Series: The New Humanity
Message: Sabbatarians
Preacher: Jessyka Dooley
Reflection: Tim Gillespie
Live Wonder: Verity Were
Live Adventure: Zan Long
Live Beyond: Moe Stiles
Live Purpose: Vanessa Rivera
Editor: Becky De Oliveira

Refresh: Begin with prayer. Ask for the Holy Spirit to open your heart to new understanding and for God’s character to be revealed.

Read: Exodus 20:8-11 in the New Living Translation (NLT). Note 1–3 insights or questions. 

Reflect: The new humanity is a group of people who believe in the value of time. We call ourselves “Sabbatarians” because God called the Sabbath holy, and what God believes is holy, we also hold as holy. However, the new humanity doesn’t believe that we should restrict the concept of Sabbath to only temporality. Because truly, the Sabbath found its way into the economy of the Old Testament.

Leviticus 25:2 reads, “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. When you have entered the land I am giving you, the land itself must observe a sabbath rest before the LORD every seventh year.”

This lets us know that there was a physical and agricultural benefit and something within the principle of the Sabbath that was worth scaling beyond a simple “keeping” of the Sabbath as a day. From agriculture, to debt, to ownership, the concept of the Sabbath was deeply ingrained into the concept of Hebrew life.

Is it possible that we have diminished the idea of the Sabbath to just a day, and that we no longer see it as a principle that we can incorporate into everything we do? What if we lived with a Sabbath economy, a Sabbath ecology, a Sabbath relational identity? Perhaps we would be less hurried, less concerned with scarcity—maybe we would live more into the abundance of God and even appreciate each other more than we currently do.

Have you always tried to “keep” the Sabbath? What if we looked at it in a different way?

Recalibrate: What has Sabbath meant to you? How do you keep it? Have you ever studied about a Sabbath economy or ecology? What would that entail?

Respond: Take a moment and Google “Sabbath economy” and begin to study what that might really mean.

Research: Read Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now.

Remember: “So the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:11, ICB).

Dr. Timothy Gillespie is lead pastor of Crosswalk Church in Redlands, CA. He also teaches at several universities and consults on mission integration for Adventist Health.

Make pictures with your little one of their routine. You can take photos or draw them if they are up for it. You may have a bedtime picture, a time to eat picture, a time to bathe picture, and a time to play picture. Draw a large love heart and write the word “rest” across it. During the week we have so many things that we are doing. Know that resting in love— the Sabbath—is all about being a child of God. Rest in knowing you are loved beyond anything you can imagine, just for being you.

Have you ever needed to rest? Maybe you were worn out from playing hard or you were working on something that never seemed to finish. Every living thing needs to rest. This is what the Sabbath is for. Make a list of how you like to rest. Do you like to read a book, go for a walk, or hang out with your family? Ask you family how they like to rest.

For the first ten years of my life, I grew up on the beautiful little island of Samoa. It is a tropical space with hospitable people and a great cultural vibe. I also grew up with a lot of cultural traditions, some of which I rebelled against due to their hierarchical nature, which for a strong young girl created some issues!

One such tradition, especially in our family, was the idea of Sabbath. Our Sabbath began with a Friday preparation—I used to love the coming of Sabbath. My parents spent the day in preparation, they would have a big cook up (one of my favorite things about Sabbath was the food and the gathering of people to eat the food and the buzz that came with being in a group sharing food together). And my parents, especially my dad, took Sabbath seriously. I grew up with the notion that all the food preparation was to be done on Friday. You could not light the fire on the Sabbath so most of the time we would eat our food cold. I didn’t know any different then but I still enjoyed it. The only thing that I did not particularly enjoy were the restrictions on what we could and couldn’t do on the Sabbath.

It was humid and hot all the time! Sabbath afternoons were always a torture because we would walk two hours to church and then back again in the hot scorching sun with all our sweat soaked into our Sabbath clothing. The most natural thing to want to do was jump in the lovely cool water which surrounded us. But we weren’t allowed! Seriously! We were not allowed to get our feet wet because that would have meant breaking the Sabbath! It drove me crazy. I spent half of my life thinking Sabbath was this day where I couldn’t swim and couldn’t do a whole lot of other things. And because of those things, I didn’t get to fully appreciate the blessings that came with Sabbath, like gatherings with other people, and nature, and learning. What’s your Sabbath experience like? Do you feel like Sabbath is a day where you are free or a day where you are not allowed to do certain things? Do you look forward to Sabbath or dread it?

Not too long ago, I was leading a discussion with a group of young people about what they liked about the Sabbath. After a few minutes of silence, someone said, “I like that I don’t have school!”

“Okay,” I answered, “But you don’t go to school on Sunday either. What do you like specifically about the Sabbath?”

All I got from that question was silence.

“OK, anything you don’t like about the Sabbath?” I asked.

That was the wrong question. Everyone started talking at once, telling me the things they could and couldn’t watch or do during Sabbath hours. Suddenly, they started comparing the rules they had. “You can watch your basketball game? I can’t even watch the weather channel!” “I wish we could go rock climbing. My parents don’t let me do that on Sabbath.”

The Sabbath is tricky. And if you’re like most teenagers, you are probably not the biggest fan of rules. As we study the Sabbath this week, I’d encourage you to set aside any negative feelings that you may have developed if you have any. Read the passage with a fresh mind.

Verity Were is a registered nurse at the largest pediatric intensive care unit in Sydney, Australia. She attends Kellyville Adventist church with her husband and two toddlers.
Zan Long is GRC director for faith development for ages 0-17. She lives in Sydney, Australia, and serves at her local church in nearby Kellyville.
Moe Stiles is lead pastor at Oasis Church in Vancouver, WA. She is married to Adrian and is mother to Caleb and Johnny.
Vanessa Rivera is a therapist at a community mental health center in Denver, CO, and serves as the faith engagement pastor at Boulder Church.