"Salt Away the Sabbath: The Overthrow of the Work Ethic"
by Rev. Kimi Riegel
October 6, 2002

Readings
From a woman minister (I don't remember who)… If one more person tells me to take care of myself I am going to shoot them. I know I can't continue to do dishes and talk on the phone forever. The day will come when I won't have the energy in the evening to do my correspondence while watching television. I don't plan to go like this forever, but until my three children are raised and the promises I made to the world are fulfilled I don't plan to take care of myself. It’s hard because so many people accuse me of doing too much. "Oh, my" they all say. "I just don't know how you it." Well, that's the whole point, I don't do it. I don't finish everything I start. And I do very few things well. I cut corners. I keep sewing projects in plastic bags for years just so I remember that I would enjoy an evening with busy hands and an empty mind. I triage my entire desk every few months and literally throw out huge piles of unanswered mail. Every few weeks I do the same thing to the telephone list. When the list of people who need calls returned goes over thirty by Friday I get nervous. I declare an emergency. I pick the five or so who really need a reply a loose the rest of the slips. Then I forgive myself. Am I proud of my ability to continue making commitments after I am over-extended, you bet. Do I get tired? Yes and frequently. Worse, and this really makes my New Age friends cluck, I even get sick. I have had frequent bouts with illness. But once I learned that I was not going to die tomorrow, which is a fear I indulged quite thoroughly, I went back to my old habits of filling up the appointment book on daily basis and trying to have as much fun as possible at the same time. [1]

Tao Te Ching as translated by Stephen Mitchell
9
Fill your bowl to the brim
and it will spill.
Keep sharpening you knife
And it will blunt.
Chase after money and security
And your heart will never unclench
Care about people’s approval
And you will be their prisoner

Do your work, then step back
The only path to serenity

24
He who stand on tiptoe
Doesn’t stand firm
He who rushes ahead
Doesn’t go far
He who tries to shine
Dims his own light
He who defines himself
Can’t know who he really is
He who has power over others
Can’t empower himself
He who clings to his work
Will create nothing that endures

If you want to accord with the Tao
Just do your job, then let go[1]


Sermon: “Salt Away the Sabbath: The Over Throw of the Work Ethic”

This morning I will suggest we become revolutionaries. Not the crazy kind but the quiet one moment at a time kind.  I suggest we overthrow the work ethic one restful instant at a time.  To Salt Away the Sabbath, as the title of this sermon suggests, is to put a bit of it away at a time; to put into our time bank a little Sabbath each day.  In time we have a store of rest and separation from the gods of work.  In time we have remembered what is important.  In time we are in fact living closer to what we value.

The Protestant Work Ethic seemed like a good idea at the time. As one author writes, “It consisted of a striving for security, collecting, miserliness and saving. At the heart of the concept was an obsession with money as a sign of success (and God's grace). The adjective Protestant is explained by the fact that these qualities were seen to have been especially encouraged by the Protestant religion, especially those denominations based on the tenets of Calvinism. [The Protestant work ethic places a] universal taboo … on idleness, and industriousness is considered a religious ideal; waste is a vice, and frugality a virtue; complacency and failure are outlawed, and ambition and success are taken as sure signs of God's favor; the universal sign of sin is poverty, and the crowning sign of God's favor is wealth.” [2] It has helped create a world where men and women work hard producing goods and services that others consume.

One of the sources I found on line credited the German political philosopher and sociologist Max Weber with seeing a connection between capitalism and religion.  It said that as early as 1900 he “was impressed by the seeming fact that modern capitalism had developed mainly in those areas of Europe where Calvinistic Protestantism had taken root early in the Protestant Reformation. In [his work] The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Weber argued that a causal connection existed between the two; his concern was with the effect of religion on economic life, but he claimed that the reverse influences were equally important. Weber held that the doctrine of predestination, central to Calvinism, and the remote and unknowable Protestant God created intense anxieties in the individual regarding that person's state of grace. Practical means of reducing those anxieties took the form of a systematic commitment to a calling, that is, to hard work, thrift, and self-discipline, the material rewards of which were not consumed personally but saved and reinvested. Because these qualities were also those required for success in the newly emerging capitalist economy, it followed that these practicing Calvinists would form the nucleus of the new capitalist class. Furthermore, success in the commercial world tended to assure the individual that he or she was in fact in a state of grace because God had smiled on his or her endeavors. Weber theorized that with the waning of a religious worldview, the Protestant ethic [would] remain as "the spirit of capitalism." [3]

And 100 years later Weber has been proven correct. The work ethic infuses our entire existence. We are a culture of people where one’s work is one’s value. Whether or not we believe in the God it was created for we still believe that work is the proof of our grace.  A truly successful person is one who has a home and a job. Thus religion and its ultimate concerns about our existence expressed by the Protestant faith, i.e. anxiety about the after life, have affected economic life. We work hard to be in God’s favor or at least to look like we are. And Weber was right the reverse influences are also true, as the economic life has deeply affected religion.

In the original definitions of the word, religion was about revering the gods. It was the set of beliefs and life practices associated with revering the gods one believed in.  The conduct of ones life, such as Orthodox Jewish practices, was ones religion, ones way of showing what was important.  And it hasn’t changed for us today.  How we live our lives is our religion, it is the physical, outward manifestation of our beliefs.

What are our gods? What do we revere the most? One look at our calendars and our spending practices and it is clear what it important to us. The way we live our day-to-day lives tells a lot about what we value. The way we engage with each other and our children is a statement of what we hold in highest regard.  And I am ashamed to say, if one were to see me trying to get out the door with my three year old in the morning one would see what I value.

“Come on, finish up your toast and lets get your shoes and socks on.” He response with “Where is the cinnamon for my toast?”  As I bring the cinnamon he says, “No not that one, I like the white one.” Referring of course to the container for the cinnamon sugar that he had rubbed in the butter the day before thus it is in the dishwasher.  “Its dirty” I say.  “Can I put your socks on?”  “Those aren’t socks those are snockles.” “ Ok can I put your snockles on?”  “I don’t want that color. I want to be a blueberry today”  “Can you be a blueberry tomorrow?”  Meanwhile, he has begun shaking the sugar all over the table.  “Almost done with breakfast, darling?” I say as I take the sugar away. He says, “Please, Go away. I'm still eating my toast.”  “Let me put your shoes on while you're eating your toast. Okay?”  “Don't touch me.” “It's eight o'clock, it's time to leave for school.” “I want Papa to drive me to school.” “Papa’s not here, Momma’s taking you to school today.” “Today is a home day.” “No today is a school day. You like school.”  “No I don’t.” “How about we sing a little song while we put our shoes on, okay?” “Shh Momma please don't sing.” “How about you put on your warm jacket?” “I don’t like that jacket.” “Then we'll go to school.” “Forget it.” “You can't go to school if you don't put your jacket on.”  “I know that.”  “Come on. I have your jacket right here.” “I know that, too.” [4]

Now there are probably a dozen different ways this could have been better handled.  Like giving the little guy some choices and not waiting until 7:45 to start the process.  But all I can think about is getting out the door, getting to work and presenting my child at the daycare on time and dressed appropriately for the weather.  My values are clear at that point as embarrassing as it is to admit – I want to look like a good hard working parent.

What I would like to say is that I value the immediacy of the childish experience of putting cinnamon on toast. I would like to say I engaged in his imaginary play of being a blueberry for the day.  I would like to say that I don’t determine my worth by the number of times I make it to work on time.  I would like to not be so influenced by the work ethic.

Those mornings when I do take time to be with him instead of against him it is more congruent with what I say I believe. I say I value the time with my family.  I say I value relationships above all else.  I want my religion, my way of going through the world to be more about being and less about appearing to be doing.

In her book Sabbath Sense Donna Schaper suggests we dethrone the idol of work. Since work has become our religion and that is not working for us any more we will need to replace that god with something, to put something between our work and us.  We have to come to a place where we believe we have value other than as our work. As she says “That does not mean that we should not work, but rather that we can unload work from the heavy baggage of carrying our worth.”[5] It like that saying, “What would you like your tomb stone to say? She never missed a day at work. Or she brought her best and most loving self to every moment.”  We must replace in our minds the value of work with the value of a life well lived. 

So today let us begin a revolution and set about over throwing the tyranny of the work ethic.  Not to the point that we starving on the streets – I am not that progressive, yet, but what if we were just a bit less driven. And I mean driven about all things. For even the spiritual can have a driven feeling.

I remember a few years back some friends had suggested that I develop a spiritual discipline to help me remember what is important in my life.  That’s a great idea! But I found myself doing it just to get it done.  My spiritual practice had become a part of the “work of the day.”  It was another thing on my list. I would crawl into bed exhausted and then kick myself as I drifted off for not finding time to write or meditate.  Guilt induced meditation didn’t do much for my ability to be present to the world.

But recently I think I have found a different perspective on all of this. Ms Schaper suggests that instead of working all day every day that we get back to the origins of the word Sabbath, which come from the word that meant, “to separate.” [6] Sabbath does not have to be in the whole day set aside for rest and play but it can be in an attitude toward the whole day. For instance, lately I have taken to lighting a candle when I get to work.  I blow it out before I leave my office, and thus it acts as a kind of a capitol letter and period at the end of the sentence of work. That isn’t to say I don’t take my work home, but when I arrive at work I have acknowledged it. It gives this time a different feel. That different feel for just a moment keeps me from becoming unconscious in my doing, reminds me that work is not the end all, be all and gives me a moment to recall what really matters.
Rituals have long been suspect by Unitarian Universalists as for many they had or have become hollow, without meaning.  But what if we recreated little rituals that gave us a chance to be more than our work.  Dr David Kundtz in his book Stopping suggests we use “stillpoints”. He says, “What you do during a stillpoint is simple: You stop doing whatever you’re doing, sit or stand, take a deep breath and with your eyes open or closed focus your attention inward and remember what you need to remember. Stop, breath, and remember”[7]

In the words of TS Eliot:

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.[8]

Thus with stillpoints work looses it hold on us.  We begin, one moment at a time, to quietly overthrow the work ethic.  We provide the space to be reminded of how we want to be remembered, we are reminded of our religion and the gods we want to be revering.  We are reminded of the music and dance of our lives. Stillpoints are not about list making, or gathering courage or any of the other things we do. They are a simple stop, breath and remember. They are about being.  They can happen anywhere, walking from job to job, standing in line, or waiting for my son to put on his shoes. They can have a physical component such as lighting a candle or a gesture as Dr Kundtz suggests when he puts his thumb and forefinger together in tense situations to remind himself that “this too shall pass.”[9]

To Salt Away the Sabbath, as the title of this sermon suggests, is to put a bit of it away at a time; to put into our time bank a little Sabbath each day.  In time we have a store of rest and separation from the gods of work.  In time we have remembered what is important.  In time, we are, in fact, living closer to what we value.

What does your Sabbath moment look like? What do you need to remember as you stop, breath and remember?  Let us take a moment or two now to find that word or phrase that we need to remember. Let us take a moment here and now to Stop, Breath and remember.

May your days be filled with Sabbath moments.
Namaste, Blessed be, Amen, Shalom.