Musings 8/18/25

 If you refrain from trampling the Sabbath,
from pursuing your own interests on my holy day;
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the holy day of the Lord honorable;
if you honor it, not going your own ways,
serving your own interests or pursuing your own affairs;
then you shall take delight in the Lord  (Isaiah 58:9b-14)

What, then, is keeping the Sabbath? According to Isaiah, the Sabbath is more than a day of the week, more than a day of rest from labor; the Sabbath informs all our life. The Ten Commandments offers as reason for the Sabbath that God made heaven and earth and sea, and all that is in them, in six days and rested on the seventh—thus commending a day of rest for all creation (Exodus 20)—and calls on the people to “[r]emember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God freed you from there” (Deuteronomy 5).

It seems God wants to remind the people of the latter text when through Isaiah God calls on the people to “refrain from trampling the Sabbath”. It is not enough that they take their rest, for in the break from their labors, the people must also remember their responsibility for the well-being of all. The Sabbath break from work must also be a break from “pursuing your own affairs”, so that the hungry may be fed and the needs of the afflicted satisfied.

Jesus, in words of rebuke to those who would restrict acts of compassion from the Sabbath, reminds us of the true meaning of the commandment: “this woman, who is a daughter of Abraham whom the Accuser has bound for—look!—eighteen years, should she not be released from bondage on this, the day of the Sabbath?” (Luke 13) The Sabbath represents release from bondage and, therefore, cannot be kept in its fullness so long as anyone remains bound, whether their bondage is to illness or infirmity, oppression or hunger, violence or disaster. And when we are the cause of bondage—”the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil”—we are even further from fulfilling the commandment.

Martin Luther, in the Large Catechism, says of the Sabbath: “Keeping it holy is [n]othing else than devoting it to holy words, holy works, and holy living.” The appointed days and times for worship and the rites used are for God’s Word to exert its power in our lives and in the world publicly. Luther wishes that every day would be a holy day, a day on which holy works are done, so that God’s will would be always made manifest everywhere. The Sabbath in Christ Jesus is the beginning of our days and carries us through the week, leading us to good works.

And what are these good works? They include looking out for the well-being of our neighbors, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming the strangers; showing compassion for those who suffer, and mercy for those who may have harmed us; loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us.

As I write these words, many in our church are keeping Sabbath by holding three days of fasting and prayer for our nation and their communities. They are lamenting the violent rhetoric that dehumanizes our neighbors by painting them as “violent gangs” and “drugged out maniacs”; the criminalization of compassion; and the systems that draw us, the baptized, into complicity with hate and wickedness. They pray for courage and strength for our leaders to reject fear-based governance and for the baptized to live faithful lives of witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ in the face of persecution. Although I cannot join them for this fast, I commit to using the free times in my schedule to add my prayers, including throughout this reflection.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “No one is free until we are all free.” These words echo Jesus in the synagogue as he addresses the ruler of the synagogue: “should she not be released from bondage on this, the day of the Sabbath?” The Sabbath requires release from bondage for all people, and for all creation. Let us recommit ourselves to freedom as we are bound to Christ our Lord through our baptism into his death, which frees us to love and service for the sake of the world.

Read the invitation to fast and pray: For Such a Time as This: A Call to Prayer and Fasting | Metro DC – ELCA.

Scripture quotes from the Tanakh Translation, ©1985, 1999 Jewish Publication Society; and from The New Testament: A Translation, ©2017 David Bentley Hart.

The Large Catechism of Martin Luther quoted from The Book of Concord, ed. Robert Kolb & Timothy Wengert, ©2000 Augsburg Fortress.