From the Pastor

This is a weekly devotional space where our pastor, as well as staff members on occasion, offer reflections, spiritual insights, and words of encouragement rooted in Scripture and everyday life. These writings are intended to challenge, inspire, and draw us closer to God and to one another as we strive to live out our faith with boldness and compassion. Whether offering comfort, conviction, or a call to action, each column invites us into deeper discipleship and shared community. When The Columns does not run, there is no new entry for From the Pastor.

May 3, 2026

“Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work…For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it.” -Exodus 20:8-11, NRSVue


“Then [Jesus] said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath, so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.’” -Mark 2:27-28, NRSVue


I recall my mentor, Rev. James Lamkin, saying to me ahead of my first pastoral sabbatical: “Sabbath is not a suggestion, it’s a commandment.” He wasn’t talking about Sunday mornings. He was talking about what Jesus was talking about: That God made the Sabbath for us, made it a commandment for us, so that we wouldn’t forget that God is God and we are not. Fundamentalists will reliably clamp their teeth around part of any whole and growl and gnaw.


“The Sabbath means worship at church!” “The Sabbath means you can’t drive a car, turn on a stove, or push an elevator button!” “The Sabbath is Saturday, and you’re failing God by having church on Sunday!” Having grown up in Kentucky when the Southern Baptist Convention began insisting on “fundamentals,” adding and adding to their lists of what was “fundamental,” and then using the “fundamentals” to harass and fire faithful and accomplished Baptist professors, pastors, and churches—well, I’m no fundamentalist. I grew up 139 miles from Louisville, KY. I went to college 71 miles from Southern Seminary. I went to seminary three states away in Georgia. I wasn’t interested in raising my hand and swearing fealty to some list of “fundamentals.” I wanted to learn about the living, breathing, risen Christ whom I professed as Lord in the waters of baptism when I was 17.


I wrote my seminary capstone paper on the Sabbath. I used Abraham Joshua Heschel’s classic book. Heschel says that while some religious traditions (Christians) build cathedrals in space, his religious tradition (Judaism) builds cathedrals in time—in the hours, days, and years of our lives. Rev. James Lamkin reminded us once, “Sabbath is not a suggestion, it’s a commandment.” For we pastor and minister types who serve Christ’s church on nights, weekends, and holidays, this is an important word. Our “work” is “the Lord’s work.” Pastoring/ministering in the church may make Sabbath more difficult to figure out, but it does not exempt anyone from the commandment.


As Pastor of FAB, I’m taking Fridays as Sabbath. Sunday through Thursday, I’m checking email and making phone calls, reading and writing, and visiting, teaching, and preaching, etc., etc. On Friday, I’m pondering God’s commandment on Sinai and Jesus’s commentary on it in Judea. Fridays are when I attend to what a Christian pastor and a Jewish rabbi taught me about “commandments” and “cathedrals.”


Whatever else Sabbath is, it’s a cathedral built on my calendar. It’s a weekly, day-long invitation to practice stopping, letting go, and trusting that God is up to something even when I’m not. In that way, Sabbath is exactly what Jesus says it is: “made for humankind” as a gift from God.


~ Rev. Zach Bay