7th
Sunday after Epiphany
February 24,
2019
Exodus 20;
Matthew14:13-24; Matthew 11:28-30
Drawn In: Week 6
I love that the final theme for our
series on creativity, rest, falls on the Sunday after I spent the week in El
Salvador. Traveling is not necessarily restful, especially when your flight is
at 3 in the morning, as it was when we flew down there. But I tend to find my
time in Central America to be restful. It is a break from life in the U.S., the
fast pace, the hurry, the attention to deadlines and the clock. It’s a break
from the 24 hr news cycle, where so many news items seem so urgent and so important
and so full of angst. You learn the world can and will continue without you. And
in Central America, like in some other parts of the world, time has less
meaning. One colleague joked that in Zimbabwe, where he has traveled many times
with the Conference, time doesn’t exist. I’d say for Central America, time is
more of a suggestion. You’re told you’ll be picked up at 8 means your ride
could show up anywhere from 7:45 to 8:45 and you don’t have any control over
it. This week I rested from control. There were only a few meals where I had a
menu to choose my food; all the other meals were chosen for me. The schedule
was already planned, but was also more of a guideline. We were along for the
ride, wherever the Bishop of El Salvador took us. That is the kind of rest that
Central America is. It’s a rest from control and a rest from the pressures of
time.
Now, rest does not mean quit. It does not mean you never return to work
again. Retire doesn’t even really mean that; you just make space for other work
instead. The fourth of the Ten Commandments is to keep the Sabbath, to remember
it and keep it holy. We work six days and rest on the seventh in order to be
ready to return to work on the eighth day. We work from rest; not rest from
work. If you’re resting from work, you’re doing it wrong. Start with rest, so
that you’re ready to work. Because you know what happens on the eighth day?
Creation is completed. God began to work again. If you ever see a baptismal
font that has sides to it, it will have eight sides, for the eighth day of
creation, to symbolize new creation, new life in Christ Jesus. God created and
continues to create and re-create. Yet work without rest is not sustainable.
“Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it.”[1]
I don’t know which day you take as Sabbath,
whether or not it’s Sunday. And I don’t know what you rest from on that day. My
mom takes it as a day when she doesn’t do any chores or housecleaning. I take
Mondays as a day off from the church. I don’t do any church work; I try not to
even answer email or the phone. I do check voicemail, however, if you leave me
a message, in case it’s something urgent. But otherwise it can wait until Tuesday.
That’s the thing about Sabbath. You learn what’s really urgent and how many things can really wait one more day. Jesus took time off, too, as we read. He took
time away, by himself, apart from the crowds, and sometimes even apart from his
disciples. He went to pray and to rest and be drawn in by God.
And it never says that someone died
because Jesus rested. There’s the story of Lazarus where his sisters sent for
Jesus because Lazarus was really sick, but Jesus took his sweet time getting
there.[2]
Lazarus was already been dead and buried three days by the time Jesus finally
got there. Jesus didn’t take so long to get there because he was chilling at a
spa and having some me-time. Jesus knew, unlike the sisters, that this wasn’t
urgent. Remember, God has his own timing, which is not ours. Jesus knew
Lazarus’ sickness and death were not urgent. A matter of life and death, yes, but
not urgent. When Jesus arrived, he declared himself to be the resurrection and
the life, those who believe in him would receive eternal life and he asked the
sisters if they believed. They said “yes, Lord.” And Jesus resurrected Lazarus
and brought him home to his sisters. Rest helps us discern what’s urgent.
Rest also allows the brain time and
space to breathe and rest, to get off the treadmill. It’s giving yourself
permission to take a break. And, when your brain rests from whatever you’ve
been knee-dip in, then you start to dream again and the creativity cycle begins
again. Dreaming was where we started this series six weeks ago and dreams come from rest. They come when
you’re quiet and contemplative, which means you have to make the time and space
to be quiet and contemplative. There are many dreams recorded in the Bible; I’m
going to share with you one I learned this past week.
The Evangelical Methodist Church of El
Salvador currently has 13 churches, of which we visited 6. One of the rural
ones we visited was in a community called La Gloria and the pastor, who is from
La Gloria, is also named Gloria. Pastor Gloria has a dream for her community.
She has a vision to help the people where she lives. And she had a dream for
the details of the church building, too, which gives me the chills. When the
Methodist Church first got involved in La Gloria twelve years ago, it did not
have electricity or water and you entered either on foot, down a steep 245
steps, because it’s on the side of a mountain, or by a dirt road, which also
wound its way down the mountain. Pastor Gloria said that for each step, the
church fasted and prayed. They prayed for the government to put in electricity,
and they got power. They prayed for running water, and the government put that
in, too. They prayed for a paved road into the community, and that happened
only three years ago. The Bishop said it was one of many times where the
government saw the church getting involved, and because the church had gotten
involved in the community, then the government did, too. Now, even once they
had electricity, water, and a paved road in, the church still didn’t have a
building. They started building, and got an L shape wall constructed, and then
had to stop for quite a while. The building wasn’t finished until October 2017.
As I said, Pastor Gloria had a dream for
this building and what it would look like and include and even the layout of
it. In the first designs, however, the parsonage was to be built off a
different section than Pastor Gloria’s dream. And she said ok, maybe she got
that detail wrong. But then it turned out they couldn’t build the parsonage
where they had planned, it was going to be moved to a different spot – the
exact spot where Pastor Gloria had dreamed it! Pastor Gloria spends lots of
time in prayer and God has given her a vision. There is a kitchen in the
church, right now just waiting for God to provide the equipment somehow, and
Pastor Gloria knows what she wants to make with the women for them to sell in
the nearby city and be able to earn money. The gangs are not out of La Gloria,
but they are no longer active in the area immediately surrounding the church.
They leave it alone. Pastor Gloria’s main ministry is with women and children,
because that’s who are in the most need in La Gloria.
When you have rest, when you have time
away, when you’re unplugged and not trying to be productive every single
second, then your brain can wander and imagine and dream. I found myself
wondering about us partnering with one of the churches in El Salvador as a
sister church. It’s an idea that would not have to include any economic
exchange. The Bishop said it could be simply committing to praying for each
other and sharing worship together on Skype once a year. Or it could include
more. Just something to think about and dream about.
Finally, listen to Jesus’ invitation to
rest: “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you
rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in
heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden
is light.”[3]
What does rest for your soul look like? What does it feel like? Let Jesus draw
you in to him, learn from him, and you will find rest for your soul. Part of
rest for your soul means taking a regular rest from everything going on. The
world will go on without you. You do not have to be productive and try to
optimize everything every moment! What we learn from Jesus is that he had a
rhythm. Six days of work, one day of Sabbath, and on the Sabbath Jesus went to
the synagogue. He went to teach, to listen, to be renewed, to reconnect his
soul back to God, to reflect on the last week and be ready for the coming week.
It’s the rhythm of dream, hover, risk, listen, re-integrate, and rest, to then
return to dream again.
In Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase from The
Message, he wrote, “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? 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.” I love that
phrase, “learn the unforced rhythms of grace.” God’s rhythm isn’t forced. God doesn’t push through. There’s a
story the actor Hume Cronyn tells of working with Alfred Hitchcock and
Hitchcock wouldn’t let them push through. He says, “One time, we were working
on a problem with a scene. There were a lot of things to consider—lighting,
staging, pacing, and the like. We were up very late struggling to find the
right way to do it. Finally, when we seemed close to the solution, Hitchcock
came in and started telling jokes, silly junior high–type stuff and got us all
lost again. Later I asked him why, when we were so close to solving the
problem, did he choose that moment to get us off track by joking around? He
paused and said something I’ll never forget. He said, ‘You were pushing. It
never comes from pushing.’”[4]
Hitchcock wouldn’t let the cast and the crew force the outcome. He had them
take a break and then come back to it later.
This week, let’s “learn the unforced
rhythms of grace.” Don’t push through this week. Don’t force something. Let it
wait until morning. Don’t build up so much adrenaline and angst in yourself
that you’re in an unhealthy place mentally and emotionally, and possibly even
physically if you’re sustaining yourself with caffeine or carbs. Be a bit more
relaxed. Find the ebb and flow and follow it. Rest, not just your body but also
your mind. Seek that rest for your soul. Reconnect your soul. I am so glad I
had that week away last week because my Facebook feed is full of the angst of
General Conference, which started yesterday in St. Louis. Being away last week
meant I was able to keep a healthy distance from that anxiety and not let
myself get swept into it. Don’t just find rest, but make it part of your
regular rhythm. Where do you need to rest? When? From what? And don’t force it.
If you try one way and it doesn’t work, try something else instead. When I
first started I tried taking Fridays as my Sabbath, but there were two
problems. One is that I was tired on Monday and felt like I was pushing through
from Sunday to Tuesday. The other is that on Friday, I felt like what I had
left undone was hanging over my head and it was hard to mentally rest. Resting
on Monday works for me. Things can wait until Tuesday. And what’s not done
Friday can wait until either Sunday or Tuesday. Let’s learn together “the
unforced rhythm of grace” and find rest for our souls, so that we can again
dream, plan, risk, evaluate, share, and rest again. “The Lord is my shepherd; I
shall not want. He makes me to lie down [and rest] in green pastures; He leads
me beside the still waters,” a place of rest. “He restores my soul.”[5]
Rest leads to restoration, so that we can begin again when the day is new.
[1]
Exodus 20:11b
[2]
John 11:1-44
[3]
Matthew 11:28-30
[4] Drawn In: A Creative Process for Artists,
Activists, and Jesus Followers by Troy Bronsink, p. 94, kindle edition
[5]
Psalm 23:1-3a
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