The Positives of Sunday Negatives
There’s a saying among us that you can’t beat a positive with a negative. In other words, you can’t beat a vision just by telling people no, you have to supply them with some actual replacement for it.
While I generally agree, I’m not so sure that’s true for the sabbath. I have found that if I supply the negatives–if I refrain from doing stuff–God supplies the positives.
Sure, we do have a lot of Sunday positives. On the negative side, don’t shop, don’t blast your gym music, don’t do home repairs except in emergencies and so on. But we also have positives to go along with them: do journal, visit the lonely, call family, and so on. I do these things. I recommend them. Even so, its the negatives that matter the most to me. There are Sundays where I do nothing much at all. God fills them with holiness. Sunday is such a tender day. For me at least my main role on Sundays is to get out of the way for the welling presence of God.
One possible approach to Sundays is like an elimination diet. Cut out almost everything, then add stuff back in until it stops feeling as holy. Or the other way around–just keep cutting stuff until the holiness doesn’t increase.
Sol
July 2, 2024
I like the contra-contrarianism.
It feels like it’s related to systems. Systems (per Bruce Charlton) tend to systematically nudge one in the direction of evil. That much is true. The corollary is that the systematic “Christian” life — rules-bound sabbath without love being just one example — is not going to bring one closer to Christ, on its own. Quite the contrary. I’ll label this the original contrarianism.
This contrarianism is fairly widespread in the Christian world, from what I know. A friend of mine of a traditional Protestant theological bent once told me, approvingly, about an analysis of “the Sabbath” that he had read in a recent seminary class. The analysis concluded something along the lines that Christ had rendered obsolete the rules-based Sabbath. Voila, no more Sabbath restrictions!
The problem with that type of contrarianism is that it does not go far enough. It fails in recursion. If we are systematically anti-systematic, we are being tempted into yet another system to nudge us down the wrong path, renouncing some of our agency in the process.
One of my gradual realizations when I began looking into the CJCLDS in mid-life was that although it appeared to be exactly one of those “just follow the rules and you’ll be fine” churches, in reality it was anything but. The rules are there, but just as a starting point, really, to give you something to grasp onto. “Heart-centered, rules-supported” maybe? I too have a testimony that the Sunday negatives are immensely positive.
G.
July 3, 2024
> The rules are there, but just as a starting point, really, to give you something to grasp onto. “Heart-centered, rules-supported” maybe?
That is such an inspired coinage.
Spirit-centered, letter-supported to use Paul’s phrase.
Spirit-centered, rules-supported.
G.
July 3, 2024
I feel this is related
https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2024/07/lack-of-positive-life-planning.html