Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Edward O'Flaherty, S.J., is director of ecumenical andinterreligious affairs for the Archdiocese of Boston. "

Rodney Peterson is executive director of the Boston Theological Institute.

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Sunday, Sabbath, and the Weekend

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Contents

Preface Edward O'Flaherty, S.J., and Rodney L. Petersen..................................................................................ixDedication and Acknowledgment Timothy A. Norton..........................................................................................xiSection One — Relational Presence...................................................................................................11. Home Alone — Seeking Sabbath Gloria White-Hammond...............................................................................32. Seeking Sabbath: Keeping the Lord's Day in a Global Culture Rodney L. Petersen........................................................103. Sabbath Keeping and Social Justice Marva J. Dawn......................................................................................23Section Two — Spiritual Coherence...................................................................................................414. Sacred Time: The Sabbath and Christian Worship Dennis T. Olson........................................................................435. The Lord's Day in Orthodox Liturgical Practice and Spirituality Alkiviadis C. Calivas.................................................676. Pope John Paul II and Dies Domini Edward O'Flaherty, S.J..............................................................................857. The Lord's Day as Anticipation and Promise in Liturgy and Word Horace T. Allen, Jr....................................................938. Theological Significance of the Lord's Day for the Formation of the Missional Church Darrell Guder....................................105Section Three — Social Integrity....................................................................................................1199. "That Sunday Feeling": Sundays in the United States Alexis McCrossen..................................................................12110. Sabbath and the Common Good Thomas Massaro, S.J......................................................................................13411. The Weekend: Labor and Leisure in America Ruy Costa..................................................................................13912. Seven Principles for the Seventh Day Ada Besanon Spencer...........................................................................15513. Sabbath in an Age of Ecology within an Emerging Global Society Donald B. Conroy......................................................16414. The American Sunday and the Formative Work of Jonathan Edwards Louis J. Mitchell, compiled by Rodney L. Petersen.....................179Contributors..............................................................................................................................186Index of Subjects.........................................................................................................................190Index of Scripture and Other Ancient Sources..............................................................................................196

Chapter One

Gloria White-Hammond

My life is like yours, a very full life. I wear several different hats, and the days that are really toughest are the days I have to wear all the hats at once. I am the co-pastor and the pediatrician and the doctor and the mom and the wife, and my husband and I have had the privilege of taking care of his mother who has been living with us, and she has had middle stage Alzheimer's disease. At the end of the day, it has been a full day for me as I am sure it is for you most days.

As I think about "seeking Sabbath" in my life, or about Sunday as Sabbath, my thoughts turn to the Gospel of Luke in the second chapter. Here we read of the account of the boy Jesus at the Temple. It begins:

Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. When He was twelve years old they went up to the feast according to the custom. After the feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company they traveled on for a day, then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find Him they went back to Jerusalem to look for Him.

Now I'm especially interested in verse 44: "Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day." And I'm going to ask you to very quickly think with me on the topic of "Home Alone." Home alone. I was especially excited to take up this topic. I must confess that when I first received a request to think about "Seeking Sabbath," I had awakened early in the morning and, going through the mail (and in our house mail can sit for a couple of weeks before we actually get to it — thank you, Jesus!) I opened up this mail and the invitation — and I still had sleep in my eyes — and the first thing I read was "Sneaking Sabbath." And I thought, oh my gosh! Isn't this a really deep kind of thought, that we are sneaking Sabbath. It was only after I looked again that I realized in fact the title was "Seeking Sabbath."

The reality is, the reason so many of us might have had the same reaction is because for too many of us we do in fact have to "sneak" Sabbath. When we make room for it at all, we have to sneak that time of rest. I come to you through the medium of this opening chapter in a book on "Seeking Sabbath" in this culture, or on Sunday as Sabbath in a global culture, recognizing the difficulty of what this may mean for each of us. And I come not only as clergy, but as a pediatrician who is very concerned about the impact of the fact that we as a culture do not seek the Sabbath and in fact many times do not even "sneak" the Sabbath. And so my title in these opening remarks is "Home Alone — Seeking Sabbath."

Many of you may recall the title Home Alone. It was the name of a very popular box office hit several years ago. The movie takes place during Christmas time when the family is preparing to go abroad to celebrate Christmas. They are so frantically going through all of their packing and preparations to get to the airport and onto the plane that it is not until they are well in the air and well on their way that they discover that one of their children is in fact not with them. Instead, he has been left home alone. He is home alone, there to fend for himself — and to fend off some bumbling burglars! Much of the movie is focused on this little boy who is home alone and on his efforts to be rid of the intruding burglars. It is a delightful comedy, but also one that drew me to the text of Luke 2:44 as we are drawn to the topic of Sabbath — and of Sunday as Sabbath — in contemporary culture.

In this particular text in the Gospel of Luke we come upon the parents of Jesus as they too have set out on a journey, not realizing, unaware, ignorant, incognizant, unmindful, and not "with it" — caught tripping, not hip-to-the-fact that their boy Jesus was not with them. Thinking that he was with their company, assuming that he was with them, they traveled on. However, like with the little boy Kevin in the movie Home Alone, Jesus' parents were well on their way before they realized that in fact their child was not with them. He was, in fact,...