Browsing by Subject "Sabbath"

This dissertation consists of an examination of the human cultural vocation in relation to the created order at large, with particular reference to the writings of theologian Colin Gunton, and writer, poet, and cultural critic Wendell Berry.

Gunton presents a vision of the human vocation within the created world as offering a “sacrifice of praise,” a vision with a distinctive stress on the agency of the Holy Spirit, in which the concepts of perfection, particularity, relationality, and mediation play determinative roles. Humans are enabled to participate in the Holy Spirit’s perfecting of creation through cultural practices that support personal particularity and mediate interpersonal relations between God, humans, and non-human creatures. This vision seeks to both integrate and uphold the integrity of all dimensions of cultural life – the Good, True, and Beautiful or ethics, knowledge, and art – in contrast to what Gunton sees as the fragmented yet homogenizing ethos of postmodern culture.

However, despite his stated concern for particularity, Gunton offers little in the way of particular concrete exemplification of what a “sacrifice of praise” or its related “ethic of createdness” looks like in practice except for the celebration of the Eucharist. The vision of “sacrifice of praise” as presented by Gunton is not sufficiently generative of specific cultural, artistic, or ecological practices that will enable persons to participate in the Holy Spirit’s perfecting of creation.

It is argued that the integrative imagination of Wendell Berry, as embodied by his Sabbath poetry and poetic practice, can be employed to meet the deficiencies of Gunton’s vision, providing powerful, concrete exemplifications of Gunton’s major concerns and developing his concepts of perfection, particularity, relationality, and mediation further. Berry argues that locally adapted poetry is a practice that enables the formation of a sympathetic and placed imagination, such that humans can perceive ways to work in harmony with the material creation. Crucial to this practice and formative process is a rich vision and goal of Sabbath and, consequently, Sabbath-worthy work. His account of poetry and his own poetic output, together with analogous (agri)cultural practices, constitute a fully integrated vision of human culture – imagination, work, economy, and the arts – that advances the main trajectories offered by Gunton.

These two accounts of the human vocation resonate generatively because Gunton and Berry both operate from perspectives that keenly recognize the God-giftedness of creation. Berry’s perspective is from the “ground up” as it were, in part utilizing the practice of poetry to attend to particularities in light of a holy vision of Sabbath rest. Gunton’s perspective is more overtly and rigorously theological, governed above all by a theology of the triune economy and the outworking of the economy within the created order, particularly the perfection of creation by the Spirit. Berry’s Sabbath vision, as embodied in his poetic practice, brings two key resources to Gunton’s pneumatological vision of the human vocation as offering a “sacrifice of praise”: i) a concrete and particular example of human engagement with place and culture-making that exemplifies Gunton’s desire for fully integrated cultural engagement of the True, Good, and Beautiful, and ii) an expansion of Gunton’s vision of the human vocation vis-à-vis creation, that is, a “sacrifice of praise,” by including the cultural category of work and economy.

ABSTRACT

This thesis touches on several massive themes within Christian theology, including questions of ecclesiology, eschatology, soteriology, and missiology. Yet it is grounded in a very real and practical question. What definition of the church should guide me, as the senior pastor of an incredibly diverse Sabbath-keeping local church in the Seventh-day Adventism denomination,as we develop the strategic vision for this next season of ministry, and decide how we want to fund those goals. What should the “markers” of the church be?

In order to help narrow my focus, I will explore this question in four parts. In Chapter 1, I provide a brief history of Seventh-day Adventism, with a specific focus on the development of the doctrine of the Sabbath and the doctrine of the church, such as it is. In Chapter 2, I turn more directly to various models of the church. Using Avery Dulles as a conversation partner in hiswork Models of the Church, I examine Adventism in the light of some of the most prominent models and note which of these Adventism seems to lean towards. I then recommend a new eschatological understanding of the church that I believe could be uniquely well-suited for Adventism.

In Chapter 3 I turn to the question of the Sabbath. Given that Sabbath-keeping is considered a marker of faithfulness for most Seventh-day Adventists, I propose that the biblical Sabbath has always been about more than humanity’s faithfulness, and that the Sabbath should be seen instead primarily as a pointer to the purpose and faithfulness of God. Drawing from Sigve Tonstad’s book The Lost Meaning of the Seventh Day, I suggest a reframed understanding of the Sabbath that includes seeing the Sabbath as an indicator of God’s future purpose promised from the very beginning of creation. I suggest that the Sabbath can best be seen as a promise, grounded in the past, pointing to the future, that shapes and directs the present.

Finally, in Chapter 4, I consider how the idea of the “church as foretaste” and “Sabbath as promise” could shape the lived reality of a local community, and recommend some practices that we as a local church could explore that would help us better embody the coming kingdom of God.

Questions about the nature, purpose, and mission of the church have been asked and answered and asked again for generations. Most recently, the coronavirus pandemic has caused the longest disruption to the regular rhythms and practices of the church in recent memory. Clergy and laity alike are wondering, as we imagine what a post-pandemic life will look like, justwhat impact this new reality will have on the church, which practices will stay the same, and which will shift. A season of new beginnings is an excellent time to reconsider old assumptions, and to recalibrate where needed.

It is my hope that this thesis will be helpful in three ways. First, I hope for it to be helpful on the local church level, especially for Sabbath-keeping churches interested in a reframed perspective on the Sabbath that moves it beyond a question of obedience, to a question of meaning, liberation, and purpose. Secondly, I hope to contribute to the much needed and growing conversation within Seventh-day Adventism regarding Adventist ecclesiology. Over the past two decades, Adventist scholars have become increasingly convinced of the need to further develop our ecclesiology, but it is still a relatively recent field of study within the denomination. This thesis will offer a reframed understanding of Sabbath-keeping that is linked to an eschatologically-shaped ecclesiology.

Finally, I hope this thesis will have something to offer to the broader Christian community. The biblical concept of the Sabbath has experienced something of a renaissance in the wider Christian conversations over the past half-century. The Sabbath has been linked to creation and as a potential response to the environmental crisis; to economics, debt relief and jubilee; and to emancipation, messianic ethics, and spiritual formation. Yet while many of these Christian authors draw on themes inherent in the biblical Sabbath, very few of them have lived in communities already profoundly shaped by its counter-cultural power. We as Adventists are deeply indebted to the gift of the Sabbath; it is my hope that our lived reality can provide inspiration to others.

ABSTRACT

As a practice in Western society, Sabbath has been largely eroded over the last few decades. This is true not only in the culture but in the church as well, both of laity and of clergy. The implications of this loss may be seen in terms of personal health or perpetual exhaustion, and while these are true results of a loss of keeping Sabbath the real loss is in a faithful life. More than a mere day off to recharge the batteries, keeping Sabbath rejuvenates us spiritually as we live into God’s invitation to live life abundant with God.

Long before the Ten Commandments, Sabbath comes to us in the creation stories of Genesis 1 and 2. The “day of rest” is actually a day of continuing creation where God brings menuhah – peace, rest, harmony – that is not separated from the previous six days but crowns them. In an attempt to define and protect the Sabbath, Jewish leaders set categories of work to be avoided on the Sabbath that were derived from those tasks necessary to build the tabernacle. Over time, the rules became ever more involved and stricter. This was the context of Sabbath that Jesus found himself in, and his Sabbath healing stories in particular show where the attempts to protect Sabbath were actually stifling its life.

This thesis focuses on keeping Sabbath by clergy as a means to renew not only themselves but the wider church as well, drawing from written sources as well as my own experiences serving in United Methodism and British Methodism. For clergy, Sabbath is not a luxury. Clergy are not so indispensable that they are unable to take Sabbath. Some clergy have trouble with saying “No” to doing things, a practice that is needed as Sabbath time must be protected. Clergy are important in Sabbath keeping because clergy are called by God to their life and Sabbath is integral to that life. Sabbath is integral to the life of all disciples, and clergy are leaders and modelers of that life.

Using the concept of Disruptive Innovation developed by Clayton Christensen of Harvard Business School, clergy can begin to reclaim keeping Sabbath and find in it renewal of themselves and of the wider church. The wider national culture has overtaken much of church culture in this regard, and keeping Sabbath is a means to disrupt the new normal of living busy, hectic, exhausting lives and call us back to participation in the life rhythm of God. Duke’s Clergy Health Initiative found that clergy needed to repeatedly be given permission to take care of themselves, and this is a stark reminder of how far we have strayed from keeping Sabbath. Keeping Sabbath is part of our communal life together, and Christians have much to (re)learn from our Jewish brothers and sisters as to how we do that. Western life has become largely ruled by the clock, which is not without its benefits but also becomes an uncompromising taskmaster when completely submitted to. God’s children are invited to share in a life that is more than the big hand and the little hand and how much can be squeezed into a day. It is a life of creative rhythm.

Clergy can lead a renewal that embraces life abundant over a life of unrelenting busyness. Keeping Sabbath is a cornerstone of this life. By keeping it themselves, clergy can inspire members of congregations to follow suit and the ripple effects will spread outwards. While the ideal goal is to recover a Sabbath for all on the same day, there are also realizations of those who cannot keep Sabbath because of financial realities as well as professional realities such as emergency and medical workers. Nevertheless, part of keeping Sabbath is finding way to include these others, often beginning in small groups. Further, what is defined as “work” has personal and group dynamics.

We too often live as less than we are. In keeping Sabbath, we acknowledge that the Lord of the Sabbath is not I. The Sabbath is not just to be remembered. It is to be kept holy.