It was one of those days....It began with corporate worship at my old stomping grounds, Aliso Creek Presbyterian Church, followed by lunch with the family at Wahoo's Fish Tacos. Then I took my four year-old son Maddoc to North Beach where we played in the surf and explored the rocks looking for "sea serpents." After I dropped Maddoc off back at the condo I grabbed a book and a Cuban cigar and headed to Starbucks for a little reading and sermon prep for a new series I'll be starting in a couple weeks while listening to mellow tunes by guys like Sam Beam and Gregory Alan Isakov. In a word, worship was great, the weather was ideal, the water was warm, the coffee and smoke were amazing, and the day was pretty much perfect (and it's still not over: I'm having an IPA and watching game 6 of the 2010 NBA finals right now with my dad [the one where the Lakers blew out the Hated Ones by 20 points]. And after everyone else goes to sleep I'll have a couple drinks and watch The Wire).
Now I realize there're only two sacraments under the New Covenant, but days like today make me wonder if there might be lots more. Perhaps a two-kingdoms paradigm can help making sense out of perfect days like this one, days when earth's blessings seem almost as sublime as those of heaven.
Can good surf, Cuban cigars, and Lakers championships count as examples of the best this present age has to offer? Can these things be deemed sacraments of earth?
Wait a minute, I debated for Christian liberty to eat in a restaurant on Sundays, and in my preparations I read your chapter on the Sabbath from Dual Citizens, and I thought you were agin' me!
ReplyDelete(Also, how does a Cuban cigar square with Rom 13's view of the 2nd kingdom?)
...and if my attempt at quaint dialect was unclear, agin' means 'against', not 'aging'. I'm still aging at the nominal rate of 60 seconds per minute.
ReplyDeleteNot only that, but he appears to be watching sports on the Lord's Day. The horror!
ReplyDeleteRube,
ReplyDeleteI know it sounds awful, but sometimes the rules get relaxed a bit when I'm on vacay with the fam. Ordinarily I don't eat out on Sundays, or surf, or watch sports (though in my defense, the sun had already set!).
It doesn't sound awful to me, I'm not a Sabbatarian. For me, now that Christ has fulfilled the work and earned the rest that Israel's work-then-rest cycle typified, what the 4th commandment means in the new testament is: Go to church, rest in Christ.
ReplyDeleteMore specifically, go to church on Sunday, rest in Christ all week. Our Sabbath is more expansive (not just one day) and more heavenly (less earthly), just like many aspects of our newer, better covenant.
I don't wanna bust your balls on the Sabbath (not being a Sabbatarian myself, that's not my agenda), but I would suggest that if "the rules" can be relaxed, then they're not God's law. Wisdom, perhaps, or a tradition of Reformed piety.
I wonder what you think about the following question; I don't think I have a good answer myself. How were the Jews to observe the Sabbath in exile? On the one hand, they were not yet in the new covenant, when the Sabbath is inverted to become rest at the beginning as a foundation for grateful work the rest of the week, so they had not been released from the necessity of typifying rest at the end, as a reward for work well-cone. On the other hand, as slaves and captives, surely they did not have the liberty to rest every seventh day. Were they OK with God as long as they regretted having to work for their captors on the Sabbath?
That looks like a typo, but I was referring to God's favorable assessment of the ice cream truck driver: "Well-cone, thou good and faithful servant".
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't sound awful to me, I'm not a Sabbatarian. For me, now that Christ has fulfilled the work and earned the rest that Israel's work-then-rest cycle typified, what the 4th commandment means in the new testament is: Go to church, rest in Christ.
ReplyDeleteRube, I’m wondering how that works for the other nine commandments, as in now that Christ has fulfilled the work, what the –blank- commandment means in the new era is something different? I mean, how does “keep the Sabbath day holy” morph into “go to church”? Surely, keeping the Sabbath entails worship, but you have to admit they aren’t exactly synonymous. Does “don’t kill” turn into something at once different but includes not killing? Same question for the rest. IOW, it seems to me that if “don’t blaspheme” still means “don’t blaspheme” then doesn’t “keep the Sabbath” still mean “keep the Sabbath”?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Sabbatarian-of-the-non-legalist variety; I’m not looking to stomp grapes either. But I am having a hard time seeing how this sort of reasoning isn’t much different from the broad evangelical view which is pretty anti-Sabbatarian at worst and a-Sabbatarian at best. At least, when I ask my evangelicals what it means to keep the Sabbath beyond going to church I get blank stares. To them not blaspheming seems to simply mean don’t blurt out very certain common phrases (while other phrases and activities that seem just as vain and blasphemous are fine) and keeping the Sabbath means punch in at spiritual homeroom on Sunday morning and then the rest of the day is Saturday Part 2.
Thanks for the comment Zrim... can you explain what you mean by being a Sabbatarian of the non legalist variety? I certainly don't want to be that myself... *remember I'm new to all this*
ReplyDeleteJS: I'm not sure how to take your comment about this being relaxed some on vacation. Either you believe it's God's law or you don't. I bet you don't feel the same about relaxing the 6th or 7th... BTW, I don't want to cast stones... I just don't get your reasoning.
BTW, your book was a huge influence on me in regards to the Sabbath.
ReplyDeleteRube, I’m wondering how that works for the other nine commandments
ReplyDeleteZ, you can refer to my blog for my full view on the Sabbath, but I see the Bible setting the Sabbath apart from the other nine commandments (Neh 9:13-14), and I believe I follow Kline in taking exception to WCF's assertion that the Sabbath is a "positive, moral, and perpetual commandment binding all men in all ages", but is rather less of a commandment and more of a promise, held out only to God's chosen people (Ex 31:12-17,Ez 20:12,20). In the Old Covenant, Israel was required to rest at the end of a week of work to join God's creation week in typifying Christ's work-that-would-earn-rest. Now that we are in the New Covenant, that work/rest cycle is not ours to mimic (typifying is out of the question).
But I would join DJ in redirecting the question to JJS. In O.T. Israel, enslaving the poor fry cooks at Wahoo Taco on the Sabbath would make him (and presumably his whole family) liable to the death penalty. What changed? Maybe the civic death penalty is gone (there are no Theonomists around here!), but moral sin is still moral sin, right?
…can you explain what you mean by being a Sabbatarian of the non legalist variety?
ReplyDeleteDJ, I think sometimes here in Sabbatarianville there can be such an effort to push back against the ubiquitous anti- or a-Sabbatarianism (in both cult and culture) that it begins to slouch toward a form of legalism, even amongst those who are otherwise robust and consistent in their doctrine of liberty. It seems easily forgotten that everything is vulnerable to legalism and stands in need to the doctrine of liberty. I think some do need to seriously consider better what the fourth means, but I also think others need to be aware that there is still a category for wisdom and discernment and, well, liberty.
Rube, thanks, I don’t think that helps me much though. So do we have nine commandments and one promise now? Is the sixth less of a command and more of a promise? If not, why not? If so, then what would that look like? But my point in all of this is to simply suggest that it seems to me the fourth is indeed a commandment on the one hand and as such seems to demand something more than just attending the means of grace. On the other, there is liberty still and maybe what this guy refrains from the other guy isn’t quite persuaded.
How did this become about me?
ReplyDeleteIf I'm out to lunch (metaphorically speaking) and the Sabbath is indeed a "positive, moral, and perpetual commandment binding all men in all ages," then I would think that "all ages" includes vacation-time.
So instead of jumping on the admitted anti-Sabbatarian that goes to the occasional restaurant on Sundays, why not take a closer look at the self-proclaimed "subversive Sabbatarian" who goes to the occasional restaurant on Sundays?
I don't want to continue this discussion, frankly because I think it makes JJS look bad -- or at least an extreme about face from the guy who can favorably quote Muether:
"A 'Subversive Sabbatarianism,' therefore, does not affirm the world, but condemns it, employing God's divinely ordained tool to challenge the culture and its 'idols of leisure and consumption.'"
We have a pet phrase in the OPC that comes up from time to time in various contexts. The phrase is "free from worldly care". I think JJS may have stumbled on it.
ReplyDeleteSadly, it doesn't last all that long depending on how acutely one is being subjected to the common curse.
DJ et al,
ReplyDeleteJust to clarify, when I say that "the rules get relaxed" while I'm on vacation, what I don't mean is that God's law changes along wth my varying circumstances. God's law cannot change, because God cannot change.
But there's the rub. I don't think the NT is capable of giving us "God's law" concerning Sundays and how we spend them. This is why I resonate with Zrim's point about being a non-legalistic Sabbatarian: I do think that there is a continuing relevance to the fourth commandment, but I don't think it's as simple as trading Saturday for Sunday, full stop.
That's why I say in my book that it makes a lot of sense for a 2K-er to withdraw from cultural activity as much as possible on the Lord's day. It's just that when my entire family is crashing out at my parents' condo two states away, I don't always have the luxury of ordering my days the way I prefer.
Rube (I assume you "confessionalouthouse"):
ReplyDeleteI wrote that last comment before I read your most recent one. If what I said doesn't answer your questions, just let me know and I'll try to clarify. And for the record, I haven't done an "about face" on anything.
JJS
ReplyDeleteYes, Z & I are about the only remaining regular Sitters in what was once a more crowded outhouse. And you're still a Saint.
"I don't think the NT is capable of giving us "God's law" concerning Sundays and how we spend them."
That sure sounds like my (and I think Kline's) take on the Sabbath, putting it, like eating of idol-meat (and images of Christ, but that's another debate entirely!) in the category of wisdom, not law.
So maybe we're all even on the same page, if "non-legalist" Sabbatarian means "Sabbatarian in general practice, and with a particular theological purpose, but not as a matter of Law"
Aha, now I see how my handle switched. Yes, confessionalouthouse=RubeRad, although as you can see, "Zrim" is linked to confessionalouthouse as well. Sorry for the confusion.
ReplyDelete(Insert here something pithy about how to tell Z's and my comments apart by their intelligence, logic, cohesion, and sheer biblical brilliance.)
Thanks for the comments guys... food for thought.
ReplyDeleteLakers Championships are definately NOT sacraments for the earth.
ReplyDeleteHe is the Shabbot. Working on the Sabbath in the OC was akin to working for salvation. The fourth commandment is the only one given this interpretaion by Paul. There is nothing magical or sacred about the number 10. We still keep the commandments out of gratitude but as we find them expounded in Christ by the NT writers. Similarly we dont look to a physical temple or geographic location in Israel. We keep the sabbath by trusting in Christ the true sabbath, temple, sacrifice, land, and priest. The not yet aspect of attaining its perfect fruition doesnt demand we revert to its even less unfolded place in redemptive history.
ReplyDelete