Charlie Kirk & the Sabbath

 

“Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.  For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it.                                   Exodus 20: 8-11 NRSVue

When I led a study group on the biblical concept of Sabbath in the Fall of 2023 it was one of the more poorly attended of the many I've offered at Trenton United yet the conversation was really worthwhile. Some of the participants were old enough that they grew up in a time long before Sunday commerical openings and their families engaged in activities that would be considered boring and stifling today. Along with church attendance they were encouraged to read and engage in music. Several of them have carried personal Sabbath-keeping into the present day with a commitment that puts me to shame, although I do have the decency to feel guilty about breaking the Sabbath. 

I pointed out that this one of is the only "remember" commandment while most of the others are prohibitions, the "thou shalt nots" of the KJV. And it is the lengthiest and most specific of the bunch, other than the one concerning idolatry. In a way the two go together. 

I was discombobulated when I read that the late Charlie Kirk, the young American right-wing star who was gunned down at a rally, had just finished writing a book about the Sabbath and it's now published. I heard about it through an Atlantic magazine article with the title There Were Two Charlie Kirks: A new book by the right-wing activist, who was murdered in September, has moments of seriousness, beauty, and cross-partisan appeal.

The writer of the article is Judith Shulevitz, a Jewish author whose book on the Sabbath I used in the study I led, as well as with other similar studies. In her piece she begins: 

Charlie Kirk’s last book, Stop, in the Name of God, was released on the morning of December 9. By afternoon, it had jumped to No. 1 on Amazon and then sold out. On one hand, this should surprise no one. Kirk had a huge following even before his assassination made him, for many, a martyred saint and drove an online surge of both mourning and recrimination over insufficient mourning. On the other hand, this is a book about the Sabbath. Living authors of books investigating the day of rest, a small but select sodality, are probably feeling dizzy right now. I know I am. (Kirk seems to have read my book, The Sabbath World, and mentions me once.) The Sabbath is generally regarded as a topic of specialized interest. I can’t think of any other work of Sabbatarian theology that has attained instant best-seller status.

It sounds as though Kirk practiced a Friday sundown to Saturday sundown Sabbath in the Jewish tradtion, including shutting down social media. I was able to find some quotes from the prologue of his book and I would agree with many of them, so I included them below. I would add, though, that Sabbath is both the immediate practice and an outcome that aligns with the fruits of the spirit described by the apostle Paul. We are called to live the Sabbath in every day and every aspect of our lives. I found far too much of what Kirk had to say elsewhere as divisive and disturbing in ways that fed White Christian Nationalism, so I won't be buying the book. Others may find it insightful and useful. 

You can read a few of his thoughts here and draw your own conclusions: 

"In this book, I intend to persuade you of something that may, at first, seem quaint, old-fashioned, or even unnecessary: that the Sabbath is not merely a helpful tradition or a cultural relic—it is essential to the flourishing of the human soul," Charlie Kirk wrote in the prologue:

"I will define the Sabbath not just in doctrinal terms but in existential ones. We will explore its origin—not in history, but in eternity; not in law, but in creation," he wrote. "I will show you how to incorporate it not as a weekly burger but as a life-giving rhythm that reorders your time, renews your mind, and restores your humanity."

"It is written for the exhausted parent, the anxious student, the burned-out executive, the soul-numbed scroller," he wrote.

"This is not a suggestion manual or a spiritual upgrade for those with spare time," he continued. "This is a manifesto against the machine of modern life. It is a call to war against the endless noise and ceaseless hurry that have slowly robbed you of your joy, your wonder, and your rest."

Charlie Kirk wrote that he did not write the book to "affirm your lifestyle," but instead "to interrupt it." 

"I am writing to cut at the root of some of the deepest wounds in our society—disconnection, anxiety, spiritual fatigue, moral confusion—and to offer you a concrete, ancient, and divine practice that can begin to heal them," he wrote.

"As America has abandoned the Sabbath, we have watched nearly every major marker of health—emotional, spiritual, communal—begin to fail," he wrote. "We are more productive and less peaceful, more connected digitally and more isolated relationally. We are over-stimulated, undernourished, distracted, discontent, and desperately lonely."

"My mission in writing this is very simple: I desire to bring all humanity back to God’s design to rest for an entire day," Charlie Kirk writes. "To cease working, to STOP, in the name of GOD." 

Childermass 2025

                                          “The Massacre of the Innocents,” an 1824 painting by Léon Cogniet.

The Escape to Egypt

 Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”  Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”

The Massacre of the Infants

 When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the magi. Then what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

 “A voice was heard in Ramah,
    wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
    she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”

                                          Matthew 2: 13-18 NRVue

I think I've said in the past that it would have been unthinkable during my years of congregational ministry to focus on yesterday's "downer" Christian feast day during the Christmas season. The fourth day of Christmas is not actually about calling birds, a theme I could get behind, but the slaughter of children. Ugh. It is called the Feast of the Holy Innocents or the Massacre of the Innocents and refers to a disturbing story found only in Matthew's gospel and not corroborated by any other historical writers of the period. Herod the not-so-great, the despotic Roman king of Judah, can't find the infant Jesus the Magi had come to worship. So in his fury he orders the deaths of all the toddlers and infants in his realm. 

There has been a strange debate this year over whether Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus Family in flight to Egypt were truly refugees -- what else would they be? It seems that even this gospel story has been politicized by those in different parts of the world who want to claim to be Jesus followers but have a hate on for migrants and refugees. 2025 has been rife with the photos of starving and displaced children in Gaza and Sudan and elsewhere.

I hadn't realized that this feast day is also known as Childermass, and somehow this name helps bring into focus the reminder that children are innocent and subject to the whims of the adults around them. What if infant Jesus had been murdered or died on the challenging journey to and from Egypt? 

I saw a tweet from New Testament professor Esau McCaulley that led me to an article he wrote for the New York Times six years ago and it struck me as both relevant and worthy of sharing, or at least a portion of it. Here are a few paragraphs from that powerful piece. 

Esau McCaulley

@esaumccaulley

Six years ago, I published my first

@nytimes

piece on the feast of the Holy Innocents. I never imagined I would still be doing this all these years later.

Why is it important that the church calendar tells this story at the beginning of the Christmas season? Why should anyone care about the dates on a Christian calendar, especially in a time in which people have rightly questioned the excessive quest for power that marks some corners of the church?

The church calendar calls Christians and others to remember that we live in a world in which political leaders are willing to sacrifice the lives of the innocent on the altar of power. We are forced to recall that this is a world with families on the run, where the weeping of mothers is often not enough to win mercy for their children. More than anything, the story of the innocents calls upon us to consider the moral cost of the perpetual battle for power in which the poor tend to have the highest casualty rate.But how can such a bloody and sad tale do anything other than add to our despair? 

The Christmas story must be told in the context of suffering and death because that’s the only way the story makes any sense. Where else can one speak about Christmas other than in a world in which racism, sexism, classism, materialism and the devaluation of human life are commonplace? People are hurting, and the epicenter of that hurt, according to the Feast of the Holy Innocents, remains the focus of God’s concern.

This feast suggests that things that God cares about most do not take place in the centers of power. The truly vital events are happening in refugee camps, detention centers, slums and prisons. The Christmas story is set not in a palace surrounded by dignitaries but among the poor and humble whose lives are always subject to forfeit. It’s a reminder that the church is not most truly herself when she courts power. The church finds her voice when she remembers that God “has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble,” as the Gospel of Luke puts it.

The very telling of the Christmas story is an act of resistance. This is how the biblical story functioned for my ancestors who gathered in the fields and woods of the antebellum South. They saw in the Christian narrative an account of a God who cared for the enslaved and wanted more for them than the whip and the chain. For them Christianity did not merely serve the disinherited — it was for the disinherited, the “weak things” that shamed the strong.

Christians believe that none of this suffering was in vain. The cries of the oppressed do not go forever unanswered. We believe that the children slaughtered by Herod were ushered into the presence of God and will be with him for eternity. The Christian tradition also affirms that Jesus’ suffering served a purpose, that when the state ordered his death, God was at work. Through the slaughter of the truly innocent one, God was emptying death of its power, vanquishing evil and opening the path toward forgiveness and reconciliation.

                                         The Massacre of the Innocents --Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Sunday Prayers for the Christians of China & India

                                Christians leave a church after Christmas prayers in Guwahati, India (AP)

What does "Merry Christmas" mean for those who live in countries where freedom of religion is the official stance but not a reality?

There are arguably more Christians in both China and India than in Canada. Yet with a combined population approaching 3 billion people Christians are a small minority in each of these countries. In China the estimates vary widely from 50 to 100 million because many congregations are not sanctioned by the government. In India there are roughly 30 million Christians, with some communities of faith that are ancient, some tracing their lineage to the evangelistic efforts of the disciple Thomas. 

We've heard recently that the Chinese government has been harrassing Christian leaders and imprisoning some of them. In the days leading to Christmas there have been at least 60 reported incidents of harrassment of Christians by Hindu fundamentalists. These include intimidation of people entering churches for worship.The Roman Catholic bishops issued a statement saying"

These targeted incidents, especially against peaceful carol singers and congregations gathered in churches to pray, gravely undermine constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion and the right to live and worship without fear,

I am very mindful of the freedom that we as Canadian Christians have to gather for worship and to practice our faith.Would we be willing to attend church if we felt concerned for our safety or that we would be shunned by neighbours for doing so? What if the police were our adversaries rather than there to protect us? 

 As our government looks for trade partners around the world because the United States has chosen to become our economic enemy there is a "let bye-gones be bye-gones" approach to relations with China and India. Aware of our freedoms and commitment to human rights we need to shine a light on abuses even when doing so is not convenient. It would be a worthwhile New Year's resolution to be aware, to pray, to act on behalf of all persecuted Christians. 

Wild Child Jesus?

 

We still seem happy enough to celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Christ, at least in most churches, but there isn't much to work with in terms of his childhood from there out. Then Luke tells us that the infant Jesus is circumcised (how Jewish is that?) before he is presented in the temple and recognized by the elders Anna and Simeon. Matthew shares the story of the flight into Egypt (yes, they were refugees) and then back to Luke where 12-year-old Jesus listening and learning with teachers in the temple. That's it for Jesus' childhood though and most of it doesn't provide much insight into who he was as a boy. 

It shouldn't be that much of a surprise that the church through the ages filled in what the gospels don't tell us. Some of the stories are outlandish and others downright disturbing. Of course, I had to read an article I came upon by Mary Dzon which describes the legends and myths about the young Jesus, with "holy rascal" in the title. They are entertaining and here are a couple of examples: 

In a story summarized by one scholar as “death for a bump,” a boy runs into Jesus. He curses the child, who instantly drops down dead – though Jesus brings him back to life after a brief reprimand from Joseph.

In another tale, included in an Anglo-Norman narrative that survives in an illustrated manuscript, Jesus takes off his coat, places it upon a sunbeam and sits upon it. When the other children see this, they “thought they would do the same …. But they were too eager, and they all fell down at once. One and another jumped up quickly onto the sunbeam, but it turned out badly for them, since each one broke his neck.” Jesus heals the boys at his parents’ prompting.

A 14th-century Italian manuscript shows Jesus fending off dragons to protect his parents. © Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, CC BY-NC

Joseph admits to his neighbors that Jesus “was indeed too wild” and sends him away. The 7-year-old Jesus becomes apprenticed to a dyer, who gives him very precise directions about dyeing three pieces of cloth in three different vats. Once his master has left, Jesus ignores his instructions, throwing all the cloth into one vat – yet still achieves the desired outcome. When the master returns, he at first thinks he has been “ruined by this little rascal,” but then realizes that a wonder has occurred.

This is the ultimate "time out" imposed on Jesus! Did those stories serve a constructive purpose? Who can say, but I rather enjoy the notion of a rascally kid Jesus riding a sunbeam. Yee haw!

Jesus seated on a sunbeam, while other boys attempt to do so, in a miniature from the Selden Supra 38 manuscript, created in the early 14th century. © Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, CC BY-NC-SA

Settng a Place at the Table This Christmas

United Church of Canada Moderator, Rev. Kimberly Heath,

We had family with us on Christmas Day but our Turkey-palooza with 14 of us across three generations is tomorrow, around our table. --actually tables. We don't have an old-timey kids table but  we have to do some creative extending to accommodate everyone. When our three children were young we often had guests around our Christmas board whether extended family or various waifs, those who were a long way from their families or folk we realized would have been alone otherwise. I give Ruth huge credit for this hospitality because my minister's lead-up to Christmas was hectic and early some Christmas mornings I was visiting sick folk in hospital. 

The title for our new Moderator Kimberly Heath's first Christmas Message is Setting a Place at the Table This Christmas. Sure it's Boxing Day, but Christmas is a season in the Christian year, so here is a summary of the message and a link to hear it. 

In her annual Christmas message, The United Church of Canada Moderator, Rev. Kimberly Heath, reflects on the surprising origin of the word "Bedlam" and how its meaning connects the original Nativity scene to the confusion of our modern world.

 The story of the Prince of Peace being born into the chaos of Bethlehem teaches us that Christians do not run from the confusion. Instead, we are called to follow Jesus directly into it.

 

"We follow Jesus into it, seeking out the lost, welcoming the lonely, and setting a place at the table for everyone."

 

This Christmas, amidst fear, division, and uncertainty, the small things we do—as individuals and communities of faith—bring essential hope, peace, joy, and love.

 

May the deep peace of the running wave, the shining stars, and the Prince of Peace be with you and flow through you this day and always.

 

Merry Christmas from The United Church of Canada.

 

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