The Sabbath as Freedom

Christine Susan Wallington

La Sierra University

December 6, 2010

RELT 516: Seventh Day Adventist Theology

Professors: Dr. John Jones, PhD and Dr. John Webster, PhD

2010

Wallington

The Sabbath as Freedom: The Exodus into Hope To observe the seventh day does not mean merely to obey or to conform to the strictness of a divine command. To observe is to celebrate the creation of the world and to create the seventh day all over again, the majesty of holiness in time, a day of rest, a day of freedom, a day which is like a lord and king of all other days, a lord and king in the commonwealth of time.1

In this work we will explore the Exodus and Creation story of the Israelites as we engage with theologians such as Jurgen Moltmann, Karl Barth and Abraham Heschel to discover the meaning of the Sabbath as freedom. First, we will consider the liberating work of the Lord in the Exodus story where the Sabbath is first introduced as a noun, Exodus 16: 23-30. We will look closely at the story of the Exodus and see the correlations and connections to creation biblically as we venture forward to consider the connection theologically. Second, we will theologically consider the distinction, meaning and ties between the Exodus and the Sabbath with Moltmann. Then we will consider liberation versus freedom as a reflection of the Exodus story and the work of God. We will then dive, feet first into the writings of Barth to understand free will, the responsibility of freedom and the Sabbath as a sign of freedom. Third, we will move to familiar territory as we consider the implications of the belief in the Sabbath as freedom today. We will wrestle with the taste and understanding of freedom today and in the lives of many postmodern people. And we will be honest enough to hold a mirror up to ourselves as Seventh Day Adventists, Sabbatarian people with a message that we need to understand ourselves. We will apply counsel from Paul and Moltmann as we seek better options to support the Sabbath message and live the Sabbath day in freedom given through Christ.

THE EXODUS TO LIBERATION In a society where freedom is expected and quarrels play out in order to decide the resources for and distribution of such freedom we, as Americans, do not understand slavery; slavery not only to another culture and people but slavery to anothers gods. The lifestyle the Israelites must have lived under the control of the Egyptians not only broke their backs but broke
1

Heschel, Abraham. The Sabbath: Its Meaning for the Modern Man. 1951: 19 -20.

Wallington

their spirit, destroyed their culture and traditions, and rendered their ability for decision making as useless. In the book of Exodus we are introduced to a captive society that lived according to the rules of the Egyptian world. As the story continues, God calls Moses to lead them out of slavery into the presence of Gods freedom. With each stride toward freedom the Lord creates a new world and society for His freed people as He allows the freedom of chaos against their enemies. For example, in Exodus 13 and 14 the defeat of the Egyptians is done by setting free the chaos that was controlled in order to create habitats and habitants in the story of creation. The myth of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea reaches all the way back to this primordial time. Primordial time is the time of God, or for other religions, the time of the gods. It is prior to the mundane time of today and, especially in this case, before the time of humanity. While the oral tradition was told of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea the listeners could just picture the waters of the second day being separated to create dry land. Yet now the dry land is only for the Israelites to crossover as chaos enters once again to destroy the lives of Israels enemies. The Lord has established Himself as the God of the Israelites by conquering their enemies and in so doing He conquered their enemies gods and establishing a covenantal relationship with the Israelites. God creates a new society with His chosen people to seemingly control chaos once again. God has given them liberation and structure for a new life in Him. In Exodus 16:23-30 we have the first mention of the Sabbath as God takes care of the Israelites by feeding them manna and quail. They are commanded to cease from collecting food on the Sabbath. Not only are these slaves commanded to stop but the reason given is because tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord.2 The Sabbath is shared with this liberated humanity freely. According to Sigve Tonstad the Exodus affirms the priority of the Sabbath, staging its renaissance in a manner fully as striking as the first mention of the seventh day in Genesis.3 Looking at this story closer we see that this myth belongs to the Priestly writings which use repetition to portray a meaning. In this case we have hunger leading the Israelites to complain which leads into God providing for His children, a common theme in the story of the Israelites adventures in the wilderness. The character of God as provider for His people shines

Exodus 16: 23 Tonstad, Sigve K. The Lost Meaning of the Seventh Day. 2009: 89

Wallington

through in this theme. But we also see that God does not only give His children what they beg for, but what they need for the purpose He ultimately has for them. The Israelites called out to God for liberation, and God provides. The Israelites call out to God for food, and God provides. The Israelites have not called out for the Sabbath, yet God provides this time set apart out of His own freedom and purpose, such as is the case for creation in the first place and other plans the Lord has for creation. The reality of Gods work to liberate the Israelites from slavery by using creation seems similar to God saying, I have given you this world as a place to live in freedom and God is going to protect that freedom for not only humans but for the purpose of the whole of creation. As we move to Exodus 20:8-11 we see this positive command to remember the Sabbath day for the whole of creation, as true liberation for the habitants and the habitat. As a time given out of the freedom of Gods love, the Sabbath belongs to God. There is a certain amount of holiness that surrounds such a gift. There is the holiness of liberation, freedom, love and hope. Gods liberating power has been distributed through people like Moses walking barefooted on this sacred ground of freedom before the Common Era and Martin Luther King, Jr. marching peacefully on this sacred ground of freedom in the Common Era. We look now at what happened at the turn of the eras in Jesus Christ bringing liberation to all.

THE EXODUS AND THE SABBATH Jurgen Moltmann, a Christian theologian impacted as a soldier in World War II by the injustice his people committed against Jews, makes a profound contrast and comparison to the meaning of the Sabbath and the Exodus of the Israelites. The exodus from slavery into the land of liberty is the symbol of external freedom; it is efficacious, operative. The Sabbath is the symbol of inner liberty; it is rest and quietude. The exodus is the elemental experience of Gods history. The Sabbath is the elemental experience of Gods creation. The exodus is the elemental experience of the God who acts. The Sabbath is the elemental experience of the God who is, and is present.4 The Exodus, and any other event of liberation, may change the situation of the freed, but the Sabbath changes the heart of the freed to experience true freedom and peace. The Exodus is
4

Moltmann, Jurgen. God in Creation: A New Theology of Creation and the Spirit of God. 1993: 287.

Wallington

fundamental to the experience of Gods character as shown in History, an event of saving grace for the purpose of freedom. God is portrayed as a God of freedom who works in the world to bring His people to liberation. Yet the Sabbath is fundamental to the experience of creation, a time of creating freedom. The Exodus is liberation, the Sabbath is freedom. Meaning that the Exodus is the product of injustice, the Sabbath is the product of justice. God intervened because of hatred, bondage and sin in the Exodus. God intervened because of love, freedom and holiness in the Sabbath. Also when considering the exclusive nature of the Exodus story one is reminded of the universal inclusiveness of creation and the Sabbath. The Exodus is liberation for the Israelites from the Egyptians in a specific time and space. The Sabbath continues to be a foretaste of heaven for all and for eternity. According to Moltmann, The divine secret of creation is the Shekinah, Gods indwelling; and the purpose of the Shekinah is to make the whole creation the house of God.5 Not only are we called to tear down the walls that separate humans from other humans, such as racism, classicism, etc. But we must also change the industries and habits that allow for us to continue destroying nature and other creatures. The humanitarian and ecological call of the Sabbath, especially as tied to creation, allows for us to see the need for change and the story of God in the Exodus does not allow us to continue the way we have. With theology that has the Sabbath and the Exodus as fundamental for life as noted above, one cannot allow for such injustice to continue. No political, social and economic exodus from oppression, degradation and exploitation really leads to the liberty of a humane world without the Sabbath, without the relinquishment of all works, without the serenity that finds rest in the presence of God. But the reverse is also true: men and women never find the peace of the Sabbath in Gods presence unless they find liberation from dependency and repression, inhumanity and godlessness. So exodus and Sabbath are indivisible. They are the necessary complements of one another. They wither and do not lead to freedom if they are once divided, and if we attempt to make only one of them the foundation for the experience of liberty.6

Moltmann, xiv-xv 6 Moltmann, 287

Wallington

Moltmann makes the daring statement that we cannot have peace and freedom on this earth without the Sabbath. Nor can we find the peace of the Sabbath without physical liberation. God works to bring the people of Israel to liberation and reintroduces the Sabbath in order for this mutual relationship between the Sabbath and the human condition to become the foundation for continual freedom. The Sabbath makes freedom possible like the Sabbath rest of the passion weekend makes it possible for Christ to reveal such freedom in the resurrection.7

THE SABBATH AS FREEDOM In Karl Barths Church Dogmatics, Volume III titled, Doctrine of Creation, he specifically considers God as Creator in light of the incarnation of Christ and the purpose of the Sabbath. Barth introduces the idea of the Sabbath being tied to freedom as we first consider options for understanding the Divine Command Theory and free will according to Barth. The conversation concerning free will stems from an understanding of God and the Lords commands. If we claim that God is Omniscience then we leave no space for moral responsibility because God knows whether you will perform an action in the future or not. According to Steven Cahn, editor of Exploring Philosophy of Religion: An Introductory Anthology, in his introduction of Augustines work titled, Gods Foreknowledge and Free Will, writes that a theist who believes in free will must either find some error in the reasoning or reinterpret the doctrine of Gods omniscience.8 According to Cahn Augustine has chosen the former. Augustine argues that what God foreknows is that you will act freely.9 God may know what we will do in the future but this does not mean that God causes us to follow through with such an act. Gods character is still just because the wrongdoers and the right doers are responsible for their actions. Along a similar theme of understanding Barth introduces his view on free will that leads us to see the Sabbath as a day of Freedom. To start out Barth points to the reality that human existence cannot be considered abstractly but only as existence before God the Creator, Reconciler and Redeemer.10 We have been created by God and cannot exist outside of God. Yet we have been brought to reality and freedom through Christ.
RELT 516: Seventh Day Adventist Theology, Class Notes, December 6, 2010. Cahn, Steven. Exploring Philosophy of Religion: An Introductory Anthology. 2008:11 9 Cahn, 11 10 Barth, Karl. Doctrine of Creation. Church Dogmatics, 1993:ix
7

Wallington

In his doctrine of creation and providence (C.D., III, 1 and 3) Barth maintained that the creation actualised and preserved by God is the external basis of the covenant and that the covenant fulfilled in Jesus Christ is the internal basis of creation. This implies, however, that the meaning of the creature is finally revealed in the incarnation of the Son, who took our essence upon Himself as Man for God, Man for Men, True Man and Lord of Time. Hence ethics as the command of God the Creator cannot consist in an examination of supposed autonomous orders of creation. It can consist only in a consideration of the sanctifying claim of God in relation to Jesus Christ as the true ground for creation. This means that we are led to an ethics of grace and freedom. Even the relation of mans existence as creature to the Creator, in all its rich complexity, is to be seen in the light of the affirmation and liberation of man in the Gospel.11 According to Barth God commands humans to act in freedom.12 It is because God is Creator and Sustainer that we have freedom. It is because of Christ that we are freed. And so it is no longer a question of if we are truly free from God or not, it is a question of what we are to do with our freedom. According to Barth, All mans activity is freedom for God and responsibility before Him, whether good or bad, satisfactory or unsatisfactory.13 This responsibility before God is seen in the Sabbath. As Abraham Heschel explains in his book, The Sabbath: Its Meaning for the Modern Man. The primary awareness is one of our being within the Sabbath rather than the Sabbath being within us. We may not know whether our understanding is correct, or whether our sentiments are noble, but the air of the day surrounds us like spring which spreads over the land without our aid or notice.14 Just as the Sabbath is untouched by our understanding and sentiments, freedom is untouched by our questioning of it. We are given freedom because of creation and the incarnation. According to Barth creation sets the stage for Gods divinity to be performed in the Gospel. Like props being placed on a Broadway stage to be used as tools for the actors to better portray their purpose, God creates habitats and habitants for the purpose of the Sabbath, the Incarnation and the Consummation.
Barth, ix RELT 516: Seventh Day Adventist Theology Class notes, November 29, 2010 13 Barth, 47 14 Heschel, 21
11

12

Wallington

It seems each act in time and space is used as a glimpse of the next. For example, the Sabbath in creation is when the Creator God creates rest, freedom and becomes God with us as He enters into relationship with all mankind. This is a glimpse into the Incarnation when God takes on flesh to bring freedom and salvation to all in Immanuel. The Incarnation is in turn a glimpse of the Consummation, the second coming of God on this earth to take us home into a never ending relationship and communion with our Lord. The never ending gift of freedom and relationship with God is made known through the Sabbath, which is a window through which to understand the many gifts of God and responsibilities of humans as ethical beings. The Sabbath is the first ethical act of a human being, a distinct day in creation where the Creators existence is with His creatures. In creation God works before entering into the Sabbath rest with humanity. Humanity, on the other hand, enters into this rest with God before working. As Abraham Heschel might say it, The Sabbath is not for the sake of the weekdays; the weekdays are for the sake of Sabbath. It is not an interlude but the climax of living.15 After the creation of living beings the Sabbath is created and God enters into a relationship that is sanctifying and holy with the whole of creation and humanity performs their first ethical act, because of God our Creator, and for God our Savior. The Sabbath as our first ethical act leads us to the sanctifying work in Christ. We have freedom because of creation, and enter into relationship and responsibility to God through the creation of the Sabbath. For the Sabbath is a day of harmony and peace, peace between man and man, peace within man, and peace with all things.16 According to Barth, Sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit into genuine creation by God which enables us to be true to creation and creatures before God.17 God meets man in the whole world of creaturely activity in which life is set. Ethics arises where the vertical claim of God encounters man in his horizontal relationships, i.e., in the concrete situations of life, nature and history, in the continuities of daily life and work.18 This vertical claim of God encountering us in horizontal relationships is part of our response to God. Ethics, the horizontal relationships, is then wrapped up and part of what God is and what God is doing,

Heschel, 14 Heschel, 31 17 RELT 516, Class Notes 18 Barth, ix

16

15

Wallington

etc.19 We are freely brought to a point of responsibility and response in relationship with God and relationship with others. The command by God is freedom, as seen in the creation, the Exodus and the Incarnation. Our response to such a command is to stop working and be receptive to God and others. If Gods fundamental orientation is to be God with us then our fundamental human response to God is the Sabbath. This is essentially an argument against everyday becoming observed as the Sabbath day. As Dr. Jones points out, to declare every day as sacred is to declare the entire week as secular.20 If we lose the concrete response of keeping the Seventh Day holy then we lose the general response between God and ourselves. Considering the concrete commandments of God we see that the one command by God to respond in freedom is made into many concrete forms of ethics. As we consider ethics and the life we live on this earth now we move where the Sabbath guides us, to the end of all days with the judgment and consummation that it will bring. What is the meaning of this special day of the Lord? According to Barth, It is simply that God has taken his case into His own hands and therefore out of those of man, and that the last and final thing which man will experience about himself as he enters eternity is that his self-positing, self-affirming, selfexpression, self-help and self-justification will be spread out before God who will then in His grace make a sovereign decision concerning him, and that man will then be wholly and utterly the one who stands there in the revelation of this sovereign divine decision, not as that which he would like to make and has actually made himself, but as that which he will be on the basis of the will and according to the judgment of God. The Sabbath commandment requires of man that he understand and live his life on this basis.21 The Sabbath in creation is a celebration of creation and freedom in salvation. God has taken the matter into His own hands in the work and life of Immanuel, God with us. The Sabbath at creation God entered into relationship with His children as a glimpse of God entering into solidarity with humanity at the Incarnation. As Heschel points out,

19 20

RELT 516, Class Notes RELT 516, Class Notes 21 Barth, 58

Wallington

Observance of the seventh day is more than a technique of fulfilling a commandment. The Sabbath is the presence of God in the world, open to the soul of man.22

HOPE FOR OUR WORLD In our world today we are posed with many contradicting views of freedom. In the United States there are those who believe that freedom is to say yes to war, and others to say no. There is one group pledging their allegiance to America and singing about the American way, while the other group sings All we need is love. We also have those who understand freedom as the allowance to exercise religion, and those who see freedom as the space not to exercise religion. There are those who see freedom as a chance to be as eccentric as possible, while others see freedom as the chance to be conventional and conservative. Many issues that enter our judicial courts or make the voting ballot are an effort for one group to obtain their view of freedom over the other. We find ourselves living in a time when a word that should bring liberation and comfort brings confusion and contradiction as one considers where they may stand on an issue against the backdrop of anothers situation. For example, those who wanted the freedom to exercise their religion in school allow for teachers to pray, talk about God and their religious beliefs with their public school classroom. Yet those who are not Christian find themselves pushed to the outskirts of their community as they are seemingly singled out or ignored. This is only one of the issues faced by the postmodern world. Postmodernity seems to be the product of many snowballing aspects of technology. With advancements in technology many encounters that would otherwise never occur are common day events that continually change societies. These encounters and changes can be seen as an effect of globality. Another advancement of technology is the pace of life becoming faster and busier. Abraham Heschel explains this as mans conquest of space. It is a triumph frequently achieved by sacrificing an essential ingredient of existence, namely, time. In technical civilization, we expend time to gain space. To enhance our power in the world of space is our main objective.23 We have come to a point in society where we can see the end of earth and time for us because of our current ways. The ecological concern was not seen during the process of

22

23

Heschel, 60 Heschel, 3

Wallington

10

Industrialization and the building of our habits. But now we have come to a point where we must seek change and destruction of our habits. Yet the generation that must make this change a reality has been hand given all that is needed and more. The only thing that must force the generation to put into practice what SDA COMMUNITY: idea of legalism and the Sabbath, evangelism and view to those in society, Sabbath needs & meaning. Our community today needs the Sabbath. Not the Sabbath that we have generally created it to be but It is possible for the soul to respond in affection, to enter into fellowship with the consecrated day. (Heschel, Sabbath, pg. 60) Six days a week the spirit is alone, disregarded, forsaken, forgotten. Working under strain, beset with worries, enmeshed in anxieties, man has no mind for ethereal beauty. But the spirit is waiting for man to join it. (Heschel, Sabbath, pg. 65) The Sabbath, thus, is more than an armistice, more than an interlude; it is a profound conscious harmony of man and the world, a sympathy for all things and a participation in the spirit that unites what is below and what is above. All that is divine in the world is brought into union with God. This is Sabbath, and the true happiness of the universe. (Heschel, Sabbath, pg. 31-32) Galatians 5:1, 13-15. For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. To observe the seventh day does not mean merely to obey or to conform to the strictness of a divine command. To observe is to celebrate the creation of the world and to create the seventh day all over again, the majesty of holiness in time, a day of rest, a day of freedom, a day which is like a lord and king of all other days, a lord and king in the commonwealth of time.24
24

Heschel, 19-20

Wallington

11

Following the reality of ethics and practice Barth points to the reality that we must have one concrete Sabbath day set apart because, just as pray without ceasing does not suggest ceasing to pray at definitive times, if we set apart every day of the week as Sabbath, none of the days would be kept. According to Barth, the first ethical act of a human being is Sabbath keeping.25 makes a groundbreaking view on free will and the Sabbath allows for us as Adventists and makes the argument that the Sabbath is tied to freedom.26 As we enter into the argument of celebrating the Sabbath we, as Seventh Day Adventists can explore what Barth has to say in order to move toward a relevant and revolutionary purpose for keeping the Sabbath in the world of today. As the Exodus story sought to reach back to the primordial time of creation for God to once again control the chaos for the purpose of liberation, we will look toward creation with Barth to see what God commands. Barth maintained

25 26

RELT 516, Class Notes RELT 516, Class Notes

Wallington

12

Bibliography Andreasen, Niels-Erik. Jubilee of Freedom and Equality. Roy Branson, Ed. The Festival of the Sabbath. Maryland: Association of Adventist Forums, 1985, pp. 97-105. Barth, Karl. Freedom Before God. Church Dogmatics. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 38 George Street. Volume III, 4, pp. 47-72 Branson, Roy. A Call to Wonder. Roy Branson, Ed. The Festival of the Sabbath. Maryland: Association of Adventist Forums, 1985, pp. 7-9. Branson, Roy. The Sabbath in Modern Jewish Theology. The Sabbath in Scripture and History Cahn, Steven. Exploring Philosophy of Religion: An Introductory Anthology. New York: 2008. Cottrell, Raymond. Seventh Day Baptists and Adventists: A Common Heritage. Roy Branson, Ed. The Festival of the Sabbath. Maryland: Association of Adventist Forums, 1985, pp. 18-27. Friedman, Theodore. The Sabbath: Anticipation of Redemption. Judaism, 16 (1967), pp. 443452. Guy, Fritz. The Presence of Ultimacy. Roy Branson, Ed. The Festival of the Sabbath. Maryland: Association of Adventist Forums, 1985, pp. 29-41. Heschel, Abraham Joshua. The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1951; 2005. Hoffman, Lawrence A. Upholding the Sabbath Day: The Jewish Sabbath Faces Modernity. The Sabbath in Jewish and Christian Traditions. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1991, pp. 209-243. Kubo, Sakae. The Experience of Liberation. Roy Branson, Ed. The Festival of the Sabbath. Maryland: Association of Adventist Forums, 1985, pp. 42-53. Lewis, Alan. Living the Story in Contemporary Society. Between the Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday. Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994, pp. 331-401 Lewis, Alan. On the Boundary Between Yesterday and Tomorrow. Between the Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday. Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994, pp. 43-67 Rosenthal, Saul F. A Jewish Perspective on Sabbatarianism. The Sabbath in Jewish and Christian Tradition. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1991, pp. 259-261

Wallington

13

Tonstad, Sigve K. The Lost Meaning of the Sabbath Day. Michigan: Andrews University Press, 2009. Tyner, Mitchell A. The Sabbath and the State: Legal Implications of Sabbatarianism. The Sabbath in Jewish and Christian Tradition. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1991, pp. 245-258.