Time is linear. We measure it in minutes and hours. Time also has a cyclic aspect. The day is determined by the revolution of the earth around the sun. A month is linked to the phases of the moon. We have seasons marking the progress of the year. Nature offers a cyclic dimension to the passage of time.

 

One measure of time which is not based on nature is that of the seven days determined as a week. In our Judeo/Christian tradition the period of seven days is linked to the Genesis account of the creation of the universe. We are told that for six days God created. Then on the seventh day God rested. The Scriptural text says, “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done” (Gen 2:2).

We are then told in the following verse that “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made”. In other words, the seventh day was different from the other days. It is designated not only as a day of rest but it is also be considered as a sacred character.

This understanding that the seventh day is distinctive finds clear expression in the third of the Ten Commandments. The instruction is to keep the Sabbath day as a holy day, commenting, “Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God”. Human life is to imitate the ‘work’ of God. As God ‘worked’ to create the universe for six days, so mankind is to engage in work for six days, but is to abstain from work on the seventh day.

For the Jewish people the sabbath was Saturday, Sunday being seen as the first day of the week. For Christians the sabbath day came to be Sunday as it marked the Resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Western civilisation shaped as it has been by Christianity adopted the working week as commencing on Monday. The culture of Christian nations accepted Sunday as a day of rest. It wasn’t so long ago that shops would not open on Sundays. It was also understood that the people needed to attend their church services and so no organised sporting fixtures would be held on Sunday mornings. Indeed, everything seemed to be quiet on Sunday mornings.

Attending church dressed in one’s ‘Sunday best’, often followed by a family lunch was the pattern of life for many people.

This has now changed significantly. There are many factors that have caused this change. While Sunday is still seen as essentially a day in which general commerce is suspended and most businesses are closed, shops are now open, sporting fixtures are arranged. It is still a day when families go to the beach, or have a family gathering in a park.

However, it is also true that modern telecommunications mean that people are engaged with the world around them 24/7. They cannot help but check to see if there is anything new on Facebook or other ‘feeds’. So while they may not be at work, they are still engaged with the world around them, and even at a higher degree as they have time to browse the internet. And for many handling emails on a Sunday draws them into the world of work.

The Scriptural injunction, as we saw, said that the sabbath was to be a holy day. It should be a day in which we relate our lives more immediately with the Transcendent. It is a day in which we give ourselves time and relaxation to engage with things spiritual. We slow down. We consider other things to the relentless pursuit of commerce. It is meant to be a day that fosters our inner life.

There is a serious danger today that we can be overexposed to the frantic pace of life, now made present to us through our addiction to social media. It is not to be ignored that there has been a significant rise in mental health issues in our society. There is good reason to suspect that our emotional life is hyper-activated. We are suffering from hyper-stimulation and information overload. Our brains and our emotions cannot manage the pressure.

God rested on the seventh day. We have six days to work and one day to rest. This pattern is God’s wise provision for human existence.

It may be time to reconsider Sunday as the Lord’s Day. We can set out to consciously make the day holy, not only by attending our church service, but giving time for some quiet and refection. We can intentionally make Sunday our day of rest. We avoid unnecessary work or checking work emails. We can avoid going to the shops. We consciously set out to make Sunday a day focused on the family and the quality of our human relationships.

In the face of the overstimulation generated by the social media we can abstain from turning to our mobile phones. The information can wait one more day. We could even choose to turn off our phones for one day and give attention not to data but to people. Thus, we can intentionally plan social events and nourish the quality of our human relationships.

Time is the linear progression measured in minutes and hours. And time passes so quickly. Time, however, also has its moments. Time can be set aside for the restoration of our inner personal life. This is God’s good intention when He commanded that the sabbath be a holy day and a day of rest.