June 2, 2024

Scripture: Mark 2:23-3:6 and 2 Corinthians 4:5-9

1. At this time of year, I always think about the commandment to practice Sabbath. It’s one  of the ten commandments, maybe the most likely for us to break.
   What comes to your mind when you hear the word Sabbath?
   Rest; time in the garden, bike riding, sunbathing, Vacations at a lake?
   Prayer and spiritual practices, meditation, yoga, walks;
   Pilgrimage to special places, experiencing beauty (outdoors, museums)
   1. Times of mourning and crisis can be a sort of Sabbath, when we stop everything to attend to the emotions in the moment:
      1. This week for me, watching all the emergency vehicles going by during that shooting incident in Whittier was a time to stop and breathe and pray.
   2. But celebrations can be a sabbath time, too! Dancing at Queer Prom!
   3. Sabbath is an interruption in ordinary time: a time to stop and pay attention: to feelings, to the holy; to beauty and sorrow and someone else’s condition; we interrupt ordinary life to give attention to what God is doing right now.
2. Does “going to church” or attending worship come up when you think of Sabbath? Maybe/not!
   1. For some of us in churches, “going to church” has unfortunately become more  about work than rest or refreshment
   2. Church may even get in the way of Sabbath time.
   3. This is a dangerous thing for a pastor to admit; I certainly want you to come to church and engage in all the good things we do here.
   4. But I’ve noticed over the years that if we’re not careful, church work can lead us farther away from true sabbath time with God
   5. the Church becomes another workplace, another place to staff a committee, exert control, carry burdens and rely on our own strength and ingenuity to keep the whole enterprise chugging along
   6. No wonder people are reluctant to come inside churches! Some fear they will be “caught” in a trap of obligations instead of coming to be blessed and renewed.
3. In Mark’s gospel, Jesus starts his ministry addressing concerns of the outcast: and he a lot of his ministry while he’s trying to get away and rest!
   1. He heals a paralytic man while he was trying to take a vacation in Capernaum
   2. Then he tries to get away at the Sea of Galilee and ends up being pursued  by the sick and hungry
   3. In the section we heard today, he’s gathering and sharing grain with his hungry disciples on the Sabbath
   4. And finally, while in the synagogue to worship on the Sabbath, he sees a  man with a withered hand and interrupts his sabbath worship to heal the man
   5. For Jesus, it seems like the rituals of sabbath rest and work, are irregular, herky-jerky, and he gets criticized for that.
   6. But I see it as his openness to whatever the Holy Spirit sends his way to pay attention to;
      1. Whether it be his growling stomach or the need of another person for healing or inclusion; or the teaching of stubborn religious leaders.
      2. For Jesus, Sabbath was time to set aside schedules goals, rituals and control and watch how the Spirit interrupted his life so he could do something important here and now.
      3. Jesus was constantly being interrupted to do something more important than what everyone wanted him to do!
4. There’s another aspect of Sabbath that I want to emphasize:
   1. The Sabbath was designed to encourage us to let go of control and allow God to run the world for a while.
   2. To see what God does when we stop and are quiet, watch and listen for God’s activity, notice God’s beauty, feel emotions deeply, relate intimately with a loved one, reflect on what’s happening.
   3. all that non-productive stuff that makes life meaningful!
5. And at the core of Sabbath to me is this: we can only let go of control if we trust that there is Someone or something else that can manage the world without us; maybe even better than we can!
   1. We are not all powerful. We are important, but we are human, we have limits,
   2. and sometimes we need to let go, and trust God, because God’s been doing this longer than we have and may know a few things we don’t know!
   3. Without this awareness, we humans start behaving as if we don’t need God;
   4. And we might miss the chance to see what God would do if we just sat back for a minute!
6. These last couple years at Lyndale have been full of hard work and angst and some sleepless nights for lay leaders and pastors alike.
   1. Your commitment to Lyndale as leaders is inspiring
   2. So many meetings and minutes and policies written!
   3. And the work is not done: The Council is feverishly constructing a budget this week;
   4. The Transition Team is trying mightily to complete the profile.
   5. You are also an activist congregation! You’re not the type to sit around waiting for God to fix things!
   6. The issues seem so big and important!
   7. And yet I want to remind myself and you that the planning and policies and activism and organizing are only part of the ministry,
      1. The ministry is also about stopping to pay attention to the burden another member has just carried into the room;
      2. Or to the person outside the door who needs groceries
7. I wish churches didn’t have to work so hard;
   1. I think ultimately, we’re meant to be places of blessing and belonging and celebration of God’s love
   2. But we are not little utopias, never have been!
   3. Blessing and belonging have always come with drama and struggle – just read the New Testament!
   4. And though some are chased away by this kind of work, others deepen their love for the Church through hard times.
8. 2 Corinthians 4 includes an honest expression from Paul that is both heartbreaking and  hopeful about what it means to be the Church together
   1. The church has always been a fragile clay pot;
   2. We are only the vessel for something more important;
   3. We are a wobbly, leaky container for the Holy Spirit
   4. If we think we can do it alone, we will ultimately fail.
   5. We are just here to gently hold the message of Christ, and the Spirit’s power and purpose;
   6. And to ultimately trust God to do the heavy lifting.
   7. Trust God to have the better idea we haven’t thought of yet!
   8. The vessel changes, sometimes it breaks, and is re-shaped over time
   9. But the content is God’s precious truth to be shared!
   10. Sabbath may bring us surprises of discovering how that truth can be shared in new  ways we never imagined.
9. I encourage you to find some Sabbath practice in your daily life;
   1. Leave some openings for the Holy Spirit to work through and in you.
   2. To interrupt your busyness with spiritual attention
10. You can start here at the table where we gather for bread and cup
    1. to notice Christ is here, within and between each of us,
    2. to accept nourishment instead of constantly being the server;
    3. and to be led by the Spirit toward whatever God considers important;
    4. It’s humbling and hard to let go and trust God.
    5. But how good to know we don’t have to figure this all out on our own!