Keeping the Sabbath: A Spiritual Practice for Developing Disciplined Action
by Mary Hays
For many ministry leaders (clergy and lay leader), the summer months offer a chance to step back from the busy schedule of classes and events. Yet, as Mary shares below, few take advantage of this holy practice. She reminds us that not only does a regular sabbath offer an important season of rest, but it is crucial to a fruitful ministry.
Dear friends,
Why is the capacity of disciplined action so elusive? Certainly one of the reasons is the alarmingly fast pace of our culture, which allows little time for rest or reflection. Those of us who follow Jesus have spiritualized this trait of our culture. “How can we take time off from serving God?” we think, or “As a Christian, my witness depends on my giving 150%. I can’t sit back and take time off.” But God’s ways are different from our culture’s habits, and God intended us to take time off for rest, refreshment and celebration.
How many of us would regularly break one of the 10 commandments? “Thou shall not commit murder,” for example? If we did disobey this command, most of us would be horrified at our sin and deeply repentant. Yet week after week, year after year, many of us disobey one of those commandments, without even a pang of guilt. The fourth commandment, “Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy,” has been relegated to the place of a tired out proverb that has ceased to serve its purpose. The Bible tells us that keeping the Sabbath is a key way we give glory to God and express our trust and faith in Him. By setting aside a day in which we do not work, we remind ourselves that God is our provider; He can be trusted to meet our needs. Keeping the Sabbath regularly builds into us the resilience necessary for long term leadership over the long haul, by giving us the refreshment and distance necessary for distinguishing between crucial actions and busy work.
Many leaders claim that they just do not have time for a Sabbath; the demands on their time are just too pressing to take a whole day off each week. In my experience, these same leaders are the ones who are having the most difficulty in pursuing the kind of disciplined, focused action that will enable their congregations to flourish. An inability to observe the Sabbath reveals a corresponding inability or unwillingness to trust God. As Dorothy C. Bass writes, “to act as if the world cannot get along without our work for one day in seven is a startling display of pride the denies the sufficiency of our generous Maker.[1]” She continues, “To refrain from working – not every day, but one in seven – opens the temporal space within which glad and grateful relationship with God and peaceful and appreciative relationship with nature and other people can grow.”
A fascinating study of extraordinary leaders is found in Good to Great. One of the great CEO’s it describes is Coleman Mockler, who was responsible for the transformation of Gillette. The researchers discovered that “even during the darkest and most intense times of the takeover crises of the 1980’s and despite the increasingly global nature of Gillette’s business, Mockler maintained remarkable balance in his life. He did not reduce the amount of time he spent with his family, rarely working evenings or weekends. He maintained his disciplined worship practices.” (Emphasis mine.) Could it be that Mockler’s practice of Sabbath rest was one of the reasons he was able to endure and flourish? Could this be one of the reasons the corporation he led had extraordinary success?
Personally, I find keeping the Sabbath to be a discipline that God consistently uses to bless me. Why then is it so hard for me to keep? Why, when I know how much my work and my whole life will be more peaceful and productive, do I find it so difficult a pattern to keep established? I can give you all the typical excuses, but every one of them pales in light of God’s incredible love for me and His desire for my work to be fruitful. I know that keeping the Sabbath more faithfully will be a vehicle for disciplined action and more fruitful ministry in your midst. So help me, as I help you! It is my hope that together we will find ways to encourage and support Sabbath-keeping in the diocese.
How to keep the Sabbath.
♦ Prepare. One of the things that makes Sabbath-keeping difficult is a lack of preparation. Take some time to consider what things regularly prevent you from keeping a Sabbath and what steps you might take to remove these obstacles. Make a list of the things to do ahead of time, in order to make the Sabbath day a time of enjoyment and not of worry.
♦ Refrain. Sabbath rest involves a day off from worry, work, and “commerce.” Think about (and discuss with your household) what such a day might look like. Practice abstaining from these things one day each week. Try to be gracious with yourself if your Sabbath does not match your expectations.
♦ Celebrate. The Sabbath is not primarily about what we don’t do, but about opening time and space to worship and enjoy God in a leisurely way. It is also a time to enjoy our other relationships – our family members and friends – and to appreciate God’s creation. What things could you do that would cultivate a sense of play, leisure, joy, and celebration one day each week?
Want more help? Two books I’ve found helpful are: Keeping the Sabbath Wholly by Marva Dawn and The Rest of God by Mark Buchanan.
[1] Dorothy C. Bass, Practicing Our Faith. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997, p. 86.
The Rev. Mary Maggard Hays is the Canon for Congregation and Clergy Care for DOMA