Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Jesus Creed

Home
Evangelical
Sabbath and Wendell Berry (by Sara Barton)

Sabbath and Wendell Berry (by Sara Barton)

Last updated on: April 16, 2014 at 4:51 am by Scot McKnight

Sabbath and Wendell Berry (by Sara Barton) 2014-04-15T09:06:08-05:00 Scot McKnight

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

By Sara Barton, chaplain at Pepperdine University and author A Woman Called.

For several years, I’ve been convicted that Christians should take sabbath practice seriously.

This is no clear-cut transferal of the Old Testament commands about sabbath to Christian practice today. Sabbath is deeper and wider in the biblical narrative than a simple commandment. Sabbath is an invitation from God, to mark human creativity with the punctuation mark of rest, the way God rested after Creation.

While we see rest as important, we shouldn’t confine sabbath to rest alone, because sabbath principles are not merely confined to one-day-a-week observance but also extend to addressing justice, in the example of Jubilee (one-year-in-seven). It’s not meaningful if we commit to weekly rest if it does not propel us to seek justice.

Sabbath observance is not a means by which we earn our way into God’s grace. Sabbath is about placing God before our production, before our consumption, before all our doing. Sabbath is about being with God. The New Testament teaches we shouldn’t be legalistic about sabbath practice. I don’t think sabbath has to be observed on Sunday. Or on Saturday. It doesn’t have to last sundown to sundown.

Oh I have all kinds of ideas and thoughts about sabbath. I’ve read plenty of books about sabbath. Unfortunately, in practice, sabbath remained a list of bullet points and an idea about which I liked to pontificate but lacked roots in reality.

Full Confession: I did a lot of thinking and talking about sabbath that didn’t actually result in much sabbath-ing.

I needed a tutor to invite me into the practice, show me what to think (or not think) about in quiet hours, give me a vision for how I might actually join God in sabbath.

And then I read Wendell Berry.

Wendell Berry, born in 1934, is an American novelist, poet environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer. He writes poetry, novels, and essays as “a person who takes the Gospel seriously.” Berry writes in This Day: Collected and New Sabbath Poems, “We are to rest on the sabbath also, I have supposed, in order to understand that the providence or the productivity of the living world, the most essential work, continues while we rest. This is entirely independent of our work, and is far more complex and wonderful than any work we have ever done or will ever do. It is more complex and wonderful than we will ever understand.

Berry’s description of sabbath as complex and wonderful, inspires me to explore it more deeply. If, like me, you need a sabbath tutor, Berry is a good place to start.

Here’s why:

You can’t read Wendell Berry fast. I’m a speed reader, and it serves me well in some situations. But, sabbath is about slowing down, turning off our consumptive tendencies, and breathing with God. Sometimes I read one of Berry’s lines ten times before I move on; his artistry with words makes slowing down worth it.

The mind that comes to rest is tended

In ways that it cannot intend:

Is borne, preserved, and comprehended

By what it cannot comprehend.

Your Sabbath, Lord, thus keeps us by

Your will, not ours. And it is fit

Our only choice should be to die

Into that rest, or out of it.

-Wendell Berry, “Another Sunday Morning Comes,” A Timbered Choir

You have been given questions to which you cannot be given answers. You will have to live them out – perhaps a little at a time.’

And how long is that going to take?’

I don’t know. As long as you live, perhaps.’

That could be a long time.’

I will tell you a further mystery,’ he said. ‘It may take longer.’

Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow

You can’t overlook nature when you read Berry, and sabbath’s best is inherently linked to creation.

I don’t think it is enough appreciated how much an outdoor book the Bible is. It is a “hypaethral book,” such as Thoreau talked about – a book open to the sky. It is best read and understood outdoors, and the farther outdoors the better. Or that has been my experience of it. Passages that within walls seem improbable or incredible, outdoors seem merely natural. This is because outdoors we are confronted everywhere with wonders; we see that the miraculous is not extraordinary but the common mode of existence. It is our daily bread.

-Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays

Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.

-Wendell Berry, Citizenship Papers

You cannot conclude from Berry that sabbath is highly individualistic. Berry invites readers to join a cosmic sabbath journey, but he firmly roots the journey in a specific place and with specific people. His sabbath tutoring reminds me that every walk we take and every bite we eat is connected not only to God but also to creation and others. Sabbath is not merely about God and me; it’s about God and us.

There are moments when the heart is generous, and then it knows that for better or worse our lives are woven together here, one with one another and with the place and all the living things.

-Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow

. . and we can say without presuming too much that the first principle of the Kingdom of God is that it includes everything; in it, the fall of every sparrow is a significant event. We are in it whether we know it or not and whether we wish to be or not.

-Wendell Berry, “Two Economies”

You can’t read Berry without confronting your relationship with work. Berry puts work and rest in right relationship, a central Sabbath principle.

One thing work gives

is the joy of not working,

a minute here or there

when I stand and only breathe,

receiving the good of the air.

It comes back. Good work done

comes back into the mind,

a free breath drawn.

Wendell Berry, “Reverdure”

My wish simply is to live my life as fully as I can. In both our work and our leisure, I think, we should be so employed. And in our time this means that we must save ourselves from the products that we are asked to buy in order, ultimately, to replace ourselves.

-Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays

You can’t read Berry without laughing. Sometimes, he is just plain funny. He’s certainly cantankerous. And he’s ironic, poking a bit of fun at us, often causing us to think deeply with his witty wonderings. He reminds me: sabbath must include humor.

Don’t own so much clutter that you will be relieved to see your house catch fire.

-Wendell Berry, Farming: a handbook

Thinking is the most overrated human activity.

-Wendell Berry

A number of people, by now, have told me that I could greatly improve things by buying a computer. My answer is that I am not going to do it. I have several reasons, and they are good ones.

-Wendell Berry, “Why I Am Not going to Buy a Computer”

Novelty is a new kind of loneliness.

-Wendell Berry

Some of the best things I have ever thought of I have thought of during bad sermons.

-Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow

We lead such hectic lives, rushing by sabbath opportunities as if they are disposable, our eyes so fastened to screens that we miss the wonders of community and creation and God. We are such frantic consumers that we no longer recognize what has worth in this world.

I needed a tutor who provided an experience in slowing down, tuning in to nature, and realizing the fruitlessness of consumerism and individualism. I needed help in my search for sabbath.

Many thanks Wendell Berry.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

April 16, 2014

Heart in Heaven, Hand in Harvest

Next Post

April 16, 2014 Body Language: An Amazing Infographic

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Acts of the Apostles Adam Advent Anabaptism Angels Anglican Apologetics Atonement Baptism BCP Prayers Bible Biblical Studies Birds Blogging Bloglossary Bonhoeffer Books Calvinism Christianity Church Church History Coffee Colossians Commentary Recs Conversion Creation Creeds Culture Death Ecclesiastes Economics Education Embracing Grace Emergent Emerging Movement Eschatology Essays Ethics Eucharist Evangelicalism Family Fasting Fathers Fellowship of Differents Footsteps Tour Fun and Whimsical Gospel Grace Happiness Heaven Hell Holy Spirit Irenaeus James Jesus Jesus Creed Job Justification Kingdom of God Law Lectures Lent Liberalism Love and Marriage Mabanteneni Manhood Mary Miracles Missio Alliance MissioLife Missional Missional Jesus Movies and Film New Perspective Northern Seminary OneLife Origins Project Orthodox Parables Pastor's Spouse Pastoring and Leading Pastoring and Preaching Patristics Paul Paul-John Tour Pharisees Pietism Political Theology Prayer and Formation Preaching Problems for Faith Psalm 119 Psalms Public Issues Purgatory Religions Resurrection Revelation Romans Rule of JCreed Science and Faith Sermon on the Mount Sports Ten Commandments Theology Third Way Top Ten Lists Translations Uncategorized Universalism University Ministry Way Out Weekly Meanderings Wisdom Women and Ministry Work Worship Writing & Blogging Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2021 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: Daniel interpreted King Nebuchadnezzar's dream about a statue made of different metals.

Select your answer to see how you score.

FALSE TRUE