Unemployed? How to keep the Sabbath?

How does one honor the Sabbath when you're out of work? How might we read the text, and live it out, considering that we might be reading it from a cultural or economically-biased perspective. Miguel De La Torre, writing in EthicsDaily.com asks, how we might "Honor the Sabbath when you're out of work?"

Honoring the Sabbath When You're Out of Work
By Miguel De La Torre in EthicsDaily.com

"Remember to keep the Sabbath day holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. The seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God, you shall do no work that day" (Exodus 20:8-10). How many times have you sat during a service only to hear some minister preach on this particular biblical passage? More than likely you heard the good reverend expound the virtues of honoring the commandment by worshipping God on Sunday. You probably heard a sermon that advocated obeying the commandment so that a day could be carved out of our busy lives to study God's word and worship God's holy name. Or maybe the minister's homily emphasized the importance of spending a day in fellowship with family and fellow believers. Whatever message you heard, it probably emphasized taking a day off. But such sermons betray the fact that the vast majority of us have been taught to read the biblical text through the eyes of those who are economically privileged.
Posted on November 17, 2010 10:30 AM | |
Comments (2)

I think it's great that you've highlighted this - if I can suggest a resource, I was fortunate enough to get to do a podcast interview with Dr. De La Torre in October about his book "Reading the Bible from the Margins," and this topic came up in the conversation. For more info, you can visit www.bwcumc.org/content/podcasts/migueldelatorre.

Lesley Carter (Episcopalian but also webmaster for the Baltimore-Washington United Methodist Conference)

Posted by Rtnrlfy [TypeKey Profile Page] | November 17, 2010 11:38 AM

Lesley,

Thanks so much for posting this resource. I know that we need the constant reminder that we each view scripture (and life, afterall) through our particular lens. It seems to me that anytime we can get shaken out of "our way" of viewing the world - and consider how others view it is a good thing, indeed. The overly simplistic 'WWJD' dictum is one that if we applied it to scriptural study, I imagine Jesus would certainly want us to consider scripture from the margins.

Thank you,

Peter Carey+

Posted by Peter [TypeKey Profile Page] | November 17, 2010 2:54 PM

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