Broadway Christian Church · Columbia, Missouri

Morning Worship · November 26, 2006

Twenty-Fifth Sunday After Pentecost

Prayer of the Day

God of all good gifts, we thank you for the good gift of life that comes to us in seasons and celebrations; in relationships and community; and in your son, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Scripture

Matthew 11:28-30

I’m going to be reading our Scripture for this morning from two different translations.  The first translation is from the “Revised Standard Version” of the Bible.  The second translation is from a newer translation called The Message.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

“Are you tired?  Are you worn out?  Are you burned out?  Come to me.  Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.  I’ll show you how to take a real rest.  Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it.  Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.  I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.  Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

May God add blessing to this invitation of Jesus Christ for our lives.

Message

A Season of Giving

Kim Ryan

It surprised us.  It wasn’t what we were expecting.  You see… We were working together as a part of Broadway’s Life Focus Seminar, which is a process of helping each other identify our gifts, our strengths, our best qualities, and begin to put into words our passion, our purpose for living.  Life Focus is a way to affirm for a first time or to reaffirm over many times our sense of how it is that God uniquely hopes to be present in us, through us.  How God hopes to help us live passionate and fulfilling lives. 

There were four of us who were working together to help another one fine-tune his mission statement, his statement about his life purpose.  This particular person had chosen verbs for that statement that included “help, give, and relax.”

Now, I will tell you, I have been facilitating Life Focus Seminars for eight years, and probably 250 of us have done that process, but this is the first time any one ever chose as a verb “relax” in their mission statement.  I was rather intrigued, but here is where the surprise came.  Julia had picked up the thesaurus that we keep handy.  It’s one of those dandy little tools that doesn’t offer definitions but does offers words that have the same meaning, so you can expand your word choice.  She picked it up, and she was checking out these verbs that had been chosen.  Then she said, “That’s interesting.  It says here that another word for the word “give” is “relax.”

Hum.  Another word for the word “give” is “relax?”  I didn’t believe her.  I had to go back a few days later and double-check that.  I thought she was making that up.

But we moved on, and we helped shape and create a life-purpose statement that was authentic and reflective of the person we were working with.  It expressed the unique call in his life, God’s call.  It was a good piece of work. 

If you are thinking this is a plug for our next Life Focus Seminar, which will be after the first of the year, you are exactly right.  But that’s really not where I want to ask us to focus today.  I want to invite us wonder and to ponder that surprise in that work we were doing together.

Another word for the word “give” is “relax.”  Does that strike anybody else as funny?  As odd?  I’ve been trying to get my head around that ever since.  I’ve been trying to think about that, because in my mind, when I think about giving, it’s all about doing.  It’s all about giving money, or giving gifts, or giving time and attention, or giving thanks.  It’s all about some kind of an action.  Relaxing doesn’t quite enter in to that picture. 

In these weeks of wondering about this, I have found an intersection with a book that two of our small groups are reading this year.  You many have seen it.  It’s been kind of hanging around.  It’s Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives.  Well, “relax” isn’t in the title of this book, obviously.  But it is written all over and in this book.  Those of us who are reading this book (some are here in the sanctuary this morning) are finding that as we read it, we actually feel ourselves relax into the gentle words that invite us into a possibility of rest, into a possibility of renewal, and delight in our daily lives, into that timeless invitation of Sabbath.

When I was anticipating these two small groups that would be reading this book, I ordered 30 copies from Ninth Street Book Store.  They are wonderful.  They give us such a great discount.  However, they made a mistake.  They ordered 42 books instead.  When I went to pick them up, they said, “Oh, we’ll send those extra 12 back.”  On a whim I said, “Oh, no.  Let me take them with me.  I might be able to sell them.  I might be able to use them.”  Since then, I have had to order 25 more copies of this book.  There are over 67 copies of Sabbath making its way through us.  People are starting to buy them for friends and family.

What’s going on?  I’ll tell you what I think.  I suspect that some of us, or perhaps more than some of us are desperate to relax, to rest, to renew, to find delight in our lives.  We know a few others like us who are just as desperate.  Muller, in the book, mentions that the word “busy” when it is written in the Chinese language uses two characters.  The two characters that make up the word “busy” are “heart killing.”  “Heart killing, soul killing, life killing, relationship killing.”  It’s all of those.  Isn’t it?

We heard the words from the Scripture that invite us, the words of Jesus, “Come, and I will show you how to live freely and lightly.”  Isn’t there something within us that yearns, “Oh, yes.  Please.  Please.”

It is safe to say that in our culture today we have neglected the art of Sabbath keeping.  Sabbath is a time for sacred rest.  It may be a set-aside day, like the seventh day of the week, in the Jewish tradition, which would have been Jesus’ tradition.  Or the first day of the week in what use to be the Christian tradition, although we can hardly say that has held true in our culture.  But Sabbath may also be a Sabbath afternoon.  It may be a Sabbath hour, a Sabbath walk.  It is anything that offers an experience of life-giving nourishment and rest.  It is not a day off to run errands and pay bills.  A Sabbath is the present of something that arises when we set aside time to listen to that which is deeply beautiful, to listen to that which is and be a part of that which is deeply nourishing, deeply true.  It is a time that honors the quiet forces of grace and the Spirit that sustains us.  How did the Scripture describe it?  “Come.  Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.”  I love that phrase. 

The idea of Sabbath comes to us in the Old Testament from the Ten Commandments.  It is one of the ten guidelines for good living.   It is the only one of the ten that says, “Remember.”  “Remember the Sabbath,” as if we could forget, which, of course, we do.  “Remember the Sabbath.” 

This past week my 14-year-old son, Keller, said, “So, Mom, what’s the sermon going to be about this Sunday?”

I just gave him the big words, “Rest, relax, Sabbath.”

He nodded wisely, “Oh, I get it.  This is one of those ‘Do as I say sermons, not as I do’.” 

Oh, I was busted by a 14-year-old.  Ooh!  And trust me.  It wasn’t the first time.

When this kid was in kindergarten, he had a teacher who had a Shoe-Tying Club and a Zipper Club.  Thanks to the wonder and the miracle of Velcro tennis shoes, Keller didn’t know how to tie his shoes when he got to kindergarten.  But Mrs. Therman thought that was very important, and so I thought that was very important.  We began to coax and encourage Keller to learn how to tie shoes.  He wasn’t interested.  So, one morning, in desperation I said, “Keller, Honey, don’t you want to be in the Shoe-Tying Club?”

He said, “I am already in the Zipper Club.  Don’t you think one club is enough?”

He was right.  That has pretty much been his philosophy ever since.  Well, he did learn to tie his shoes, of course, at his own initiative, and his own rhythm.  (And I did have permission to tell that story.)

He was right.  This is a sermon that is about “Do as I say, and not as I do.”  I’m working on it.  I’m working really hard on this rest and relaxing thing.  Somehow that seems counter-productive, but I know it really matters.  What I want to say is, “Well, it just doesn’t come naturally to me.” 

But the truth is, I think it does come naturally to me.  It comes naturally to us, because many scientists think it is the way we are hard-wired in our brains.  We are hard-wired with a natural need and a desire to rest and relax like all of creation.  Like nature itself that teaches us there are rhythms of grace. 

We heard it our songs, our hymns of praise and thanksgiving this morning.  There are rhythms of the seasons.  There are flowerings and dormancies.  There are fruitfulness times and letting go times. 

Wayne Muller, in his book, Sabbath says, “To surrender to this wisdom, is to savor the secret of life itself.”  “To savor the secret of life itself.”

Well, we are standing on the edge of a season.  Aren’t we?  We are right on the edge.  Are you thinking of Christmas?  Well, the Church, in its wisdom and in its tradition over the centuries would say, “Woah!  Wait a minute.  Not so fast.  Don’t go to Christmas yet.  Wait.  Wait.  Wait.  We have a season before Christmas.  We have a season called “Advent.”  We have a season of anticipation and preparation before the birth of Christ.  So, even though Advent begins next Sunday, and we will be on our way toward the Season of Christmas, Advent offers us a season of unforced rhythm of grace.  Because, you see, the Church, in its vast wisdom, decided to tell time in the way of seasons.  I want to show you just how that is different from the way we usually tell time.

OK.  Lisa, come be a volunteer here.  I forgot to warn you about this.  Stand right here.

[Editor’s note:  Kim gives one end of a spool of ribbon to Lisa, as she stands at the front of the center aisle of the sanctuary.  Kim walks down the aisle unrolling the ribbon as she continues to speak.]

We tend to think of time as a straight line, from point A to point B, as in 29 shopping days left ‘til Christmas.  But the Church counts time differently.  The Church says, “Time flows in a circle.  Time flows in a pattern.”

O.K. You deacons over here, you are now on duty. 

[Editor’s note: Kim recruits several deacons sitting on the front row to hold the ribbon in a circle, giving the other end of the ribbon to Lisa to form a ribbon circle.]

The Church says, “The cycle, the pattern of living life is like this.  We have the Season of Advent preparing for the birth of Christ.  We have the Season of Christmas, which is celebrating the birth of Christ.  It is 12 days.  It is where “The Twelve Days of Christmas” comes from.  That is followed by the Season of Epiphany, which is celebrating the Light of Christ in the world and the difference that makes.  That is followed by the Season of Lent, which is a time of anticipating and getting ready for the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Then there is the Season of Easter, which is that celebration of the resurrection of Jesus.  Then there is the Season of Pentecost, which is the celebration of when the Spirit comes to our lives and to the Church, and we are the living witness of the Body of Christ.  Then it is the Season of Advent again.

This is the pattern.  This is the circle.  This is the unforced rhythm of grace.

Now, had we had more time, and had they even known this was going to happen, which they didn’t, I would have had us circle our way around as we would have moved down the center aisle, for it is the circle that makes its way through the progression of time, that gives us and gifts us with a different way of living time than racing to the finish line.

And so, what it really begins to look like, as we live into that unforced rhythm of life, is a spiral.  In that spiral is a returning and is a resting.  The rhythm of grace is the circle of the seasons that reminds us of the stories of faith, the stories of Christ, our story in the midst of that progression of time. 

We are created to live in that pattern, into that rhythm and to savor the secret of life.  We are created to live into the flowerings and the dormancies, into the working and the resting, into the trusting of the harmony of our own body, of nature and the entire cosmos.

Did anyone see the new National Geographic that came out just this week?  It has gorgeous pictures of the orbits of the planets.  Guess what?  They are not in a straight line.  They are in a gentle circle.  It is the song of the universe that offers us a rhythm and a pattern for living.

So, what if in the Season of Advent, on our way to Christmas, we rested?  That is rather radical and counter-cultural.  Isn’t it?  What if in this Season of Giving, we gave the gift of relaxing to ourselves, to our friends, and to our family?  What would that look like for you?  To rest.  To relax.  What would that look like for me?  What might I need to let go of in order for this to be a sermon of “Do what I do as well as what I say”?  What if we relaxed into this season instead of experiencing it as if it’s a race to the finish line? 

What if we rested into this season, remembering an ancient and an ever-new story told, and retold, and retold of the deepest rhythms of grace and offered to us in the invitation of Jesus?  “Keep company with me,” Jesus offers, “and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”  And what if we heard that invitation and we took a risk of offering it to someone else?

You have in your worship bulletin this beautiful post card.  Did you find it?  “The Many Moods of Christmas” – an invitation to come and experience a choral extravaganza.  We, in this congregation, for several years have had this beautiful gift in our 9:30 and 11:00 services of “The Many Moods of Christmas,” led by Mike Straw, Terry Overfelt, and John Rawlings.  But for the first time this congregation is saying, “Let’s share this with a friend.”  Invite them to come at three o’clock in the afternoon.  Invite them to experience the deeply beautiful, the resting, the relaxing of good music that brings the message of Christ to them. 

What I want to ask you to do is to think of a person you know who needs to rest and relax.  OK.  How hard is that?  Everybody has somebody?  Write them a note.  You can send it to them as a post card.  You could hand deliver this to them and say, “I want to give you this gift.  Come with me at three o’clock on December 17.  Come experience the invitation of Jesus Christ to rest, to relax.  Come unto me, all you who labor, and I will give you rest.”

What if this year, this season we said, “OK.  Please.  Thank you, and come with me.”

Amen.

Benediction

Sweet God, thank you for the unforced rhythms of your grace.  Help us to start our days in worship and end them with adoration.  Daily strengthen us to walk with you, work with you, and learn from you.  Bless us with your peace and a pace that is unhurried.  Amen.