Christians over the centuries seem to have had a hard time establishing helpful principles for keeping the fourth commandment.  Anabaptists may be no less confused: many of us are accustomed to either surrounding the Lord’s Day with strictures and regulations or seeing it as a day in which to go to church and then to do as we wish.  

While The Rest of God does not provide a deeply theological exposition of the purpose and historical practice of Sabbath, Mark Buchanan challenges us to consider a weekly Sabbath as a gracious and delight-filled gift from God—a chance to step back from our over-full, over-busy, and over-stressed lives in order to refocus on God and regain our joy in Him. 

In the introduction, Buchanan comments on our culture’s view of work: “…busyness is a fetish and stillness is laziness; rest is sloth” (he is from Alberta, but one gets the impression he must know a few Anabaptists) and references three of his readers’ possible perspectives on Sabbath.  Some Christians have grown up legalistic; some see Sabbath as an outdated custom from which we are exempt; and some of us may simply be weary enough to see Sabbath-keeping as just another good thing for which we do not have time.  Experiencing Sabbath as the “rest of God” will require changing both our minds and our behavior, and correcting what the author calls a “rickety” theology of work is one of the first steps (18).

In subsequent chapters, Buchanan sketches pictures of Sabbath rest through Scripture, stories, and examples both good and bad.   End-of-chapter “liturgies” encourage the reader to put into practice what he has just read.  (While “liturgy” tends to carry connotations of chilly cathedrals, empty rituals, and high-church pomposity, Buchanan simply means practical applications—“gestures with which to honor” Sabbath.)  He intentionally avoids do’s and don’ts, choosing rather to describe a Sabbath that rests and replenishes us by focusing our attention on Who God is and what He has done.  

Woven into the inspiring and positive illustrations are warnings of hindrances to good Sabbath-keeping.  One of these is leisure.  In fact, Buchanan says leisure is “one of the largest obstacles to true Sabbath-keeping.”  He describes going back to work or school after a weekend of “revelry or retreat, high jinks or hibernation” feeling “weary and depressed…sullen and peevish…depleted.”  The difference between this and going back refreshed and filled lies in “time sanctified.” (35-36)

“Sabbath-keeping requires two orientations.  One is Godward.  The other is timeward (62).”  To keep Sabbath well, says Buchanan, we will have to change our minds about both.  If we don’t trust God, Sabbath looks risky.  And unless we see time properly, in the perspective of eternity, we will not be able to enjoy a rest from its demands.  

Fourteen chapters of similarly challenging ideas are up for discussion in The Rest of God.  A few disclaimers: Buchanan obviously enjoys carefully constructed sentences and expressive writing, and some of his lengthy and almost poetic descriptions may irritate the more prosaic among us.  At times they nearly distract from his point, but he always gets around to the connection eventually.  Although a pastor for many years, Buchanan was not brought up in a Christian home, and some of his illustrations would not have taken place in one.   In a few instances he is startlingly frank. 

Readers may not agree with all of Buchanan’s applications concerning Sabbath-keeping, but his illustrations and principles certainly provoke necessary and profitable thought.  If you frequently feel burned out, frazzled, and joyless even after a weekend off work, this book is for you.