2nd Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 4B

The Very Rev Melanie Dickson Lemburg 2nd Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 4B June 2, 2024 There’s a story by the Irish priest John O’Donohue in his book Anam Cara that goes like this: “There is a lovely story of a man exploring Africa. He was in a desperate hurry on a journey through the jungle. He had three or four Africans helping him carry his equipment. They raced onward for about three days. At the end of the third day, the Africans sat down and would not move. He urged them to get up, telling them of the pressure he was under to reach his destination before a certain date. They refused to move. He could not understand this; after much persuasion, they still refused to move. Finally, he got one of them to admit the reason. The native said, ‘We have moved too quickly to reach here; now we need to wait to give our spirits a chance to catch up with us.’” i Do you know this feeling of traveling faster than your soul can go? We are a culture that glorifies the art of busy-ness. We fill every spare moment of our day with doing, for ourselves, for others. We rush and hustle and produce and buy and text and scroll. But have you ever stopped and wondered why we do this? Why do I do this? Why do you do this? I suspect that it is because we have been taught that our value lies only in our productivity and because being busy means we don’t have time or energy to face certain truths about ourselves, our families, the world we live in. Busy-ness is a highly effective avoidance tactic. We are so programmed to go, go, go, and it becomes harder and harder to stop. Although, every once in a while, gradually increasing as we age, life does make us stop. But then what do we do? When we finally stop, we have to become reacquainted with ourselves, who have become strangers. Our faith has an antidote to this. It’s called Sabbath. Sabbath is from the Hebrew word shabbat which means “rest,” or literally “to cease,” and it is a concept woven throughout the Old Testament: as a gift from God at creation and as a practice we can employ to imitate God, as a reminder of what it means to be free for the formerly-enslaved Hebrew people being led out of Egypt. Keeping sabbath is so important that it is one of the 10 commandments. In our gospel reading for today, Jesus is disputing the meaning of sabbath with the religious leaders of his day, and he says, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath…” As another writer puts it, “Jesus presses his opponents — and disciples like us! — to look deeper. The animating objective of the sabbath, Jesus contends, the reason God established and commanded it in the first place, is for the sake of vibrant, healthy life in beloved community.” ii In an unexpected way, keeping sabbath is similar to the difference between speaking and listening. I suspect we all have had experiences in relationships where everyone is speaking and noone is listening. (In fact, I think this is an accurate characterization of our country’s current political climate.) This happens in our relationship with God as well. Many of us spend our time in prayer speaking—interceding for others, petitioning for ourselves and our world, giving thanks or offering confession. But prayers of listening to God are different. We see this in our Old Testament lesson for today, where the old prophet Eli teaches the young student Samuel how to offer to God a listening prayer when God keeps calling Samuel, and Samuel doesn’t understand what is happening. Eli says to Samuel: “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” Listening is about creating space for relationship. And listening prayer often yields greater space and depth and unexpected creativity and generativity. Keeping sabbath is similar in that it helps create space for us to listen to our lives, to our souls, to our significant relationships. So how do we keep sabbath? What are some ways that we can stop and listen to our lives, to come home to ourselves? I recently came across 10 Core Principles for keeping sabbath that are found on a website called Sabbath Manifesto which is a “creative project designed to slow down lives in an increasingly hectic world.” Much like the biblical concept of sabbath, they encourage people to take one day a week to practice keeping sabbath, and they invite people to interpret and implement 10 core principles that support this work of keeping sabbath. They are: 1. Avoid technology. 2. Connect with loved ones. 3. Nurture your health. 4. Get outside. 5. Avoid commerce. 6. Light candles. 7. Drink wine. 8. Eat bread. 9. Find silence. 10. Give back. iii Your challenge for this week is to pay attention to your normal rhythms of life and find a way to keep sabbath, to stop for a set period of time. Practice keeping sabbath by interpreting and applying one of the 10 principles to your own life. Then talk to someone about how that affected how you kept sabbath. In closing, I’ll share with you a blessing written by John O’Donahue that captures the heart of how sabbath rest can heal us. (You might want to close your eyes as you listen.) A Blessing for One Who is Exhausted When the rhythm of the heart becomes hectic, Time takes on the strain until it breaks; Then all the unattended stress falls in On the mind like an endless, increasing weight. The light in the mind becomes dim. Things you could take in your stride before Now become laborsome events of will. Weariness invades your spirit. Gravity begins falling inside you, Dragging down every bone. The tide you never valued has gone out. And you are marooned on unsure ground. Something within you has closed down; And you cannot push yourself back to life. You have been forced to enter empty time. The desire that drove you has relinquished. There is nothing else to do now but rest And patiently learn to receive the self You have forsaken in the race of days. At first your thinking will darken And sadness take over like listless weather. The flow of unwept tears will frighten you. You have traveled too fast over false ground; Now your soul has come to take you back. Take refuge in your senses, open up To all the small miracles you rushed through. Become inclined to watch the way of rain When it falls slow and free. Imitate the habit of twilight, Taking time to open the well of color That fostered the brightness of day. Draw alongside the silence of stone Until its calmness can claim you. Be excessively gentle with yourself. Stay clear of those vexed in spirit. Learn to linger around someone of ease Who feels they have all the time in the world. Gradually, you will return to yourself, Having learned a new respect for your heart And the joy that dwells far within slow time. iv i. O’Donohue, John. Anam Cara: A book of Celtic Wisdom. Cliff Street: 1997, 151. ii. SALT's Lectionary Commentary, Revised Common Lectionary, Proper 4, Year B, Proper 4B (saltproject.org) iii. Sabbath Manifesto iv. O’Donohue, John. To Bless the Space Between Us.