Worship Rituals

Don: Symbols, which we discussed last week, are objects that point to something of deeper meaning. Rituals—today’s topic—are actions that have metaphorical significance. Objects and actions, symbols and rituals, all have great significance not only in worship but also in life in general. Our lives and activities are full of ritual and symbol, especially at times of transition: Birth, death, coming of age, marriage, and so on. They affect how and what we eat, and of course how we worship.

Rituals are often time- and culture-bound, unique to the tribe, the family, the guild; and rich in tradition. Take birth, for example: The date is commemorated annually and celebrated with gifts and parties and so on, and might also be marked by astrological signs, birthstones, special colors (blue for boys, pink for girls), circumcision for boys, infant baptism, and so on.

Similarly for the rituals of marriage: the finding of a spouse, the proposal, the ring, the bended knee, the wedding ceremony, the procession, the giving away of the bride, the kiss at the altar, the reception and its dances and toasts, and so on. They all have some meaning.

We generally understand the meaning and reasons behind our worldly rituals. But what about the meaning and importance of worship rituals ordained by God, no less? We have discussed the risk God took in ordaining symbols—the risk that we would objectify the symbols as objects of worship in their own right. What of ritual?

Both symbols and rituals seem to set boundaries on our behavior. They define norms. They ensure conformity. And to some degree they impose unity. This is somewhat true of worldly symbols and ritual but especially true of worship. Rituals define when we sit and when we stand, when we sing and when we be silent, when we shake our hands and when we raise our hands. They prevent a free-for-all: Is that necessary? Important? Desirable?

To those of us accustomed to the Seventh Day Adventist tradition, the symbol of worship most associated with ritual is the care and keeping of the Sabbath. Like Jesus, we create and cling to rituals of dress and eating and behavior and worship, which define virtually everything we do on the Sabbath. We clung even more strongly when I was a boy. Strict prohibitions were levied on many behaviors. Jesus found the same kind of strict ritual and symbolism in the Jewish Sabbath of his time and he upset the apple cart in a major way; yet, remarkably, he had precious little to say on the subject. A rare exception was this:

And it happened that He was passing through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their way along while picking the heads of grain. The Pharisees were saying to Him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And He *said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry; how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?” Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:23-28)

That last statement was nothing short of heresy and blasphemy. Indeed, it was his “crime” of breaking of the Sabbath that led to his crucifixion.

In contrast to the complex Sabbath rituals of the Jews, his teachings and actions established only three general principles concerning the Sabbath:

1. It is a day to set aside business as usual. Rest is incompatible with the daily grind.
2. It is a day to do good for others. Jesus often healed people on the Sabbath, thus symbolizing its power of healing.
3. It is a day to worship.

Our human tendency is to literalize the Sabbath without dismissing the literal and physical value of rest, or even the spiritual value of rest. The symbolic value of the Sabbath must not be missed.

After the six days of creation, God had a day of rest not because he was tired and needed one, but because we do. “The Sabbath was made for man.” He set an example for us. In the same way, Jesus had no need of baptism (another symbol and ritual) but he underwent it as an example to us. The significance of the Sabbath is as a re-occurring, perpetual, and everlasting symbol of God’s grace.

Setting aside work for ourselves and instead undertaking it for others is a recognition that we cannot labor our way to salvation, because it is a free gift of God. In some of the most tender words to be found in all of scripture, Jesus invites us in to rest:

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

This is spiritual rest, and it is symbolized by the Sabbath. It is an invitation to grace, to accept the gift without striving to pay for it.

Of all the symbols and rituals of worship, time is the most inflexible. Stone and gold can be worked and felt. Time cannot. It cannot be captured and controlled.

Like grace, the Sabbath comes whether we want it or think we need it or not. Like grace, it cannot be delayed, postponed, rescheduled, controlled, contained, manipulated, moved, advanced, retreated. It comes regularly and ritually, lovingly and literally, just like grace. Your only choice is to accept it, to rest in it, or not.

We objectify the Sabbath, perhaps in a vain attempt to make it manipulable. We place ourselves, instead of God, at the center of it, emphasizing our own work and worship while missing out on the significance of rest for the soul, the ultimate symbol of God’s grace. He specifically warned us to avoid this danger:

“If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot
From doing your own pleasure on My holy day,
And call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable,
And honor it, desisting from your own ways,
From seeking your own pleasure
And speaking your own word,
Then you will take delight in the Lord,
And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” (Isaiah 58:13-14)

The heritage of Jacob is the intimacy of the wresting match, the forgiveness of willful, premeditated sin, and the objectification of a new identity for Jacob in a lavish display of God’s graciousness. But what is “doing my own pleasure” if it is not focusing on me and what I do, emphasizing my effort, my work, my self-denial, and my abstinence on the Sabbath, rather than emphasizing the work of God and his graciousness?

There was a time when any Seventh Day Adventist believed that only Sabbath-keepers would get to Heaven. This was never an official stance of the church, but it was the common understanding. When this understanding was abandoned and we started letting non-Sabbath-keepers into heaven (as it were), we demoted the Sabbath’s importance. If we are to make a contribution to the religious dialog of our day, particularly concerning the meaningfulness of the Sabbath, then we need to re-focus on its true meaning, on its symbolic value as a weekly downpayment of God’s grace, as a perpetual reminder that to accept God’s grace is to set aside our own effort and work and enter into his rest.

Jay: The creation of the Sabbath and its development over time might give us some pointers to the creation and development of worship. The Sabbath was not created as a defining or identifying mark of the people, but as a day of rest, reflection, and regeneration. As the Israelites developed into nationhood, the Sabbath became a strong identifying symbol for the Jews. It set them apart from others, to the point where they made it almost exclusionary. If you were Jewish, there was no doubt that you would observe the Sabbath, and would do so only in the manner strictly prescribed.

The Sabbath evolved from a symbol of relationship and reflection into a defining object. So, too, with the Seventh Day Adventist church: The Sabbath has become much more about identifying us and our uniqueness, and correspondingly less about our relationship with God. So too with worship: It has morphed from God-directed ritual reflection and relationship into the trap of human-directed ritual self-identification and uniqueness. In so doing, it destroys the purpose and thwarts the true benefits of worship.

Anonymous: At least one purpose of ritual and symbol in worship is to help new generations to learn the basics of our faith.

Jay: My non-Adventist colleagues at work respect my keeping of the Sabbath by not bothering me during it. When I explain to them what my Sabbath experience is like, they tend to be envious of it. They never seem to think it is crazy, and I never claim that Sabbath-keeping is what makes my church the “right” church. The Sabbath is not about my denomination—it’s about my relationship with God.

David: In essence, as a day of worship, it’s no different from the Catholic Sabbath. But my observation of both SDA and Catholic Sabbaths leads me to believe that the SDA’s focus on the Sabbath makes Adventists better keepers of it than most Catholics.

Jay: Our Sabbath is not minutely structured and controlled, but it is distinctly different in feeling from other days. One assumes a different mindset and behaves differently on the Sabbath. This is driven not by rules but by an understanding that there is a need for this day to be different.

David: On the Sabbaths it has been my privilege to experience with you all there has been a sense of taking a rest from the humdrum of daily life and work in order to reflect and fellowship. It’s tangible but unforced. It seems to me that having a focus on the Sabbath is by no means a bad thing. Indeed, other denominations and religions are perhaps doing their followers a disservice in failing to provide them with the sense of rest and spiritual refreshment I’ve experienced with the SDA.

Donald: We tend to think of the Masai as quintessentially African, but that is like thinking of the Amish as quintessentially American. Today, such identification is a choice. The Masai are being proselytized to an astonishing degree, but if it succeeds and they become Adventist (or whichever denomination is proselytizing them at the time), are they then still Masai? The two cultures are incompatible, so for them to become proselytized, their culture has to go. Similarly, if one takes the Seventh Day out of the Adventist, what is left? Is our purpose to reinforce Adventism through our ritual and symbols, and if not, what is it? Young and old Adventists today don’t share quite the same view of the Sabbath. I once proposed a short reader for students entering Andrews University that would explain the essentials of Adventism to them. But the committee that met to discuss my proposal were unable to reach agreement on the essentials! This, despite our having defined ourselves by the day and the practice of the Sabbath.

Jay: My point exactly. The Sabbath was created for the timeless purposes of worship, reflection, and relationship-building, but now it is used as an identity badge.

Don: Symbols and rituals tend to set boundaries. We use them to normalize behavior and prevent anarchy. Is that of value? Is it possible for the Sabbath to be both symbol and identity?

Jay: Symbol is important, but not as an identifying characteristic. We use the cross to remind us of the sacrifice of Jesus, and we use it to identify ourselves as Christian. They are not the same. The first is a symbol to promote remembrance and foster reflection. The second is discriminatory. It establishes an identity—a clique.

Anonymous: Why can’t we respect and perpetuate the symbol, without seeking identity?

Jay: We tend to use our symbols to evangelize, to show why we are the right choice of religion, instead of using them as a way to strengthen our relationships with our fellow man and to reflect. But this latter use is what makes the Sabbath so enjoyable. We try to sell people the car rather than the journeys it enables.

Anonymous: The cross and the Sabbath are universal, given to all mankind, intended for everyone. They were never intended for just one group.

Don: Can one embrace the Sabbath and not be identified as a Seventh Day Adventist?

Anonymous: Yes. We can promote the Sabbath on behalf of God, not on behalf of Adventism.

Chris: I have Lutheran friends who get the same value out of the Sabbath as I do. When I was young, the Sabbath was highly ritualized and predictable. Now, it has become what I think God intended it to be: A day of rest, rejuvenation, and communion with God and with our fellow man. If smartphones had been around when I was young, they would not have been seen on the Sabbath, but they are today—often, for playing Bible games.

Donald: Should we integrate our Sabbath principles into seven days rather than into just one?

Chris: When we dictate or set out criteria for behavior (such as going to church on the Sabbath), we remove personal choice and turn it into ritual for its own sake—into a sort of prison.

Jay: The key is to understand that it is not about what we say and how we identify ourselves, but about what we do towards building relationships with God and our fellow man. Service to others was the key tenet of the ministry of Jesus. His service had nothing to do with being Jewish. We’ve forgotten that. It is not the job of corporate worship to perpetuate a people. Its job is to help our fellow man.

The value of an Adventist education is mainly in the quality of the education. But there is some benefit in understanding the Adventist identity—in identifying with Adventist principles—if one is attending Andrews University and SDA church schools.

David: This has been a passionate and eloquent discussion. You have been presenting an Adventist philosophy and explaining Adventist worship ritual, but you have not been trying to proselytize. I identify with that! But the philosophy and identity we seem to share does not depend on any specific form of ritual: It recognizes the value in any ritual that provides order and prevents chaos and that serves to remind us of the spirit. The rituals of all religions are founded on the same principles and for the same purposes—developing a relationship with God, providing rest for the soul, and so on. Ritual is vital; any given form of ritual is not.

It seems to me that this group of Adventists is living the Sabbath ritual in the way it was intended. In so doing, it is not only bringing joy to itself but also presenting to others an attractive example they may choose to emulate without feeling a need or obligation to become an Adventist.

Anonymous: Jesus said it all when he said:

By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)

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