Shabbat

In the Christian church, we observe Sabbath on Sunday, the day on which Jesus was resurrected.  We also do this because the early Christian church sought to distinguish itself from Judaism, with its honoring of the Sabbath, or Shabbat, on Saturday, the last day of the week, the one on which God rested after his labors.  Saturday is the day of the week on which Jesus would have rested.

I'm not calling for us to change our practice, rooted in centuries of theology and tradition.  But I do think we'd benefit from the thought of experiment of trying to see Sabbath in new ways.  A different perspective might help us regain the meaning and power of the Day of Rest, an urgent need in our hectic modern lives.

This Lent, let's try to live into Sabbath, to acknowledge that if God, the maker of the universe, the Lord of All Creation, could find to rest, so too can we.

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