do. Now imagine you get a call from school and they tell you they did not show up for school. You start to worry and sweat because your child is not at school, where he should be. After school, he walks in the door and you immediately ask him where he was. He tells you instead of school he went to a video gaming arcade to practice his gaming skills, because tonight his team is going to go online live and play another group and he wanted to be ready. He says it is no big deal, because school is boring and that missing it once in a while is no big deal. How would you respond? Would you explain to him the importance of school and that skipping is going to hurt him in the long run? What would you say?

Now take that to our eternal perspective and what are we saying to our children when church becomes something we have to do on Sunday and then we take off for the “rest” of our day. Now I am just as guilty with this and probably why God brought it to mind. How do we treat our Sabbath day? Again, not about which day, but the day. Is it really about God, or about fitting God in? What does it say to our kids, new believers, unbelievers, and anyone else watching us? Does it say we truly care about what God deemed as important, or secondary?

There was a movie out years ago called Chariots of Fire and the main character refused to run the 100 meter because the race was on Sunday, and instead trained for the 400 dash and ended up winning gold. Now he took a lot of heat for following this conviction, and I believe because it made people feel guilty that he was doing what they knew they should be doing, and that is respecting the Sabbath.

How are we to treat the Sabbath today? Like the Eric Liddell from Chariots of Fire, and Truett Cathy of Chic-Fil-a, or more like the average Westerner who fits God in to at least one of their days for at least an hour for service? I will end with some verses for us to ponder and then act upon how God leads through His Word. It is by no means an exhaustive list, but to give a start. Remember it is not about doing good on Sabbath, but about the importance of the day itself.

Genesis 2:2, “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”

Leviticus 16:31, “It is a sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever.”

Leviticus 23:32, “It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath.”

Leviticus 25:2, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a sabbath to the Lord”

Mark 2:27-28, “And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”

Acts 13:44, “On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.”

Acts 16:13, “And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there”

Hebrews 4:9-11, “A Sabbath rest remains, therefore, for God’s people. For the person who has entered His rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from His. Let us then make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience.”