This week ends my sabbatical. I’ll be back in the office on Friday, back in the pulpit on Sunday. It has been good. I am very thankful for the time that I have had in this “sabbath” experience, but God’s design for the world was not 7 days of sabbath, but one day of sabbath in every seven.
The phrase “after the Sabbath” rung in my head this morning. In the ESV, that phrase shows up four times. Twice it is talking about the festival of Succoth in early Israel, once it is Nehemiah talking about what he is doing in order to re-establish the practice of Sabbath keeping after the exile, but probably the most important use of the phrase is in Matthew 28: “Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.” Of course, we know what they find after the Sabbath – the Resurrection.
That’s an interesting note for us as Christians, that after Sabbath comes Resurrection. I have always been astounded that our God, who lives outside of time as we know it, takes such care in our experience of time. Like a master musician or an award winning actor, God knows how important timing is for us – the audience that He invites to the stage. This is an important timing note of his, that after the Sabbath comes Resurrection.
Our weekly experience of Sabbath is tied to our experience of Word and Sacrament, to forgiveness and time in His wise counsel. But we don’t just stay there. We arise once more from our sabbaths to go into the week, serving God by serving our neighbors, just as every Sunday is “a little Easter,” every Monday is a little experience of Resurrection and of getting about the work of the new Kingdom in Christ.
While there are certainly things that I will miss about this time as I get back to work, I am looking forward to what God has in store for us together in this small “resurrection”.