On the seventh day The Lord rested from His work, and He in turn has given us the command to...
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:8-11)
We can see a few important principles in these verses:
The sabbath is to be observed ("remember") and to be kept "holy." That is, set apart, totally different to the rest of the week, devoted to the Lord in a special and unique way.
The sabbath is for rest. It is the one day of the week where work should not be done.
The sabbath is for family. Note it says "you, or your son, or your daughter."
And so, one reason we establish the practice of sabbath dinners in our homes is to help us do each of these things. We bring the family together to prepare our hearts and lives to set the next 24 hours apart for The Lord.
As the sabbath is to be a time of rest from work, and enjoying the fruits of our work, we sit down for a meal and are grateful for God's provision.
As the sabbath is to be a holy day, set apart to the Lord, we worship together and learn from God's Word together during the sabbath meal.
The children make name cards, help to choose the menu with mum, and get involved in preparing the meal and setting the table. Guests are always welcome to join us as we seek to show hospitality to "the sojourner" as is mentioned in the command. And we do all of this as a family. No phones, no TV in the background, no rushing off to the next thing. We sit together and engage with each other. In our culture, it can take some getting used to, but it will bear great fruit.
If you don't know where to start, and we certainly didn't, then using a 'family worship liturgy' might help you to do those things. Otherwise, here are some practical tips to help you prepare:
Get the whole family involved. Give the children roles (like making name cards, setting the table, chopping vegetables, etc.). Dad, you need to be involved too, and not just going along with it, but presiding over it. Set the example and be the most engaged person in the room, choose some good, theologically sound worship music to listen to, and set the tone. And while you're at it, cook a huge slab of meat to share. Mum, give yourself enough time to prepare and get things ready so it doesn't become stressful for you. This is meant to be a celebration and the beginning of a day of rest.
Print out the liturgies in advance and talk the kids through it. Try and learn the hymns in advance. If they're too young to read, tweak the questions you ask them, but make sure to involve the little ones too. Ask them questions like "where does Jesus live?" If they can speak, get them to say "in my heart." If they can't speak yet, teach them to point to their hearts!
Make it an occasion. Buy some wine, or at least something fancy to drink that you don't normally have throughout the week. Our girls love pink lemonade! Aim to have three courses. It doesn't have to be expensive. Garlic bread makes a great starter, especially for younger kids, and ice cream is as good as anything for dessert when kids are around the table!
Be cheerful. If the occasion is getting on top of you and stressing you out, simplify it. It's a learning curve. The last thing we want to teach our kids about sabbath rest is that it stresses mum and dad out! As you learn to sabbath well, you'll find yourself scheduling your week differently, doing work normally reserved for the weekend during the week so that you aren't cramming in chores on a Saturday afternoon when you're also trying to prepare a big meal.
Don't be religious about it. If you miss a week, don't sweat it. If you only manage a simple meal, at least you managed one! The idea is to develop long-term habits that stick, not flash in the pan efforts that burn out quick. Start small and simple. There's no command in scripture to have a sabbath meal. This is one idea you might find helpful to enable you to keep the command of the sabbath.
Why not give it a go this Saturday night? See the file below for some liturgies that could help get you started.
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