On Balancing Sabbath.
The proposal that Sabbath observance can take place on Sunday (in the given examples)is entertained by quite a few Post modern, progressive Adventists.

I have a few dozen employees on salary. We have had to deal with a few of them starting work 5-10 min later than our 7:30am start time. They used to tell me, Its only 5-10 minutes. No big deal.
I said your right. I tell you what, I'm not going to pay you any more, but I want you to start work between 7:20 and 7:25am.
You should have heard them whine! It seems their 5-10 minutes are much more sacred than mine.

Balancing Sabbath in the way suggested makes as little sense. If it is such a little issue, then why not just as easily worship on Sabbath?
The Sunday keepers in the little church should be grateful to the Adventists that re-energized and re started that church. Did the Adventists tell the Sunday keepers that "The Sabbath is mostly about rest, so you can do that on Sunday and attend church on Sabbath?" I think not.
Just once I would like to hear a story with the same variables told the other way around.

Michael,

Many Christians who belong to "Sunday churches" already go to church on Saturday afternoons and evenings (eg 5:00pm services). For them, it's not a big deal. They don't regard Sunday and Sunday worship time the same way that we Adventists view Sabbath. So, to change the "variables...the other way around" would not create a one to one correspondence, in many cases. It very well might not create the same kind of reaction, either.

With that said, the idea that Sabbath commandment is simply "about resting from work and not worship per se," is, to me, a very superficial reading of the text, and an artificial distinction between the ideas of rest and worhip.

Some alternate readings of Genesis 2:15 in the Hebrew tradition read:

"YHWH Elohim took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to worship and serve."

This is the first mention of man's purpose in the garden, and of his exsistense, after the introduction of the Sabbath. It somehow links the idea of God's rest from all he had done, with man's worship.

Likewise, the commandment in Exodus 20 and Deut. 5 should not be read out of context either. Both renderings of the commandments begin with, "I am YHWH, your Elohim, who brought you out of Egypt." This idea is even repeated in the context of the Sabbath commandment itself in Deutoronomy, with the injunction, "therefore, YHWH your Elohim has commanded you to observe/remember the Sabbath day."

The reminder of God's gracious deliverance, and it's connection not only to all the commandments, but also to the Sabbath in particular, to me, can't be seen in any other way, but as a call to worship... to worship the God who graciously delivered them from bondage, into freedom.

This is related to the experience of "entering into his rest." God's Sabbath rest is about resting not only in him as our Creator and his completed work of creation, but as our Redeemer, and his complete work of redemption as well. God gives his people 'rest from their enemies,' 'rest on every side,' etc. For this, he is to be worshipped and praised.

Within its range of meaning, Sabbath also includes the idea of celebration as well. Sabbath is to be a celebration of God and what he has accomplished. It is a call to his people to collectively recount the 'great deeds he has done,' not simply a day for private rest.

If this was true in the OT, how more of a present celebration is this to be of Jesus, and what he has accomplished for us. In one sense, we are to worship and celebrate Christ every day. This was to be no less true of Israel's experience. Entering into Jesus' rest is to be a continual experience that transcends any day. But, the reality is that God has set aside this weekly period as a time for us to remember, rehearse, celebrate, worship, and yes, simply rest in the greatness of Jesus in a more unhindered and focused way.

To divide Sabbath rest from worship, is to grossly misunderstand and narrow the purpose for which it was given.

Some thoughts...

Frank

Some businesses and work do require fixed hours, but others don't. In the latter case, as long as the results are accomplished it matters little when it gets done. So the analogy of employees having to be there at fixed times doesn't work in all cases. The flexible work time analogy could be used to support the opposite view that it really doesn't matter when Sabbath is observed, as long as a person takes time to rest in God sometime during the week.

What kind of God established the Sabbath? One that demands or one that woos? One that looks primarily on outward times and forms, or for the internal transformation that Sabbath can bring?

"What kind of God established the Sabbath?"

Tha same God that said, "The Sabbath was made/created for man, not man for the Sabbath."

The idea that it doesn't really matter when the Sabbath is observed as long as one takes time to personally rest in God sometime during the week, again betrays a totally individualistic view of Sabbath rest/worship.

The God who established Sabbath, did it for anthropos/ mankind, Adam and his progeny. Later, it was given specifically to Israel, as a community. IOW it was to be a collective, not simply an individual experience. Israel, as the community of God, had the opportunity to call to mind God's grace, mercy,sustenance and salvation together... not as fragmented and isolated individuals.

The idea of an individual picking and choosing "Sabbath time" is more in line with Western individualism and even consumerism than biblical worship. Yes, one can privately choose to rest in God at any time, but Sabbath is time that has been set aside by someone higher than us, for our benefit, individually and collectively.

Even considering this on a merely practical level, how would picking and choosing our own time serve to foster community? What time could we ever hope to pick together that would work for all?

Additionally, how would the whole idea of 'experiencing God's rest' work on more than a morning devotional level for most people, if we are the sole arbiters of when and what time to set aside? Looking at societal demands on our time, the answer as to what would happen for most of us seems fairly obvious to me.

This is why, regardless of Sabbath vs. Sunday, churches set aside time for collective worship. Bodies adhering to either day appeal to biblical support. The point here is not which one is correct, it's that both acknowledge the value of worship/rest as a collective experience, something that needs to be established beyond the level of individual scheduling and choosing.

Does this mean that God demands and does not woo? That he values outward forms and times over internal transformation? Again, I feel this is a false dichotomy. Jesus established and prescribed forms such as the Lord's Supper and Baptism. Any one of these observances can certainly degenerate into meaningles ritual if God's renewing presence is not central in the participant's experience. This is the kind of empty ritual that Jesus continually spoke out against.

But, this simply invalidates the hypocritical, empty use of a form...not the form itself. Baptism, the Lord's Supper, and yes, the Sabbath, can become powerful vehicles for experiencing and encountering God when He is the true center of such "forms." They become alive with meaning, and richness when Christ is truly present.

Instead of viewing this as an either/or, I see this as a both/and situation. God wants us to experience the fulness of the inward and outward together with him and with one another.
Dynamically experienced, all of it can work together to enhance our well being.

"The Sabbath was made for man...?"

Frank

My analogy wasn't meant to emphasize individualistic observance of Sabbath. I suppose I may have needed to elaborate more on the business flextime where there are certain core hours that groups choose to honor because teamwork is necessary to accomplish certain things. It isn't usually the CEO that mandates/demands these times, but usually work sites and/or work groups that arrive at times that work well for everyone.

If forms are so often abused and become devoid of meaning, why have them? If they have the potential to (and does) turn so many people away from God, why pursue them? If forms don't provide salvation (or do they? sacraments?) why observe them?

Does Sabbath rest, corporate worship, and Christian fellowship have to occur together all at the same time and at the same place? Or can each happen separately? What are the advenatages/disadvantages of combining? Of separating?

Hi Mark...

You wrote: "If forms don't provide salvation, why observe them?"

The idea of turning from established forms to a ritualess spiritual experience, because such rituals do not provide salvation, is to me, a somewhat fanciful if not inaccurate idea.

So much of human social and private endeavor for that matter, is experienced through some type of form and ritual. AA meetings, football games, home study groups, staff meetings, etc., all follow some type of format to facilitate the 'business at hand.' Why would corporate church worship or a day of worship be any different? The 'business at hand,' salvation, has always and will always be experienced through some sort of public or private form.

It is true that if certain forms are worn out and prove to be hinderances rather than helps, then they need to be discarded. However, they will simply be replaced with new content containers that will travel the same cycle over time, from innovation, power, and freshness, to irrelevancy. Particular rituals may change, but ritual itself will always remain, whether or not we acknowledge it.

With that said, whether or not one feels free to simply toss out particular 'rituals' like Sabbath, Baptism, the Lord's Supper, or marriage, for that matter, may depend somewhat on what one's view is of their origins. If these are viewed as merely human religious institutions, then we can simply get rid of them if we feel they no longer serve our purposes. But, if we view their origins as divine, then we must take in an entirely different set of factors into our reckoning of what to do with them.

If marriage to me is God's idea, and not simply a good idea, or a societal convention...then this belief is going to impact my view of what to do with it as an institution in the face of its obvious distortions and difficulties. A merely human arrangement or convention is much easier to discard or adjust according to convenience, than one that is believed to have divine origins. Contemporary western culture is a prime example of such practice. The 'decline of marriage' and the rise of divorce rates have coincided with the increasing secularization of western culture. I do not believe that this is mere coincidence.

Could this also apply to Sabbath? If it is simply a traditional cultural form, then why not throw it out in the search for higher and more relevant spiritual experience, especially when it seems so bogged down in mindless ritual?
But, if Sabbath is given to us as a gift from God, then instead of throwing out the baby with the bathwater, shouldn't we, as far as possible, look to recover it's original beauty, power and purpose in our own experience... the purpose that God had in mind in giving it? This behooves us to then seek out more vital and meaningful expressions of worship within this context, rather than sitting with mechanical forms. Greater flexibility and creativity are fitting in worshipping the Creator!

And, this leads to the idea of separating Sabbath rest, corporate worship, and Christian fellowship. Worship and fellowship can certainly happen at any time, together or separately, publicly or privately. The existential experience of salvation rest in Christ can be enjoyed on a Tuesday morning or Thursday afternoon.

But the full picture of the biblical Sabbath, brings all of these experiences into play together every week. True Sabbath rest cannot be separated from true worship. Sabbath is a mere shell without it. And true worship calls us out of ourselves into the collective experience of the people of God... the experience of broken people who have been grasped by his grace, and who rest, worship, and fellowship each week together in that certainty.

God made something very good for us in my view...a powerful synergy to enter into each week, unlike no other day. I believe we are the ones more impovershed without it.

Good sharing back and forth...

Frank

Michael

Where in the Fourth Commandment do you find going to church mentioned or worship mentioned?

The Gospel writers record that Jesus by custom when into the synagoues on the Sabbath.

The concept of the Sabbath Commandment is that rest is a holy as work! God worked for six days and rested the seventh.

More work is not expected of humanity. An idea foreign to Pharaoh and his brick making enterprise.

There are many experiments that demonstrate that more than 48 hours of work and quality of performance drops sharply. After 60 hours, the defect ratio become intolerable to modern industry. Tom