Pastor’s Pen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …… . . . . . . . . . Pastor Eldon Olson

During these months of Pastor Kindem’s Sabbatical absence, Pastor Wold and I have tried to sustain the Pastoral Care needs of persons at Peace. A note from Pastor Kindem this week reminds me that he will be returning soon. He and his family have had a very rewarding Sabbatical time together – all sorts of diverse activities, exciting people and places, enriching experiences. I hope you’ve had a chance to experience the flavor of their Sabbatical from the many Blog entries they’ve written for the ‘folks at home’.

As this time of Sabbatical comes to a close, I want to thank those who have been especially helpful to us in our Pastoral Care duties. I’ve known David Wold since we first began to work together in l987. He continues to be an esteemed fellow pastor, a delightful colleague, and a good friend. The feedback I’ve gotten is that people are somewhat surprised when we both show up for a pastoral call or a pastoral function – the truth is – at least from my standpoint – we genuinely enjoy working together, even if we’ve been dubbed ‘Twiddle-dee’ and ‘Twiddle-dum’. So, thanks, David.

I also want to thank others on the Peace staff. We have some enormously engaged, capable, and talented support staff at Peace. Sherry consistently goes the extra mile to be helpful, Jon has consistently brought his treasure of experience and wisdom to our worship life, Nicole has brought the voice of our children and youth to enrich the life we share. And Martha Myers has always brought a richness and depth to the Word we experience at our Worship, as well as a sense of stability and Sabbath to our congregational processes.

The Sabbatical Committee has been wonderfully engaged throughout this time. We meet as a group of friends, not as a committee of tasks – and that’s a delight! And there are dozens of others who have brought capable hands and welcoming faces to the tasks of this Sabbatical time – children’s message voices, note writers, meal organizers, and a host of others who stepped into shoes that are probably usually filled by Pastor Kindem. 

So it has been a good experience for the congregation, I think. We certainly welcome the Kindem’s from their many journeys and eagerly look forward to times to debrief and reconnect.

Thanks to all who have been a part of this Sabbath journey!

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