[This reflection by Dazz Jones was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 20/Aug/2023]
I like to think that involvement in the church community is a source of fulfilment, usually marked by collective worship, community and camaraderie, and a large part is also service. However, as you immerse yourself in various serving streams and activities, a question arises: Can you really serve wholeheartedly and still find the restful solace of observing God’s Sabbath principle, or ‘taking a rest’? In this article, I mostly want to highlight the difficulty of achieving a balance between dedicated service and the sacred rhythm of Sabbath within the context of church life. Let’s be honest, we tend to place all of our ambition for God to do His ‘spiritual stuff’ into our 2 hours on Sundays … but is that realistic?
Your commitment to service is an embodiment of your faith in Jesus and following his example of helping and serving other people (or so says my inner idealist). Inspired by Jesus’ selfless example, you generously share your gifts and talents to positively impact the lives of those around you. I hope Horley Baptist Church provides you with abundant opportunities to serve – serving drinks and welcoming people, leading or contributing to worship, mentoring and leading in Sunday School, engaging in community outreach, and extending a compassionate or practical hand to those in need, and other smaller or larger scale things I have undoubtedly missed off. Yet, as you invest yourself in these endeavours, there exists a potential black hole: the risk of becoming consumed by your tasks, overshadowing the equally important need for the restorative embrace of ‘Sabbath’.
Striking that balance between investing your energy in service and embracing ‘Sabbath’ becomes a delicate art you would do well to aim to master. I feel we all struggle in this area, though not through lack of trying. I would suggest we all flip and flop somewhere between ‘serving our hearts out’ and ‘I need to temporarily check out’. Since the pandemic, across the whole world from what I can tell, people are struggling or reluctant to commit to things mid-long term and I wonder if we have had our ‘balance preceptor’ sent haywire. We struggle more than ever it seems to find a balance. In church we have seen people stepping down, yo-yo-ing on and off rotas or not wanting to join teams for feeling unable to commit properly. We have thrived nonetheless! (Please do not mistake this reflection as a passive-aggressive complaint, you would be misreading me.)
Sabbath is more than a mere break from routine; it’s a profound spiritual practice. Rooted in divine commandments since the dawn of creation, it offers a chance to rest and rejuvenate. Just as God rested after the act of creation, you are beckoned to pause, reconnect with your Creator, and find renewal in His presence. It’s also a call to worship, reflect on His teachings, and shed the burdens accumulated throughout the week. Yet, the reality for some of us is that this does not happen on a Sunday, we’re on too many rotas or we’re supporting others to attend or engage with service and therefore finding it hard to connect with God ourselves. I don’t think, perhaps controversially, that this means we need to pull off any or all the rotas. It might mean that we need to find another day to Sabbath and reconcile in our minds that Sunday is the day on which we serve. I anticipate resistance here, I know for many people it’s not as neat and tidy to do ‘God stuff’ on more than one day a week (and I’m only being a little facetious here) but it seems to me that Jesus was doing ‘God Stuff’ each and every day so we can squeeze a bit of Sabbath in somewhere else if we need/want to.
The task is to find the balance, this might mean we need to step out of the ‘God speaks to me best on a Sunday’ boat ?
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Last week’s reflection: Lessons From A Car by Helen Ruffhead
Contributed by Dazz Jones; © Dazz Jones