I am writing an assignment on consumerism for an ethics course, this article caught my attention. It has some rich teaching from a catholic brother, it contains the following quote;
The Sabbath rest can be an enlivening experience of “kairos” (the “fullness of time”, perhaps akin to the consumerist’s illusory “quality time”) rather than a wearying experience of “chronos” (time measured, spent, or “killed”). Sabbath time comes only at a price–one “saves” or “redeems” this time by not using it for material gain, servile labor, or other consumeristic pursuits. In our current situation, this means that the entire week would need to be rescheduled around the Sabbath. As people adjusted each day’s activities in order to be able to honor the Sabbath, the Lord’s day would become again the center from which all time is measured and allotted. Even in cases that require a Christian to work on Sunday, it is possible to acknowledge Sunday with some special form of worship and to set aside another day for Sabbath rest. By keeping the Sabbath an effective limit would be placed on productivity and the opportunity would be created for fostering relationships with God and others.
Of recent months our family has tried to use Saturday as a ‘work day’ of sorts, so that our Sundays could be filled with the nothingness of rest and the sweetness of relationships. Yesterday was a good example of this. The day began with breakfacst with some friends in our local community. We sat and talked, prayed, laughed, ate and drank good coffee until about 10am, I don’t know what time the others finished but I returned home to prepare for some friends who we meet with only occassionally. In fact I have blogged about them before. They are looking into becoming Greek Orthodox, doing fortnighly classes etc. We spent much of the afternoon sharing life with these guys. The evening was a dinner of leftovers around the kitchen bench, bed time for kids, deep chats about parenting our kids!! You know the whole deal of being on the same page when it comes to the ‘issues’ with each kid.
So we try. It’s not always ideal, sometimes a lawnmower gets started or a floor gets washed on a Sunday, but these precious days are usually reserved for worship, however that looks, friendship, family, food, walks, reading, wine, sleeps, playing on thelawn with the kids…and max.
The full article is here.
No Guarantees 
Good post Scotty,
I find that I am very casual in my treatment of the Sabbath, which is after all one of the Ten Commandments. I know that if I was to murder, commit adultery or start worshiping pagan gods’ friends, family and spiritual supervisors would require some serious recompense – and rightfully so. Ignoring the Sabbath though is tolerated, perhaps even encouraged if it’s to undertake Christian service or “God jobs”. My Grandparent were far more strict on us regarding our use of time on Sundays – I miss that. I find that a regular lack of activity gives my life a lot more clarity.
It’s so easy to ignore it all together, but then I am sure for some it would be easy to abuse it like the Pharisees did…you know the other way, leagalistically. I often think about the “Sabath to serve us, not us to serve sabath quote”. These things are meant to liberate us not bind us, you could bring tithing into this same comment couldn’t you?