Labor Day

So the people rested on the seventh day.
Exodus 16:30

The idea of a day of rest goes all the way back to Creation. We're told in Genesis 2:3 "So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation."

We are certainly all over the idea of at least one day of rest out of every seven, but we are not quite as quick to take note of the other component of what became the Sabbath: that God made it holy.

Holy means set apart, in this case, a day set apart to do no work but to dedicate to the Lord. This was serious business, and the consequences of breaking the Sabbath were grave: "Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death" Exodus 31:15.

Sundays are the most frenetic days of the week at church, with people running around doing set up, checking systems, rehearsing and generally going about the business of putting on a performance grade worship service. At what point does all the busyness cross the line? There are no easy answers.

Some friends began a practice of Sabbath-keeping on Saturdays a year or so ago (dragging their teenaged daughter kicking and screaming along with them), in large part because all three of them are heavily involved in Sunday morning activities at church. It's been fairly successful for them as a time to be together as a family, worshipping, reflecting and sharing with one another.

We all don't have the discipline to do that sort of thing, but surely we can all find time on "our" days off to set aside as a time holy to the Lord, can't we?