Honoring the Sabbath is one of the unique contributions to the world from the Jewish faith. Initially expressed as stopping productivity and resting for one day out of seven, the Bible shows great flexibility in applying its principles to various aspects of creation. The sabbath is to be applied to animals, the land, and aliens and strangers and economics. The sabbath is unique in the creation story in being the one aspect outside of things and people that is blessed. To be blessed is to be given the power to impregnate or create new life.
While pastors can be cynical about the fact that they are asked to work harder on the Christian sabbath than other days, they need to pay attention to the principle of the need for rhythm and taking creative and refreshing breaks that both refresh and allow them to nurture important relationships in their lives. The practice of offering a pastor a sabbatical after six years of work is a great move within the church.
They also need to be intentional about sabbatical moments in the midst of their labors. Applying the flexible measure of time that the Bible uses, a pastor needs to consider how s/he can build in sabbatical moments into their daily work schedule. This certainly means both taking a day off and finding a replacement day when the original day needs to be interrupted because of emergencies. In addition, however, there can be real value in discovering sabbatical moments during the day in which one ceases productive activity and interrupts the pace of life.
In future blogs, I want to explore a variety of possible sabbatical moments as a stimulus for pastors identifying ways that they can break the stress of their job, even if for short periods of time, and remember who and whose they are.
