Sabbath

Dear People of Christ Church,
This Sunday, we head into our summer schedule of having just one service at 9:30 in place of our usual 8:30 and 10, kicked off with our annual Church in the Garden. This year we're blessed with a unique portable organ, lent to us by Bill Weber, to support our singing even better. Bring a chair or blanket (there will also be some folding chairs from the parish hall set up) and stay for our outdoor coffee-less hour, too. We meet on the lawn in the shade, so don't worry about getting too hot.

Last week, I wrote about celebration-this week, as I see pictures of my family already on vacation posted on facebook, I'm thinking about rest (I leave on Monday to join them, so it's also my own longing at work!). Rest isn't slacking, or laziness, but part of our calling as spiritual beings. The New Zealand prayer book translates Psalm 127 like this: "It is but lost labor that we haste to rise up early, and so late take rest, and eat the bread of anxiety. For those beloved of God are given gifts even while they sleep." 

Gifts from God, even as you sleep! 
In our busy lives, though, it's hard to remember the importance of Sabbath. We are so intent in our culture on being productive, on having something to show for ourselves. "Empty hands are the devil's playground," our grandmothers taught us. But it's only with empty hands that we can accept what God has to give us. 

We "eat the bread of anxiety;" the psalm cites it as an intentional act. We get caught up and forget that we choose the way we live our lives. Even in our "time off," we go shopping, we consume things we don't need. We want, at the end of the day, to say that we did something. But what would it be like if you just didn't do anything? If you put aside all the things that people expect of you, that you expect from yourself, all those needs and random wants? What if you came before God with empty hands and a silent mind and just prayed for them to be filled with God's quiet and love? 

Important, too, is how your Sabbath impacts those around you. The meaning of Sabbath is rigorously outlined in the Old Testament for the Jews to follow-Sabbath is part of the law. But the implications of Sabbath aren't just for the Jews. They are commanded not to work, not just for themselves but so that their slaves and their animals also don't work. Sabbath extends outward from one person through to the community. "Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your donkey may have relief, and your homeborn slave and the resident alien may be refreshed." (Exodus 23: 12) Of course, we are reading now in Galatians about how Christ came to take us out from under the law. How readily does God receive our rest when it's given freely, rather than commanded? Take a moment and give God the gift of your rest, and see how your receive God's grace in return. 

Peace,
Sara+

This Week with the Supremes

Dear People of Christ Church,

When Bishop Gayle Harris visited us last May, she spent some time with vestry after our service talking about how things are going at Christ Church. We talked about our usual struggles, with people's so-full lives trying to create time apart for prayer and for life together at church. We talked about our successes, about our growth in our community and our very good problem of needing more leaders for children's ministries.  We were stumped, though, when she asked us this question: "How do you party?"

How do we party, indeed? Well, um, ah, there's...coffee hour. And the Christmas Pageant is a little like a party, now that it comes with dinner afterwards. Softball last week was a party, kind of. We used to have a parish picnic (why did we stop doing that?). The fact is, though, that celebration just for its own sake actually isn't a huge part of our life together in an intentional way. The Ladies' Evening Group does have their fun, so special credit goes to Jeanne Hewitt for organizing the last tea, even in such a serious crowd...

I was thinking about this yesterday, in the wide smile I had over seeing the Supreme Court rulings over Proposition 8 (which banned same sex marriage in California, now thrown out) and the repeal of the "Defense of Marriage Act" (a misnomer if ever there were one-thankfully, declared unconstitutional). So, yay! But then I started thinking about all the states where equal marriage may not be a reality for some time to come. And then I thought about the decision yesterday repealing part of the Voting Rights Act, even as racism is so endemic and many people still have difficulty enacting this basic right of American democracy.   And then...and before long I forgot I was celebrating.  Win some, lose some, right? Wrong.

Why is this important?

I think it speaks to a certain tension in the Christian life that we all face, both in our lives individually and in our life together as a parish. There. is. so. much. to. do.  I don't have to tell you that. It can feel a little tricky to step back and look around and just celebrate so much that is good. Shouldn't we use that time to work harder? Shouldn't we be the kind of people who find working to be celebrating?

Maybe, but then there's this:

"The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, "Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!" Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.' (Matthew11:19)

In this exchange, Jesus is naming the tension-John the Baptist didn't eat or drink, and you said he had a demon. Now I'm here, and you say I'm a drunk.  What gives? In his life, Jesus gave us an example of how to live-how to celebrate and be joyful, how to spend time away in prayer, how to be with those who have nothing, how to love those we disagree with.

So here's my hope. My hope is to find, not some halfway-between middle ground between delight and sorrow where we're too calm and cool to be joyful. My hope is to exult, deeply, with those whose marriages are now recognized by the federal government (in just 13 states, for now).  My hope is also for 37 other states to recognize all marriages, and for Congress to permanently enshrine protection for all voters into the law.  As I hope for those things, I also want to remember to look toward an even deeper joy, a deeper hope, for the reconciliation of all people and all creation with our Creator, with Jesus God's beloved, where we can meet each other freely.   As we heard from Galatians on Sunday, in Christ there is no slave or free, no Jew or Greek, no male or female...no black or white, no straight or gay, not even any conservative or liberal.  And on our way there, I'll pray for wisdom to vindicate both my joy and my sorrow.  Now who's going to be the chair of the party committee?

Blessings,

Sara+