CHRISTIAN VIEWPOINT: Stornoway-Tesco controversy reminds us why Sabbath exists - but it can be hard to keep
There’s controversy on the Isle of Lewis again, although I suspect it’s been stirred up by journalists in search of a story. Tesco, which it seems has council permission to open its Stornoway branch on Sundays, is said to be consulting the staff there about seven-day working.
Some local Christian ministers are opposing this, reports The Times, referring to Lewis as ‘the UK’s last remaining bastion of Sabbatarianism’. Rev Kenneth Stewart, of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, claims that the peaceful Lord’s Day is ‘woven very deeply into the fabric of the place and the heritage of the people’.
To me, Sabbatarianism is a ‘cringe’ word. The first day of the week has sometimes been hedged around with authoritarian, life-depleting rules, and that is tragic. In contrast, Sabbath, an old Jewish observance which Jesus practised, is profoundly relevant to Christians. Ignore it, and we miss out on something truly wonderful.
In the Bible’s creation story, after six days of busy creativity, God rested, content. People too need rest, rather than a perpetual driven-ness to earn more, acquire more, play harder, squeeze yet more from life.
Sabbath teaches us rest from busyness at least one day out of seven, rejoicing that our lives and futures are held in God’s hand, that our needs are met by God. We are free!
There is a loveliness in the ideal Christian Sunday and I’ve had glimpses of the joy of this myself: a calmness, a focus on contentment and gratitude for what God has given, a meeting together to nourish our souls, attuning our hearts to God. Not a time for agonising over the news and the world’s many needs, but for doing no more than is absolutely necessary, relaxing without guilt, playing, being still. And then carrying that spirit of Sabbath with us into the week ahead.
Western society desperately needs to see this way of being modelled in everyday life. Too often Christians seem as frenetically busy as everyone else. Living as though Sabbath is a future thing, an eternal rest beyond death, we pour ourselves into Christian activity, and the guilt remains, for isn’t there always more to be done for God?
It’s hard for many of us to keep Sabbath: when we have to work on Sunday; when we need all the shifts we can get; when we’re working three jobs to make ends meet; when we’re in a 24/7 caring role. All we can do is seek out moments of Sabbath, sometime in our week.
But it’s the need for Sabbath which is ‘woven into the fabric’ of our souls. Into our restlessness Jesus speaks something like this: ‘I will give you rest in this world and the next, for I am your rest, I am your Sabbath.’
