The Ushering in of Paradox

The Sabbath Rest as Provision

“The question of paramount significance is whether or not anyone is in control of the political, economic, and cosmic histories of which we are a part. Is human life, indeed all of life, at the mercy of uncontrollable and random forces that care little for our well-being?” Norman Wirzba

How could the resting from labor be the answer during a time of great economic downturn? How could inactivity be the resolution to a seemingly bloated world full of goods with no one to buy? In Wirzba's essay The Idea of a Sabbath Rest: A Theological Framework for Economists” he outlines the Jewish teaching on the Sabbath. He points out that rather than merely be a cessation of work, the Sabbath of God was an invitation to cease from our striving. The Sabbath was a sign to us from God that work, play & production had their seasons and flow. The Sabbath was a devotional time of restoration through which to view all of creation and see it as good. When the Sabbath gaze and experience were missing so too was the delight and beauty of creation. Without a pause in our frenetic pace we see nothing but the morrow and our lack. We are stuck in day six of the creation story.

How might this teaching of the Sabbath impact our world today and in particular our current economic crisis? These financial times for many of us reveal a deep presumption about the impact of our dreams and aspirations. We have been formed out of a highly narcissistic inclination and nearly all in the culture at large bow down to its bidding. It is during a significant downturn like this that we begin to discover that our sadness, our obsessive worry; our endless ruminations over what may come do indeed reflect our state of heart. Once again Scripture tells us something about the ruminations of the Spirit and cycles of birth, death, and resurrection.

Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
-John 12:24.

I have been pondering more and more the deeper intentionality of the Father's Sabbath rest and have been considering my own role in the ushering in of that heart condition and Kingdom reign. Church history reveals that end time scenarios, countless interpretative grids on the moving target of history, and revelation ultimately point to truths beyond a single heart. It is in times like these that our communal heart and prophetic sensibilities must come together to see where "we" are going. This is not a time that the question “where I am going?” holds up under scrutiny. We are a people. Modern consumerism has so fragmented that sense of connectedness that it takes times like these to reevaluate why humans are even brought into this redemption story.

It must be for more than our own personal worth and retirement fund assessments. It must be for more than the seeking out of our own piece of the pie. It is in times like these that my own heart so hungers for more and I am overwhelmed with my own shallow reservoirs and must tell others I feel so emptied. It may very well be that I have been emptied. It may very well be the very nature of creation to pull from my consumptive hands and heart this deeper desire to usher in the Kingdom with my resources be they large or small.

Once again the Kingdom teaching is so clear about the beauty and power of the small empowered by faith to build a mighty foundation for God's next engagement with this world. It appears that God’s created realm does indeed have a voice in this conversation about how we then should live. Even strident conservative economists & environmental globe watchers will admit that creation has been taking a beating of late. Global warming may be controversial in terms of its ultimate impact, but its reality is not questioned by many. We have treated the world as if it were a bottomless pit of goodies. We have treated the day as night and night as day.

Growing up in the conservative Midwest, I was taught from early on that the Sabbath (Sunday in the parlance of conservative Protestantism) was a time of rest. Biblical literalism meant resting. As much as I loathed the stridency of this weekly mandate, I knew that Sunday was a down day. We worshipped and we rested. We did no labor, avoided leisure and spent time with the family of God. In retrospect, the oversight of this teaching became legalistic but its intentions were powerfully reflective of truth that has now allowed me to see firsthand what “stopping” does to a worried, stressed out, overly busy heart. I was frantic and frenetic even as a child. I chaffed under the seeming law and considered it one more repressive legality to push faith down my throat. Now I see it a missing jewel that cries aloud for replacement in the diadem of faith.

Blue laws that used to confine alcohol and the selling of certain goods on Sunday now seem anachronistic and silly. We want our goods seven days a week twenty four hours a day. Once again the environmentalists tell us that we cannot continue to work the same land, dig the same pit, and draw lumber from the same forest over and over again without some sort of diminished resources. Periodically shutting down trade and consumption is more than an anachronism. It is a principle deeply imbedded in the very center of creation.

As I have taken my place in a local community I have begun to see that more than ever how my own economic activity reflects the real condition of my heart. As Wirzba says, “The structure of our economic systems should be seen as the clearest, most honest indicator of religious authenticity, because it is in our economic practices that we can see most directly whether or not we have ordered or lives to be in harmony with the Creator’s intention.”
Recently I told a friend that one cannot usher in what one does not greatly anticipate. This idea of the Sabbath economy is one such idea. Poets, musicians, preachers, and painters need to bring into the communal imagination a yearning and longing for this deep rest we are missing. That means that much of our longing will manifest itself in tears, lamentations and the singing of the blues.

In recent weeks some of my best friends have been laid off from jobs they had for 30 years. Their pensions and medical plans are also in jeopardy. As I watch these erosions of safety and care manifest themselves throughout the universe I wonder if we are too late to usher in this Sabbath. Much has been said about the end times in Christian literature of late. I, however, have never felt comfortable being an alarmist or survivalist. I have never thought that the end times meant a historical outworking of some final plan that would take most of the world out. Yet I am beginning to wonder if that dark apocalyptic dream many have espoused may have drawn us into this chasm out of fear and for a lack of vision. I do not mean that we are responsible for the financial crisis , terrorism, or the "liberal agenda" (whatever that is). What I mean is that much of the American Church has offered up a very narrow selfish perspective on the reign of God and the ushering in of His kingdom. We have been busy building our corporate & denominational agendas, decorating our lives, fulfilling our personal life goals and directives and now feel a bit embarrassed that the universe seems to be ignoring our well layed plans. We are taken aback at God's seeming absence in all this. Why were we not prepared? Why has God allowed so many believers to suffer?

This may very well be the time to reawaken our deeper selves to the real incoming of God's divine "Yes!" This is the time to cease from our sense of material provision and hunger and thirst for heavenly things. Now is the time to deeply anticipate a new way of being. Now is the time to truly enter into this Sabbath rest.