Engaging Scripture

The secret to being content when life is good or bad – Philippians 4:10–13

Ours is a culture largely run on discontentment.

New phones every year promising life-changing improvements, leaving you discontent with your old phone.

New gadgets for every task under the sun, promising the good life, resulting in your feeling discontent without them. Whether it is your vacuum, clothes dryer, car, or just about anything.

New clothing styles. This has been going on for decades or centuries. New fads have you discontent with the old fads. Unless you wait thirty years and the old fads become the new fads.

New entertainment, sports betting, politics. I could go on and on. All of it taps into our discontent, our empty self, promising that the new season of the TV show, or the new medicine, or a politician will solve our fears and doubts.

How have you felt discontentment?

Discontentment hit me recently when our dog cut himself badly in a fluke accident. It was kind of dramatic. Our daughter was there when it happened, and let’s just say there were big emotions. When we learned the cut needed surgery, then I had big emotions. You maybe well know what veterinary surgery cost. When my wife told me the price, immediately I felt discontent and discouraged.

I calculated the amount of hours I spend prepping, teaching, and grading for my adjunct Bible course, and then figured my hourly income for that course. Then I compared that to the hourly rate of the vet for the surgery. Guess whose hourly rate is higher? It’s not even close. That dose of reality can ruin an afternoon. Or a few days.

Maybe you know the feeling. You start thinking thoughts like “It’s not fair. Our society values the wrong things,” and that can lead to despair.

In Philippians chapter 4:10–13, Paul writes,

“I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

That last sentence is often quoted: “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” Several other translations say, “I can do all things through him who gives me strength.” Usually it’s quoted all by itself, ripped away from its context. I see it on social media, often shortened. “I can do all things.” Or sometimes it’s just “All things” where a person is doing something difficult, maybe a tough workout, or maybe climbing a mountain, or starting up a new business venture, and they show a photo of them doing that thing with just the words, “All things, baby,” knowing that so many people get the reference.

“All this” or “All things” could lead us to believe that Paul is talking about literally anything. But we would do well to read this verse in the context of the surrounding verses Paul has just written.

Paul is not trying to say, “God will empower you to do literally anything.” Paul is saying that God wants to empower you for a specific set of things that he has already talked about.

I think that can be instructive for us. We can say that we are trusting God for a variety of things in our lives. “Lord, I’m trusting in you to help me get a parking spot in the front row at the mall because I am running late and I need to get in and get out fast.” Or “Lord, I am trusting you to transform this difficult situation in my life.” Compared to trusting God about getting a parking space, trusting God to transform a difficult situation sounds like a great thing, doesn’t it?

But read between the lines with me here. What do we mean when we say, “I am trusting you God to transform this situation, this person, this _______” (you fill in the blank with the difficult thing you want changed in your life)? What we usually mean is “God I want you to override that person’s free will because I can’t take it anymore.” But that is trusting God do something that he has not said he will ever do.

That’s why we need to hear what Paul is saying here. Just what is Paul saying God will do? When we put verse 13 in its context, God will strengthen us not in all things, but in a specific set of things.

So now let’s go back up to verse 10 and discover the context of this verse. In verse 10 Paul talks about rejoicing. And it’s not just any normal rejoicing. Paul describes it as “rejoiced greatly.” Actually the word “greatly” could be translated as “mega-intense.” When is the last time you rejoiced in the Lord in a way that could be described as “mega-intense”?

Ever?

I remember being in Guyana, South America, in the summer between my junior and senior years of college, on a missionary internship. The people there were living in dilapidated wood shacks on dirt roads, working in the brutal heat and humidity cutting sugarcane, and just barely making it, and in some cases not making it, and yet in worship services on Sunday they would belt out praise to the Lord with mega intensity. I’ll never forget it. The first time I heard them singing, I thought, “Why are they singing so loud?” It was obviously different from how I ever heard singing at my church back here in Lancaster.

I am not suggesting that rejoicing in the Lord can only occur inside church buildings during worship services. I am also not saying that rejoicing in the Lord is only or always involving singing songs. There are so many ways to rejoice in the Lord. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:31, that whatever we do, whether we eat or drink, do it all to the glory of God. We can and should worship a lot. And yet do we? Do we worship God, thank God, praise God, without the assistance of worship leaders or worship songs, because there is literally so much that we have to be thankful to God for? Do our hearts bend toward praise? Or do our hearts bend toward critique, conspiracy, complaint?

Why does Paul rejoice mega-intense? Because the Christians living there in the city of Philippi renewed their concern for him. The word “renew” could be “revive,” and it has a word picture, that of a flower blooming. Something that seemed dead has now come to life, the concern that the Philippian Christians had shown for Paul.

Paul is talking about a generous donation that they made to him so he could keep living. He was on house arrest when he was writing this letter. In the Roman Empire, when you were on house arrest, it wasn’t like the Roman government was going to pay for it. You were on your own. Paul was only able to be cared for by the good will of his friends sending him money. So you can see why he is rejoicing mega-intensely at the Philippians’ generosity, which meant that they were thinking about him, remembered him, figured out what he was going through, and then sacrificially gave out of their personal money to care for him.

And that gives him the opportunity to share some further thoughts about his circumstances. He says he has learned to be content with whatever is happening.

Then he describes those circumstances. Sometimes his circumstances were humble, like people of low status. Sometimes he had abundance with loads of leftovers, where he more than enough. Then he says that he has learned the secret to being content, and it has come through personal experience. My paraphrase of what he says is,

“I have learned the secret to being content, whether I have a smorgasbord’s amount of food to stuff my body to the gills, or whether I am so hungry it feels like my stomach is an empty hole, or whether my life has abundance or whether I feel like I am constantly struggling to catch up.”

So no matter the situation, he can be content. But what is contentment? It is being happy with what we already have in our current circumstances. Other words for this are “satisfied,” “being at peace.” As I think just about those words, I realize I struggle with discontent. Peace that is not dependent on external circumstances? I can struggle with that.

But Paul says he has learned the secret of being content no matter the circumstances. So what is the secret?

Sure, life is filled with all sorts of good and bad situations. But what is the secret to being content in them all? What is the secret to finding peace and satisfaction in the midst of the highs and lows of life?

The secret is back in verse 13. Now that we know the context of verse 13, we can understand this important verse. The secret to contentment in any circumstance is God’s strength.

God’s strength is not for the purpose of doing whatever we want, or getting whatever we want, or a promise that God will override people’s free will and change our earthly circumstances like we want. Paul’s point is that the secret to being content, whether life is amazing or whether life is horrible, is God’s strength in the midst of it of any circumstance. Strength for what? Strength to do the next right thing. Strength to live the fruit of the Spirit when we don’t feel like it. Love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. Strength to redirect our focus on God and rejoice in the midst of the difficult.

But how do access that strength? Peak back up at verses 4-9. There Paul shares a whole bunch of practical suggestions for us.

Verse 4, be people who rejoice.

Verse 5, live with gentleness to all.

Verses 6–7, be prayerful, with thanksgiving.

Verse 8, think about what is good and true and beautiful and right.

Verse 9, practice doing what godly people do.

This requires intentionality. Practice. Building new habits. Which can and usually does take time and repetition. It takes being around those who will encourage the habits of contentment in your life.

And if God is directing us to live this way, and this passage clearly shows God is, then it is for our good and for the good of those around us. To learn the secret of contentment is for our good. Dwelling in discontentment is the way of our culture, and that is not for our good. So it is worth the work and the practice to seek God and his strength to be content.

Photo by 马赛克 on Unsplash

Why I am taking my second sabbatical – The Sabbath Year, Part 5

What has happened since my previous sabbatical ended April 1, 2018? In the past seven years, so much has happened.

Faith Church had started a capital campaign in 2017, and it lasted through 2019. We resealed the parking lot, put in all new doors and windows, a new roof, new kitchen appliances, new WIFI system, new smoke alarm system, and a handful of other small updates. Our Operations team did a fantastic job leading all these updates, but as the one full-time staff in the building, it is normal that I get involved.

In the fall of 2018, I started doctoral studies. Two classes at a time for five semesters, with little break in between. Count the semesters with me. Fall 2018, Winter/Spring 2019, Summer 2019, Fall 2019, that’s four. One more semester…Spring 2020. What happened in spring 2020? Covid. 2020 was also a massive political year. Then there were serious racial tensions. In that spring, during the Covid shutdown, I finished my doctoral coursework and passed my comprehensive exams. That meant I could start writing my dissertation.

Meanwhile, 2020 raged on. I suspect 2020 will go down as one of the wildest years ever. As a church we stopped meeting in person, and we scrambled to figure out how to be the church without Sunday morning in person worship. Our worship leader’s first day on the job, was the first Sunday of the Covid shutdown. In short order, we learned to use all sorts of digital media, YouTube, and so on.

Easter Sunday 2020 was our first live worship on Zoom. I was sitting in the church conference room alone, watching as, one by one, people joined our Zoom gathering. We played the song “Death Was Arrested” in the background, and I felt very emotional. It had been weeks since we’d seen each other.

Eventually, we reopened our building, wore masks, and did a few outside events. Hospitals and medical workers were slammed, and the news reported infections and death counts all day long. Kids did online school and many struggled. I will never forget Christmas Eve 2020. We did a combined worship service one of the churches that rents from us, and there was hardly anyone there.

That fall as the presidential election neared, I knew there would be people in the congregation whose candidate would lose, and some whose candidate would win. How does a church family have meaningful fellowship with one another when our political ideologies are so deeply different?

Michelle and I decided I should preach on the “Love one another” statements in the New Testament. Of course, we should love one another. That week, as results of the election came in, I received two emails. One from a recent visitor to the congregation saying they would not be returning because they felt my “love one another” sermon was too progressive. The other email from seven-year members of the church saying that Faith Church was too conservative, and they also would not be returning.

If 2020 will be one of the craziest years ever, 2021 will likely not be that far behind. Throughout 2021, the culture-wide drama and trauma just kept going. Fueled by cries of a stolen election, on Jan 6, 2021, a devastating riot broke out at the capitol in DC. As a result, the National Guard, including our son’s unit, deployed to protect the capitol before, during, and after the presidential inauguration. All along, Covid kept raging with new variants. At the same time, Michelle and I navigated how to care for and lead our church family through this difficult time, attempting to stay true to God’s word and mission.

At Faith Church, as with the rest of society, we slowly moved past the drama of Covid. Mask guidelines were removed, we stopped using the chalky-tasting pre-packaged communion wafers/cups. Zoom continued as an option for worship, but most everyone returned in-person. As vaccinations spread, by the end of 2021, things were mostly back to normal.

In May 2022, I finished writing my dissertation, successfully defended it, and graduated. I felt a load off my shoulders.

But doctoral studies, societal upheaval, and Covid had taken their toll. Many have said that Covid was an accelerator of what was already in place years before. That is certainly true for the American church. Across the country, church attendance had been in decline for decades. Due to Covid and its aftermath, the bottom dropped out. Churches everywhere saw it. We saw it. We were smaller than we were before Covid.

Something else happened here at Faith Church during Covid. Rentals increased. We have long rented to other congregations. In the early 2000s, we rented to one of our denomination’s Latino church plants for a few years, and then to an independent Latino church, also for a few years. In the 2010s, we rented to an Ethiopian Orthodox church, the Door Christian Fellowship, and the American Orthodox church. But most of them were short-term and only rarely overlapped. Right at the beginning of Covid, we started renting to Thrive (then called First Baptist), the Burmese Church, and a Hispanic Church. Then a Honduran church. Then a Haitian church. Then Church of the Word. Suddenly, we had seven churches renting from us at the same time. We have never advertised or sought out rentals. Even more churches approached us, and we had to say No because we could not handle any more.

It is an amazing generous spirit of our church family to open our doors to that many churches. And it certainly mutually benefited us through rental income, and learning to share God’s building with others. We also opened our doors free of charge to the Girl scouts, Boy scouts, and we rented to a few other smaller groups.

During those years, we had a succession of church secretaries and Ministry Coordinators. While they helped with some of the rental management, quite a bit of it fell on my plate too.

In fall 2022, my denomination’s seminary in India invited me to come teach my doctoral dissertation as a class. One of my pastoral colleagues who was also a doctoral classmate joined me, and we were in India for all of March 2023. It was a wonderful experience, and I am so thankful for it.

As I taught my dissertation in India, it gave me more time to think about the possibility that the dissertation could become a book. I had always wanted to turn my dissertation into a book, and I slowly got started on it.

Also in 2023, our second grandchild was born with a rare heart condition. Our son, daughter-in-law, and grandson temporarily moved to Pittsburgh for her birth, multiple surgeries and recovery. It was a five-month process. We made a total of nine trips to Pittsburgh, and carried lots of emotion and anxiety. Our church family (and many others) prayed and cared for our family so well during that time, and we thank you. We praise God that our granddaughter is thriving.

Also in 2023, we were so proud as our church family responded incredibly lovingly to a difficult situation in the church. Through that situation, God opened the doors for us to start the prison worship team.

Then in 2024 a team from our church family worked hard to help resettle a refugee family from Africa. We opened also opened our doors to CV SEEDS, hosting their ESL classes and several other programs, free of charge. So many people volunteered to drive, make meals, childcare, teach, assist. It has been amazing.

The main work of editing, rewriting and new writing took place in summer 2024, and it was published in December.

Throughout each year, month, and week, of course, is my regular rhythm of preaching, communicating, visiting, and pastoral care.

As 2024 started, I knew that in 2025, seven years would have passed since my 2018 sabbatical. So I requested another sabbatical, and the Pastoral Relations Committee and Leadership team approved it for 2025, so that I could apply to the Lilly Foundation for a sabbatical grant. Lilly has a grant competition that would pay for the sabbatical. Unfortunately, I was not selected for the grant. So the sabbatical moved forward on its own, and God has provided.

I tell you this history from 2018 to 2025 to admit to you that I feel ready for sabbatical. I don’t think that it is owed to me. I wish everyone would be able to get a paid three-month sabbatical every seven years. Our American approach to work generally glorifies excessive work and workaholism, so that it could be culturally normal for some to view teacher schedules and pastoral sabbaticals as an unnecessary indulgence, or even wrong. I feel that concern. I can feel guilty or wonder if others think I am being irresponsible for wanting and taking a sabbatical, while at the same time feeling like I need sabbatical. I am deeply, deeply grateful for the sabbatical. I think more people should see if their employers will grant paid sabbaticals.

With that I sign off. I will not be writing blog posts during my sabbatical. What will I be doing while on sabbatical? Here’s a brief overview:

Having six sessions with my spiritual director.
Going to six session of counseling.
Volunteering one day per week with Chestnut Housing.
Teaching Interpreting the Bible class at Messiah University one evening per week.
Taking three short trips with my wife.
House projects.
Helping my in-laws with some downsizing.
Reading. Running. Playing with my grandkids.

I’ll return to blogging in November 2025. May God bless you.

Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash

How a church that never gave a sabbatical in 50 years decided to give one – The Sabbath Year, Part 4

I started at Faith Church in October 2002 as full-time youth associate pastor. That meant, given my denomination’s recommendation that pastors receive sabbaticals every seven years, that my first opportunity for a sabbatical could have been as early as October 2009. But I didn’t take a sabbatical until January 1, 2018. Nine years later. Why?

For many reasons. First, I became senior pastor on July 1, 2008, and my wife and I felt it unwise for me to ask for a sabbatical only a year after I became senior pastor. We felt it best to put in seven years as senior pastor, thus seeking a sabbatical on July 1, 2015.

Second, Faith Church had never given a pastor a sabbatical before. And there were three pastors in a row before me who had been here for seven years or longer. So even when I reached the seven year mark of being senior pastor, a sabbatical was not offered because it had never been offered before. It wasn’t part of the normal rhythm of Faith Church.

The seven-year period from July 2008 through July 2015 here at Faith Church were some of the most joyous and most difficult in our lives. When there is a pastoral transition at a church, any church, research has shown that on average 20% of the congregation moves on. That happened when I became pastor. We had numerous people leave the church, in a kind of trickle, because they were not in favor of changes happening in the life and ministry of the church.

Much of those changes had to do with worship. For example, in July 2008, we had a part-time choir director and a part-time organist. By July 2010 we had discontinued the choir director and organist positions, and created a new part-time worship leader position. That worship transition was very difficult for some. Some of our leaders and I had numerous meetings with people to discuss the changes, and still numerous people chose to leave. It is hard to communicate the toll that people leaving the church takes on a pastoral couple. I wasn’t prepared for how it would affect me. It still affects me.

In those first seven years, we also had a number of people pass away. There was one stretch in which I did eight funerals in seven months, with at least one every month. I was also not prepared for how staring death in the face so regularly would affect me.

There were also two two-year long difficult situations during that time that were pointed at me. Those were very painful.

In August 2015, I started manifesting symptoms of anxiety and panic. I got medication, counseling, prayer, and the symptoms subsided. I remain on medication to this day.

So July 1, 2015 came and went. I had put in seven years as pastor, and Michelle and I did not have a sabbatical after seven years as senior pastor. Why? Again, because Faith Church had never given a pastor a sabbatical in its 50 years. The idea of a person having three months off seemed luxurious, over the top, unnecessary. Still, we were feeling the burnout and tiredness of pastoral ministry, so we asked for a sabbatical in 2015, but the request was denied.

Over the next few years, still feeling burnout and tiredness, we kept asking, and some others started advocating for it on our behalf, and by 2017, opinion changed, and PRC and Leadership approved a three-month sabbatical. We planned for a sabbatical in 2017, but at the same time, we hired a new worship leader. To give the new worship leader time to acclimate to the church, we held sabbatical off until January 1, 2018.

As final planning came together in the fall of 2017, I was concerned that the sabbatical might not go well. I really wanted it to go well because this was new for the church family. Thankfully, it seemed to me it went very well. So many people stepped up to serve, and in some cases enjoyed it so much they wanted to keep doing what they were doing even after sabbatical was over. For example, the rotation of worship hosts. Prior to sabbatical I was the host every Sunday. Now, we have a rotation. It is so much healthier for more people to be involved, to hear more voices, and perspectives.

There were even more ways that sabbatical was beneficial. A major way is that it helps the church family learn that they are not dependent on the pastor to do the work of ministry. A church family was never meant to be dependent on their pastor, and yet there are plenty of churches and pastors that can treat the work of ministry that way.

Instead in Ephesians 4:11-12 Paul writes that pastors are to help train the people in the church do the work of ministry. The people in the church are not to be spectators. They are not to be consumers of ministry. And the pastors and other ministry staff are not the players or actors, and they are not the providers. Instead all the people in the life of the church are to be involved, all are important. All have their role. And one of the roles of the pastor is to help the people in the learn church learn and serve in their role, in their gifting. By going on sabbatical, that growth in people serving happened!

As a result, Faith Church’s first ever pastoral sabbatical was January through March of 2018. And quite frankly, I made a few mistakes during that sabbatical. First mistake, I did two weddings right at the beginning. Second mistake, I didn’t realize how weird, awkward and even difficult, sabbatical would be for me. The first month, I was an emotional wreck. It took time to get used to sabbatical. That’s one reason why sabbaticals are best if they are at least three months. The next two months were great. Third mistake, my first Sunday back from sabbatical was Easter Sunday. Big mistake. To come back from a three-month sabbatical on the biggest Sunday of the year was not a wise idea.

But all in all, the sabbatical went very well. What has happened since April 1, 2018? In the past seven years, so much has happened. I’ll talk about that in the next post.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Sabbaticals should be required for employees in any organization – The Sabbath Year, Part 3

Do you know the first corporation to grant sabbaticals? McDonalds. Does your church or company grant sabbaticals? They should. If you are in leadership in a church or company, this post explains why sabbaticals are not an indulgent luxury, but deeply beneficial for the employee and the organization.

As I mentioned in previous posts this week, in Leviticus 25, God instructed his people Israel to let their land lay fallow once every seven years. Our contemporary principle of sabbaticals is rooted in this ancient practice. So let me talk about the practice of sabbatical in our contemporary world.

Sabbatical is not vacation. Sabbaticals are intentional breaks. Just like the sabbath year is an intentional break primarily for the purpose of rest for the land. Sabbatical is not to be so busy that you are more tired after sabbatical than when you began it. A sabbatical is best if it is life-giving, encouraging, inspiring. For some that is further study. For some that is a special trip. For some that is doing something completely different.

My congregation is part of a denomination, the Evangelical Congregational Church, and our denomination has, as long as I have been a part of it, encouraged our churches to give pastors sabbaticals. In fact, here is what the EC Church says.

One of our denominational governing documents, the “Rules of Conference,” in rule 1016 “Sabbatical,” says: “The National Conference urges that all churches consider a Sabbatical/Renewal leave for their Pastor, regardless of their pastoral status, after the Pastor has served a minimum of 7 years at one church or charge and be reconsidered after each subsequent 7-year period of time at the same church or charge.”

Rule 1016 goes on to say, “Sabbatical Leave is a carefully planned period of time in which the Pastor is granted leave away from his normal responsibilities in order to spend an extended period of time in rest, renewal and refreshment. It is to be a time to receive spiritual nourishment, a change of perspective, to deepen the Pastor’s relationship with God, himself and his family. It is to be a time of rest and cessation of his regular pastoral duties and activities.”

Why? What is so different about pastoral ministry that the EC Church would recommend sabbaticals every seven years?

One source I found said this: “Recently published statistics report that 75% of pastors report being “extremely stressed” or “highly stressed”, 91% have experienced some form of burnout in ministry and 18% say they are “fried to a crisp right now,” 70% constantly fight depression, and 90% feel fatigued and worn out every wee.” (Source: soulshepherding.org)

So in the EC Church Health Community report at this past year’s National Conference, they stated, “Wisely scheduled sabbaticals can prevent burnout by providing an opportunity to step away from regular routines. These sabbaticals are not glorified vacations. They may include vacation-like elements, but their aim is uniquely rest and rejuvenation for the soul. Sabbaticals allow pastors to cease normal duties, lay down taxing burdens, and reshape existing rhythms to press deeper into God’s grace.”

Sabbatical is not just for those in ministry. Sabbatical can, and I believe should, be not just recommended, but strongly encouraged or even required for any employee in any organization. A pastoral colleague shared with me that sabbatical has become so embedded in the DNA of his church, that all pastors and staff are required to take sabbatical. One pastor on staff regularly rebuffed this idea, saying that he didn’t need a sabbatical and did not want to take one. They required him to anyway. He came back from sabbatical thanking the leaders for forcing him. He said he was wrong, that he did need the sabbatical, and it was deeply meaningful to him. Furthermore, as the title of this article suggests, and as the article proves, “When Employees Take Sabbaticals, Organizations Benefit.”

And that brings me to my experience with sabbaticals at Faith Church. I’ll tell that story in two parts in the next two posts.

Photo by Tim Goedhart on Unsplash

A rainbow mosaic to help us trust in God – The Sabbath Year, Part 2

During worship this past Sunday, we did an art project. You can see it in the picture above. We’re going to frame it and display it in our church lobby. Why? It has everything to do with the Sabbath Year.

In Leviticus verses 1 through 7, we learn about the Sabbath Year.

“The Lord said to Moses at Mount Sinai, ‘Speak to the Israelites and say to them: “When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord. For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest. Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you—for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.”’”

Just as the people are to rest one day of every week (the sabbath day), so the land is to rest one year out of every seven. For farmers, does that mean that in years one through six they had to store up even grain to make it through year seven? Maybe. But what is more likely is that they divided their land into seven parts, so that one-seventh of the land was lying fallow every year. You always lived off six-sevenths of your land. The other seventh portion of land was at rest, given over to God.

Notice in verses four and five, the sabbath year covers plants that produce annually. In my garden, fruit-bearing trees, berry bushes, some pumpkins, and tomatoes just come back all by themselves. But in the sabbath year, the people are not to plant or prune. They are not to reap or harvest. They let the fields go.

It seems to me that verses six and seven could contradict with verses four and five. In verses four and five, the people are not to plant or harvest during the sabbath year. But in verses six and seven, what the land yields during the sabbath year is for them to eat, and their servants, workers, and animals. But if they can’t harvest, how will the eat? It seems the point of the passage is that the land is not to be used for profit. It can however be used to sustain a family. In other words, God is saying, “Entrust yourselves and the land to me. It is good for the land to rest. But I am not intending that you are to starve.”

What that means is that a landowners income is only sixth-sevenths of what it could be. That’s 85.7%. Who wouldn’t like a 14.3% raise? The sabbath year is God saying, “I want you to trust me with that 14.3%.”

There is a short parallel passage in Exodus 23 that brings out a nuance about the Sabbath Year: “For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what is left. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.”

The Sabbath year is to benefit those in need. The 14.3% that Israel gave to the Lord is for the benefit of those in need. In that passage, therefore, we see God’s heart. God’s heart is for us to trust in him so that those who have less will be cared for.

Notice how the Sabbath Year attacks the prevalence of greed. Jesus once taught in Luke 12, verses 13-21, “Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.’ Jesus replied, ‘Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?’ Then he said to them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.’ And he told them this parable: ‘The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, “What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.” Then he said, “This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.’”

Trusting in God and being sacrificially generous is a theme running through all three Sabbaths: the Sabbath day, the Sabbath year, and the Year of Jubilee. Be rich toward God. Store up treasure in heaven by living simply, and serving the mission of God.

That brings me back to the art project to help us all think about how we can break the hold that possessions have on us. We handed out colored pieces of paper. Using big letters, we asked everyone to write something that they want God’s help to break free from. Something they might be struggling to entrust to God. Could be a relationship, finances, job, social media, an addiction, or another bad habit.

Then together we tore the papers into pieces. Not tiny pieces though! Maybe eight to ten pieces.

Then everyone came forward to paste the pieces in the shape of a rainbow, the sign of God’s promise of care and provision. This is a symbolic act of worship to God, showing our hearts’ desire to trust in him, because he has promised to care for us.

After we display the mosaic in the church lobby, people will have a visual reminder of their desire to trust in God.

In the next post, we begin to look at how the Sabbath Year has led to the contemporary practice of sabbaticals.

Are sabbaticals an unnecessary indulgence? – The Sabbath Year, Part 1

In 2009, a husband and wife from my church, both full-time teachers, took sabbaticals to spend an entire year as substitute missionaries in Kenya. Because theirs were full-year sabbaticals, they received 50% pay. Another option would be to take six-month sabbaticals at 100% pay, which is standard for teachers. But the school in Kenya, Rift Valley Academy, really needed teachers for a whole year, so our Faith Church members got full year sabbaticals from their teaching jobs at 50% pay, and fundraised the rest. God provided amazingly. The rest of the story: a few years later, they left their teaching jobs and became full-time missionaries, and they continue to this day.

How about you? Do you get six paid months off from your job?

In our culture, time off is generally called PTO. Paid Time Off. In most jobs, you get a specified amount of paid time off each year. The typical amount that you start with is usually between one and three weeks. Then as you stay with a company over the years, your time off increases.

When I started at Faith Church I got two weeks per year. Then my denomination changed their policy, asking churches to give all pastors a starting PTO of three weeks off per year, and suddenly I got an extra week. Then once I hit the ten-year mark of employment, my vacation weeks increased from three to four weeks off per year. When I hit the twenty-year mark, I got a fifth week per year. Five weeks is the limit in my denomination, and I hit that in 2023.

How much PTO do you get? If you are a business owner, especially in the small business category, you work to get paid. Likewise, if you don’t work, you don’t get paid. For some people, there is no such thing as PTO. For those workers, if you want to take a week’s vacation, you are not only paying for the cost of the vacation, you are also not getting paid that week.

Then there are teachers. Teachers are in a unique category because their jobs are active for ten months, and then they are off most of June and July, at least here in the USA. Teachers can choose to spread their ten-month contracted payments out over twelve months, so they are getting paid consistently for all twelve months. Yet, during that two-month break in June and July, they can work another job, and earn more money. Or they can just be off the entire two months.

Teachers also have the opportunity to take sabbaticals, like my friends who went to Kenya for a year. Some districts allow sabbaticals every five years, some every seven years, some every tenth year.

So sabbaticals are a thing in our culture, mostly in the education world. But let’s be honest. Don’t sabbaticals seem like an extravagance? A luxury? Unnecessary? An indulgence? Why should teachers be off two months every year and have opportunities for six-month sabbaticals every so often as well?

Then there are pastors. We get sabbaticals too. On August 1^st, this Friday, I start a three-month sabbatical. I’m super grateful for the opportunity, and yet very aware of the fact that hardly anyone gets sabbaticals during their working years. So why should I get a sabbatical? Not to mention that I took at sabbatical in 2018. Now another one? And I get five weeks’ vacation every year.

Is that fair to the rest of the workers? Are teachers’ and pastors’ jobs more difficult than other jobs? Are sabbaticals an unnecessary extravagance?

To try to answer these questions, we need to turn to Leviticus chapter 25. For the past few weeks, we have been studying the concept of sabbath in the scriptures. As you can see in the word, “sabbath,” it is where we get the word “sabbatical.” Last week I mentioned that there are three kinds of sabbaths that God asked his people Israel to observe. First, the sabbath day, which was Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. Second, last week we studied the Jubilee year, which was a special Sabbath year, after seven Sabbath years.

In verses 1 through 7, we learn about the next sabbath, the sabbath year. We’ll get started on that in the next post.

Photo by Sid Leigh on Unsplash

There is not one, but three sabbaths – The Sabbath Year, Preview

This is my last week before my August through October 2025 sabbatical starts. In preparation for sabbatical, I have been writing a blog series on the concept of Sabbath.

Last week I mentioned that there is not just one Sabbath Day. In the book of Leviticus, God instructs his people Israel to keep three Sabbath rests:

(1) Every seventh day of the week is the sabbath day,

(2) every seventh year is the Sabbath year,

(3) after seven “weeks” of sabbath years, totaling 49 years, the 50^th year is to be a special Sabbath year, the Year of Jubilee.

In this blog series, throughout week 1, we studied the Sabbath Day. In week 2, we studied the Year of Jubilee. Now this coming week, we study the Sabbath Year, because it has a direct correlation to the contemporary concept of sabbatical.

On the blog next week, I’ll talk about how the Sabbath Year can have a profound impact on any follower of Jesus.

I’ll also talk about my sabbatical, not only how sabbatical flows from the Sabbath Year, but also why sabbaticals are important, especially considering the reality that so few people will get one. Actually, thinking about the fact that so few get sabbaticals, is it wrong to give sabbaticals? Or conversely, should a lot more people in our culture be able to take a sabbatical? In other words, is something wrong with our culture given the fact that sabbaticals are rare?

In invite you to join me back here next week.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

How a car for sale on Facebook led to a beautiful expression of Jubilee – Jubilee, Part 5

A person in our congregation has been seeking a reliable vehicle for months. Given their financial situation, our church Leadership Team approved using money from our Care & Share Fund to help them with the down-payment on the vehicle.

During the past two months, they looked at numerous vehicles, and two really good possibilities fell through. They were praying and praying that God would provide. Last week, they found a vehicle for sale by a private owner on Facebook Marketplace. They inquired, and the owner told them that twenty people had also inquired about the vehicle. It wasn’t looking good.

Before I tell you the rest of the story, let’s conclude this week’s blog series about God’s heart for Jubilee.

Throughout this series, we’ve learned about the Year of Jubilee and how Jesus’ teaching and ministry embodied God’s heart of Jubilee. But did Jesus’ followers practice the heart of Jubilee? Sometimes we read Jesus’ teaching such as “sell all you have and give it to the poor,” and we can think that he is exaggerating and thus not really seriously expecting that of us. But those first followers show us that they too got the heart of Jubilee, and they lived it.

Just a few weeks after Jesus ascended back to heaven, we read in Acts 2:42-47, “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.” Do you see the heart of Jubilee in that?

Maybe that was a one-time thing? Maybe that was just in the first few days of the church? They couldn’t possibly keep that Jubilee going, could they?

Turn to Acts 4:32-37, “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need. Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.”

In the time period between Acts 2 and Acts 4, it seems that the believers are even more committed to Jubilee. As followers of Jesus, we too are people committed to Jubilee. We divest ourselves to help those in need. Consider how the Apostle Paul would go on to enshrine the heart of Jubilee in his teaching about generosity. He says this in 2 Corinthians 8:13-15. I can hardly believe this is in the Bible.

“Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, as it is written: ‘The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.’”

Did you notice the word that is repeated in verses 13-14? Equality. The goal, Paul says, is equality. Equality is a Jubilee word.

What I’m getting at is that Christians are people who embrace God’s heart for Jubilee, and that means freedom and liberty, for the purpose of equality. When we have more than enough, we willingly part with it so there might be equality. We open our hearts, our minds, and our hands, and we generously and sacrificially give. Instead of spending our time, our money, our resources primarily on ourselves and our families, when we have God’s heart of Jubilee, we look for others in need, so that we can bring equality to them. That is heart of Jubilee.

I started this post with the story of a person from my church that found a vehicle for sale online. The owner of the vehicle has a heart for Jesus and wanted to bless someone in need with a reliable vehicle for sale much lower than market value. One of church Leadership Team members inspected the vehicle to see what shape it is in. Everything came back green lights, and the sale went through. It gets even better. The owner decided that they were not going to charge any more than the money from the church, when the car is worth more than twice that.

Praise God! What an example of a person demonstrating the Jubilee heart of God. How will you demonstrate the Jubilee heart of God and be the answer to someone’s prayer? Do you have an extra property, home, vehicle, possession, that you can bless someone with?

Jubilee failure and success in the ministry of Jesus – Jubilee, Part 4

Can we apply God’s Jubilee heart to our lives? To try to answer that question, we need to go to the New Testament, and there we learn that Jesus himself talked about the year of Jubilee.

In Luke 4:18–19, we read that Jesus, very early in his ministry returned to his hometown of Nazareth, where on the sabbath day, he went to the tabernacle like every good Jew, and he was asked to read the Scriptures. He turned to Isaiah 61, and he read a passage about Jubilee. “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Freedom! Jesus locates his mission in the words of Jubilee. What is preaching of good news to the poor? That there is eternal life in heaven? Yes. But what kind news would those who are poor consider to be good news? That they got financial help of some kind. Maybe an inheritance. Maybe a job offer. Maybe a new source of income. In the book of Leviticus, what was the good news to the poor? It was that during the Year of Jubilee, their debts were erased. There was hope of a restart. That’s radical, right? Shouldn’t people repay their debts? What if they can’t? Jubilee has an answer. Forgive the debt. There is hope, in other words, for those in poverty.

Also in Isaiah 61, Jesus quotes the section about freedom for prisoners, recovery of sigh, and release of the oppression, all proclamations of the year of the Lord’s favor, which is another way to talk about Jubilee. In these statements we see taking the principle of Jubilee and stating that his ministry is right in line with Jubilee.

In other words, the mission of Jesus, the inbreaking of the Kingdom of Jesus, is the real, lived experience of the year of Jubilee. But no longer is Jubilee relegated to one year every fifty years. When Jesus gets a hold of our lives, we experience and live Jubilee, freedom, right now.

This is just like the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19. Zacchaeus was a Jewish tax collector. The people in his town rightly think that Zacchaeus is a traitor. Why? He colluded with the Romans, who oversaw the tax collectors. The people in his town believed Zacchaeus turned his back on God, that Zacchaeus is a sinner. And he was a sinner. He profited massively off poor people by charging them excessive tax bills. But when Zacchaeus met Jesus, jubilee did its work in his life. There was no need to wait for year 50. Instead, Zacchaeus embodied Jubilee immediately.

Look at Luke 19 verses 8–10, “Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.’”

Zaccheaus’ action of giving half his possessions to the poor, of paying back four times, is right in line with God’s heart of Jubilee. That kind of divestiture is right and good. Zacchaeus did not need all that wealth. He had far more than what was enough.

What is so striking about Zacchaeus, especially when you read through the Gospel of Luke is something that happened in the previous chapter of Luke. Look at Luke chapter 18, verse 18, where a rich young man asks Jesus “How can I inherit eternal life?”

I wonder if anyone in the crowd was rolling their eyes thinking, “Dude, you probably already inherited wealth. Now you’re also asking to inherit eternal life?” As if inheritance is just normal, just happens to everyone. It’s not normal, in the sense that not everyone gets inheritance.

Jesus gets right to the man’s heart. Verse 22 is intense: “Sell everything you have and give to the poor.” In other words, give up that inheritance. You will then have treasure in heaven. That’s what really matters. The man went away sad; he couldn’t give up his possessions.

How deceptive wealth is. We can put our trust in it. That rich young man does the exact opposite of Zacchaeus. By placing these two strikingly different stories so close to each other, Luke means for us to see the contrast. The rich young man, even though he claims moral rightness, does not have the heart of Jubilee. Zacchaeus cannot claim moral rightness, but he does demonstrate the heart of Jubilee. Jubilee, therefore, must be chosen by our actions.

Live the heart of Jubilee. See others. Recognize that what you have is God’s, not yours. Wealth is not wrong. As long as the wealthy see their wealth as not their own, but as God’s, to be used in a way that honors the mission of God’s Kingdom. But did the Jesus’ followers get this? We find out in the next post.

Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash

The anti-capitalist heart of God – Jubilee, Part 3

Is capitalism good or bad? If you search online, you’ll see that it’s a hot debate. It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the rest. Whether or not that statement is true (eg. democracy actually many excellent benefits), could we say something similar about capitalist economics. Is capitalism, like democracy, a bad system, but better than any other out there?

Would it surprise you to learn that there are ways God’s heart is anti-capitalist?

In the previous post, I introduced the third sabbath God instructed Israel to keep, the Year of Jubilee. We learn about the Year of Jubilee in Leviticus 25. There’s more to it than what I mentioned in the previous.

Look at verses 35–38: “If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you. Do not take interest or any profit from them, but fear your God, so that they may continue to live among you. You must not lend them money at interest or sell them food at a profit. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.”

Do not take any interest or profit? That’s not very capitalist of God. And it is not just in lending money. God tells his people to make no profit when they sell food to each other, when a fellow Israelite was in need.

Also, God’s Jubilee heart relates to treatment of workers. Look at verses 39–43, “If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and sell themselves to you, do not make them work as slaves. They are to be treated as hired workers or temporary residents among you; they are to work for you until the Year of Jubilee. Then they and their children are to be released, and they will go back to their own clans and to the property of their ancestors. Because the Israelites are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves. Do not rule over them ruthlessly, but fear your God.”

Slavery was a real thing in the ancient near east, and God tells his people that there is to be no slavery among the Israelites. Meaning, they are not to enslave one another. But as you see in verse 39, people in poverty could sell themselves to others, to work off their debt. But that voluntary selling of oneself did not mean that they became permanent slaves. Instead, once the Year of Jubilee came around, they and their children are to be released. God says, essentially, that the Israelites are to remember that they were slaves in Egypt, and they are not to enslave each other. Instead trust in God.

Now of course, all this relates to the land of Israel, and the people of Israel. God is not saying that this is how ownership should work everywhere all the time. I’ve spent a lot of time talking about Jubilee in the first three posts this week, but I wan to be very clear that the Year of Jubilee is part of God’s covenant with ancient Israel.

Christians are New Covenant people. Christians are not bound to the terms of the Old Covenant. Just as Christians don’t have a sabbath law we follow, we do not have a Year of Jubilee law that we follow. But just as we do follow the sabbath principle that flows from the heart of God, there is a year of jubilee principle that flows from the heart of God. That jubilee principle we can apply to our lives.

So let’s dig a bit into the principle of Jubilee, and see how we can apply God’s Jubilee heart to our lives. To do that, we need to go to the New Testament, and there we learn that Jesus himself talked about the year of Jubilee. We’ll talk about that in the next post.

Photo by Artur Ament on Unsplash