sunday sabbath, and the weekend: managing time in a global culture

Sunday, Sabbath, and the Weekend

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EERDMANS -- Sunday Sabbath and the Weekend (O’Flaherty et al) final textMonday, August 09, 2010 3:01:06 PM

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Sunday, Sabbath, and the Weekend

Managing Time in a Global Culture

Edited by

Edward O’Flaherty, S.J., & Rodney L. Petersen,

with Timothy A. Norton

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, U.K.

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© 2010 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

All rights reserved

Published 2010 by

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

2140 Oak Industrial Drive N.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505 /

P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K.

Printed in the United States of America

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sunday, sabbath, and the weekend: managing time in a global culture /

edited by Edward O’Flaherty & Rodney L. Petersen; with Timothy A. Norton.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-8028-6583-0 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. Sunday. 2. Sabbath. 3. Rest — Religious aspects — Christianity.

4. Time management — Religious aspects — Christianity. I. O’Flaherty, Edward.

II. Petersen, Rodney Lawrence. III. Norton, Timothy A.

BV111.3.S87 2010

263¢.3 — dc22

2010022388

www.eerdmans.com

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To Roger A. Kvam

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Contents

Preface ix

Edward O’Flaherty, S.J., and Rodney L. Petersen

Dedication and Acknowledgment xi

Timothy A. Norton

1Section One — Relational Presence

1. Home Alone — Seeking Sabbath 3

Gloria White-Hammond

2. Seeking Sabbath: Keeping the Lord’s Day in a Global Culture 10

Rodney L. Petersen

3. Sabbath Keeping and Social Justice 23

Marva J. Dawn

41Section Two — Spiritual Coherence

4. Sacred Time: The Sabbath and Christian Worship 43

Dennis T. Olson

5. The Lord’s Day in OrthodoxLiturgical Practice and Spirituality 67

Alkiviadis C. Calivas

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6. Pope John Paul II and Dies Domini 85

Edward O’Flaherty, S.J.

7. The Lord’s Day as Anticipation andPromise in Liturgy and Word 93

Horace T. Allen, Jr.

8. Theological Significance of the Lord’s Dayfor the Formation of the Missional Church 105

Darrell Guder

119Section Three — Social Integrity

9. “That Sunday Feeling”: Sundays in the United States 121

Alexis McCrossen

10. Sabbath and the Common Good 134

Thomas Massaro, S.J.

11. The Weekend: Labor and Leisure in America 139

Ruy Costa

12. Seven Principles for the Seventh Day 155

Aída Besançon Spencer

13. Sabbath in an Age of Ecologywithin an Emerging Global Society 164

Donald B. Conroy

14. The American Sunday and the FormativeWork of Jonathan Edwards 179

Louis J. Mitchell, compiled by Rodney L. Petersen

Contributors 186

Index of Subjects 190

Index of Scripture and Other Ancient Sources 196

viii

Contents

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Preface

Why do we have Sunday, or Sabbath — or even the weekend for that mat-ter? Is it release from the serious time given over to work and vocation? Is ita period marked by youth and professional sports? Does such a day, or pe-riod of time, provide opportunity for or escape from commercial pursuits?Our contemporary culture presses for a 24/7 engagement with life, but stillwe have Sunday, Sabbath, and the weekend to factor into the managementof our time. Is the maintenance of Sunday, Sabbath, and the weekend aholdover from a previous culture or do these periods of time reflect a dif-ferent view of the management of time from that of the 24/7 culture inwhich we find ourselves, a view that is important for our well-being? Theargument of this book is that such is the case.

Abraham Heschel, in The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man, abook on the nature and celebration of Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, writesthat the idea of Sabbath is rooted in the thesis that Judaism is a religion oftime, not space, that the Sabbath symbolizes the sanctification of time.How we use our time says something about us and what we would like tobe. The Sabbath, as opened up by Judaism in the Hebrew Bible, or Old Tes-tament, says at least three things about time and, therefore, about us. First,it is said to be for our well-being. Second, keeping Sabbath gives us a cer-tain lens through which to view life. Finally, how we practice Sabbath sayssomething about how we understand ourselves to be made in the divineimage.

Christians keep Sabbath and call it Sunday. In some essays in thisbook, the historical change of observing the Lord’s Day, the day of Christ’sresurrection, as the day of worship is recounted, as well as the theologicalreasons justifying the change. The Christian Day of the Lord lost nothing

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of the values which Sabbath inculcates: mercy, service, liberation, healing,and rest. The forces affecting early Christian worship on the Lord’s Day(persecution, minority status preventing taking time from work obliga-tions, etc.) prevented initially a full observance of a “new” day of rest, a“new” Sabbath. Only gradually did the Lord’s Day become Sunday andprovided opportunity for the full living out of Sabbath values in the con-text of celebrating Christ’s resurrection.

Edward O’Flaherty andRodney L. Petersen

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Preface

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Dedication and Acknowledgment

The volume you hold in your hands is the result of many hours of volun-teer labor by The Rev. Dr. Edward O’Flaherty, S.J., and my colleague andco-director of the Lord’s Day Alliance, Rev. Dr. Rodney L. Petersen. Thesetwo men, along with all who contributed to this work, are due our mostheartfelt thanks and hearty congratulations for a work well done.

In its 2005 Annual Meeting, the Board of Managers of the Lord’s DayAlliance of the U.S. heard a proposal to honor one of their own, Roger A.Kvam, for his many years of service as a member, officer, president, andpresident emeritus of the Board. This book is dedicated to him.

As a point of personal privilege, having served alongside LDA Presi-dents Dr. Paul J. Craven, Dr. Roger A. Kvam, Dr. W. David Sapp, and Mr.Brian C. Hanse over my tenure as executive director of the Lord’s Day Alli-ance, I would like to thank each for their leadership.

And I’d like to especially thank Roger Kvam, a mentor, counselor, andfriend, for his friendship, pastoral care in times of need, and willingness togo “above and beyond” in his service of the God we serve.

Timothy A. Norton

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section one

Relational Presence

Is Sunday a time to be alone or to be with others? Posed starkly, this ques-tion seems to admit only a “yes” or a “no,” but in reality it introduces us tothe complexities of trying to define, that is, put limits on, the reality of Sab-bath rest. For some people Sunday provides a retreat from a heavy schedule,or being available to a cohort of business friends, clients, or the public ingeneral. “I want to be alone,” we sometimes cry in despair. And yet do we?

Perhaps we are looking really for relatedness on a deeper, less utilitar-ian level, a connection with God, self, and the other that does not exhaustbut enlivens us. Gloria White-Hammond, MD, reflects on this desire andneed. Pediatrician, mother, and co-pastor, she has been convinced by herpersonal experience, her religious work, and her professional work of theneed for this deeper level of relatedness among those with whom we areclosest. Relationships cannot be quantified, only experienced, and that re-quires time. And time points to the Sabbath.

Our relationships obviously extend beyond family to the neighbor-hood, city and town, and to the nation itself. These relationships too needto be deepened no less than those with our intimates, but first they need tobe recognized and embraced as requiring special attention. RodneyPetersen gives the theological underpinnings for such realistic acceptanceof those with whom we interact, but do not see face to face. The world ofglobal citizenship contends for attention. This global world is structural insuch a way that what happens in Beijing reverberates in Boston, as well asin Berlin. We are not an archipelago of individual nations, but one contin-uous continent in upheaval. Thus the question: Is Sabbath rest a need orgift only for us? What about the others? Contemporary events show us theline between a national “we” and an international “them” is blurring.

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Surely Christian faith, weak as it may be, does link men and womenthroughout the world, and this unity finds expression in our commonSunday. But what of those with whom we share no common faith? WhatChristians do share with the Jewish people and Muslims is a desire to keepholy the Lord’s Day or Sabbath. Each religious group names a different dayas their day of observance, but the principle is the same: keep the day holy.Marva Dawn explores this need for the Sabbath and shows us how a trueunderstanding of Sabbath keeping leads to peace-making and peace mak-ers thirst for justice without which lasting peace is impossible. The name“Sabbath” is understood in these three traditions quite clearly, but the no-tion of Sabbath is not confined to them. The day of rest, of peace-makingand justice promotion, finds allies elsewhere, that is, men and women withwhom Christians can make common cause in trying to eliminate violenceas a tactic for peace. Marva Dawn’s essay shows us how we can recognizeand strengthen these links.

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Relational Presence

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sunday sabbath, and the weekend: managing time in a global culture

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