Minister's Corner

Can you remember a time when everything was closed on Sunday, except for church? I can’t. I was born at a time when blue laws were repealed and businesses began to realize that Sunday, a day off, was a great time to open for business. I also played sports on Sunday because that was the only time our team could get field space. So I must admit I grew up with the implied lesson to forget the Sabbath and keep it busy. My family went to church, but we also went everywhere else in order to catch up on chores and errands we missed during the week.
I am beginning to rethink this way of Sabbath keeping.
Swiss theologian Karl Barth (1886-1968) tackled this idea in his immense work “The Church Dogmatics.” He based his entire Christian ethic on the idea of Sabbath keeping. He wrote about God, “By making man free from himself it makes him free for himself in a special way, temporarily absolving him from the care of his work … It makes (people) free for God in a special way, giving (them) space to attest and hear the Word of God — space for what in the narrower sense of the concept we call ‘divine service.’”
Barth, in the above paragraph, is telling us that freedom is the point of this commandment. In his view, Sabbath keeping was commanded so we can be free from what binds us (work) and set free for what refreshes us (God and the relationship with him).
I have a very busy schedule. I have kids, a job and my wife owns her own business. We are going in a thousand different directions during the week. I love the idea of having one day when my family is going the same direction. I find Barth’s treatment of Sabbath to be refreshing in that I can have one day when I can put aside the demands of the world and be open to the refreshment of a relationship with God, and through this relationship with God my family as well.
Karl Barth also suggested that the Sabbath pushes us toward the end of days, or the “ultimate” Sabbath of eternal life. If heaven is the ultimate fruition of Sabbath keeping, doesn’t it make sense to practice it in this life once a week? 
Therefore, I encourage you to go to church on Sunday and celebrate God’s grace with your brothers and sisters in Christ, then go home, park the car, turn off the TV and let the world turn without you. If that is on Sunday, great!  If you must work on Sunday, pick another day of the week to rest and exclusively remain available for God’s presence. And remember that the Sabbath was created for humans, not the other way around.
Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy because Monday will require your full attention.