'Making Space for God'

I’m admittedly terrible at observing the sabbath. Of the 10 commandments it is likely the one I break the most and I’d guess that might be true for some of you as well. During my sabbatical I saw a better picture of the true beauty and importance of sabbath. A sabbatical is after all an extended sabbath. Everyday life contains so many things that compete for our time and attention and as limited creatures we can’t give our attention to everyone or everything all the time. I believe this is a core reason that God commands sabbath observance, to make sure that we set aside time to train our attention on God (first and foremost) and on those people around us. Sabbath helps us make space for God, neighbor, and ourselves, the very persons God commands us to love.

One of the primary blessings my sabbatical offered me was time to spend exploring places in God’s creation I’d never been to before and in the midst of that having lots of unstructured time to rest and reflect. In these times and places I was free to look for God and let myself be found by God. Sabbath is connected to freedom, freedom to be present with God, freedom to be present with others, freedom to be our full selves. The 10 Commandments as found in Deuteronomy remind us of this when the connection between sabbath and the Exodus is made. 

‘Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. 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. -Deut. 5:12-15

When we speak of freedom we can speak of freedom from something and freedom for something. In the case of the Exodus God freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and for covenant with God, that is to be God’s people. Sabbath, and by extension sabbatical, frees us from the cares and distractions of the world for relationship with God, others, and ourselves. 

I was blessed during my sabbatical to have greater time to (re)connect with God in prayer, solitude, and communal worship. I owe many thanks to congregations in the Lutheran, Episcopal, and Presbyterian traditions for welcoming me as a worshiper in their midst. As has long been the case, being in the beauty of nature and receiving the sacrament of Holy Communion proved pivotal in my encounters with God during my time away. 

Similarly I was blessed with time spent with family and friends throughout my sabbatical, growing and renewing my relationship with each of them. Time away and at home provided me space to reconnect with myself, allowing me to learn and relearn things about who I am, what feeds me, and what I can do to best care for myself. 

The freedom of sabbatical reflects and is an extension of the freedom sabbath offers us. This, I believe, is why the practice of sabbath is so important, not just for us as individuals, but for us as a community. So I encourage each of you to find ways to practice or continue practicing sabbath, so that you might grow closer to God, to one another, and to yourself. 

My deep gratitude to you all who made my sabbatical possible.

God’s Blessings,

Pastor Brian