Exercise on the Sabbath

[Ploutos]

Back when I practiced Scripture memory, I did better when physically active rather than in repose. I also often (but not always) pray better when moving. Should I restrict myself to a certain distance or number of steps when such perambulations occur on the Sabbath?

 

[Request-Deleted member 11775]

Presumably though, if you were suitably engaged in private Sabbath activities in rural Scotland, you wouldn't have time to be watching to see who was out walking or not. Dr Kennedy is taking aim at going for a walk as a way of killing time on the Lord's day because you're bored of it. The walk is not the problem, it's the motivation, and that's only the same test that needs to be applied to any indifferent activity on the Lord's day, whether indoors or out.

It’s hardly possible not to notice even just out of the corner of one’s eye when out of the window as nothing is stirring when reading in the sitting room for example, if suddenly there is the movement of someone out a walk passing the house in the afternoon. Some places if you went out for a walk in the neighbourhood you would inevitably draw to yourself the notice of nearly the whole village. It’s also not uncommon for people in the habit of doing so to casually speak about having gone a walk on Sabbath.

However you understand Dr Kennedy on walking on the basis of a plea for one's health, I do agree motivation comes into it, as well as the example it may give to others, although like many things, good motivation doesn’t always excuse something that should be avoided in itself. My understanding has always been that walks on Sabbath are to be avoided and that this was the well nigh universal view in the Scottish highlands, with old Free Church ministers speaking quite strongly on the matter but I’ll not quote them here. In cities anyway there is more to distract one from keeping the Sabbath when going outdoors than there would be remaining at home. Personally I think it would be hard to maintain in most cases that going for a walk on Sabbath (the day of rest) is so necessary that it cannot be forgone or so merciful that it couldn’t be left to other days of the week. If others take a different view, so be it, but with all due respect, I find it hard to see how it is harmonious with the idea of a day of rest (in so far as we are able to rest.)

 

[jwithnell]

Good day Alex,

Perhaps this is not what you meant when you included "walks" in your above statement, but I thought I should add these quotations for nuance:

These quotes remind me of what I believe to have been the practice among the American Puritans: walking out to see the beauty of God in his creation. There's a difference between active contemplation and strapping on your hydration pack to get in your daily 5k.

 

[HauerVos]

It's an issue of conscience. Nothing wrong with getting the blood flowing on the Lord's day. I need to move my body before AM worship. Slothfulness and lethargy are not equivalent to rest.

 

[Reformed Covenanter]

While this observation is only tangential related to the OP, it may still be useful. I have had to take the last week off the gym as my body needed a rest. This morning I attended Shaftesbury Square Reformed Presbyterian Church (our service was moved forward by an hour); however, it was noticeable how much more difficult it was than usual to concentrate on the (excellent) sermon that I heard. Sadly, the gym is closed tomorrow for the world's Sabbath, which is weird given that it is a 24-hour gym that is often unstaffed, so I will have to wait until Tuesday. The moral of the story is that physical exercise is often doing our minds much more good than we realise. The neglect of it may even be a hindrance to our soul's prosperity. Should we be surprised if it is? Can we expect our souls to prosper if we neglect to glorify God in our bodies?

 

[CasualWestminsterEnjoyer]

I think Brakel says something positive about going for a walk and contemplating God's work of creation on the Lord's Day.

 

[Ploutos]

Our modern sedentary lifestyle is unique. A walk now is probably less work than the daily chores people had even on the sabbath.

 

[Reformed Covenanter]

I think Brakel says something positive about going for a walk and contemplating God's work of creation on the Lord's Day.

Yes, he does; I may even have quoted it here at some point in the past. I will try to track it down again.

 

[TheInquirer]

Did Jesus walk around on the Sabbath? Of course he did.

 

[clawrence9008]

I’m about to go outside to take a walk and listen to a sermon, as I find that I’m able to focus better on what I’m listening to if I’m moving while doing so. (I have also had some of my most intimate times of prayer with the Lord while walking.) I think something like that is perfectly lawful, insofar as I examine the intentions of my heart and make sure I’m not doing it for the purpose of furthering my fitness goals, which can be done on the other six days of the week.

 

[TheInquirer]

I think we need to review what "rest" means and what it does not mean lest we make the same erros as the Pharisees and lead people into bondage that God did not command. Forbidding going out for a walk on Sunday sounds absolutely horrendous to me.

"Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” 11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’ ” - John 5:2-11

"One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: 26 how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” 27 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” - Mark 2:23-28

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." - Exodus 20:8-11

 

[Ploutos]

Forbidding going out for a walk on Sunday sounds absolutely horrendous to me.

It sounds rather odd to me as well, but it may be a cultural thing unique to Scotland?

 

[clawrence9008]

It sounds rather odd to me as well, but it may be a cultural thing unique to Scotland?

Just out of curiosity: were the Scottish Presbyterians generally "stricter" about things like this (i.e. what falls into the "unlawful" or "should be avoided" category on the Sabbath) than other Reformed groups?

 

[CasualWestminsterEnjoyer]

Just out of curiosity: were the Scottish Presbyterians generally "stricter" about things like this (i.e. what falls into the "unlawful" or "should be avoided" category on the Sabbath) than other Reformed groups?

They and the puritans could be stricter than the continentals. Often in reaction to the looseness of Anglicanism. For example, King James's Book of Sports.
Although by today's standards the continentals could also be "strict sabbatarians."

 

[Theoretical]

Our modern sedentary lifestyle is unique. A walk now is probably less work than the daily chores people had even on the sabbath.

That and a walk to church for an hour+ each way probably was pretty normal for most people especially in a rural area, which would definitely get the blood flowing, not even counting any necessary farm animal necessities like milking cows. Our modern sedentary lives are almost polar opposites.

Since for a long time I was dependent on others for rides to church, as an aside, I've always tried to identify the soundest church within walking distance of where I'm living in case my car breaks down right before leaving for worship and I can't just get ahold of someone else in the church to take me. It gives a very different perspective from just hopping in the car.

 

[Ploutos]

That and a walk to church for an hour+ each way probably was pretty normal for most people especially in a rural area, which would definitely get the blood flowing, not even counting any necessary farm animal necessities like milking cows. Our modern sedentary lives are almost polar opposites.

Since for a long time I was dependent on others for rides to church, as an aside, I've always tried to identify the soundest church within walking distance of where I'm living in case my car breaks down right before leaving for worship and I can't just get ahold of someone else in the church to take me. It gives a very different perspective from just hopping in the car.

Thanks for that! It's a neat idea. There are two good Reformed churches that are conceivably walkable for me by myself. One is 2.0 miles; the other is 3.9 miles. We have three young children and I don't have any aspiration to find out what that walk is like for the five of us.