Sabbaticals & Sabbath
August 2021
“And on the seventh day God rested from all the work that God had done.”
“But in the seventh year the land will have a sabbatical rest… It will be a year of special rest for the land.”
I grew up in a family that took Sunday sabbath very seriously. Breakfast on Sunday was coffee-cake, because Mom could make it ahead, and lunch was pot-roast for the same reason. Sunday afternoon was for napping or reading. We never mowed the lawn, or did chores on Sunday. We didn’t eat out, or do anything that required someone else to serve us. My grandfather didn’t even get the Sunday paper, because someone would have to deliver it.
That same grandfather had been a farmer until my mother was in eighth grade, and he taught me about crop rotation and field management. He told me how small farmers in his day would let some fields rest while they planted others, how soybeans could follow corn to provide nutrients to the soil, and how continuous industrialized farming was stripping the beautiful black dirt of northern Indiana he loved so much.
I no longer hold to the legalistic framework my family taught me, but I’ve learned the wisdom of sabbath. Our bodies, minds, and spirits need regular seasons of rest to function properly, just as our fields do. Repetitive activities done for too long can cause injuries, like the tennis elbow I developed during five years working in publishing. Repetitive thinking can do the same thing to our brains, as we wear patterns in our synapses.
This why we have sabbaths, regularly-scheduled days to step away and do something unlike the rest of the week. This is why we have sabbaticals, those seasons when a minister is able to rest and renew their spirit, mind, and body. This is also one of the reasons we have term limits on leadership positions – every so often, the members of a committee need an opportunity to try something different, or they will end up like those fields deadened by perpetual farming.
I’ve been thinking about sabbaticals, because I recently requested (and the CPC Board approved) a reorganizing of my sabbatical agreement. Instead of taking a few months every five years, I will now be taking three weeks of sabbatical every year. This new plan is an experiment for the next two years, and my first annual sabbatical will be from August 26th to September 16th this year. I believe this yearly rhythm will give my body, mind, and spirit the kind of space it needs on a regular basis, in order to nourish and recalibrate my ministry.
I’m grateful for companions in the CPC Board who are willing to experiment with ways to care for our ministry together. We can accept the wisdom of sabbath without being bound by legalistic tradition. I’m grateful too for the Moderators and other CPC leaders who will take on some extra responsibilities during my time away, and for the Rev. Dr. Ginny Brown Daniel who will be on-call in case the Board and COM need some backup.
As I prepare to step away for this season, I invite you to consider your own sabbath practices and how you can encourage them in your family and faith community. Do you have regularly-scheduled days when you change the rhythm for twenty-four hours? Could you try it for a month? Have you been serving on the same church or conference committee for a very long time? What if you let it go for a season? Do you have grandkids or godkids you could watch for a week or more, so their parents can be just people and not parents for a week (or more)? Is there someone in your faith community who needs a caregiver for their loved one so they can spend time at the river? If you’re privileged enough to have them, when was the last time you used all your vacation days?
We live in a culture that teaches us we’re indispensable, and perpetual production is something to strive for. However, one of the truths of our tradition is that even God rests. Even the earth needs to renew itself. And we do to.
Blessings,
Tyler
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