교회의 사명은 계시록의 세천사에 의하여 잘 표현되었듯이 “하늘과 땅과 바다와 물 들의 근원을 만드신 이”(계 14:7)에 대한 참다운 경배를 증진시키는 것이다. 안식일은 교회가 참된 예배의 축복을 증진시키기 위하여 사용할 수 있는 가장 효과적인 도구이다. 안식일은 하나님의 창조와 구속의 업적에 관심을 집중케 함으로써 거짓 예배에 대한 해독제의 기능을 행사하고 있다.
돈(마 6:24), 권력(계 13:8; 골 3:5), 쾌락(롬 6:19; 딛 3:3) 또는 인간이 제정한 구원의 제도(갈 4:9)같은 인간이 만든 실재들을 섬기는 문제는 어느 시대나 예외없이 나타나는 것이지만,19 우리들의 시대에 와서 그 느낌이 특별히 격심한 바가 있다. 근대과학과 기술과 합리적 사고(思考)의 승리로 말미암아 많은 사람들이 창조주 자신 보다는 인간의 허구(虛構)를 숭배하게 되었다. (164.1)
이 시대의 교회에게 맡겨진 사명은 계시록의 세 천사들에 의하여 효과적으로 묘사되었듯이 “하늘과 땅과 바다의 근원을 만드신 분”(계 14:6)에 대한 참된 경배를 진작시키는 일이다. 안식일은 교회가 참된 예배의 회복을 촉진시키는 데에 사용할 수 있는 가장 효과적인 수단이다. 안식일은 하나님의 창조 사업과 구속 사업에 촛점을 집중시킴으로써 거짓 예배에 대한 해독제의 기능을 다하고 있다. 안식일은 남녀들로 하여금 인간의 업적과 야망을 섬기지 않고 그들의 조물주와 구속주를 경배하도록 도전한다. 교회는 사람들에게 안식일을 구별하여 하나님의 과거, 현재, 미래의 업적들을 경축하도록 권고함으로써 그들로 하여금 자신들의 자치(自治)와 자기중심주의를 버리고 대신에 자신들의 생명과 시간에 대한 하나님의 주인되심을 받아들이도록 도전한다. (164.2)
계시. 안식일의 예배 의식은 단지 경축의 시간일 뿐만 아니라 하나님의 계시의 시간이기도 하다. 예배 의식의 기간에 이루어지는 노래와 기도와 말씀 선포를 통한 하나님의 선하심의 경축은 정도는 다르지만 각각 인간의 구원을 위한 하나님의 계획과 의지의 계시를 밝히는 데에 기여하고 있다. 이같은 계시는 여타의 모든 염려들을 한쪽으로 제쳐놓은 연후에라야만 경험될 수 있다.20 (164.3)
특별한 의미에 있어서 안식일의 예배 의식은 하나님의 말씀 속에 나타나 있는 가치들의 계시와 선포를 보고 듣기 위하여 흔히는 과거에 부도덕한 가치들로 인정되었으나 이제는 새로운 것으로 소개되는 윤리들로 우리를 유혹하고 있는 수 많은 음성들을 침묵시키는 시간이라고 할 수 있다. 예배 의식의 기간에 일어나고 있는 하나님의 계시는 어떤 의미에 있어서 조지 엘리옷(George Elliot)이 웅변적으로 말했듯이 “하나님께서 인간의 의무에 대하여 두려우나 필요한 교훈을 아직도 말씀하시고 계시는 시내 산(山)이며 예수께서 다시 영광의 모습으로 변화하시어 우리의 앞에 서 있는 헤르몬 산이며, 우리가 승천하시는 주님의 모습에 시선을 모으고 서 있는 감람 산이다.”21 엘리오트는 계속하여 말하기를 “이 축복의 동산에 우리가 지금 영원한 숙소를 정하지는 않지만 이 고지 위에 그 광체를 항상 남겨 둠으로써, 작업을 해야하는 주일의 모든 평일들에 그 영광의 일부를 나누게 한다”22고 하였다. (164.4)
하나님께 드리는 예배는 그것이 영혼을 하나님께 더욱 가까이 나가게 하고 하나님의 임재의 느낌을 일깨우는 것인한은 날짜에 관계없이 각기 계시의 성격을 가지고 있다. 그러나 안식일의 예배는 하나님의 계시성이 한충 높다고 해야 한다. 그 이유는 첫째 3장(章)에서 지적했듯이 하나님께서는 이 날에 그리고 이 날을 통하여 특별한 의미에 있어서 당신의 거룩한 임재를 나타내시겠다는 약속해 주셨기 때문이다. 둘째 이유는 안식일의 안식이 개인적으로나 집단적으로 모두 하나님의 계시를 경험할 수 있는 계기를 마련해 주고 있기 때문이다. 후자의 경험은 그리스도인들이 교회의 공중 예배 경험에 동참하기 위하여 친숙한 환경으로부터 벗어날 때 발생한다. (164.5)
사람은 다른 장소에서는 다르게 상호작용과 반응을 하게 되어 있다. 교회의 공동 예배에서 개인은 윌리암 훗킨스(William Hodgkins)가 말한 “회중으로부터 하나님께로 움직이고 성령을 통하여 하나님으로부터 회중에게로 움직이는” “순환적인” 감화력 속에 빠져 들게 된다.23 이와 같은 “순환적”이며 계시적인 경험에 있어서는 절대적인 역할을 목사가 수행한다. 왜냐하면 하나님은 특별히 목사의 설교를 통하여 모여있는 회중에게 백성들의 생명을 위한 하나님의 구원의 계획과 의지에 대한 지식을 전하고 있기 때문이다. (164.6)
공동예배의 가르치고 배우는 기능의 가치는 도무지 과도히 강조될 수가 없다. 부쩍 늘어가고 있는 범죄율과 부도덕한 행위들이 증명하고 있는 바 행위의 지침이 되어야 할 하나님의 계명들과 인간의 율법들이 충격스러우리만큼 무시되고 있는 현상은 이제 교회가 국민의 도덕적 양심으로서의 자신의 책임을 다해야 한다는 것을 강조하고 있다. 안식일 예배야말로 교회가 복음의 수용이 인간 행동의 모든 단계에 어떠한 영향을 끼치는지를 교회의 여러 봉사들을 통하여 보여줄 수 있는 무비(無比)의 기회이다. (165.1)
사람이 하나님의 계시에 대하여 가장 감동받기 쉬운 순간인 예배 의식을 통하여 민감하여진 양심은 매일의 생활의 압박과 유혹 중에서도 하나님이 나타내신 원칙을 실천할 수 있는 힘을 가지게 된다. 이와 같이 예배 시간에 받은 계시는 일을 해야 하는 평일의 생활을 위한 지침과 영감으로 작용한다. (165.2)
이제 이 장의 첫 부분의 결론을 내린다면 안식과 예배는 둘 다 안식일에 하나님께 드리는 봉사의 빠뜨릴 수 없는 부분이라는 것이다. 앞에서 보았듯이 안식일에 하나님을 위하여 안식하는 행위 자체가 비공식적이긴 하지만 하나의 의미 깊은 예배 행위이며 신자들은 이 예배 행위를 통하여 자신의 생명 속에 하나님의 안식을 경험 하는 동시에 하나님께 대한 자신의 헌신을 표시하는 것이다. 이와 같은 안식의 경험 때문에 단체 예배로 하나님의 선하심을 공식적으로 경축하는 일도 가능하게 된다. 이와 같은 경축 의식은 다시 그리스도인을 위한 하나님의 의지와 은혜의 생생한 계시를 제공해 주는 것이다. (165.3)
참고문헌
1. Franz X. Pettirsch, “A Theology of Sunday Rest,” Theology Digest 6 (1958): 115.
2. Pacifico Massi rightly observes that “for the Jews rest is an act of worship, a kind of liturgy. This enables us to understand how a series of ritualistic prescriptions were imposed on the liturgy of rest” (La Domenica, 1967, p. 366).
3. The Reformers’ view of work as “a divine calling” apparently has contributed in subsequent centuries to idealize work as the object of living. Max Weber proposed that Protestant work ethics became responsible for the rise of capitalism (The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, 1958). Weber’s thesis is rather unilateral and has been strongly criticized. For a brief discussion, see Niels-Erik Andreasen, The Christian Use of Time, 1978, pp. 32-34.
4. The first statement is by Rabbi Solomo Alkabez and the second is from “The Evening Service for the Sabbath.” Both are cited by Abraham Joshua Heschel, in The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man, 1952, p. 14.
5. A. Martin, “Notes sur le Sabbath,” Foi et Vie 5 (1975): 50. The same author wisely remarks, “We do not need leisure to have a Sabbath: we need the Sabbath to experience leisure” (ibid., p. 48).
6. Alfred Barry, The Christian Sunday, 1905, p. 69.
7. Christopher Kiesling, The Future of the Christian Sunday, 1970, p. 16. This view is ably defended by W. Rordorf who writes: “Right down to the fourth century the idea of rest played absolutely no part in the Christian Sunday. Christians like everyone else worked on that day. It would not have occurred to them to do otherwise. It was only when the Emperor Constantine the Great elevated Sunday to be the statutory day of rest in the Roman Empire that Christians tried to give a theological basis to the rest from work on Sunday which was now demanded by the State: to this end they fell back on the sabbath commandment” (Sunday, 1968, pp. 296-297; cf. pp. 167-168). W. Scott has challenged Rordorf’s thesis, but, in my view, Stott’s analysis of sources leaves much to be desired (This is the Day. The Biblical Doctrine of the Christian Sunday, 1978, pp. 50-103).
8. Christopher Kiesling (n. 7), p. 16.
9. Ibid., p. 23.
10. Ibid., p. 23. Kiesling notes that “Some suggest that Canon 1248 of the Code of Canon Law, which obliges Catholics to observe Sunday worship and rest, should be changed so that the obligation of weekly worship could be fulfilled on some other day of the week” (p. 32). Kiesling views this proposal as “individualistic” and suggests a compromise solution, namely the retention of Sunday on one hand ancf the development, on the other hand, of a Christian lifestyle which is “less dependent upon it; consequently if the Christian Sunday is overwhelmed in the culture of the future, there will be something to take its place” (ibid. p. 34). The least that can be said of this proposal is that it ignores the vital function of the Biblical Sabbath for the Christian life and that it conditions the relevance and survival of a divine institution (seventh-day Sabbath) to cultural trends. To this Kiesling might reply that since Sunday is an ecclesiastical and not a Biblical institution, the Church has the right to annul it, if she deems it necessary. Obviously such an explanation is unacceptable to those Christians who maintain the sola Scriptura principle.
l1. Ibid., p. 23.
12. Ibid., p. 32.
13. The Directory of Sabbath-Observing Groups published by The Bible Sabbath Association (1974) lists no less than 120 different churches or groups observing the seventh-day Sabbath. The new directory published in 1996 lists over 300 groups.
14. W. J. Harrelson, From Fertility Cult to Worship, 1969, p. 19.
15. On the question of the origin of the synagogue, see H. H. Rowley, Worship in Ancient Israel: Its Form and Meaning, 1967, pp. 87, 224-241; J. Morgensten, “Sabbath,” Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, 1962, IV, pp. 135-141; R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel II: Religious Institutions, 1961, pp. 343f.
16. This is suggested also by the fact that the Sabbath is frequently associated with the annual feasts which are explicitly designated as “solemn assembly” (Lev. 23:7, 8, 21, 23, 27, 35). If the feasts dedicated “to the Lord your God” were celebrated by a “solemn assembly,” we would expect the same to be true in the case of the Sabbath. This nexus is clearly established in Leviticus 23 where the Sabbath opens the list of “the appointed feasts of the Lord” and is designated as “a holy convocation”: “Six days shall work be done; but on the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no work; it is a sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings” (Lev. 23 :2). Note also that the Sabbath shares the same theological direction (“to the Lord”) and prohibition of work of the annual feasts (Num. 28 :18, 25, 26; 29:1, 7, 12, 35; cf. Deut. 16:8). These elements, shared in common by the Sabbath and the annual feasts, were apparently designed to ensure the participation of all in the holy assembly. For a discussion of this question, see Niels-Erik Andreasen, Rest and Redemption, 1978, pp. 64-68.
17. On the influence of the synagogue upon Christian divine service, see note 43 of chapter 5.
18. It is noteworthy that the Jews through the centuries have expressed the joyful celebration of the Sabbath through the ritual of the kindling of lights. As Abraham E. Millgram explains, “The kindling of the Sabbath lights is one of the most impressive home ceremonies, symbolizing the essential characteristic of the Sabbath—light, joy and good cheer” (Sabbath. The Day of Delight, 1944, p. 10).
19. In a terrible indictment, Paul denounces the universal sin of those who serve and worship “the creature rather than the Creator” (Rom. 1:25).
20. A. Martin eloquently explains that to observe the Sabbath “means to silence our questioning in order to make place for the Word of God which is true silence and true peace. Because it is in the silence of the Sabbath that one can hear the whispering of the Word. To live the Sabbath covenant means not to say that ‘God is dead’ under the pretense that He does not say anything: it is not God who is dead; it is we who must die to our babbling. The Sabbath alliance means to be still and experience the grand silence of the Word of God. Because it is in the silence that God speaks” (n. 5, p. 31).
21. George Elliott, The Abiding Sabbath: An Argument for the Perpetual Obligation of the Lord’s Day, 1884, p. 81.
22. Ibid.
23. William Hodgkins, Sunday: Christian and Social Significance, 1960, p. 219. Hodgkins rightly observes that in the congregational worship “the individual shares in the strength of the spiritual influence produced by a company of people, and when this is carried out under the skilful guidance of a minister achieves a sense of purpose that is impossible to anyone sat in an armchair listening to a service from a radio set or watching it on television, or reading a devotional book or taking a two minute sermon from a newspaper. This is the great advantage of the Church, that for this communal act of devotion there is really no substitute” (ibid.).(165.4)
2. Pacifico Massi rightly observes that “for the Jews rest is an act of worship, a kind of liturgy. This enables us to understand how a series of ritualistic prescriptions were imposed on the liturgy of rest” (La Domenica, 1967, p. 366).
3. The Reformers’ view of work as “a divine calling” apparently has contributed in subsequent centuries to idealize work as the object of living. Max Weber proposed that Protestant work ethics became responsible for the rise of capitalism (The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, 1958). Weber’s thesis is rather unilateral and has been strongly criticized. For a brief discussion, see Niels-Erik Andreasen, The Christian Use of Time, 1978, pp. 32-34.
4. The first statement is by Rabbi Solomo Alkabez and the second is from “The Evening Service for the Sabbath.” Both are cited by Abraham Joshua Heschel, in The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man, 1952, p. 14.
5. A. Martin, “Notes sur le Sabbath,” Foi et Vie 5 (1975): 50. The same author wisely remarks, “We do not need leisure to have a Sabbath: we need the Sabbath to experience leisure” (ibid., p. 48).
6. Alfred Barry, The Christian Sunday, 1905, p. 69.
7. Christopher Kiesling, The Future of the Christian Sunday, 1970, p. 16. This view is ably defended by W. Rordorf who writes: “Right down to the fourth century the idea of rest played absolutely no part in the Christian Sunday. Christians like everyone else worked on that day. It would not have occurred to them to do otherwise. It was only when the Emperor Constantine the Great elevated Sunday to be the statutory day of rest in the Roman Empire that Christians tried to give a theological basis to the rest from work on Sunday which was now demanded by the State: to this end they fell back on the sabbath commandment” (Sunday, 1968, pp. 296-297; cf. pp. 167-168). W. Scott has challenged Rordorf’s thesis, but, in my view, Stott’s analysis of sources leaves much to be desired (This is the Day. The Biblical Doctrine of the Christian Sunday, 1978, pp. 50-103).
8. Christopher Kiesling (n. 7), p. 16.
9. Ibid., p. 23.
10. Ibid., p. 23. Kiesling notes that “Some suggest that Canon 1248 of the Code of Canon Law, which obliges Catholics to observe Sunday worship and rest, should be changed so that the obligation of weekly worship could be fulfilled on some other day of the week” (p. 32). Kiesling views this proposal as “individualistic” and suggests a compromise solution, namely the retention of Sunday on one hand ancf the development, on the other hand, of a Christian lifestyle which is “less dependent upon it; consequently if the Christian Sunday is overwhelmed in the culture of the future, there will be something to take its place” (ibid. p. 34). The least that can be said of this proposal is that it ignores the vital function of the Biblical Sabbath for the Christian life and that it conditions the relevance and survival of a divine institution (seventh-day Sabbath) to cultural trends. To this Kiesling might reply that since Sunday is an ecclesiastical and not a Biblical institution, the Church has the right to annul it, if she deems it necessary. Obviously such an explanation is unacceptable to those Christians who maintain the sola Scriptura principle.
l1. Ibid., p. 23.
12. Ibid., p. 32.
13. The Directory of Sabbath-Observing Groups published by The Bible Sabbath Association (1974) lists no less than 120 different churches or groups observing the seventh-day Sabbath. The new directory published in 1996 lists over 300 groups.
14. W. J. Harrelson, From Fertility Cult to Worship, 1969, p. 19.
15. On the question of the origin of the synagogue, see H. H. Rowley, Worship in Ancient Israel: Its Form and Meaning, 1967, pp. 87, 224-241; J. Morgensten, “Sabbath,” Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, 1962, IV, pp. 135-141; R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel II: Religious Institutions, 1961, pp. 343f.
16. This is suggested also by the fact that the Sabbath is frequently associated with the annual feasts which are explicitly designated as “solemn assembly” (Lev. 23:7, 8, 21, 23, 27, 35). If the feasts dedicated “to the Lord your God” were celebrated by a “solemn assembly,” we would expect the same to be true in the case of the Sabbath. This nexus is clearly established in Leviticus 23 where the Sabbath opens the list of “the appointed feasts of the Lord” and is designated as “a holy convocation”: “Six days shall work be done; but on the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no work; it is a sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings” (Lev. 23 :2). Note also that the Sabbath shares the same theological direction (“to the Lord”) and prohibition of work of the annual feasts (Num. 28 :18, 25, 26; 29:1, 7, 12, 35; cf. Deut. 16:8). These elements, shared in common by the Sabbath and the annual feasts, were apparently designed to ensure the participation of all in the holy assembly. For a discussion of this question, see Niels-Erik Andreasen, Rest and Redemption, 1978, pp. 64-68.
17. On the influence of the synagogue upon Christian divine service, see note 43 of chapter 5.
18. It is noteworthy that the Jews through the centuries have expressed the joyful celebration of the Sabbath through the ritual of the kindling of lights. As Abraham E. Millgram explains, “The kindling of the Sabbath lights is one of the most impressive home ceremonies, symbolizing the essential characteristic of the Sabbath—light, joy and good cheer” (Sabbath. The Day of Delight, 1944, p. 10).
19. In a terrible indictment, Paul denounces the universal sin of those who serve and worship “the creature rather than the Creator” (Rom. 1:25).
20. A. Martin eloquently explains that to observe the Sabbath “means to silence our questioning in order to make place for the Word of God which is true silence and true peace. Because it is in the silence of the Sabbath that one can hear the whispering of the Word. To live the Sabbath covenant means not to say that ‘God is dead’ under the pretense that He does not say anything: it is not God who is dead; it is we who must die to our babbling. The Sabbath alliance means to be still and experience the grand silence of the Word of God. Because it is in the silence that God speaks” (n. 5, p. 31).
21. George Elliott, The Abiding Sabbath: An Argument for the Perpetual Obligation of the Lord’s Day, 1884, p. 81.
22. Ibid.
23. William Hodgkins, Sunday: Christian and Social Significance, 1960, p. 219. Hodgkins rightly observes that in the congregational worship “the individual shares in the strength of the spiritual influence produced by a company of people, and when this is carried out under the skilful guidance of a minister achieves a sense of purpose that is impossible to anyone sat in an armchair listening to a service from a radio set or watching it on television, or reading a devotional book or taking a two minute sermon from a newspaper. This is the great advantage of the Church, that for this communal act of devotion there is really no substitute” (ibid.).