HONOR THE SABBATH, TO KEEP IT MERCENARY [R, 1-23-25]

BEYOND WINTER: The Irrelevant Complaints of An Old Man—HONOR THE SABBATH, TO KEEP IT MERCENARY [R, 1-23-25]

 

The silence-obliteration guys were doing their thing, with great success, for two weeks before Christmas. For some reason, our condo HOA cannot stand having even one leaf anywhere in our six or so square blocks. We pay to have every leaf blown over into Illinois.

But Sunday is a day of rest, right? It’s the sabbath. Not really, but we call Sunday the sabbath, which means it should be a day of peacefulness and quiet. Especially in the Christmas season. Not so, if there is even one leaf left. To people with leaf-obliteration equipment, Sunday is just another day.

One Sunday afternoon, as they scouted for miscreant leaves, they decided to park ALL their equipment, for a very long time, on the sidewalk five feet from the front of our house, all of it running, because it is never turned off. We were on sofas about six feet apart. We quite literally could not hear each other.

Yes, I was and am irritated, but more on behalf of those poor leaf-blowing guys than for myself. They had to have that noise in their heads ever since the first leaf hit the ground, even with those ear-muff things on their heads, because with that machinery, it’s not just the sound. You can feel it as well as hear it.

No Sunday sabbath, no day of peace and quiet, for them.

When I worked at Moe’s while in high school, his was the only gas station/grocery store open on Sunday in Oakland City. Moe did not like to get up early, and he liked to visit family on Sundays, so I got to open up and close up and work all day.

When we moved to Normal, IL in 1966, there was only one gas station that stayed open on Sundays and holidays. Bob Hohenstreiter was a nice man who kept his Marathon station open. He said he did it because somebody had to provide service for the folks who got caught without enough gas, or needed a start. It was a ministry for him, even though he would not call it that. He never charged for his labor on those days, only for the gas or battery or such.

 I never thought of pumping gas and slicing bologna at Moe’s on Sunday as a ministry. I made fifty cents an hour; I was rich. I was definitely in favor of everyone else observing Sunday “blue laws,” so that I could make money. When I became a preacher, I was still the only guy working on Sunday. Until… when did we decide that everybody needed to be able to shop any time, all the time?

We didn’t actually decide it. When Ronald Reagan destroyed the middle class, it became necessary for every family to have two incomes to survive. With everyone working, there is no time for shopping…unless the stores stay open, and the loop continues.

 

One of the reasons so many businesses are understaffed are the current 24/7/365 open hours.

We need a sabbath, both from working and from buying, a day that really is “a day of rest.” Those workers need a sabbath, a day of rest, a day without noise and bad vibrations. But nobody gets a sabbath anymore, and it shows in the vulgarity and crassness and rudeness and ugliness of our culture.

The culture is no longer going to provide a sabbath day, so it is up to each one of us to create a sabbath of our own. That’s just the way it is. Not Remember the Sabbath…but… Create the Sabbath…

John Robert McFarland

Bonus Observation: “With God, time is eternity in disguise.” Abraham Heschel