Working on the Sabbath

For the last three years, I have been working on the sabbath....and on Saturdays too. Like most people who work in public safety, or public education, we serve the rest of you who work weekdays and like to recreate on the weekends. You rest, we provide you with the services that make your rest day possible. This post is for those of you church goers who use parks, museums, expect emergency care, ambulances, police, and fire responses on the weekends, yet seem utterly unable to understand why some people work on Sundays.

There are churches who advocate keeping the sabbath by not making other people work, but Quakers are not one of these groups. After the Friends Meeting, if you go by the Co-op market to pick up groceries, you will see many Friends buying their groceries. On the weekends, Friends use State Parks, emergency care, coffee shops, and other establishments, so why are some Friends so judgmental about the spiritual life of others if they don't attend church? Rarely I get a Sunday off, and when I attend meeting, I am not only greeted with "We miss you" but "why don't you attend meeting anymore?" Everyone knows I work on Saturdays and Sundays. In fact these are our busiest days in the State Parks, so the question they are really asking is, "Why is working at the park more important to you than attending meeting?"

I know George Fox said, "Keep your Meetings," but this was in the days before supermarkets were open on Sunday. In fact, nothing was open on Sunday, and if people were found working, they could be jailed. Now, I think people expect others to serve them on the sabbath, and yet judge those who do as somehow not being as devout. The devout, the thinking goes, would choose an occupation that does not require service on the sabbath. Somehow if you loved God enough, you would refuse to work on the day of rest. But Jesus said, "If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."


I have good news, although I don't think I am the first to proclaim it. God does not dwell in temples built of hands, but everywhere. When I use my EMT skills to help someone who ran their motorcycle into a tree on Sunday and can't remember their name, God is there. When I direct traffic so the Life Flight helicopter can land, God is there. When I talk to the guy riding his bike and give him trail directions, God is there. When I am chatting with folks at the campgrounds about regulations that protect the earth, God is there. And when I show children the wonders of God's creation on a Sunday, I feel God's presence with me.

I understand that keeping worship services is important. There are still countries where this is impossible. And there is a great power in the combined prayer of many people. I understand this. But I also feel that God has guided me to the job I now have. I have found my "place just right." And although I no longer attend Meeting for Worship, I still worship God in silent prayer, reflection, and study. Some of the best Christians I know are people who have never set foot in a church. They walk the walk, not talk the talk.

So I invite all of you who spend your Sundays in church to ride along some Sabbath with a State Park Ranger, an ambulance driver, or a firefighter. Come to work with someone who picks up garbage in a State Park, or who conducts Junior Ranger programs on the Sabbath. See what that grocery store worker who sells you tampons on a Sunday is up to all day.

Leave your church, your meeting, your comfort zone, and see how the rest of us keep the Sabbath holy.