Shabbat in the City of Faith

What does Shabbat mean to us? By HanJunwei*

Shabbat is a commandment and a way of life. In the busyness of day to day life, we look forward to the shabbat where we can rest.

It is about God and His rest; to look back on the rest that Jesus has given us, the rest that is available today, and the deeper rest that is to come. We come together to be family in the name of the Lord, and we join ourselves to our Jewish brothers and sisters by resting as they rest.

Shabbat is also a lifestyle. It is a richer way of living where we enjoy and build authentic relationships with each other. In Shabbat, we learn to rest in each other’s company. He who has a word brings a word, and he who has a song brings a song (1 Corinthians 14: 26). As we linger in each other’s company, sharing worries, doubts, fears and pains with each other, we can encourage each other along the way.

Our vision for Shabbat and the City of Faith is to keep the Shabbat alive, and to let it be a catalyst for community. We hope to share the lifestyle of keeping the sabbath, the rest that comes from it, and to build relationships with each other and the Lord that will last.

*About the author: HanJunWei has a gift of turning savage words into gentlemanly expressions of truth that may, at first, be bitter to taste but later sweet in the stomach. Together with his wife and baby Eliana, they spearhead an Oikosian movement for the recovery of shabbat in Bukit Panjang, one of many cities of faith in Asia.