HERE'S A PARADOX: If justice delayed is justice denied, we cannot rest while anyone suffers; at the same time, we can’t work tirelessly for justice without rest. It’s the kind of pesky conundrum we face just as we’re settling in for a night of sweatpants and Netflix: The prophets in the Bible decried those who sit on fine couches while their neighbors go hungry... but does that mean it’s wrong to re-watch the entire season of Queer Eye when we could be doing something more productive?
In this issue, Baptist minister J. Dana Trent uses the fourth commandment (“Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy.”) to reframe our quandary. Through this commandment to practice “ritual rest from our labor,” writes Trent, “we opt out of tyranny and opt into care for one another.” At its heart, Sabbath rest isn’t a pause from justice work; it’s a way of disrupting a culture of what Walter Brueggemann describes as “endless desire, endless productivity, and endless restlessness.”
Trent also reminds us that “Sabbath as resistance is nearly impossible to practice in isolation.” We may not need to surrender our Netflix accounts on the spot, but we should think twice if our binge-watching and constant consumption keeps us from the messy beauty of real community.
And though there’s abundant evidence of how the church has failed to model this beloved community, sometimes church still works. In “Samson’s Blessing,” Dani Gabriel writes of how her pastor created a new rite—a renaming ceremony—when Gabriel’s son, Samson, came out as transgender. “The support of a church is different from the support of a parent, teacher, or another institution,” says Gabriel. “The rite we did for Samson spoke to a love that follows him everywhere, at all times.”
Especially now, we cannot afford to abandon the rites and rhythms that sustain us. It may even be time to start some new ones.
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