Tag Archives: Creation

Freedom and Rest

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A Sermon for 21 August 2016

A reading from the gospel of Luke 13:10-17. Listen for God’s word to us.

“Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.”

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!

 

Remember the Blue Laws? Some fifty or more years ago in the United States, no matter where you went on Sundays, most everything was closed. The doors of sanctuaries were open and it was expected everyone who was anyone had their entire family with them in a pew. Laws throughout the United States banned such things on Sundays as open restaurants, open department stores, open car lots, and open liquor shops. “You did not even hear the whistle of freight trains . . . on Sundays, because it was illegal to haul goods on the Sabbath” (Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World, p. 128). Sunday had become the day you did not! Radically, to this day, a county in New Jersey still bans “the sale of clothing, shoes, furniture, home supplies, and appliances on Sundays” (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_law). And of course, we all know that if you want to enjoy some wine over Sunday dinner or a beer for the afternoon ballgame, you better be sure to stock up before Sunday morning arrives.

Ironically, the fourth of the infamous Ten Commandments begins not with shall not but with this: “Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). . . . Remember the Sabbath day? Way back in Genesis 1 and 2, the Great Creator went about all the work of making this amazing world. Separating light and darkness, crafting an environment in which creation could thrive – waters above, waters below, with dry land in there too. Fruit trees and pines and, as the story was told from the perspective of the land tucked between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, certainly there were figs and pomegranates and grapes galore. The stars twinkled in the brilliant night sky and the moon waxed and waned to keep track of all the seasons. Fish and cattle and creeping things of every kind came into being until earth was mixed with the divine breath to concoct such a creature as had never been before: humankind came into this world! And then, at last – not because we wore God out in our making, though the news each day might cause us to wonder – then, the Great Creator stopped. It was finished. The Great Creator paused in delight declaring: “Ah! Very good! Very, very good indeed!” . . . Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy – because God wants everyone of us to stop too. To pause, if just from one sundown to sundown, to declare in delight: “Ah! Very good! It all is very, very good indeed!” Set apart in this way, we too make the rest holy.

That was the purpose of Sabbath, at least until the Exodus when Sabbath took on another meaning as well. Observant Jewish brothers and sisters welcome Sabbath in their homes each week with the lighting of two candles when at least three stars can be seen in the sky. One is this candle command of creation – the pause for creatures to delight. To rest. The other is the candle of freedom. Once we were enslaved by the ways of the Pharaoh. But God heard the cries of the people. The wringing of hands over if there would be enough this month to feed the children. Would we ever get a break from the boss who has been breathing down our necks these past several months over our performance on the job? Is that all it all is: toil for a paycheck and worry everything shall work out? . . . Will we ever get a break from defining ourselves by what we do and being defined by others in that way too, instead of simply being accepted for who we are – warts and all? God hears all those cries. Every wonder and weary worry. In response, once a week for a whole 24 hours; we are free! None of it matters. We are invited to put down such heavy burdens to take a walk in the park with someone we love who loves us back just as well. We can take a nap no matter the piles of dirty dishes or chores to do outside. Lay in a hammock or rock out on the front porch if only for 20 minutes just to listen and observe. Rest from the pecking order of this world at least for one whole night and one whole day and see if you wake ready to worship the next morning. Do it on a Saturday, as was first the plan; so that the next day you can gather with others in the faith to swop stories over how good it was for just one night and day this week to rest in the freedom of God.

That is what has Jesus all incensed in the story before us in the gospel of Luke. At a glance it might appear all is well, but the Sabbath command is violated. Not by the one accused of doing the healing. Rather, this particular synagogue leader failed to see the burden on the shoulders of a woman bound by her body for eighteen long years. They would untie their ox or donkey every Sabbath that the animals might get what they needed – even on the day of rest and freedom. But that synagogue leader would not have it that a child of the covenant might get a bit better treatment than beasts of burden on the weekly day to live God’s freedom and rest! . . . Notice that this woman didn’t seek out Jesus. The text says nothing of her coming to the synagogue expecting any sort of healing that day. The author gives great detail that the woman was “bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight” (Luke 13:11). So that even if she wanted to seek out Jesus, about all she’d be able to see as an identifying mark in her search would be feet. Some of you live with back problems that have hindered you to stand up tall to look another straight in the eye. You know the pain that becomes the constant companion. The desperation of wanting to be well. And if you’ve been dealing with it for nearly twenty years, you know too how crushed a spirit can get. So crushed, it would seem, this woman just goes to the synagogue – no indication she’s expecting any sort of release, even there among religious folk you might hope would be concerned enough to find a way to help. . . . Though the leader might spit in his criticism that she was in the wrong for seeking healing on the Sabbath; the story never questions her motives or throws any sort of blame her way. Jesus who has stop to rest and remember – to delight in the goodness of it all and to be free from anyone else’s expectations – while Jesus is observing this day of Sabbath in the synagogue, he sees someone who needs immediately to be set free. Likely, he saw a whole synagogue full of faithful Sabbath-keepers who desperately needed to be free. Free from law over grace. Free from rules trumping compassion. Free from external expectations over the will of God. Free from mental, emotional, and spiritual ailments that weigh heavy upon the backs of every last one –even if those burdens haven’t yet imprinted physically on the body. None of it is ok with this faithful Sabbath-keeper. Keeping his eye on the true intent of the fourth command; with one word, much like the Great Creator at the beginning of it all, Jesus releases the chains upon this woman’s back. He lays his hand upon her and in an instant she is set free. With a full body alleluia, she stands upright, for the first time in eighteen years, to praise God! . . . True Sabbath. True freedom. True joy-filled rest as a beloved child of God! In the whole room, they’re the only two rightly practicing Sabbath. The only two resting in the delightful freedom of the LORD!

In An Altar in the World, the book we’ve been reading this summer in Home Book Club, Barbara Brown Taylor reminds that Sabbath is a “’palace in time’ . . . into which human beings are invited every single week of our lives. The question is: “Why are we so reluctant to go?” (p. 127) . . . I get it. For far too long we’ve been told it’s all about thou shall not. For far too long we’ve let the world around us demand our time and attention. Maybe you’ve been taught to believe Sabbath is all about Sunday and “going to church” – which is not at all what the bible records anywhere! Sabbath is about entering the beautiful palace in time each week to sit a spell, not in an effort to do anything holy, but just to be. Just to rest and remember that we are free. Free from it all because the Great Creator hears us and loves us and commands us just to stop. That in itself is holy! . . . If one sundown to the next sundown is too long for you each week, then at least begin with an hour – preferably sometime Saturday so you at least have some bit of gratitude in your tank when you race in to worship on Sundays. Give it a try, if you don’t already. And enjoy the freedom and rest of God! It is so good. So very, very good indeed!

In the name of the life-giving Father, the life-redeeming Son, and the life-sustaining Spirit, Amen.

© Copyright JMN – 2016  (All rights reserved.)

Instead Consider

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A Sermon for 7 August 2016

A reading from the gospel of Luke 12:22-34. And remember: they’re still on the road with Jesus, out of Galilee for the last time as they head for his final trip to Jerusalem. Listen for God’s word to us.

“He said to his disciples, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will God clothe you—you of little faith! And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’”

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!

 

Believe it or not, most of what I just read from the gospel of Luke is not an assigned reading according to the Revised Common Lectionary. O, the part about selling our possessions to give it away as alms is – which is miracle in and of itself that our church mothers and fathers had the foresight to have those words of Jesus read before his body at least once every three years. But the part about do not worry is not. The lectionary would have us skip from Jesus’ parable of the rich fool and the plea to take care against defining our lives according to our possessions, to striving for the purses that do not wear out as we’re ready for whatever twists and turns life brings. But worry? The invitation to consider the simple things around us like birds. How do they all get enough to eat each day? And enough to drink? And with all of them around; yet each little bird finds a place somewhere in this world to build their nests to snuggle down safely for the night away from any circling prey. And what about the wildflowers? In Galilee, there still are bright yellow flowers popping up all over. Wild mustard I was told, not lilies. But wildly prolific nonetheless. Have you ever been walking along a sidewalk and seen all those beautiful little purple flowers pushing their way through tangles of gnarly Bermuda grass or popping through whatever crack in the path they can find? How do they grow? Presumably the wind alone scatters their seed. When it rains, they drink. When the sun shines, the nutrients they need seep deep into their little-flower pores. It’s like it just happens. They get what they need to grow.

Some might argue that the swarms of common house sparrows and the droves of little purple wildflowers that are so insignificant they rarely are seen as beautiful; someone might say they matter more in this world than people. But most of us believe we matter a little bit more than them. A proper orientation towards all the creation that surrounds us might better be that we equally matter. Species are mutually beneficial to one another. After all, it’s not just beauty little wild flowers provide. They actually have a purpose for our lives too. Did you know that “seaweed, algae, and marine phytoplankton make up the overwhelming majority of the world’s oxygen producing plants” (www.secrets-of-longevity-in-humans.com/oxygen-producing-plants.html)? Even that which we consider worthless slim is important to sustaining our human life. Without oxygen in every cell of our bodies, we cannot live. And there they all are. Chirping sparrows, little purple wildflowers, seaweed, algae, and marine phytoplankton too. Doing their thing without one care in the world. If they could talk and we asked them what rattled them awake in the middle of the night, I’m sure they would say: “nothing. Not one thing.”

It’s we humans that seem to live a different way – which might be why God created a whole world first that knew how to just be before setting us loose in the garden to worry our little heads off. . . . Someone pointed out to me this week that it’s not really helpful to tell someone who’s trying to change their behavior not to do it. Like “Don’t worry,” Jesus says here. “Do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying.” It’s not really all that helpful because the words alone churn up our anxious hearts. Now we worry too that we worry so much and Jesus told us not to do it. It’s like he’s kicking us when we’re already down – even if he didn’t mean further harm. He really is trying to paint a different picture to give us a loop hole out of the worry trap. Jesus knows we need the what to do more than the what not to do in order to make any sort of lasting change. The details may be a little lacking about what it looks like to strive instead for the kingdom, but the actual practice he first suggests is the way out. Watch the birds. Pay attention to the little lilies. See how everything in this creation fits together. As we notice, we might just come to the conclusion that it’s all going to be all right.

One of the most helpful things I have come across for deepening my trust in God, actually is something I’ve learned from the energetic therapy called Healing Touch. After a healer asks someone the physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual healing they seek and before going on to the next step; the healer silently repeats that desire as if it is the prayer for the healing. And then, if the healer is doing it right, they must release that desire to the Highest Good. Literally, if a healer is doing it right, they must let go of the outcome. Who is anyone of us to really know what another person needs as they make their journey in this world deeper into who God would have them be? Who is anyone of us to really know what we ourselves need as we make our journey in this world deeper into who God would have us be? . . . We definitely can ask, and by Jesus even, in a few verses just prior to this portion of Luke, are told in fact to ask for exactly what we want (Luke 11:1-14). And then, we must release that desire to the Highest Good. Something many of us refer to as the will of God. (As in: “Thy will be done.”) A daily practice each one of us gets is to release, then wait – even if it takes nearly forever – we must wait to see how God will take what we may consider the worst garbage of our lives and somehow make a way to something new. . . . In the admonition not to worry, Jesus is inviting us to let go of our firm need to stay in the driver’s seat. To welcome the mystery of what will unfold. Do not worry means: know that God’s got this, because God’s got you – and every other creature too.

In a lot of ways, worry gets straight to the core of whether or not we trust what Jesus says – not to mention trust who Jesus is. Do we trust, what our ancestor in the faith, John Calvin, once so formally professed: that God is benevolent towards us (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion; Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960, 3.2.7). In other words, Jesus asks: do you believe the God of the Universe loves us, or not? . . . How we answer that question is meant to make a difference even in whether we’re able to get a restful night’s sleep. It does not mean everything always is going to be easy or turn out the way we want it. We will experience pain in our life – it’s part of the package. In fact, it’s a gift really, though we seldom think of it that way. Pain in our body, mind, or spirit can be considered a great teacher if we turn aside for a moment to explore what message we’re supposed to be hearing from that pain. What our body, mind, or spirit is crying out for us to notice and most likely stop to change something about how we are going about life. Even if all it is is to remember: “O yes, God! I need to get back in the passenger seat to enjoy the view of where you are taking this all.”

Do not worry is not easy. A lot of us already have cut a really deep channel in our brains to go right from wonder over what’s taking place to incessant, can’t-sleep-a-wink worry. If watching the birds isn’t helping one bit. If paying attention to the wildflowers and even trying to appreciate how the seaweed just does its most helpful thing is not making a difference to stop your worry. Then, turn to the ways of the kingdom, as Jesus also tells us to do. Get out of the house to go show love to somebody. Make peace maybe through a caring gesture to someone who really has been on your nerves. Be a little more generous with your thoughts about why that person always is so mean – what burden might they be bearing that you know nothing about? Share what you have with someone who really needs it, then see how you feel after. Do these kingdom things and you might just find you sleep a whole lot better at night. You might just wake rest-full, ready to greet the first bird’s beautiful song.

In the name of the life-giving Father, the life-redeeming Son, and the life-sustaining Spirit, Amen.

© Copyright JMN – 2016  (All rights reserved.)

 

Full Moon Rising

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9:23 p.m. CST

9:23 p.m. CST

10:02 p.m. CST

10:02 p.m. CST

10:03 p.m. CST

10:03 p.m. CST

After watching this last night, these words came:

4 May 2015:  The moon rises all by herself. She doesn’t seem to care if anybody notices. She doesn’t seem to do so to please anyone else. It doesn’t even seem a process all that useful to anyone else. She sits there – twirling about with us in an unnoticed dance. Covered a little bit more one night. Fully exposed on another. Missing all together every now and again.

I wonder . . .

I wonder what it feels like to be the moon. Attuned, really, to her own pushes and pulls. Living by her own rhythm. Often ignored. Overlooked. Even dreaded.

But my how BEAUTIFUL she is! Photos don’t do her justice! Breath-taking! Just to sit – like this night. With every rock of my chair, she rose higher and higher and higher until in full she was aglow in the otherwise dark abyss of night. As we turn outward – literally into the unknown – she comes to greet us. Nowhere near as dazzling as her counter-part, the sun. She has no need to blaze like that; to overtake with her brilliance. Rather: simply, beautifully, with or without notice, she gives comfort to all who attentively search in the dark night. She guides – sometimes just by a sliver. Sometimes reminding us she’s still present even if she’s totally unseen.

I give thanks for sister moon! I turn to her for wisdom. Guidance. Comforting hope as I grope onward in the night.

Thank you!

Allelu!

RevJule

Undeterred

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This little clematis refuses not to resurrect.  IMG_3618

Did I get that double-negative correct?  It’s been sitting out in this pot for several years now.  It doesn’t always get enough water.  And other times it gets way too much.  It didn’t get enough TLC this past season and I was pretty sure we’d seen its last.  You can see I’m still not properly tending it, what with the sprouts of weeds starting all around the edge of the pot.  The seemingly dead shoots of last season still are here.  And yet . . .  a majestic new vine grows.  It even has the makings of a first blossom.  It’s getting stronger everyday and whether or not I help it along, soon this new vine will find its way to the trellis and make its home there for who knows how long — this season?  Next?  Maybe even the one after that until the cold kiss of winter finds it and the process begins all over again.

As I have been out in nature every chance I could get these past months, it has occurred to me that we seem to be the only creatures that fight it.  I’m sure I’m not the first to notice or write of it.  Do you notice it too?  The creation around us doesn’t rail against the transition from one season to the next.  Blazing autumn leaves don’t put up a fight against the death of winter.  They do not struggle against the letting go.  Somehow they freely release — almost knowing in the core of their being that it’s the only way for their greening to begin again.  Undeterred, they beautifully trust the pattern put in them from the start.  Are we, human beings, the only creatures of this grand creation that fail to get it?

O grant that we too might fall in trust into the glorious design deep within each cell of our being.  What an amazing ride through this beautiful life if we too could rely on it!  Only that which dies can rise again to any sort of new life . . .

Thy Way be done, Holy One.  Thy Way . . .

Perspective

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Today the conversation at Lunch Bunch somehow turned to gardens.  In particular, one person was relaying how hard this winter was on her beloved gardenia bush.  It died and she was going to have to get her son to come take it out for her — it grew far larger than she could manage by herself.  It brought to mind the three dead shrubs right out front of my friend’s condo (where my puppy Rufus and I temporarily are residing in the guest room).  Several times I have wondered when the condo landscape company will come replace the eye-sore of the dead bushes.  Last week I was so tired of looking at these dead bushes that I asked my friend when they might be replaced.  No telling was the answer, and I rolled my eyes thinking that if I had any jurisdiction over those bushes, I’d NEVER allow them to be dead out there for who knows how long.  I was convinced the landscape company must have no idea what they’re doing!

Tonight we were sitting out on the front porch right behind the dead shrubs reading before the sun went down.  It’s a great treat to just relax with inspiring words at the end of a long day.  (Check my GoodReads to see what ones I most enjoy!)  Rufus was on my lap but he wasn’t having any of it.  He was doing nothing but squirming.  I know he only just turned one year old last week, but why can’t he ever just sit quietly on my lap when I want to unwind???  I’d finally had enough and put him down on the ground.  As soon as his little paws hit the ground, he was digging his nose into the dead leaves under the dead bush.  Great.  Another good reason for the thing to be ripped out.  Though I tried to get Ru to leave it, he burrowed his little snout deeper into that dead bush.  And the next thing I know two baby bunnies popped up from no where!  Suddenly it all made sense why a rabbit was sitting on the porch before we went out there to read.  Her babies were being bedded down for the night under the bush I thought was absolutely good for nothing.

Her act left me thinking.  What I see as an eye-sore, that momma rabbit saw as home.  What I wanted upgraded for a new thing, that momma and her babies knew as the perfect spot for their greyish-brown coats safely to blend right in.  It makes me pause to consider what else I might be missing in this world — what else I might overlook because I want it to be one thing, but beautifully it is exactly what another needs.  Hmm.  I can spend some time pondering that.  It’s a good reminder on perspective — a good reminder to look again just in case a wonderful surprise is hiding from plain view.

What about you?  What wonderful surprise might you be overlooking?

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