The Common Rule by Justin Whitmel Earley
Week 9: Weekly Habit 4 — One Sabbath
Read the chapter on One Sabbath in The Common Rule. Key Scripture: Genesis 2:1–3; Exodus 20:8–11; Mark 2:27–28.
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Sabbath is the habit that may most directly confront our deepest functional beliefs about productivity, worth, and control. This week, sit with the possibility that rest is not a reward for finishing — it is a command for people who never will.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Earley observes that Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments — and yet it is arguably the commandment that Christians in Western culture most openly and cheerfully ignore. Why do you think that is? What justifications do you most often hear — or use yourself?
2.He argues that busyness is not a neutral condition but a kind of theology — it communicates what we actually believe about our own importance, indispensability, and the source of our security. Do you recognize that 'theology of busyness' in yourself? What does your busyness say about what you trust?
3.Earley points out that God rested on the seventh day not because he was tired but as an act of completion and delight — and that our Sabbath participates in that same rhythm. How does that reframe Sabbath from something we earn (resting after we've finished) to something we practice by faith (resting before we've finished)?
a.What would it mean, practically, to rest before your work is done?
b.What fear does that provoke in you?
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