Too much to do, too little time. Americans work longer hours than most people in the other developed countries. People on both coasts work longer still. We are active little creatures, making money and spending it, building things and tearing them down. When we are not working hard, we are playing hard. When we are not doing one or the other, we are driving somewhere so we can. Or trying to organize things and people so that we will be prepared to. One thing leads to another.

God knows we need a break, so God made one. Built into the creation, according to Genesis, is a time of rest. One day out of seven for down time. That's 14%. At the end of work, a time of no work. The Sabbath day. There are clear symptoms that we are starving for this missing quiet day. In our anxiety, for sure, and our desperation. In our unending competitiveness. In our suspicion-no, our knowledge-that someone who works harder that we will gain on us, will get the prize. But also in our neglect of the rest of creation, our tendency to see the world and its creatures and even other people as resources.

God knows we need a break, so God made one, and has ordered us to respect it. Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy. It's one of the ten commandments (number three or four, depending on how who's counting). It should give us pause to think that the instruction to observe the Sabbath and the instruction not to kill are in the same list. This is serious business, according to God, not to be taken lightly.

The Sabbath is a day of rest. So it says in the Bible. In the book of Exodus, in the giving of the commandments, it says this: "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. … 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." We rest because God did. It is part of the rhythm of creation.

The Sabbath day is a time of quiet in a noisy world. And, one hopes, in our own noisy heads. It is not a time to do things we couldn't get to on the other six days. The idea is that six days of work-and that doesn't just mean going to a job, it means going to Home Depot and Target, too-are enough, or could be.

We have learned that to be successful we must focus. Pay close attention, keep out distractions, keep our eye on the ball, our mind on the prize. That's good for six days out of seven. The seventh day is a day to unfocus. To be a little fuzzy, to let ourselves be a little fuzzy. To let things be un-perfect. To let things be. To be silly and foolish.

The day of rest is a day dedicated to renewal and restoration. On that day we acknowledge that we must slow down from time to time-and that means weekly, according to scripture, not just two weeks during the summer or between semesters-that rest is as important as practice, that we are creatures built to recover as well as excel.

The Sabbath is a day of rest. It is also a day of liberation. So it says in the Bible. In the book of Deuteronomy, in the second story of the giving of the commandments, it says this: "Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work." Sounds like the Exodus passage, doesn't it? It is the same so far. But the reason given for the Sabbath is different here: "Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day." We rest because God liberated the slaves, our spiritual ancestors. It is a reminder that we belong to God first.

We live in a world of diversions. We are invited hourly to think of ourselves as economic creatures, as citizens of markets, as members of an audience. We know that that is not right. We are created by God with a higher calling. We are partners in the creation of this world. Workers for God's kingdom here. The Sabbath is the time put aside for us to remember that. So that we don't lose our way. The Sabbath is an invitation to another way of living.

Not that it is easy. If it were easy to do, there would be no point in today's Gospel story. The leader of the synagogue is unhappy with Jesus because he thinks Jesus violated the Sabbath regulations. The man is not being pedantic. He knows how easy it is to subvert the Sabbath. Make an exception here, honor an excuse there, pretty soon there is no Sabbath. In that, he is right. The Sabbath is a discipline. Like working at the gym, or dieting, or being more conscientious about studying or about cleaning the house or praying, temptations to skip are numerous and compelling.

Every summer we go on vacation to Nantucket. We like Nantucket for the obvious things: ocean, beaches, the good fish we get to cook, time with friends. We also like it because, though it is only a few miles out to sea, you have to take a boat to get there. So it seems far away, like a foreign land, a place different in kind. And hard enough to get to so that we feel stuck there-in a nice way-for a little while.

The Sabbath seems to me to be something like that. A place close by but different. A place with clear benefits. But also a place with substantial boundaries -the disciplines of Sabbath-so that we don't drift back easily into the weekday life. It is a foreign land far enough away so that we don't go back-that is, violate the spirit of the Sabbath-for something minor or something that can wait.

Sabbath is a day of rest. Sabbath is a day of liberation. And Sabbath is a day of community. It is not a coincidence that we worship on the Sabbath. The Sabbath was given to the people; it needs the support of others to make this work. When Massachusetts repealed the blue laws, some people gained, but everybody lost something. For one day, the parking lots were empty. For one day, most people had time off. For one day, the streets had fewer cars. One part of the world was quieter. Now there is no such day. As a community, we decided to be busy all the time. I think not the right decision.

Jesus frees the woman in the Gospel story. That's the word he uses: free. The leader of the synagogue complains that Jesus has healed her. It is not the same word. The man's complaint is that Jesus has done the work of a healer. Jesus says no: I have set her free from bondage. The man says Jesus has violated the spirit of Sabbath. Jesus says he has exactly conformed to the spirit of Sabbath: he has restored and liberated her.

We are bound by our culture and expectations, by the unwritten code of achievement and acquisition. The Sabbath does not do away with hard work and ambition. It does, however, call for a 14% time out. The rules of Sabbath-instruction would be a better word-the Sabbath instructions sound weird to our ears, the disciplines a new chore.

But the Sabbath does not take away something valuable which belongs to us. Any more than working out or dieting or going on vacation takes away something we value. It is the opposite. It does not create new obligations, new lists of to-do's, new appointments. It does not add to the list, but has us put aside the list for a moment. It restores something which has, usually with our approval, something which has been taken from us. Rest and liberation. Peace and freedom.