Living the Sabbath: Discovering the Rhythms of Rest and Delight (The Christian Practice of Everyday Life)

Every person on the planet should read this book!!!

This book offers practical steps to incorporating Sabbath living into our lives. While I was introduced to this book through a theology class, the format is appropriate for anyone interested in exploring and adopting the foundations of Sabbath living.

Bought this book for a class, ended up liking it. Only thing I didn't like is that it seems give a very high value to vegetarianism, anti consumerism, and others.

This will change your life. Every sentence counts. It is written from a philosophers point. You need to discuss it with someone.

Norm does a good job of putting the Sabbath in perspective and showing how it should inform our lives. Yes, the Sabbath was the climax of creation rather than humanity.

Awesome book. I am reading it again, this time with more reflection time.

Wirzba’s “Living the Sabbath” is a book with unexpected interpretations and analyses. From the outset, he explains that “[t]his book lays out the case for Sabbath observance that does not depend on the cultural sanction of complete rest for one day of the week” (p 14). He continues by asserting that we need alternative rituals to practice during the week to help us realize the ultimate goal of Sabbath keeping. His “expanded” Sabbath seems to touch upon every area of life, from recycling and lobster harvesting to daily worship and delight. So this book is not really about the weekly Sabbath, but about Wirzba’s “greening” and hyper-spiritualizing of some quotidian Sabbath-creation ideal.I read "Population Bomb" as a teenager and likely hold many of the same ecological values as Wirzba. I am overly concerned for the environment, I don’t like being in debt, I think it is healthy to have a garden to care for, and I am a rabid recycler. But I did not come to these conclusions because of the Sabbath; instead, they are informed by a growing knowledge of God’s plenary word and an understanding of environmental science. While other reviewers are more forgiving of his frequent non sequiturs, this reviewer finds it difficult to accept a position that redefines the Sabbath in order to provide a platform for a pet ideology. What he manages to accomplish is to convince like-minded environmentalists that they have a biblical rationale for every idea or goal to help the planet and its people through a loose interpretation of the Sabbath. And that is the overwhelming shortcoming of this book. It is all about trying to effect menuha in this world’s institutions, connections, and relationships rather than exulting in the soulical and eschatological menuha in Jesus Christ.

For most of us, if we are at all concerned with "keeping Sabbath," it is because of and in terms of the Commandment given to Moses: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." We set aside one day out of seven to worship and rest. But in LIVING THE SABBATH, Dr. Norman Wirzba digs deeper into the meaning and intent of the biblical concept of Sabbath as introduced in the Genesis creation account.In an early chapter titled "The Meaning of the Sabbath, Wirzba introduces the Hebrew word menuha, "the rest, tranquility, serenity, and peace of God." (Think of the deep peace of shalom.) "Menuha, not humanity, completes creation. God's rest or shabbat...is not simply a cessation from activity but rather the lifting up and celebration of everything." In that context, Sabbath, "the climax of creation, is thus the goal toward which all our living should move." It is more than a one-day interlude. It is an attitude "suffusing every moment with the potential for peace and joy." It is delighting in the gifts of God. "The experience of delight is what the Sabbath is all about." It is seeing and valuing the sanctity of all creation --- this in opposition to exploiting our land, our food supply, our energy sources, our time, our fellow travelers. Wendell Berry, who wrote the book's foreword, plays heavily in Wirzba's scenario, as does Abraham Joshua Heschel.A warning: Part 1 of the book ("Setting a Sabbath Context") is theoretical and theological. It defines terms ("The Meaning of the Sabbath"; "The Practice of Delight"). It explains our errant ways ("The Decline of Delight"). An introductory chapter titled "Losing Our Way" goes into some detail of what is wrong with the "current state of food production." It addresses the problem of evil ("Pain and Suffering"). These initial chapters may be boring if not mind-numbing to the average or recreational reader.Having said that, Part 1 lays the ground work for Part 2 ("The Sabbath in Practical Context"), which is engaging and practical --- much easier to read. Though there is still snow on the ground, it makes me eager to go out and plant radish and spinach seeds in my tiny border garden. It makes me resolve to buy locally grown seasonal vegetables at the nearby farmer's market even if they are no bargain. It reminds me of the delight --- even if tinged with frustration --- of working alongside other church members on a group project. It makes a case for the "family meal" and family meal preparation --- moments and rituals that engender relationships and community.Some of Wirzba's suggestions or conclusions may seem unrealistic, pushing toward utopian, but his book challenges me and makes me feel hopeful, seeing that even small changes in my life can paradoxically both cause and be the result of my delighting in God and in God's creation and Christ's redemption. Wirzba concludes: "In a time of consumerist individualism, often empty of generosity and deep delight, we need practices that can lift us out of our narrowness and alienation." Amen, brother. --- Reviewed by Evelyn Bence

"Sabbath keeping" seems very anachronistic in our 24/7 society but this book focuses very little on what a particular Sabbath day might look like, and much more on what a Sabbath directed life should look like.Central to Wirzba's thesis is the understanding that Sabbath is the goal towards which creation is headed, as described in Hebrews 3-4. Part of our kingdom mandate then is to live with a rhythm of rest and delight - a rhythm very different from the pattern of the world. Such a Sabbath-lived-life will have a centeredness to it, and will impact how we interact with the world - at our work, in our homes, in our economic and education systems, in our thinking about the environment, and as we worship.Wirzba contends that, "our anxious obsessions prevent us from adequately considering and enjoying the convivial life God so much wants for us." Living a life less anxious begins with the very basic, such as an appreciation for the food that we eat. When we eat it should be with a sense of gratitude to the creator, and with a sense of our dependence upon the plants and animals we feed on, and the soil that sustains them. This in turn should give us a concern for the care of those plants, animals and soil, and keep us from simply being consumers who eat "products" as fuel.Living in this way will lead us into delight. Wirzba differentiates pleasure (what we consider good for us) from delight (the affirmation of the goodness of what God has made). It is not that pleasure is wrong, but that it is too narrow. If we live only for pleasure we will be surely disappointed, whereas delight can survive even terrible pain: "The goodness of creation does not narrowly depend on the possibility that it is good for me (this was one of the important lessons learned by Job) but more broadly on the affirmation that a good, loving God made it." Wirzba then argues that there is a decline in delight in our culture even as, paradoxically, there is an increase in entertainment. The fact that we find "real life" dull and need evermore stimulating forms of entertainment is, he says, evidence of our inability to find delight in the created world, in friendship, in God.God's Sabbath commands to the people of Israel touched every area of their lives. It called for regular rest, not only for human workers but for their animals and even their land. The weekly Sabbath was a foretaste of the Sabbath year, which was a foretaste of the Year of Jubilee - a year of rest and of freedom. And every year was punctuated by feasts - times to enjoy food and family and rest and worship. All this is itself a foretaste of the renewed heavens and earth when work and worship and rest will find their perfect, untainted, rhythms. This eschatological dimension isn't explored thoroughly enough by Wirzba, and I feel his arguments get a little shaky when he tries to apply his Sabbath principles to the cold realities of 21st century life. But this is a thoughtful and thought provoking book, which is worth reading. Here is a quote that sums up what he is about:"Sabbath observance...gives us the time and the space to take a considered look at what our work is finally about. Our temptation is to think that we live through our own effort and that the goods we enjoy are ours because we have earned and deserve them. A moment's reflection can quickly dispel that illusion, as everywhere we look we can see the generosity of others: earthworms aerating and rebuilding soil, plants turning sunlight into energy, family providing for us since birth, teachers looking out for our children. The list of kindnesses goes on and on, but we often fail to notice. We are simply too busy with our own agendas and our sense of self-importance."

The reason I gave this a five star rating is because this is the first book on the Sabbath that is so broad that it covers almost all aspects of life. It gets into the deeper meaning of the Sabbath. How the Sabbath applies to our day to day living. And the significance of the Sabbath for all of God's great creation. If you are only going to read one book this year then this is the book you should read. I highly recommend it.