Pastor’s Pen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Rev. Eldon Olson

We tend to think of Sabbath as an obligation, at worst – a routine habit, at best. Keeping the Sabbath has something to do with the Third Commandment among the Big Ten – go to church, worship, and, if possible, not engage in labor. In our current cultural ideal of being ‘on top of things’ 24-7, this gets complex. There are no more government sponsored ‘blue laws’ in Washington State, many of us do our work (homework, scheduling, organizational fuss-budgeting, etc) on line from home, so the realms of work and business have invaded virtually every corner of our lives. I check e-mails several times a day, usually pulling me into realms of tasks and responsibilities that are anything but Sabbath-Rest. Even those tasks which I have engaged as a volunteer (including Church work of all sorts) have become jobs.

I like being busy, I generally enjoy facing the challenges of each day. But I have found that life is full of expectations and responsibilities – it gets messy and all-consuming at times. I wonder sometimes how I ever managed to find time, now that I’m theoretically ‘retired’, to have a profession, a regular job!

So how do we have a Sabbath ‘and keep it holy’? For the Kindem’s, this means leaving the country and disconnecting from the vast networks of ordinary life (at least, almost – except for the regular blog!). But do we have to go 5,000 miles away to have a Sabbath?   

The Biblical meaning of Sabbath was never intended as some new responsibility God who add to our busy lives. Sabbath is always regarded as God’s gift of grace. The Biblical images are often agricultural – there is a season for planting, a season for nurturing, a season for harvesting, a season for care of the earth. Then there’s a gift from God called Sabbath. It’s a commandment – but, more than that, it’s integral to the rhythm of the gift of life itself. For instance, Sabbath is a gift to the earth itself – it’s a time when the earth is allowed to refresh and lie fallow – it’s the season of the earth’s cycles that allows for a harvest. If the earth cannot have its Sabbath, it will not bear fruit! So a fallow-time is granted to the earth every year – it is a gift that God created within the rhythm of seasons.

Take that image of the Sabbath gift and relate it to human life! It’s hard to compute! It’s awkward to fit that sort of reflection into the complexities of our lives. One wonders whether that sense of the Sabbath as God’s gift doesn’t fit our lives – or could it possibly be that, challenging though the thought is, our lives simply don’t fit a consciousness of God’s gifts!

We are suggesting that the congregation engage in a Sabbath of our own while our Pastor and his family are on their Sabbatical journeys.  What does this mean – well, it certainly doesn’t ask for an added obligation, responsibility, or routine habit. Take a deep breath! Let God’s gift of air (breath, wind, or even Spirit – it’s all the same word in the languages of Scripture!) into your body. Hold that Gift – until you can sense that your body is being fed, nurtured, and renewed… Simple as that… We do it thousands of times a day, usually without any notice or reflection. But as a Sabbath reflection, once in a while, claim breath as a Sabbath moment! It is wonderful to receive that Gift!

~Eldon Olson