The great rabbi and writer Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) called the Sabbath “a palace in time, which we build…made of soul, of joy and reticence.” “What is so luminous about a day?” he asks. The “seventh day”—Saturday, the Sabbath, Shabbat—is “a mine where spirit’s precious metal can be found with which the construct the palace in time, a dimension in which the human is at home with the divine.” (The Sabbath, 1951)

The Christian tradition has never observed the Sabbath in quite the same way as our Jewish cousins—and indeed the Episcopal Church has never observed Sunday “Sabbath” regulations with the strictness of Scottish Presbyterians or New England Puritans!—but we are just as deeply committed, at least in theory, to obeying the Fourth Commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” And to “keep it holy” isn’t just a list of negative prohibitions (“Don’t work, don’t shop, don’t play sports”) but a list of positive invitations (“Do spend time with family, or friends; do spend time with God”).

“The Sabbath” has always been reused as a metaphor in addition to being a literal day. Even in the Bible, there’s a “sabbath year” in which the land itself is allowed to rest, lying fallow, and all debts are forgiven. You’re probably familiar with the more recent concept of a “sabbatical,” a time of rest and refreshment between periods of work.

But whether it’s one day out of seven, or one year out of seven, or simply the scattered pockets of time you find in which you can laid down your work and your worries, the Sabbath is vital. And as work and news have colonized more and more of our lives—as the latest email and the latest tragedy have moved from our desks to our homes to our pockets—Sabbath is harder and harder to find, which makes it, ironically, even more urgent!

I’m happy to say that I’ve just returned from a wonderful vacation, which was a real Sabbath, of rest and time to spend with family and with friends. Perhaps you’re enjoying your own Sabbath right now. But even if your day-to-day schedule is more or less the same as usual, I want to invite you to look for the places of rest within it, and to “mine” the “precious metal” there, to take a little time just to fully rest, to be “at home with the divine.”

All the cares and occupations of the world will stay be there when you return, waiting for you. But bit by bit you might build up that palace, which you can enter any time.

I’ll leave you with the collect our Book of Common Prayer offers for Morning Prayer on Saturday, the Sabbath day. It’s one of my favorite prayers in the book. (You can find it, if you’d like, on page 99.)

A Collect for Saturdays

Almighty God, who after the creation of the world rested from all your works and sanctified a day of rest for all your creatures: Grant that we, putting away all earthly anxieties, may be duly prepared for the service of your sanctuary, and that our rest here upon earth may be a preparation for the eternal rest promised to your people in heaven; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.