Sermon
for March 29, 2020 - On Line Service
Well
here we are together in a new way today, but being together is so good, I see
your faces in my mind and in my heart and every one of you this morning is
sitting in their own front seat (pew) and some of you enjoying your coffee too.
Through
Lent we have been focusing on Customized Spiritual Disciplines and the general
content is drawn from B-B Taylor’s book An Alter in the World – A Geography of
Faith & from The Reformed Worship Resource date Dec 2018. Lent #1 We began
with the spiritual discipline of getting lost, stepping off our tread
mill routines and taking a different way home, Lent #2 we talked about the
Spiritual Discipline of Being Grounded – this emphasized being connected
to our surroundings, standing on a firm footing. When our worries and fears
overwhelm us and distractions come, focus on God’s presence in the here and
now. On a day when Jesus was being pulled in many direction with many serious
matters, He focused on each one, grounded in God’s presence, not letting
Himself to be overwhelmed but present at each need. Jesus was present at the
need before Him, so often our thoughts wonder to the past, or the future, but
neglect the reality of right now, being in and of the present. One illustration
shared was walking a Labyrinth that has no real route or destination and the
experience becomes the journey itself. Right now that illustration
may feel more the reality with no end in sight, but what is this isolation
experience teaching you in this present time; about yourself, about those
around you? Do you find you are not rushing the same as you were? Do you find
yourself valuing your relationships more now? Isn’t it also humbling, that with
all the advancements and striving that has been done, this virus has control of
the world right now, and we have to stay out of it’s way.
Two
Sunday’s ago we discussed the discipline of physical labour and how our culture
tends to look down on labourers. But in Taylor’s book, where she spoke about
the time the electricity went off and the labour involved to feed the animals
and heat and cook. She reminds us that we are earthlings. That we are a
combination of dust and divine breath and there is a great delight in the work
we do when we do it prayerfully as a service to others and to God.
All
these sermons and today’s and those that follow will be on the Newburgh Church
Blog in word format if you wish to read them in their entirety by noon today.
Well
this week we look at the Spiritual Discipline of Saying “No”. It is an
interesting topic at this time in our lives as we are being told NO about so
much.
The
spiritual discipline of saying no, says Taylor, often means NO saying to more.
For some it is the very structure of the Lenten Season – saying no in order to
open space for God. In fact every NO is a YES to something else and every YES
is a NO to something else. For ex. a NO to more activity can be a YES to
prayer.
Saying
no is harder than saying yes. Saying no is indeed the most difficult of the
spiritual disciplines, says Taylor. This brings us to the 4th
Commandment. Once revered in Reformed Circles, this Commandment is now so
easily dismissed, Keep the Sabbath day Holy. The English word Sabbath comes
from the Hebrew word shavat, meaning
to cease and desist. ” Some years ago
keeping the Sabbath day holy day was supported by national laws that saw many
business and organizations closed, but cultural pressures today say run and not
be weary, there is no time to rest. So now 24/7 is the norm, which now leaves
people running 7 days a week leaving people exhausted and deprived.
Respecting
the Sabbath means saying no to business and purposely creating regular times of
rest, leisure, reflection that honour God’s abundance and grace. These Sabbath
times offer spiritual and physical and emotional strengthening and help equip
us for the rest of the week and for the unexpected that comes along.
The Lord of the Sabbath said, “Come to me,
all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give your rest.” Matthew
11:28-30 or as The Message reads “Come to me... and learn the unforced
rhythms of grace” instead of the
just go, go go, till you drop rhythm, of life today”
Taylor
writes that YES is one of those words capable of changing a life through the
utterance of a single syllable. “Yes, I want the job. Yes, I will marry you,
Yes, it is my desire to be baptized, Yes, I will join, Yes, I will attend.
These are pleasure statements, as you are saying yes knowing that someone wants
you – wants to be with you, wants you to do something well. Saying yes is how
we enter into a relationship, how you more forward and who you share life with.
Having
joined face book this week, you are bombarded with “new friends” who not even
by their own will, but electronic will encouraging you to say yes! There are
many opportunities to say yes electronically as we work on our computers
inviting us to say yes and click on bizarre stories, or say yes to placing an
order.
At
this time in all our lives saying no to social invitation in person is the
absolute right thing to do. But, 3weeks ago if we were to say “No, I want to stay home tonight, or
No, I have enough work right now, or No, I have all the possessions I need, it
would not be near as easy to say.” But
now we are seeing things quite differently.
Taylor
writes that in China, the polite answer to “How
Are You “ is to respond by saying “I am very busy, thank you.”
Isn’t
that true for many of us, that we jsut assume that if: we are busy, we must be
fine. If we have more to do than we can
do, and the list never gets completed, but only added to, then you must be
fine, that successful people are busy people. That effective people are busy
people. Religious people are busy people. For millions of people, busyness is
the way of life, that is life; that is the standard. As we are running we look
at people that are just walking and think, must be nice. Why is that? What are
we running too? How will the running end?
Theologian
Karl Barth wrote “A being is free only
when it can determine and limit its activity.” How many free beings do you
know? You may know people who can juggle doing 3-4 things at once, but cannot
do nothing. How about people who are able to decide what to do without being
able to do less of it? So for example, as I interpret Taylor saying, you make a
list of your activities for the day, other things come along that take your
time, your attention, you do them, but you still have to complete what you set
our initially to do. So you do more rather then ever do less, even though it
might be strenuous, not letting go or cutting back on anything. Does doing more
help you feel holy? Would limiting your activity help you feel holy?
Taylor
writes that limiting her activity does not make her feel holy, doing more, for
her feels holy, which is why she stays intrigued by the 4th Commandment.
Taylor
describes the first Sabbath after her retirement of 20 years as a clergy. She
couldn’t return to her church, she didn’t want to go to another one, she
couldn’t go grocery shopping in he small town, somebody might see her, so after
about a hour or struggling with her professional identity, her human worth and
her status before God she sat on her porch, said her prayers with the birds,
read, napped, & be the time the sun went down on that Sabbath day, she
realized that she and truly had observed her first Sabbath in over 20 years. In
the years following that day, Taylor has said NO, one day a week, to internet,
commerce, work, car, the voice in her head telling her MORE! She writes one day
a week, MORE GOD is the only thing on my list.
In
the book of Exodus, we find that the Jews observed the Sabbath which was (&
continues to be) Friday evening to Saturday evening before Moses brought the
Commandment tablets down from Mount Sinai. The first holy thing is all
creation, Abraham Heschel says, was not a people or a place, but a day. God
made everything in creation and called it good, but when God rested on the 7th
day, God called it HOLY. That makes the 7th day a “palace in time”
Heschel says, which human beings are invited every single week of our lives.
Why
are we so reluctant to go?
Well
for some and I can testify to some of this myself, and the way we people were
raised. The Commandment should read,
Remember the Sabbath Day & keep it boring. For some there was more you couldn’t do like
ride your bike, or playball, or wear jeans or see a movie, but only go to
church once in the morning and again at night & sit around visiting with
old people in the afternoon.
Sabbath was engrained as the day that you
could not, because the Bible said so!
Over
the last 3-4 decades merchants no longer stay closed so the church remain
open. Now people of faith are free to
keep the Sabbath if they want to, but not because there is nothing else to do.
Using Karl Barth’s language people
welcomed the freedom to determine their activities and they et out making full
use of their freedom to work, shop, play, eat out, haul freight as they desired. When businesses
are open people have to work, and if parents are working the kids may as well
play their sports, which only makes it harder still to find time to share a
meal together, even once a week.
By
the 1990s the average worker was putting in an extra 164 hours of paid labour a
year, or equal to an extra month’s work. Two income families also were really
taking off around this time, thus showing a steep decline in the unpaid
activities on which many societies depend; caring for seniors, & young
children, volunteer & community work, church work. Hallmark came out with a new line of cards
for absent parents “sorry I can’t be here to tuck you in” one said “Sorry, I
can’t say good morning”.
Today,
there is no talking about the loss of the Sabbath, without talking about the
rise of consumerism. You cannot talk about Sabbath rest today, without talking
about Sabbath resistance.
During
the Friday night Jewish Shabbat service
two candles are lit, when 3 stars
can be counted in the night sky.
The
first candle represents creation when God created the 7th day, he
did not call it good, or very good, instead God blessed the 7th day
and called it holy, making the Sabbath the first sacred thing in all creation.
Resting every 7th day, God’s people remember their divine creation.
The candle announces: made in God’s
image, you too shall rest.
The
2nd Candle, stands for the second formulation of the Sabbath
Commandment where we shift from creation to the exodus from Egypt, which ends
with “remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God
freed you from there with a mighty hand, an outstretched arm; therefore the
Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath Day. The 2nd
candle announces: made in God’s image, you too are free.
The
Sabbath in Leviticus 25 speaks also of the tired fields, tired vines&
vineyard, tired land, tired workers who rest like the Sabbath in the 7th
year.
In
the eyes of the world today, there is no payoff for sitting on the porch. If
you want to succeed in this life, whatever field you are in, you must spray,
plough, fertilize, plant, never turn your back, & each year’s harvest
bigger than the last, that is what it is all about right?
In the eyes of the true God, Father of Jesus
Christ our Lord, the porch is imperative on a regular basis, letting things go,
is called practicing the Sabbath. Matthew 6:26 reads “ 6 Look at the birds of the air; they do not
sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds
them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by
worrying add a single hour to your life?
Sabbath
is the true God’s gift to those who wish to rest and to be free – and to guard
those same gifts for every living thing around us.
Test
the premise that you are worth more than what you can produce – that even if
you spent one day being good for nothing, you are still precious in God’s
sight. Your worth has already been established, even when you are not working.
The commandment is to persuade you to the same truth.
When you live in God, your day begins when you
open your eyes and let God hold you and when you consent to rest to show that
you get the point since that is not something we would do if you or I were in
charge. Look forward to meeting you on the porch enjoying the Sabbath with you.
Main
source of content from Barbara Brown-Taylor An Alter in the World, A
Geography of Faith
Reformed Worship Dec 18 Issue, Article
entitled Everyday Jesus Spirituality – Customized Spiritual Disciplines
submitted from Peter Schuurman who is director of Global Scholars Canada.
Bible
refs NRSV & NIV