The Big Ten: Sabbath

​Sabbath isn’t just closing the laptop; it’s opening our lives to joy. So, take a holy nap. Share a meal. Walk slowly. Laugh hard. When God’s rest becomes ours, then our rest can become a blessing to others.

This past Thursday, I was in the checkout line at Trader Joe’s behind this young mom who was texting on her phone with one hand while holding her kid with the other.

​When it was time to pay for her groceries, I wondered which one she’ll put down to get her wallet out. (Answer: she used Apple Pay on her phone!)

It was like she was reading my mind. The elderly woman behind me leaned in and whispered, “That’s why God gave us Sabbath, am I right?”

That’s the kind of thing people say when you’re wearing a clerical collar in public—you become a magnet for holy commentary in the checkout line.

​Yet, I nodded, because she nailed it. We all need a break from the madness, the busyness, the treadmill that never stops.

​According to Ferris Bueller who famously said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” 

In a world that wears exhaustion as a badge of honor, where productivity is worshiped, and rest feels like a sin, I hate to be the one to say it, but God errs on the side of Ferris when it comes to taking a day off

"Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it."             - Exodus 20:8–11 -

This commandment, the longest of the ten, sneaks in like a quiet, unassuming gift. And what a gift it is. I mean, who doesn’t love a day off?

But for our Jewish siblings, Sabbath isn’t just a break from work. As we learned during our study of the 8 sacred moves in Genesis, Sabbath is the crown jewel of all creation. The world wasn’t complete until God stopped and rested. Yet, we keep pushing ourselves to stay busy.

Every L.A. neighborhood I’ve lived in has had a strong Jewish presence. And I’ve learned a few things. For example, every Friday at sundown, a certain sacred quiet happens. That’s when their Sabbath begins.

My neighbors rush home to get the table set and candles lit, because at sunset their phones get turned off. And all work ceases. Then, around the table, family and friends gather to bless the bread and wine. And to simply be in their tradition and delight.

​As a rabbi friend told me, “Sabbath is the day everything in creation celebrates and rejoices in its very existence.”

Of course, you may have noticed, Sabbath wasn’t just for Israel. According to Exodus, it’s for you, your kids, your workers, your pets and livestock, even the people passing through your town are given the day to rest. One day, out of each week, all of creation shares in God’s delight.

That’s the invitation of Sabbath, not just to rest, but to get a foretaste of the Kingdom of God here on Earth. The prophet Isaiah wrote, “If you call the Sabbath a delight… then you shall take delight in the Lord” (Isaiah 58:13–14). Which raises the question: Are we allowing ourselves to take delight in this day?

I think when we’re so quick to hurry through life to get to the next thing that needs doing, we risk hurrying past God as well. And that can’t be good.

There’s an episode of Parks and Recreation where Tom and Donna take a whole day just to “treat yo’ self.” They splurge on spa days, fancy clothes, and ridiculous luxuries. It’s a hilarious reminder that Sabbath is a day to collapse not in exhaustion but intentional joy; to receive and delight in all that God has to offer us.

So why aren’t we taking advantage of this? Imagine the power it could have on the way the world works, if we all just took the time off to delight in each other’s existence.

I've said it before, but it bears repeating because I don't think we are hearing it. Humans are the only creatures that wake up with a to-do list.  Maybe that’s why rest is included in the Big Ten. 

In Jesus’ day, Sabbath was extremely sacred but it was so tightly guarded that it became a legalistic cage. Mark tells us that the disciples plucked grain one Sabbath because they were hungry.

The religious leaders pounced: “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” (Mark 2:24). Jesus famously answers them, “The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath...” (Mark 2:27)

This commandment isn’t about restriction, it’s about restoration. It’s about wholeness, completion. That’s what Jesus does. He makes us whole and complete again.

He demonstrates this in many of his healings. A man with a withered hand, a woman bent over in pain for eighteen years, a paralytic by the pool. Each person was healed on Shabbat, not to break but to fulfill the purpose of this commandment!

Rob Bell writes,“The Sabbath is about trust. Do we trust that the world is in God’s hands if we stop working for one day?”

He reminds us that we aren’t machines made in a factory. We are the beloved creation made in the very image of our creator.

Like Richard Rohr points out, “We are human beings, not human doings. Until we take time simply to be, we will forget who we are in God.”

Sabbath gives us the space to hear God whisper, “You’re my beloved. Let’s celebrate.”

To quote the poet Wendell Berry, “Sabbath observance invites us to stop. To stop the manic busyness that clutters life, to stop the compulsive work that frustrates life, to stop the carelessness that corrupts life.”

So why do we keep pushing ourselves to death?

Maybe you were told the harder you work, the better you are. That lie’s been around since Egypt, when Pharaoh literally worked the Israelites to death. Then God stepped in.

Maya Angelou wrote, “Every person needs to take one day away. A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future.” I think that’s some pretty good advice, don’t you?

I love this story about my friend Sally from Greenville, Michigan. Sally, who cleaned houses for a living, loved to tease me that I only worked one day a week, and really only the morning hours. She then would then go on to boast how she worked six days a week, and sometimes late into the night.

One day I asked how she spent her day off, she smiled and said, “I go to church. And nap.”

I can’t say for sure if she meant at the same time. But it was a solid understanding of Sabbath if you ask me.

Most of us, we give God an hour on Sunday before diving back into the grind of life. But like Sally knew, a nap is more holy, and more faithful to the commandment than another hour of work.

Even though a minister is always on call, I try to be intentional about taking Mondays off. Yet, if I’m not mindful, I fall into the trap of doing “just one more thing.”

​But on those days when I stop and take time to be—I remember who I am. Not a pastor, not a producer. Just a beloved child of God, who says, “Stop. Rest. Celebrate life with me.”

You might think it’s impossible to practice such rest in a world that never stops. So, I invite you to start small. Turn off your phone. Sit on the porch. Read a book. Let your life smile again.

​Sabbath isn’t just closing the laptop; it’s opening our lives to joy. So, take a holy nap. Share a meal. Walk slowly. Laugh hard. Because, when God’s rest becomes ours, … then our rest can become a blessing to the world.

Which might be why this commandment sneaks in at the middle of the Big Ten; like a bridge between our relationships with God and with one another. It helps us remember who we belong to, and what our purpose for living is: to enjoy this life we’ve been given with each other.

Imagine knowing you had a small window of time left in life, how would you spend it? Commuting to the office? In a fight with a friend? Tweaking a sermon when you could be playing guitar or doing a puzzle.

Like the movie poster for Ferris Bueller's Day Off states (see above), this is not about being lazy. It's about leisure, reminding yourself there is more to life than busyness, and hustle.

Sabbath is a gift from God, a holy pause that lets delight rise to the top, it allows wounds to heal, and love to take root.

It’s not an interruption to life, but life itself, in the presence of the one who said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

May this day be that day for you.


Work Cited:
Maya Angelou, Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now (New York: Random House, 1993), 27.
Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith (New York: HarperOne, 2005), 117.
Wendell Berry, This Day: Collected & New Sabbath Poems (Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2013), 132.
Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1999), 19.
Parks and Recreation, season 4, episode 4, “Pawnee Rangers,” directed by Charles McDougall, written by Alan Yang, aired October 13, 2011, on NBC.