Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now by Walter Brueggemann (review)

Sabbath as resistance is not a new idea. It has been portrayed and long interpreted by Jews as dissent against oppressive powers. An example can be found in the writings of Leo Baeck, who has asserted that a Shabbat way of life sets Judaism apart as dissenter for humanity’s sake, and as such speaks to the depth and mystery of God. One might even argue that Shabbat as dissent has been a powerful demonstration of the Jews’ fidelity to God in the face of Christian hegemony throughout the centuries. This position stands in contrast to more recent Christian Sabbath-Sunday keeping in the United States, which Walter Brueggemann says has a Puritan heritage of being “enmeshed in legalism and moralism and blue laws and life-denying practices that contradict the freedom-bestowing intentions of Sabbath” (20). If the Sabbath were under intense review, the testimony of Jewish Shabbat observance versus Christian Sabbath keeping would clearly illustrate their differences. In this slender text, Brueggemann, a distinguished Hebrew Bible scholar, aims to glean from the former in order to benefit the latter.

Given the practice of Sabbath within Judaism and Christianity, I was curious to ascertain how Brueggemann would traverse the landscape of what Judith Shulevitz calls “the Sabbath world.” Would he do so with sensitivity to Jewish-Christian relations, or would he commit an historical transgression and misappropriate Shabbat for the supersessionistic Christian? After reading only a few pages, I was pleased to discover: “As in so many things concerning Christian faith and practice, we have to be reeducated by Judaism that has been able to sustain its commitment to Sabbath as a positive practice” (x). Moreover, “Sabbath-keeping is a distinctly Jewish art form” (20). Statements such as these not only demonstrate the author’s sensitivity but his acuity, as the Sabbath is one practice in which Christians are rediscovering affinities with Jewish traditions.

Perhaps the most significant line of evidence supporting the Jewish soul of the Sabbath is how Brueggemann anchors his argument in the narrative of the exodus and the God who is not known apart from that narrative. As Israel is subsumed in an endless system of insatiable productivity that knows no rest, YHWH collides with the gods of Egypt by interceding as a “Sabbath-keeping God, a Sabbath-giving God, and Sabbath-commanding God” (10). By gifting ancient Israel with the fourth commandment, God breaks the systemic cycle of coveting acquisitiveness. This forms the biblical platform on which the author contemporizes the ancient Israelite reality by framing the Sabbath as similarly relevant to those shackled by the gods of Western culture. By speaking truth to power, Brueggemann levels attacks against America’s insatiable scheme of production and endless desideratum for more, listing concrete examples such as an expansive and aggressive military, abuse of the land, the coveted industry of professional and college sports, and even the controversial “teaching to test” policies of public education. No criticism is left behind in rendering the Sabbath as a form of socio-economic resistance and an alternative to accomplishing, achieving, and possessing.

Also central to the exodus story is the Decalogue, in which the Sabbath “occupies a pivotal place in the sum of the commandments” (85). In the first and last chapters, Brueggemann reminds the reader how the Sabbath is positioned between the first three commandments relating to God and the last six commandments pertaining to human relations. In this way the Sabbath looks back to the God of the exodus (and creation), and looks forward to a possible neighborliness; it addresses over-valuing things in relation to God and the often-violent pursuit of commodity at the expense of one’s neighbor. The intervening chapters demonstrate the ability of this master exegete to skillfully travel between the world of the Old Testament and our own, teasing out the Sabbath’s relationship of love for God and love for neighbor. Chapters 2 through 5...