Last year, in our Sunday School class, we learned a lot about Sabbath. We learned how God took time off after creation in our Genesis story. We learned how the ten commandments included a commandment about keeping God’s day holy. We learned about Jesus doing service on the Sabbath with his disciples. And we shared sabbath bracelets, made with six strands of one color and a strand of a contrasting color to remind us of the Sabbath.
This fall we’re planning some events, one of which is falling on Sunday, on the Sabbath. It’s a service event, and much like Jesus’ service and healing, it happens that the Sunday is the best day for it. So what do we do? I think we go ahead, and do our service on the best day. Yes, our belief in Sabbath means we need to rest as well, and I hope we’ll all rest, but we’ll also serve those in need on the best day for us to do so.
First Congregational Church, UCC, of Montclair, New Jersey celebrates every fifth Sunday with a program called “Jesus has left the building, and we followed,” where they do service in the community instead of worship. Instead! Is that keeping the Sabbath holy? I would say that the Jesus who cured on the Sabbath, who let his disciples pull the heads of grain off during the Sabbath to eat, that Jesus would say, emphatically, “Yes!” What do you think?