• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Shop
  • A Rocha Intl

A Rocha USA

A Rocha USA

  • About Us
    • What We Do
    • Who We Are
    • Contact Us
  • Get Involved
    • Events Calendar
    • Join the A Rocha Community
    • Tackle Plastic Pollution
    • Take Climate Action
    • Wild Wonder Curriculum
  • Donate

Sabbath Simplicity

A Rocha USA / August 20, 2012

 

By Leah Kostamo*

Kite flying © Brooke McAllister

My family keeps the Sabbath. Not religiously—as in, we don’t always do religious things. But we are pretty religious about “keeping” it. Usually we go to church. Usually we eat simply—eggs and toast is normal fare for Sunday dinners. Usually we say “no” to invitations and engagements unless they involve family. If it’s winter we might go cross-country skiing; if it’s rainy we might read a book aloud as a family; if it’s sunny we might take a walk at the beach. Our only hard and fast rule is no shopping. The point is, we say “no” to certain things. We step out of our normal rhythms of work and commerce and step into a new way of being.

Essentially, the Sabbath is about time. It’s about trusting in a rhythm of time that depends not on clocks attuned to commerce, but on a larger clock attuned to the rhythms of nature and of God. Sabbath is rooted first in the Jewish notion of day, which in their calculation begins at sundown. Thus, we go to sleep as the day is just getting rolling. We wake when the day’s half over. In a society where productivity is the measure of worth, it would seem counterintuitive to begin one’s day by lying down and shutting one’s eyes. The beginning of day is for writing lists, making plans, springing from the starting blocks, not for putting on one’s pyjamas. But in the Jewish creation narrative, the day begins not with the rising of the sun, but with its setting—there was evening, there was morning, the first day. The day begins with rest and is followed by work, a work already begun by God, and into which humans join.

The Sabbath is also rooted in the Jewish understanding that this particular day is a different sort of day, not only in its parameters, but in its essence. The Jewish creation narrative, Abraham Heschel says, declares that the first thing in all of creation that is declared holy is the Sabbath—not a people or a place, but a day. Everything else in creation is declared good, but this day, the seventh day, is declared holy. The Sabbath, then, becomes a “palace in time,” into which we are invited. The invitation, writes Heschel, is to come away from the “tyranny of things of space” to “share what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation.”

*Leah and Markku Kostamo have been working to establish A Rocha’s ministry in Canada for twelve years. Leah has recently finished the manuscript of a book chronicling the wild ride of that journey. You can follow her on her blog at http://leahkostamo.com.

Filed Under: A Rocha Canada, Sabbath Tagged With: A Rocha, Leah Kostamo

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Categories

  • A Rocha
  • A Rocha Arts
  • A Rocha Canada
  • A Rocha Ghana
  • A Rocha International
  • A Rocha Kenya
  • A Rocha Portugal
  • A Rocha USA
  • Advent
  • At Home
  • Au Sable
  • Autumn Ayers
  • Ben Lowe
  • Birds
  • Brittany Michalski
  • Bugs
  • Campus Chapters
  • Central Oregon
  • Central Texas
  • Church
  • Citizen Science
  • Climate Change
  • Climate Stewards USA
  • Climate Stewards USA
  • Community
  • Conservation
  • Core Commitments
  • Creation Care
  • Creation Care Camp
  • Dave Timmer
  • David Taylor
  • Dirt
  • Dr. Howard Snyder
  • Dr. Robert Sluka
  • Easter
  • Ecology
  • Economics
  • Ecosystems
  • Education
  • EEN
  • Election
  • Environment
  • Environmental Education
  • Extinction
  • Farm
  • Flo Oakes
  • Florida
  • Food
  • Forest
  • Global Partners
  • Gospel
  • Grant Shellhouse
  • John Elwood
  • John Stott
  • Kilns College
  • Leah Kostamo
  • Lent
  • Liuan Huska
  • Living Planet Report
  • Love Your Place
  • Marine
  • Mark McReynolds
  • Nashville
  • NW Washington
  • Partners
  • People
  • Peter Harris
  • Planet
  • Planetwise Blog
  • Plastic Pollution
  • Pollinators
  • Programs and Projects
  • Race
  • Recycling
  • Redemption
  • Resources
  • Restoration
  • Robert Campbell
  • Sabbath
  • Sandra McCracken
  • SoCal
  • Species
  • Theology
  • To Repair the World
  • Uncategorized
  • Washington DC
  • Wheaton
  • Wild Wonder
  • Worship
  • YECA

Archives

  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • August 2021
  • June 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • September 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • May 2019
  • December 2018
  • October 2018
  • August 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012

Tags

All Things Reconciled A Rocha arocha a rocha international A Rocha Marine A Rocha USA arochausa biodiversity birds Christmas citizen science Climate Action community conservation creation Creation Care Creation Care Camp Dave Bookless dirt environment Environmental Education explore place arocha arochausa saltandsteel trees nature Forest gospel Gratitude hope internship Kellie Haddock loveyourplace Love Your Place Marine Marine Conservation Miranda Harris New Year nwwashingtonarocha Peter Harris Redemption Restoring people and places Richard Louv Sandra McCracken Seasons SoCal Texas A Rocha Tom Rowley Wild Wonder

Footer

A Rocha USA
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • ABOUT US
  • What We Do
  • Meet the Team
  • Careers and Internships
  • Contact
  • RESOURCES
  • Blog
  • Join Love Your Place
  • Multimedia
  • GET INVOLVED
  • Donate
  • Events
  • Join Our Community
  • Take Climate Action
  • Marine Conservation
  • Camp Curriculum
  • Projects

© 2016 A Rocha USA Environmental Stewardship

A Rocha USA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, EIN 31-1751509
  • ECFA |
  • GuideStar |
  • Privacy Policy |
  • Faith Statement