A Year of Sabbaths (Week 32): The Good Part

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Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; 

and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. 

She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. 

But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” 

But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42)

I was visiting with my wife on Saturday night.  It had been a big day of basketball, painting the first coat of primer on the basement walls, and re-planting the peas that the chickens had dug up and eaten.  (Grr!) I was just beginning to share my plan for Sunday.  After all, there was a list of things that I wanted to accomplish in the afternoon, after church. 

"When was our Sabbath again?" my wife asked. 

"Well," I reasoned, "I was thinking that our Sabbath was watching basketball on Saturday morning and going to church on Sunday morning." (I'm good at taking parts of two days and calling it a whole Sabbath.)  My wife saw through my math skills. 

"Just for the record...so you know...tomorrow...I will not be following any list!"

"Oh, yeah," I said, thinking of Jesus' gentle rebuke of Martha. "Choose the good part." But boy! It was hard to put away my list.

So, we went to sleep and woke up for the two services on Sunday.  The boys were troopers, so we went and ate pizza.  Then, we went and played for a couple of hours at an indoor trampoline park. (I'm still feeling the after affects of all that jumping!) And none of these things were on my list, but it was good... it was humbling watching small children get out of their strollers and start doing flips over my head...but it was good.  I came home too tired to paint.

We finished with our family devo, watched a movie, ate popcorn, and called it a day-a good day; a day that ended up being more than a checklist because someone had reminded me that Sabbath is not about being distracted with all my preparations and then complaining about how busy I am.  Sabbath is taking a day and choosing the only thing that is necessary and the only part that cannot be taken away. Sabbath is taking a day to jump up and down with the boys and sit at the feet of Jesus. Sabbath is taking a day to choose the good part rather than a list.    

Church stopping. Less doing. More being.

A Year of Sabbaths (Week 31): March Madness

Koch Arena

Then Moses said to the Lord, "Please, Lord I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since Thou has spoken to Thy servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue."

And the Lord said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes him dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say." (Exodus 4:10-12)

We worked hard on Saturday. It was a day of cleaning up the yard and grinding up some brush. We planted peas in the garden and bought some paint for the basement. Though my sermon for Sunday was written, I also took some time to develop my delivery. (My wife is the gifted speaker in our family!)

So, I was glad when dinner rolled around and we shifted into Sabbath mode.  Our family began our thirty-first Sabbath of the year playing PacMan and Mappy on a classic video-game player. It was great!  We tumbled into bed late and looked forward to worship on Sunday.

It might be just deliberate self-delusion, but preaching on Sunday feels more like play than work. I know that I am not a gifted speaker. I just can't do it.  The words don't come. "I am slow of speech and slow of tongue", but it is in that speaking moment that I most feel the strength and power of God. When I preach, it is an awesome moment...at least for me!

After church, we came home and my wife and I helped our two littlest boys clean the big mess of their room.  We had helped them before, but they just  weren't getting it. Ususally such didactic sessions end in frustration and tears. However, this time, it was different. I didn't lose my patience and the kids became engaged. We parted ways with piles of trash, broken toys, worn-out toys, and rocks.  The little boys actually began to rejoice when they saw the floor again!  Maybe it was deliberate self-delusion, but it seemed like in that moment I felt the strength and power of God.

Furthermore, we finished our Sabbath work in time to drive over to some friends and watch the big ball game.  At the end of the day, the sermon was preached, the boys' room was cleaned, and our team advanced to the Sweet 16!  It was a good day.

I'm pretty sure that the circumstances would have been different thirty weeks ago. Thirty weeks ago, I would have been stressed about my sermon, the boys' room would have aroused agitation, and we wouldn't have bothered to drive across town to watch the game.

It may be deliberate self-delusion, but I like to think that the intentional practice of Sabbath is making a difference. By intentionally letting go of the cares of the world, we are beginning to experience the care of God. As God holds us close, we are conformed, just a little bit more, into his image.

Church Stopping. Less doing. More being.

A Year of Sabbaths (Week 30): Good Returns

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As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

(Isaiah 55:9)

I remember the time I went to New York City. I took the train into Grand Central Station and met a couple of friends.  We rode the subway to Yankee Stadium, Times Square, and the Financial District. We walked on Broadway and ate pizza by the slice as big as my head. There is something very cool about the whole Big Apple scene. Maybe it is because there is so much going on there that I don't understand.  For example, I don't understand how people drive on those congested streets. I don't understand what millions of people are doing in millions of offices in huge buildings all day and all night in such a hurry. I don't understand life without a yard and I don't understand what happens on Wall Street.

You see, I am not much of an investor.

A couple of days ago, my wife and I loaded up the kids for a getaway to the mountains.  "We need this," we told each other. "It will be good," we said. My wife prepared food in advance for five people for six meals. We wouldn't be near either a store or a restaurant for three days.  She packed clothes for five people.  She arranged for someone to watch the house and chickens while we were gone.  We rounded up the kids and drove 600 miles in one day. When we arrived, we built a fire in the cabin and got a quick night's sleep. The next morning, we went into town and were fit for snowshoes and trekked around a frozen lake.  We walked up the sledding hill a hundred times. The next morning, we piled back in the car and headed home, exhausted and road weary and wondered out loud, "Was this really worth it?"

So, I started to add up the returns on our investment. The first morning in the cabin, we saw a fox run up the creek.  Later, we saw skads of deer and herds of elk.  There was beautiful scenery and spectacular weather. We slept in...twice! There was one night, after snowshoeing and sledding and dinner, we listened to the boys laugh and play a wild game of Monopoly way past their bed time.

Maybe the math doesn't add up and it was way too much work for too short a time.  Maybe it was just too much driving to justify one full day full of memories and laughter, but I don't know if math is always the way to the correct answer, because it was so worth it!  I don't know if I understand everything that happened. I don't know if I know how a week's worth of work and complete exhaustion qualifies as a good investment.  But in those brief moments of breathless scenery and lazy mornings and sibling laughter, we discovered a good return. God's ways are higher than my ways and God's economy is different than Wall Street.

We are already talking about next year's trip.  We will probably do less snowshoeing and more snowboarding...and we will probably stay twice as long and find at least one restaurant where we can eat pizza as big as our head.

Church Stopping. Less doing. More being.  

A Year of Sabbaths (Week 29): Still Waters

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He makes me lie down in green pastures,

He leads me beside still (menuhot) waters...

(Psalm 23:2)

"It (menuhot) is that state in which there is no strife and no fighting, no fear and no distrust."

(Abraham Heschel, The Sabbath) 

We are a little over half-way in our family's year of intentional Sabbaths. We began with a conviction: when we stop, God starts.  (eg. Exodus 14:14, Psalm 46:10, Leviticus 25:1-7, Isaiah 40:31, Acts 1:4-5) God does big things to and through His people when they stop, wait, and be still. 

Though I am still convinced that this conviction is true, our episodic stopping has not led to a parting of the Red Sea and our picaresque pausing has not led to Pentecost.  Instead, God has led us to, and we have tasted, the still waters; the waters of "menuhot."   

Sometimes it is a long draught, sometimes it is just a sip on the fly...

After watching our three sons play three games of basketball between the hours of 9AM and 3PM, squeezing in breakfast and lunch and two trips to the gym, my wife collapsed on the couch and asked, "When does our Sabbath start?"

As a family, we have been trying to stop and take a break from the things we have to do and focus on fun; one whole day once a week. Sometimes we rest. Sometimes we play Monopoly or basketball.  Every time, God does something.  I have felt it. My wife needed to feel it on Saturday.  But it is hard to articulate.  Bible translators call it stillness, or quietness. Sabbath scholar Abraham Heschel describes it as the absence of strife and fighting and fear and distrust.  It is all of those things, of course, and more. It is a fullness and a contentment.  A sleepless rest.  A resounding quiet and a gentle strength. It is a tectonic upheval where the hours of our mundane life are thrown up and into eternity.  It is a time when life is truly lived.

No, the seas haven't split and the conflagfrant dawn has not morphed into tongues of fire, but in our fledgling efforts to experience Sabbath together, God has started to move in us.  We have a deeper appreciation of our blessings, a growing intimacy with one another, and a hunger for a closer walk with God...and frequent sips of menuhot. It's a good start.  We don't want to stop.  And who knows what will happen in the second half...

Church stopping. Less doing. More being.

A Year of Sabaths (Week 28): On the Road

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"Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love." 

Revelation 2:4, Jesus

"Even thinking of business or labor should be avoided."

The Sabbath, by Abraham Heschel

Sometimes, we just need to get out there...on the road with Jesus. No more four walls. No more deadlines. Wind in our hair. Don't fence me in.

Things happen, on the road. We unwind.  Our minds get free from the worry. Our eyes escape from the clutter. Sometimes we lose cell phone coverage and contact with the real world. We wander and we get lost.

And that's good, because when we can't reach the laundry, we can't do it. When we don't see the back porch screen flapping in the wintry wind, we can't fix it. When we are two-hundred miles away, we can't come in to the office. When we are out on a drive, we can disengage from the things that drive us. 

I have first hand experience. Our family recently returned from an overnight trip to a hotel with an indoor waterpark. It was just one night, but it was awesome and it was long enough to forget about laundry. It was just three hours, but it was far enough away that I couldn't get back to the office. And when we arrived at the hotel, our five-year old started hopping, our nine-year old fell silent, and our eleven year-old rediscovered his smile.  My wife and I  found  a hot tub as the the back-porch screen continued to flap in a cold, wintry wind back home.

It was great, but there's a lot of reasons why we don't go...

We have to put in for vacation and make reservations and make sure the chickens are fed.  We have to pack clothes and prepare food and take the car in for servicing.  And we have to do all these things not really knowing for sure what we are going to do with all this time not working.  We are so use to deadlines and demands that we aren't sure what will be left when they are gone. 

But that is why God bids us to stop.  

We stop working so God can work on us. We stop so that God can remind us that there is a five-year old who has been racing so hard to catch up that, when it comes to stopping, hopping is the best he can do. God tells us to stop so that a nine-year old who feels like he must yell to be heard can fall silent and a little boy who is trying so hard to be responsible can frolic in his childhood a little longer. We stop so that a husband and wife can remember that they loved each other before they became a team.  We stop to be reminded that there is more to life than work.

Out on the road, we begin to see that the same forces that drive us apart in our homes are the same forces that drive us apart in our churches and in our schools.  When we stop, we sometimes see that work is all that is left and that isn't enough and that isn't the plan.  Our life is a love-affair with the One who gave us life and then gave us lives to love.  The back porch screen can wait.

A Year of Sabbaths (Week 27): Accidental Sabbath

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"Be still, and know that I am God; 

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth." (Psalm 46:10)

On Sunday afternoon, were were planning on coming home after church and cleaning out the desk drawer in the Dream Room (it's really our office but it has maps on the walls and a globe on the floor and lots of books to inspire dreams of far away places and foster lofty thoughts).  The Dream Room is in  the back of the house...far enough away for us to hide but also far enough away for us to hide stuff. There is only one drawer in the Dream Room. And it was an overflowing mess.

However, on Sunday afternoon, our best laid plans were scrapped. We had been extemporaneously invited to watch the basketball game at noon with some friends. It wasn't long before we were entirely off topic. The Dream Room drawer remained in mayhem.  In fact, we never even made it home. We drove from the church, picked up some pizza, and drove directly across town in order to catch tip-off.  Shortly after arrival, we found out that the game was at three. But we sat and stayed. We ate, we visited, and we rested.

It was an accidental Sabbath.

So I thought.  But now, in reflection, I am beginning to wonder. It seems as if God knew exactly what was happening.  In fact, it seems God's people are always right where God wants them to be even if it is three hours early; it only seems accidental.

After all, Moses was herding sheep when he saw the burning bush. Elijah was running for his life when he heard the still small voice. Saul was rounding up some Damascus Christians when he was blinded by the Lord.  Peter was fishing when Jesus called to him from the shore.

Maybe this God who created koalas, ear lobes, and the blobfish enjoys the humor in it. When we are least expecting it, and when we feel like we are not getting anything done, that is when God reveals His omnipresence. Scripture says, "Be still and know".  Author and theologian Abraham Heschel says:

"The law of the Sabbath tries to direct the body and the mind to the dimension of the holy.

It tries to teach us that man stands not only in relation to nature

but in a relation also to the creator of nature."

    

In other words, God sometimes will give us a burning bush, or scales on our eyes, or a still small voice, or an unplanned afternoon with friends to remind us of who and where God is.  He's right here, in relationship with us.  And we will experience it if we just stop...even "accidentally."

Church Stopping. Less doing. More being.

Year of Sabbaths (Week 26): Sky Hooks and Swan Dives

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Mostly, I have thought of Sabbath as a personal discipline.  It has been, for me, something I do on my own, like praying or going to church or eating less chocolate.  I know that this something is good for me even if it isn't always enjoyable.  Joy hasn't been the point.

But, maybe I've been wrong.

Maybe Sabbath was never intended to be a solo journey.  And maybe joy is specifically the point.  Maybe Sabbath is less like a solo discipline and more like a road trip or even a great-big block party:

       Set apart a tithe of all the yield of your seed that is brought in yearly from the field. In the presence of the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose as a dwelling for his name, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, as well as the firstlings of your heard and flock, so that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. But if, when the Lord your God has blessed you, the distance is so great that you are unable to transport it, because the place where the Lord your God will choose to set his name is too far away from you, then you may turn it into money. With the money secure in hand, go to the place that the Lord your God will choose; spend the money for whatever you wish—oxen, sheep, wine, strong drink, or whatever you desire. And you shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your household rejoicing together.” (Deuteronomy 14:22-26)

It seems to me that the command here is to get to where God is and then celebrate with everyone else who has made the trip. Joy is specifically the point.  And if you can't make it to where God dwells, then invite everyone over and celebrate the blessings of God where you are. Only, be careful to avoid the BBQ if you are a vegan. Be wary of the punch bowl if you are a teetotaler. Forget about decency and orderliness.  The only command is to rejoice and to rejoice together.

Last Saturday, our family took a road trip.  Our oldest son was playing in a basketball tournament out of town. As luck would have it, there was a swimming pool in the same facility.  Our two little ones spent a lot of time perfecting their swan dives and belly flops between games.  My wife packed a gourmet picnic lunch.  We cheered wildly and almost won the championship. We finished the day at a Mexican restaurant eating salsa and chips and celebrating sky hooks and swan dives. We even had a little chocolate for dessert. It was a beautiful Sabbath, a lovely Valentine's day, and a great party!

I like Sabbath this way better: together and not alone.  In fact, I like the idea of a party better than worship and wonder would happen if we thought of church in the same way...as celebration..."you and your household rejoicing together."  I don't know.  It might be a disaster.  Someone may sing too loud, eat too much chocolate, or start to dance.  But, maybe in the midst of it all, we would laugh a little and give God some room to move.  Who knows what might happen if church were more of a party and joy was the point.

Church Stopping.  Less doing. More being.