One of the many times Jesus healed someone on the Sabbath,
the lawyers and Pharisees complained about Jesus breaking Sabbath. Luke records Jesus’ reply, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a
well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” [Sound of crickets] Then Luke records, “And they could not reply
to these things.” The answer was so
obvious that even those who prided themselves on their understanding of the Law
had no reply.
My long awaited and
twice postponed sabbatical was scheduled to begin (and did begin) on February
9. On January 28 my mother suddenly and
unexpectedly passed away and for the next twenty-five days my “son [in this
case dad] fell into the well” of my sabbatical.
I got word of mom’s passing on a Wednesday morning and was in Coeur d’Alene
with my father by Thursday. Fortunately through all this my sister and brother
were on hand to help lighten the load. A
cord of three strands is not quickly broken. I spent four days being with he
and my siblings and helping him sort out what comes next. We met with dad’s pastor of twenty years to
plan the memorial. We arranged for a
casket and made decisions about burial.
We began to look at insurance, banking, and transportation. I had a prior commitment to be with the
district staff at EFCA headquarters so I flew from Spokane to Minneapolis for
four days. Then I flew back to Spokane
to spend more time with dad and finalize details for his move from his hometown
of seventy-seven years to a place of great wickedness, Southern California.
I flew home for two
days before returning with Sharon to take care of the final packing and loading
of his furniture and most of his possessions so that they would arrive in SoCal
about the same time he would. We also
experienced a wonderful memorial service that glorified God and honored mom. Monday morning, Sharon, dad and I flew to
Orange County and the next day his possessions arrived and by Wednesday he was
moved into his new apartment.
Today is the first
day of the rest of my sabbatical. I must
admit that there were times when a niggling resentment rose almost to the
surface over the fact that my first sabbatical in thirty-nine years of ministry
was beginning not only with no rest or the beginning of all those wonderful
things I had planned but also with an added load of pressure, stress and
details. When those thoughts began to percolate
to the surface I was reminded of the story in Luke that began this blog. I was focusing on what my sabbatical
(extended Sabbath) was supposed to be according to my law. But it was clear that my father had fallen in
a well and he needed me more than I needed the first two weeks of my sabbatical
to be about my agenda for refreshing, retooling and reconnecting with God and
with Sharon.
How easy it is for
us to side with the lawyers and the Pharisees and “keep” the law but lose sight
of its purpose to glorify God by loving Him and loving others. God has privileged me to be in a place where
I could have the time, the patience and the technical know-how to connect with
dad’s social security, retirement and banking so that, for him, the transition
from Coeur d’Alene to Stanton has been rather flawless. It’s a small price to pay to serve him. Like the
lawyers and Pharisees I’ll keep my replies to myself when Jesus asks me why I
shouldn’t spend a couple weeks of my sabbatical pulling my dad from the well.
