LABOR DAY-
- Began in late 19th century as trade union and labor movements grew in the U.S.
- Official federal holiday in 1894
Heaven and Earth were finished, down to the last detail. By the seventh day God had finished his work. God blessed the seventh day. He made it a Holy Day because on that day He rested from his work, all the creating God had done.
Genesis 2:1-3 The Message (MSG)
Un-Labor Day
Exodus 20 – God mad Un-Labor Day official
Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Work six days and do everything you need to do. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to God, your God. Don’t do any work – not you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servant nor your maid, nor your animals, not even the foreign guest visiting in your town. For in six days God made Heaven, Earth, and sea and everything in them; he rested on the seventh day. Therefore God blessed the Sabbath day; he set it apart as a holy day.
Exodus 20:8-11 (MSG)
Sow your land for six years and gather in its crops, but in the seventh year leave it alone and give it a rest so that your poor may eat from it. What they leave, let the wildfire have. Do the same with your vineyards and olive groves.
Exodus 23:10-11 (MSG)
Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Mark 2:27-28 New International Version (NIV)
The Sabbath was made for man. Honestly, it wasn’t until I reread that verse a year ago that I began to see the Sabbath as a gift. To me, the Sabbath had always had legalistic connotations, prompting me (and I suspect many other millennial Christians) to write off the Sabbath entirely. I didn’t start practicing the art of Sabbath out of conviction or guilt. I started once I realized that rest is a gracious gift from God to give us a break from the relentless demands of this world and our work.
Jordan Raynor, Sabbath as a Sermon for the Ambitious [blog], 1/6/18
The purpose of Sabbath is not simply to rejuvenate yourself in order to do more production, nor is it the pursuit of pleasure. The purpose of Sabbath is to enjoy your God, life in general, what you have accomplished in the world through His help, and the freedom you have in the gospel – the freedom from slavery to any material object or human expectation.
Rev. Tim Keller (as quoted by Jordan Raynor)
Sabbath is a gift from God.
When we rest – when we keep the Sabbath – we’re saying to ourselves and to the watching world that while we could squeeze in one more day of productivity profits, and performance, we don’t need to. We’re okay. We’re satisfied. It’s not our work that is saving us. It’s something else. It’s someone else.
Jordan Raynor, Sabbath as a Sermon for the Ambitious [blog], 1/6/18\
What Does Sabbath Look Like?
WHAT ABOUT YOU?