Part 6 of 6
God has a mission to restore and heal all of creation through the resurrection of Christ, and to bring us to salvation through being grafted into God’s own life. While there are many ways we take part in God’s mission, one of the things God calls us to do is quite counter-cultural: intentionally setting aside time devoted to rest, renewal, and enjoying the presence of God.
In a weekly pattern, we call this the Sabbath. In a longer time frame, it’s a Sabbatical. The biblical testimony teaches that Sabbath and Sabbatical is close to the heart of our faith. It is even a foretaste of heaven itself, which we will one day enjoy in its fullness when we finally get to see God face to face.
The consistent message of society is that we must prove or earn our worth as human beings. God gives us a different message: God has made you worthy, not because of anything you have earned or proven, but because of what Christ has done for you. Through our faith in this good news, the Holy Spirit equips us with spiritual gifts to fulfill the callings God has for each of us.
Sabbaticals bring us into God’s mission by giving pastors and congregations an opportunity to embrace the gift of what Christ has done for us by pursuing some holy and life-giving questions: What will make your heart sing? What are the hopes and dreams God has planted within you? What fuels you to proclaim the gospel? What are the gifts of God that shape us as people and as a congregation?
We can ask these kinds of questions during the 12 weeks of Sabbatical and look for the answers that God reveals. We let go of some of our normal ways of doing things for a time, trusting the Lord to provide what we need. God will keep on caring for the world, the church, and each of us. We can therefore ask Jesus, by his grace alone, to mold us as his disciples who will be witnesses to God’s goodness and mercy, and be able to do so with gratitude, energy, humility, innovation, kindness, and joy. What a gift!