And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had been doing, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
- Genesis 2:2-3
It is hard for me to believe that I’m in the midst of my 24th year as the pastor at Peace UCC. As such we are busy at church planning for an upcoming Sabbatical. This will be the first time that I have taken this time on schedule, and only the second time that I’ll take the time in full. I had initially hoped that we would be fully on the other side of the pandemic by the time that I would be stepping away for several months, but it seems like we might be on that journey for some time yet. Thankfully we have settled into a much more normal pattern than where we were a year ago. For some of you the concept of Sabbatical may be new, and so I’m always aware that there is some work to do in order to help understand what this word means. Functionally it means that the church will be giving me a paid leave from my duties for 4 months (3 months plus some unused time from the last sabbatical).
When I began my ministry at Peace we were encouraged to follow the guidelines offered to us by the Conference Office to institute a sabbatical policy. The congregation took that leap of faith and implemented a sabbatical policy: “Sabbatical of three months, in addition to vacation, during the sixth year of service, and every sixth year following, per conference guidelines.”
I offer what I wrote before my first Sabbatical as still appropriate: “Sabbaticals are recommended as an essential part of keeping clergy attuned to their call and service to God. There is an awareness of the extraordinarily high potential for burnout in the ministry. It is ironic that ministry, as a caring vocation, often does such a poor job of teaching ministers to care for themselves. Even something as simple as having the chance to be a part of a worshipping community instead of always leading worship challenges the pastor to keep Sabbath time. A Sabbatical is an extended Sabbath offered for spiritual renewal, rejuvenation, intellectual growth. Its roots are in God's vision of Sabbath time.
We all know the command to keep the Sabbath holy. The gifted theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote a profound book on Sabbath, poetry of faith. He offers us an image of Sabbath as a cathedral in time. At its foundation Sabbath is intended to be a different way of being than the other six days of the week. Heschel recalls how the ancient rabbis looked at the seventh day of creation and noted that it was not an absence of creation, but something more, something different. For six days God created the heavens and the earth, all of the stuff of the universe. So after six days of creation what did the universe lack? Their answer: Menuha, a Hebrew word that is often simply translated as rest but its connotations are much more powerful, much more positive than mere rest. On the seventh day God created tranquility, serenity, peace and repose. On the seventh day God created a cathedral in time into which we are invited to be with God in glory and praise and prayer. The poetry of our creation story has all of creation culminate in this seventh day. The Sabbath is the finale, the perfection of creation. This was a unique idea in the ancient world just as it is today. Only the Jews worked in order to enter into the sanctity of rest with their God. The Egyptian slaves rested only in order to recover to do more work in the following days.
Work to rest or rest to work, that difference is all the difference in the world. How many of us “keep the Sabbath?” How many of us truly set aside that time to enter into relationship with God as the very goal of the other six days of our week?
Sabbath also means enough, this is the time when we are opened to encounter the fullness of God's creation. This is not the proclamation that comes in frustration at the end of a hard week, “enough already!” but this is the proclamation of a sufficiency that can only be experienced as the bounty God offered to creation, “ah, it is enough!!”
Isn’t it interesting how we have moved back into the old patterns of Egyptian slavery rushing from one thing to the next always trying to just keep up? As I plan for time away, time with God, I must confess that there is a certain dread that overcomes me. I know how to keep doing what I’m doing; I’m not so sure I know how to enter into God's cathedral-in-time to be restored. Of course at the same time, I’m growing to clearly understand the wisdom of Sabbatical, I am feeling the desperate need to recharge and reclaim that fire with which God called me to ministry. I cannot help but think that we all have much to gain from this experience.”
My prayer is that this will become a time for all of us to discern how God is calling each of us to live out our faith. It is a chance to break some well-worn patterns, to hear some new voices, and I pray to let the time be a sacred time of imagination. When I think of that opportunity, this seems like a perfect time to listen together for where God is calling us to go as a congregation.
I have watched many pastors and congregations that have experienced sabbaticals together. Most of what I hear are stories about how the experience proved to be a real blessing for everyone involved, congregation and pastor. It was not undertaken as struggle or burden but as opportunity for all involved. It is to embrace the manuha for which God made all of creation.
We will embark on this sabbatical together. That may sound a bit strange as I make plans to be away and you will all be here, but we will do this together. All of us are called to open our eyes to new experiences, new preaching and teaching, new opportunities for people to step up to claim the ministry to which we are each called. I pray that it may be a time when we all are reminded to listen a little more clearly for God's voice in our lives.
Shabbat shalom,
Pastor Eric