Sabbath is not simply the pause that refreshes. It is the pause that transforms.
Walter Brueggemann
Keep The Sabbath, Or God Will Keep It For You
Our family is just returning from our “Sabbath season.”
We try to take, in our annual planning, cues from the logic of the ancient Hebraic rhythm. In addition to a weekly day of rest, we put a longer “Sabbath season” on our calendar each year. For a few weeks, our family ceases from work, responsibilities, teams, and commitments. We travel. We read books, listen to music, enjoy long dinners. We pray. And I try to ensure that I’m out of the pulpit in the congregation I serve for 4-5 Sundays.
I haven’t always done this, and it hasn’t come naturally to me.
When I was a young church planter, brimming with energy (and anxiety), I almost never took a day off. Over the first several years of our embryonic congregation’s birth and life, I believed that if I didn’t give every last ounce of my time and energy to starting and growing the church, it would fail. And so I did. It was two years after our church started before I even took a Sunday off from preaching.
A few years in, I was spent. Fortunately, a wise mentor could see the destructive trajectory I was on better than I could. He warned me: “You need to learn to keep the Sabbath — or, God will keep it for you.” He was reminding me that those who refuse to rest often wind up with it imposed on them in one way or another — physical or mental breakdown, ethical lapse, burnout.
I realized I needed to start doing something different if I was going to last as a pastor. So that year, my wife and I experimented with the beginnings of what has become our “Sabbath season.” It’s no exaggeration to say that I would not still be in vocational ministry had we not made this course correction. And we’ve learned a few things along the way as we have…
Un-Busy
One of the first things I’ve experienced is the way that rest detoxes my calendar and my ego from the drug of busyness. Here’s a dirty little secret many of us pastors share: we love being busy. Accomplishing things. Being needed. In demand. Involved.
Eugene Peterson, in his book The Contemplative Pastor, diagnoses this dynamic: “[For a pastor] the word ‘busy’ is the symptom not of commitment but of betrayal. It is not devotion but defection. . . It is an outrageous scandal, a blasphemous affront.”
Peterson goes on to offer a penetrating analysis of to reasons why busyness is so addictive: “I am busy because I am vain. I want to appear important. Significant. What better way than to be busy? The incredible hours, the crowded schedule, and the heavy demands on my time are proof to myself — and to all who will notice — that I am important.”
Peterson further observes, “I am busy because I am lazy. I indolently let others decide what I will do instead of resolutely deciding myself. I let people who do not understand the work of the pastor write the agenda for my day’s work because I am too slipshod to write it myself.”
It is seasons of restful-not-doing, keeping-Sabbath that cleanse my system of my internal addiction to activity.
Freedom
In the version of the Ten Words preached to God’s people on the plains of Moab, Sabbath-keeping is linked to God’s mighty act of emancipation: “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.” (Deuteronomy. 5.15) In other words, keep the Sabbath because you’re free people now. There were no days off in Egypt. Slaves don’t get rest. But God has made you free.
Sabbath preaches that good news to me. You are not the CEO of the universe. A life of work, work, work is bondage, not freedom. As a Christian, the singular event that defines me was done for me, on my behalf, without my help. Christ, with a mighty hand and arms outstretched on the cross, brought me out from death to life, from slavery to freedom. So, rest.
Over the years, I’ve not only experienced Sabbath-keeping as vital for me and mine — it’s also been life-giving for the congregations I’ve served. When I model a rhythm of both work and rest, it reminds those I serve that Jesus is head of the church, not Jared Ayers. That Father, Son, and Spirit are still at work, even when I’m not at work. And it’s created space for other women and men to grow in using their gifts in greater ways.
As I step from “Sabbath season” back into a life of kids’ school schedules, a full church calendar, and an ever-growing email inbox, I’m trusting that what Walter Brueggemann writes of the Sabbath is true: “People who keep Sabbath live all seven days differently.”
Photo by Lisa Fotios on Pexels
This is so good! When I was young, sabbath observance was so rigidly and legalistically enforced! …. Not unlike the insistence of the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day. As kids, we knew instinctively it was irrational and inconsistent but we did not know why. Your analysis is very helpful. God instituted the “7th day” pause, not because God was tired, but rather because God was content. The creation was “very good,” perhaps not yet even complete, but very good, worthy of celebration and reflection. The push to over-achieve, over-impress, over-accumulate, over-accelerate, while under-celebrating is otherwise self-deluding and destructive for us. I have recently appreciated the analysis of John Walton on the subject of sabbath as part of creative design. He wisely draws from Walter Brueggemann. And one can hardly go wrong by listening to Eugene Peterson.
Love this, Jared! And even more I love that you and your family do a weekly Sabbath AND a “Sabbath Season.” What a beautiful way to model the importance of rest and trust and freedom to your congregation and your kids! Blessings to you as you transition back into the rhythms of work.
Thanks, Travis! I keep meaning to drop you a line to let you know I just read (and loved) your “Art of Biblical Performance”.
Thought of you when I was writing this, too- when is your Sabbath book going to be let loose in the world??
So good, and so true. But I have one honest question: you talk about modeling this rhythm of a Sabbath season for your congregation. But do you ever feel guilty that most professions don’t have the luxury of a 4-5 week rest? Or even that other church staff don’t have that option? This has been a struggle for me.
Hi Amy!
What a wise observation/question. I do wonder about this as it comes to different professions. I don’t have all the answers, and I don’t think there’s one “right” way to practice Sabbath across all forms of work; when I’m interacting w/ folks in different fields, I mostly try to help them think creatively about doing what they can.
It’s a little easier for me to speak to the other part of your question, as I have more influence over it. As it comes to other ministry staff in the congregations I’ve served, I’ve always tried to make sure there’s a good deal of equity in the time we’re offered, so that they can have the same opportunities for sabbath-keeping I do. And I’ve tried to advocate for regular seasons of rest, as well as sabbaticals, for church planters I coach, pastors at other churches I’ve consulted with, or are fellow members in my classis / presbytery, etc. My experience is that even in smaller congregations or solo-staff/pastor churches, the church and pastor can do more, with some forethought, planning, and creativity, in the way of offering sabbath to a pastor than maybe at first we might assume…
Thank you much for this crucial reminder. In my 27 years in 3 different congregations as parish pastor, I had to persevere exhaustively to get 2 sabbaticals. I’d learned I needed that after a (compared to other colleagues’ experiences) a relatively mild crash-and-burn that gave me a 3 month medical leave/sabattical. On the first real sabbatical, I spent three months in Cuba, with our youngest daughter and a close friend accompanying me. My wife came for the second month.
Weekday evenings I taught elders and deacons in 10 different CRCs on the island, staying a week in the home of the pastor and spouse. Midway, we spent a week at a hotel on the site of the Bay of Pigs invasion. After the first week of teacher I hardly had to prepare except to read students’ work. In the rest of the weeks I read much about Cuban church history, had conversations/interviews with leaders, laypersons, seminary professors. After I returned, virtually everyone said, “This was so good for all of us and you.”
To get the second sabbatical in the last congregation I served, it took 3 meetings w/ council to grant what had long been a congregational policy of sabbatical after 6 years; that was in my 8th year. Still, at the 3rd meeting the chair of council said this was a bad time for the church to grant a sabbatical b/c we had just weathered a serious staff conflict and lost a youth leader. And the fearful default response: “What will the congregation think?” What changed the tide was my very serious response that if I didn’t get a sabbatical, I would resign/quit immediately. Those three months were interrupted by a funeral and synod (delegated 6 months before the hoped-for leave), but council added a “free” week. I took that splendid course Imaginative “Reading for Creative Preaching” with Neal Plantinga and Scott Hoezee, rode my bike, went fishing, sometimes went to church on Sundays. Upon returning a wise friend (echoed by others) said, “We missed you, but it was good for us and you that you were gone.” OK, even though I had REALLY wanted to be missed sorely. What a dope.
PASTORS and pretty well everyone else, make sure you get a significant break every year–with the family, sometimes in solitude or whatever. I remember the insecure response for not taking time off–as you virtually said–“The devil never takes a day off, so why should I?” The godly response: “Man, you need a different role model.”
Wow, James- thanks for sharing this. I’m sorry to hear that taking a sabbatical has been such a hard-won part of your own ministry story, but your persistence is a great example. Thanks for sharing this
Thank you, Jared. So many of us have learned this the hard way, but once we realize how we are wired to have a healthy rhythm, who would want to return to the hamster wheel? My lessons came from Marva Dawn’s excellent books on sabbath. I found that keeping weekly sabbath, and learning how a perspective of “enough” had a positive impact on my life and ministry, enabled me to focus better and work more efficiently. Bless you for reminding us of one of God’s best gifts.
I should also recommend Quiet Waters in Parker, Colorado, a place of retreat and counseling for pastors. It enabled me to stay in ministry after an extended stressful time in the parish.
I LOVE Marva Dawn’s work generally, and her “Sense of the Call” book on sabbath particularly! Thanks, Deb…