Some years ago our oldest son, Halsey, ended up at Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan so Alison and I traded off with time with him at the hospital and time back home at work. At first it was all completely odd and upsetting, what with a sick kid in a strange place. Then, we got the lay of the land and shifted into our own sense of routine. My second stint began on a Saturday, so I made my way through the lobby and to the elevators, now knowing my way. I stepped into the car with three or four others, hit the eighth floor button, the doors closed and we traveled up to the second floor. The doors opened, no one got off and no one got on. I noticed that my number 8 was the lowest level pushed. That was strange. The doors closed and we went up to the third floor. It stopped and, again, no one got off and no one got on. When this rather odd set of actions was repeated on the fourth floor I started to look around and fidget; then came the voice from the woman behind me: “It’s the sabbath.”

Why, yes, it’s the Sabbath and I’m at Beth Israel Hospital and the elevators are pre-set on this day to stop on every floor so that no one has to operate a machine and violate a specific rule of the Sabbath of no work.

“It’s the Sabbath.” And that explains a lot if you’re in a Hasidic neighborhood in Brooklyn, where Halsey also once lived. It all changes; time changes. It’s the Sabbath.

“And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.” I like these lines from Genesis with the repetition of the rhythm of work and rest. Then, in the Ten Commandments we read the 4th, the longest in terms of words and rationale, to remember and honor the sabbath. It is the only commandment called “holy.” If the rest of the commandments keep us in line with God and from each other’s throats, this one welcomes us to holiness. Six days you shall work, but on the seventh you shall not work. It is meant to be a gift--a gift of rest, a gift of enjoyment, a gift of worship and reflection. It is not so much a question of how we spend time or use time (curious language isn’t it--spending time?) the 4th commandment is the doorway to welcoming time as a gift, a holy gift.

Time. Not enough for many. Sleep deprivation is a huge issue in our culture. And, some children are so over-programmed that they have very little idea of what it means to be quiet or to invent play. Some adults don’t know how to relax or to slow down, falling victim to the adage: “Death is nature’s way of saying slow down.” Oddly, others have “time to kill,” (another rather strange way of looking at time). Can one actually “spend time” or “kill time?”

The Sabbath, given as a gift to humanity, got all twisted up with legalisms within the ancient Jewish community and “blue laws” within the Christian community in the States. Jesus could not stand for the fact that the whole meaning of the gift of Sabbath got lost in trite legalisms, so he flaunted his freedom to heal on the Sabbath, something that infuriated the powers of his day. It might strike many of us as a bit bizarre, but some wanted to kill Jesus purely on the grounds of his violation of Sabbath laws. In contrast, we Protestants are so pleased by the fact that we are not bound to such legalisms, like attending worship or honoring the Sabbath, that we have thrown the baby out with the bath water, using our freedom as an excuse to ignore the purpose of Sabbath as a life-giving gift. Yet, what a gift it can be to turn off the television and spend time with loved ones, to put away the phone and computer and revel in the beauty of music or food or conversation or love. And to worship, to actually commune with God and the community of faith; my, what a life-giving gift of time.

Don’t you just love that line from the Gospel of Mark where Jesus turns to his hard- working apostles and says: “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest for a while.” Mark adds the editorial note: “For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure, even to eat.” You might know something of such time pressure. And the Lord said, “Come away and rest for a while.”

Sabbath is about rest. Slaves work seven days a week; free men and women work six and then rest on the seventh. When we were in Egypt we were worked to death, now we are free, and free persons know of rest. It is good for body and for soul. We need rest from toil. And, in our culture, we also need rest from the cycles of consuming. The drum beat of buy, consume, own all come with promises of happiness, shamelessly endorsing this illusion and supporting debt as the normal way of life. Sabbath is a break, a rest from the grinding wheels of work and consumerism.

Sabbath is a gift of enjoyment. It is given for time to enjoy a meal, sit with loved ones, linger over a glass of wine, to enjoy the beauty of music or laughter. It is important to find such safe, quiet places of enjoyment. Alison and I found this in camping and, more recently, in time to hide away in Chincoteague. There is so little to do on that island that there are few distractions from the beauty of an open beach and the wonder of the wildlife refuge. The restaurants are only fair, so, on a sabbath rest, we’ll spend an hour collecting fresh foods and an evening preparing and enjoying them. Sabbath is about simple enjoyments.

Some years back friends of ours were having troubles with their teenage sons. Alison thought that the best they could do would be to toss the boys in the car with some tents and cooking gear and head out to a national park, to get away and to interact over a meal and simple surroundings. She made that suggestion ... but they were not the camping types. A few years later, the troubles had grown and they were then involved with serious family counseling at an expensive boarding school. The first step: the school sent the family into the woods with tents and cooking gear to figure out a way to get along. There is something to be said for simple pleasures and face-to-face interaction without distractions.

Sabbath is about worship, making an offering of praise to God, standing within the holiness of the Spirit, sharing in the worship of a community of faith, discovering the ability to use the scriptures as a mirror on one’s life, a light to one’s path. But, you are here, you know something about this and I encourage you to continue to explore what that can mean to God and to you. Sabbath traditions and practices (before they become trite legalisms) are all meant to assist us to encounter the holy.

Sabbath - the gift of time for rest, for enjoyment, for worship. As Dorothy Bass asserts, this time is grounded in the broad themes of scripture, namely, creation, exodus and resurrection. These are God’s great gifts and the themes of Sabbath all involve the ability to embrace creation, welcome freedom and enter new lives. Sabbath is all about breaking the bonds that enslave us to be freed for life, reveling within the good creation, the gift of God. Creation, exodus, resurrection. (Dorothy Bass, Practicing our Faith)

Let’s be clear. Sabbath keeping has a counter-cultural edge to it. Our society values being on demand 24-7. It is a sign of importance. Many gain a sense of purpose and drive with the constant stimulation of e-mail and work. This past week when “Blackberries” went dead for a few hours, one DC commuter reported being completely lost and disoriented. The poor guy sounded frantic, and it wasn’t a joke. Then there is the constant push to buy, buy, buy - consume and gather. “The Sabbath,” Chris Hedges writes, is the battle for transcendence, for freedom from the pull of ‘needs.’ It is the battle for life.” (Losing Moses on the Freeway, p. 75)

Alison and I took a short walk on Wednesday night. I had a couple of things to pick up in my study and I wanted her assistance to hang a spiraling cone of incense, a fine little souvenir from a Buddhist temple in Ho Chi Minh City. But, to say the truth, these were just excuses; we just wanted to walk and feel the crisp air - actually a bit of the nasty weather, that kind of weather that reminds you that you can’t fool mother nature. We chatted about missing the occasional winter storm that keeps everybody home for a day or two. Those are great: you can’t go anywhere, so you make a pot of soup or other “comfort food,” check with neighbors and possibly have an impromptu gathering. If it is a good storm and will clearly take out the whole day, a jig- saw puzzle comes out, a real sign of being laid back. When we used to live in Buffalo, we’d get a “two dayer” from time to time. On the surface there is the obligatory complaint. “Yes, we can’t get to the office, the roads are all closed. It’s a mess!” But the truth not often told is that we loved it. It was the gift of unexpected rest, beauty and simple enjoyments. There was even time to pull out a good book or to linger with the Psalms or fine spiritual readings from someone like Chris Hedges, Anne Lamott or the prayers of Walter Brueggemann. The strangest thing is that even after experiencing the liberating freedom of a sabbath, we wait for mother nature to force rest on us when it is before us week after week, as a gift to take.

Remember the sabbath and keep it holy. Remember the gift of the time given to you; it is the gift of a loving God, it is holy.