Sabbatical Reflection 4 - Personal Change & Growth?

 One of the things that Sabbatical seems to bring about, or at least it has in my case, is a period of self-reflection and examination.  I have just finished a book about Sabbatical, and it suggests that discovering new things about self is one of the benefits of taking time out from the regular activities of life. 

One of the things I have realised this past week is something that came as somewhat of a surprise to me, and it may do to even those who know me quite well.  For well over forty years I have bought, read and collected American superhero comics, with my favourite characters being Superman and Batman.   I have a vast collection, probably in the thousands by now and until a few days ago thought that this collecting would continue well into old age.

Earlier this week I suddenly realised that I’d lost interest in the colourful exploits of America’s finest.  I was still buying, reading and collecting, but the joy has gone out of it.

I’m still reflecting on why.  

Perhaps it’s that the newer generation of writers and stories don’t appeal or perhaps I’ve just grown and changed (dare I say matured?) so that what once brought me pleasure no longer does so.  Perhaps it’s my growing interest in my model railway hobby and the realisation that my personal financial resources are limited.

Whatever it is, it’s a realisation that has come to me because the church has given me the gift of being able to step aside from my regular life and responsibilities and take the time to study, think and reflect.  Perhaps the realisation has come from the change that Sabbatical often brings to the lives of those who take it seriously.  

At the beginning of my Sabbatical I dedicated it in prayer to God and I wonder what else our loving Heavenly Father will reveal to me and how he will bless me in the two months I have left before returning to Circuit life and responsibilities. 

Sabbatical Reflection- Our Plans and God’s Plans

At the moment, in my Sabbatical, I am reading an inspirational book, Sabbath: The Hidden Heartbeat of Our Lives by Nicola Slee who is the Director of Research at the Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham, where all Methodist Presbyters and Deacons are now trained (alongside Anglicans). 

It is not a book to be rushed, but to be read slowly, thought about and savoured.  A book full of wisdom to be contemplated.  I’m currently about a third of the way through it and already wishing I had read it as my first Sabbatical book.  Although the book is entitled Sabbath, it is as much about Sabbatical 

This morning one particular paragraph has struck me that I wanted to share with you.  The author is writing in the context of the benefits of spending time in nature, whether that be by lakes or rivers, by the sea or in a wood or forest. “Sabbath is the invitation into the free, wild space where we may play with the magic of the woods, explore off the beaten paths, enter the unbounded space of our hearts and imagination.  It’s the invitation to pursue the ideas or reading that we didn’t plan to do, to think outside the box; to follow leads hunches or dreams that weren’t part of our original Sabbatical agenda.  It is the entry into the freefall of sabbatical were the normal rules fall away and we enter a time and space more organic, more spontaneous, full of serendipity and unexpected synchronicities.” 

If you read my previous reflection, you’ll know that my Sabbatical has already gone off course.  I should have been on a plane today, on my way back from the Holy Land: instead I’m sitting in the Manse in Oswaldtwistle reading and reflecting. 

There is a saying that the best way to amuse God is to tell God your plans.  I wonder if that is particularly applicable to Sabbatical.

Of course, the Methodist Church quite rightly expects its Presbyters and Deacons to have some kind of plan for Sabbatical; but like Stuart Smith last year my plans have had to change. 

I did feel frustrated about the changes, yet as I read Nicola Slee’s words “It is the entry into the freefall of sabbatical were the normal rules fall away and we enter a time and space more organic, more spontaneous, full of serendipity and unexpected synchronicities” I realised that is exactly what is happening. 

As I have relaxed into Sabbatical, and it has taken me a couple of weeks to fully unwind, I have discovered the reality of those words.  I had a reading list of books I wanted to study whilst released from my normal responsibilities as a Presbyter, books on leadership in preparation for September and my move to become Circuit Superintendent of Burnley and Pendle, books about Jesus and the historical context in which he preached and healed and books about pilgrimage.  Nicola Slee’s book wasn’t on it but recommended by a Minister friend.  It was a serendipitous recommendation, exactly what I need right now and if God sends other unexpected surprises my way before 20^th June I will welcome and embrace them. 

I think, though, that there is a wider principle here that can apply well beyond Sabbatical or even Sabbath, and that is the idea that as Christians we should apply the freefall of Sabbatical to our journey of discipleship, at least some of the time. 

We all, I think, make plans for our lives.  My plan for my life didn’t include being ordained as a Methodist Presbyter and yet I honesty couldn’t now see myself doing anything else.  Again, I had a plan in mind for my service as a Presbyter: a five-year stint in my first Circuit, followed by 5-8 years in my second before offering for Superintendency.  That plan has been laid aside as well because God had something else in mind.  When it comes to Christian discipleship and my service to God as a Presbyter, I have learnt that it doesn’t make much sense to plan too far ahead because God may well have other ideas.  

In Jeremiah 29:11 we read “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.”  It is easy to take this verse out of context and read too much into it, but it does convey the general idea that God has plans for us.  That isn’t to suggest that we should never make plans, but rather that we must always be open to the idea that God might have something different in mind. 

So, as I continue on Sabbatical I will stick to the new plan, to visit Lindisfarne in June but perhaps other places as well, to read the books on the list but to be open to being diverted to others, to build some model railway wagons but to be open to other creative opportunities. 

As Christians I believe it is good for us to have our plans, as individuals and as churches, but we must be willing to hold onto them lightly and to move as we feel the Holy Spirit leading us.

The Hope of Easter

By the time you read this I will be on Sabbatical.  It’s not the Sabbatical I had planned.  I had intended to start with a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, leaving appropriately on Easter Monday, but Covid-19 has made that an impossibility.  Part of my Sabbatical was based around developing a hobby, in my case starting to build a model railway.  As I’m moving this summer to take up a Circuit Superintendency (subject to Methodist Conference) I won’t be starting to build a model railway in my present Manse. 

I will be staying on Lindisfarne towards the end of my Sabbatical, which I’m looking forward to as a form of pilgrimage, I will be doing some theological reading and I will be building model railway kits in preparation for building the model railway, but it’s not what I hoped for or planned. 

I think it’s fair to say that Covid-19 has disrupted al our lives and plans in the past year or so.  We couldn’t even worship in our churches on Easter Day last year and we have been out of our church buildings on Sundays more than we have been in them. 

Fortunately the Covid-19 vaccines have brought us some hope for the future, hope that, by the summer, our society will be approaching something like normal, or at least a new normal.  Hope that we may even be able to sing together in church and enjoy tea or coffee together after the service.  Hope that our social activities can re-start and we can enjoy the fellowship we have missed so much. 

Hope!  Hope is a very good word for this time of Easter. 

Just before the first Easter Day the world seemed to be a very dark place indeed.  Jesus, the Light of the World, has apparently been murdered on a Roman cross, his light snuffed out.  It seemed that the forces of darkness had won. 

Then, on that first Easter Day, light blazed from the tomb where Jesus dead body had been laid: because Jesus was dead no longer: he had been raised from the dead in great power and glory, the hope of the world who would be with us always. 

The resurrection of Jesus is our hope that we too will one day receive the eternal life promised by Jesus.  Jesus resurrection demonstrates the truth that for those who believe in him death is not the end but the transition from our limited mortal lives to unlimited eternal lives.  We have the hope that our lives do not end with death but go on forever if we place our faith, trust and hope in Jesus as our Saviour and Lord.

We have hope for the future because Jesus rose from death and is alive.  That is what all the Resurrection accounts in the four gospels tell us: that somehow by the power of God Jesus who was dead was raised from death in a new way. 

Yet we still have our fears.  Perhaps the fear of catching Covid-19 and becoming seriously ill, or even dying, has diminished or even passed, but there are others.  We are, perhaps, fearful of what will happen when the Coronavirus has passed, and restrictions eased.  Many lives will have been lost, jobs will have disappeared, companies will have folded, churches will have closed and some hopes for the future will have come to nothing. 

Jesus’ disciples would have had similar fears, fears about what the future would bring.  Then Jesus came and stood amongst them, gloriously alive, proving who he was by showing them his hands and his side, still bearing the marks of crucifixion. 

Jesus had been raised from the dead.  He was standing before them, leaving them in no doubt. 

Even Thomas, who was not with them the first time Jesus appeared to them, did not doubt when he saw Jesus standing before them, falling on his knees and crying out, “My Lord and my God.” 

Sometimes people ask me how I can be so sure that Jesus physically rose from the dead to glorious resurrection life.  I always point to the change in the disciples, who were more or less overnight transformed from men crippled by fear of death to men who went out onto the streets of Jerusalem, risking their lives to proclaim that Jesus had risen.  These were men who bravely went to their own deaths as martyrs, convinced that even death itself was no barrier to the promises and love of God. 

On the evening of that first Easter Day a situation of apparent hopelessness was turned into one of immense hope as fear was replaced by joy and confidence. 

Eventually the Coronavirus crisis will be over and life will return to a new state of normal.  The challenge for us as Christians right now is to see beyond our present worries and concerns about coronavirus and what happens immediately when the crisis is over and to focus on the infinite, to see in the resurrection of Jesus a hope that transcends our current situation and rejoice in the ultimate victory of hope over despair, light over darkness and life over death which Easter brought. 

John’s gospel ends with these words, “there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”  Jesus story continues this day, through our lives and the lives of our sisters and brothers in Christ.  Jesus resurrection is an absolute assurance that his story will continue for eternity and that, as his disciples, our stories too will go on forever.