Boardman's economy runs on agriculture, and crop schedules don't respect the calendar — missing a Sunday irrigation window or harvest day can mean real financial loss. Where does faithful Sabbath observance end and responsible Christian stewardship of the land begin?
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Add your commentThe Sabbath command in Exodus explicitly covers your livestock AND your servants AND the stranger within your gates. You know what that sounds a whole lot like in 2024? Your hired hands, your equipment operators, your migrant workers. So the real question isn't just whether YOU run the irrigator — it's whether you're requiring other people to give up their rest day too. THAT part of the commandment seems to get real quiet in these conversations.
Born and raised in Boardman. My grandfather ran a potato operation out here for 40 years and he never once touched the tractor on Sunday. We lost a partial crop maybe twice that I can remember because of it. He called it a tithe of time. I'm not saying every family has to do what he did, but I will say those losses never broke us, and his faith never wavered. There's something to that legacy that I don't think we should just toss aside because it's inconvenient.
I want to challenge the Boardman folks specifically here: how many of your churches have EVER preached a sermon directly addressing farm labor and sabbath? Mine hasn't in the 11 years I've attended. We talk about rest in abstract therapeutic terms — self care, burnout, mental health — but never connect it to the actual rhythms of the farming community that literally fills our pews. That's a pastoral failure and I'll die on that hill.
Someone upstream said Christians aren't under the Mosaic covenant so the Sabbath doesn't apply — okay but by that logic the commandments against theft and murder don't apply either?? You can't just pick which parts of the Decalogue you want to keep based on whether they're convenient for your lifestyle. The Sabbath command isn't some obscure dietary law, it's in the TOP TEN. Just saying.
Okay but Jesus literally said 'the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.' If your corn is going to rot on Sunday because you couldn't run the pivot, that's not honoring God, that's just waste. Stewardship IS a biblical command too. People act like these two things can't coexist in the same theology and it drives me crazy.
My pastor up at Calvary Chapel would say this falls under the ox-in-the-ditch principle from Luke 14. Emergency necessity is different from routine convenience. The question every farmer needs to honestly ask themselves is: is this Sunday irrigation actually an emergency, or did I just not plan my week well enough? And before anyone gets defensive, yes, sometimes it genuinely IS an emergency. But not every Sunday.
my family does corn and wheat and we made a decision about 15 years ago that we would not schedule ANY routine field work on Sundays during harvest. we shift everything we can to Saturday evenings and start back Monday early. has it cost us? yes. a couple thousand in one bad year. would we do it again? absolutely yes. its not about legalism its about what we want our kids to grow up believing about what we actually value vs what we say we value.
Nope. Hard disagree with the whole premise here. The Sabbath command was given to Israel under the Mosaic covenant. Christians are not under that covenant. Full stop. Sunday observance is a tradition, not a binding law. I love traditions but let's not pretend they carry the same weight as clear New Testament teaching on grace.
With all due respect this debate is a luxury that full-time subsistence farmers throughout history never had the option of having. Most Christians globally work seven days because survival requires it. The fact that we're debating this on a premium forum from our comfortable positions says more about American prosperity gospel assumptions than it does about Scripture.
just moved here from Portland six months ago and honestly the scale of agriculture out here completely changed how i think about this question. like standing next to a center pivot that covers a literal half mile radius kinda puts things in perspective. these families arent being lazy about the sabbath, theyre managing an ecosystem. idk. its complicated.
Actually the early church met on Sunday BECAUSE it was a work day for most Romans — so historically speaking, Sunday has never been "the Sabbath" in the strict Jewish sense. The actual Sabbath is Saturday. So technically anyone running pivots on Sunday is totally fine by the original commandment anyway! If you really want to be biblical about it, rest on Saturday. Checkmate. (I say this as someone who attends a Saturday-worship congregation so I practice what I preach.)
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