Holy Week kinds of loss

***WARNING***  This one is very personal and may be hard for some who’ve lost a pregnancy.

For some reason, this year’s Lent and Holy Week were highly stressful and ended in brokenness and exhaustion. In my own life, I took on too much just as Lent was beginning and ended up stressing myself, my family, and the congregation I serve with issues of procrastination and deadlines and priorities and lack of rest and self-care. But when it came to Holy Week I heard story after story of hard life things that were happening. There was a death and a funeral at our sister church with whom we share Lenten Special services. There was the broken leg of our treasurer (also wife of the Church Board Moderator). There were others that are not as prominent in my mind as I write, but they were significant and heart aching.

So when Holy Saturday came, I was ready for Sabbath rest. I needed some alone time to deal with the loss of hope and joy that comes in the face of the crucifixion. I needed some time with God. Instead, I got up, fed the kids, and took them across the parking lot to our annual Easter egg hunt where we had at lease 75 children and their families show up. That is the best number we have had in a few years! Then my husband took the children home, and I stayed to help set up for Sunrise service, and the breakfast to follow. Then I stayed for a two-hour dress rehearsal for the Cantata the next morning. Then I stayed for another hour or so rehearsal for the Sunrise service.

Then there was Easter Sunday.

It was lovely and beautiful, and we celebrated the risen savior, but I am still feeling tired, worn out, and I need some girl time.

In the week that followed we celebrated Abbie’s 5th birthday! It was her first birthday party with friends. We had 10 children and about six moms and one granddad. Abbie had a wonderful time and we celebrated big!

As I reflect on the losses I heard about and ministered to during Holy Week, and I celebrate the glory and joy that is my first-born, there are some things that trigger a memory of my own loss.

About four weeks and six years ago, I learned we were pregnant. We had tried for a couple of years, and even did a couple of rounds of fertility drugs (which did not work). We were over the moon. We started making plans, and telling family and some close friends. We started getting more serious about baby names. Two weeks later, when Don was away (I can’t remember why, but it was ministry related), I started bleeding. I saw the doctor and they did tests. I was having a miscarriage.

I couldn’t believe the grief I felt for something so small. I know there are plenty of people who will tell me their political and personal emotional opinion, but to me, this was not the loss of a child. This was the loss of hope and joy that had filled my heart. It was the loss of the dreams I had started to have. It was the loss of future diapers, and giggles, and hugs, and driving lessons, and proms, and a wedding… It was a loss of what could be.

In honor of that loss and that “what could have been” I wanted to plant a tree, but I knew that I did not want to plant it where we lived, as we were probably not going to live there for long. So I got a tatoo on my hip of an oak tree with an acorn on the ground and a stream running in front of it. It was my way of making it real, that this loss was real, and my heart was really broken, and the healing of those scars were real, as God would one day heal my heart.

As with all loss, life goes on. And I have healed, a lot. But just like a scar that is still a little numb or tender to the touch, healing does not mean it is gone. We have Abbie and Jesse, and Dayenu! That would have been enough, but God does more! But God does not forget my tears, and God does not deny my pain, even in my healing and joy of new life.

So, today I remember the loss of what could have been with thanks giving for God’s love and grace, to get me through pain and to see me to new life.

Sermon Stewardship Series Finale #6 (Not a sermon)

Following is the finale to the Lenten Stewardship Series. It is not a sermon, it is an invitation to Discipleship. It is a reminder that stewardship is a sign of a transformed life. Enjoy…

Sermon Series: Creating a Culture of Generosity #5 Stewardship of Money, It Matters

3-24-13

Series: Creating a Culture of Generosity

5. Money Matters

Matthew 6:24

Pray: Great God of Heaven, teach us to see the world as you do, that we might choose to live as you have called us into relationship with you and with the world. Amen.

 

This morning we celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem as his journey to the cross draws ever closer. A crowd who filled the streets to celebrate Jesus as one who would save us shouted, “Hosanna,” which means, ‘save us.’ They celebrated a leader of the people who would overthrow a Roman emperor and make God’s people free again. But he was not who they expected, and within a week, less than a week, they were shouting, “Crucify! Crucify, this Jesus! Free Barabbas!” It’s strange how the switch can shift so quickly; how the crowd can change their minds; how dissatisfaction can spread so easily; how an angry mob can take over normally reasonable people.

We’ve spent this Lenten journey reflecting on matters of stewardship. How could we live our lives as better stewards, making better choices in our living, making our relationship with God a priority; making our health choices a matter of faith; seeking God’s vision as a response to God’s promise; considering hospitality to be not just about the welcome, but about the invitation; remembering our call to be stewards of the Gospel? We’ve walked this Lenten journey in the wilderness seeking understanding of who we are as God’s people, and we have started to understand that it is who we are the should dictate what we do. Thus rather than trying to figure out what to do, we should be answering the question, “who are we?” And if the first answer is not, Children of God or Body of Christ, or some manifestation of those definitions, maybe we have some other things to consider. Hopefully what we have come to understand in this Lenten season is that as Children of God we are blessed beyond measure, and there is enough of all of our resources, enough to share, if we will have faith in God’s promise.

If God has blessed you mightily, I want you to raise your palm and shout, “Hosanna!” If God has blessed you mightily, I want you to raise your palm and shout, “Hosanna!” I am so glad to see that we are a people of blessing! I am glad to see that we are a people of blessing and that we are grateful to be saved. I am glad to see that the Body of Christ in this place understands that we come from God and that we belong to God. And that all that we have is not only enough, it is more than enough to be blessed and to share blessing. That may make this sermon less of a challenge for us as we move into this Holy Week of remembrance and deep reflection.

You see we’ve come to that place in our journey of Lent where we have to face ourselves in the mirror and ask the hard questions. If we consider ourselves blessed mightily and we believe God is faithful to God’s promise, why do we struggle with all kinds of stewardship? Why are we so protective of our time and our money? Why do we fear to make commitments to our church with our time and our money? Why do we hold back?

In Acts 5 we hear the story of a man and his wife who joined the first church. Ananias and Sapphira were people of means and the first church held all things in common for the good of all. So Ananias and Sapphira agreed to sell their property and give all the money to the church. But after selling the property the couple agreed to keep some of the money for themselves. When Ananias brought the money to the apostle Peter, Peter asked him why he was lying about the money. Then Peter accused Ananias of lying, not to the people of the church, but to God and Ananias died immediately. Three hours later his wife came. And Peter tested her asking if this was the amount they sold the property for. Sapphira said yes and after scolding her Peter told her about her husband and she too fell down dead. So for those who claim that the New Testament is not so judgmental as the first testament, consider this story. But also hear  the lesson intended by it. How we care for the church, how we respond to God’s generosity, how we spend our money, matters.

How many of you remember or maybe you have a red–letter Bible? It is a Bible where the word’s of Jesus are printed in red. Do you realize that about 60% of those word’s of Jesus are about money? 60%. I wonder why that is. I’ve mentioned before that some variation of the phrase “do not be afraid,” is in the Bible over 365 times. And I believe this is because it is a message we struggle with a lot. I wonder if that is why Jesus talks about money so much, because we struggle with it.

Our passage this morning is an excerpt from the Sermon on the Mount. This particular chapter of Matthew, and section of this sermon includes instruction on: piety, giving alms in secret so we are not like the hypocrites, prayer, the Lord’s prayer where we pray, “give us this day our daily bread,” fasting and not looking dismal, storing our treasures in heaven not on earth for where your treasure is there will your heart be also, and a lesson about not worrying about our needs because God will meet them, consider the lilies of the fields. Jesus tells the people in the crowd, “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (money).”

Consider this, your checkbook, or your bank statement is a theological document. It shows what you value. So where does your treasure lie? Take a good look at your account and ask yourself, do these values reflect your faith? What might you do to change your values? How might you spend differently in order to honor God’s blessings in your life?

There is one more passage I want to share with you on this subject as we move into our preparation for Christ’s passion, his struggle with his humanity and his choice to go to the cross so that we might see his gift and change our lives.  From the prophet Malachi we hear these words (read Malachi 3:5-12). How would our lives change if we trusted God’s promise and put God to the test with our practice of stewardship? What would happen if we brought our whole tithe to church to honor God? How might God richly bless us then? And what is there to lose by trying?

As we enter this week of holy trial and temptation, let us consider our stewardship. In fact, let us not just consider it, let us make a change in our stewardship considering who we are as the motivation for how we live. Let us be confident in God’s blessings and let us be generous in our giving.

Amen.

Series: Creating a Culture of Generosity #4 Stewardship of the Gospel

3/17/2013

Series: Creating a Culture of Generosity

4. Servants of Christ and Stewards of God’s Mysteries

2 Corinthians 5:18-21

Pray: As we are reconciled to you, teach us how to share the message of your good news. Amen.

 

Think for a moment about what it means to be reconciled. How are we reconciled to God? What does that mean? What does reconciled mean? Consider your checkbook. When the bank statement comes, do you reconcile your checkbook? What does that mean? Well, we pull out the register and the statement and check to make sure everything equals out. And if anything is not matching up, a part of reconciling is correcting mistakes. So in a faith context, when scripture tells us that we are reconciled to God in some ways it means we are corrected, whether that is our path or our behavior, we are changed for the purpose of being in deeper relationship with God.

This season of Lent I have been preaching a sermon series called Creating a Culture of Generosity. For six weeks we are engaging issues of and best practices of stewardship. This is week number four and so far none of the topics have been about money. That is not to say we won’t talk about money, it is simply to say that being a good steward of money is only one part of being a good steward. In our first week we discussed the stewardship of keeping the Sabbath and God’s message of abundance. God’s model of time is that there is enough work from six days to give room for one day of rest and delight in God’s creation. In our second week we talked about God’s expectation that we will treat our bodies as temples of the holy and take care of them as a tool necessary for ministry. When we don’t care for our bodies, it negatively affects our ability to care for others and our ability to participate in worship, thus the stewardship of self-care. In our third week we learned about the stewardship of practicing Biblical Radical Hospitality. Our welcome is not simply something that starts at the front door, but it should be one that runs out to meet the stranger and invites them to be one of our family. This week we are looking at being stewards of the gospel.

This concept of being stewards of the gospel was new to me as little as a few weeks ago. However when my stewardship class began to set the foundation of stewardship as a lifestyle, as a way of living in all things, being stewards of the gospel made perfect sense. As little “d” disciples of Christ we were commissioned to go out and fish for people, to make disciples in all nations, to share the good news of Jesus Christ. The gospel is a gift from God and is a tool in ministry to teach us more about growing deeper in relationship with God and to use in teaching others about God.

I’ve said it before in this series; money, evangelism, throw in politics and those are probably the three things people most don’t want to hear about from the pulpit. Well two of those three, are areas where we are struggling to be faithful, so I must bring them to the pulpit.

I will leave money for another Sunday, but this morning we are talking about being stewards of the gospel with which we have been entrusted. We’ve talked about telling our stories, and practicing telling out stories. We’ve talked about growing. We’ve talked about being better at hospitality, and we made some efforts in that area. We’ve talked about inviting people to come on Sundays. We’ve talked about the joy in the experience of coming to be together and how good it is to spread that joy. We’ve even worked a little on serving outside our doors. We’ve given away water. And we’ve talked about and avoided doing evangelism for a long time. We’ve got some good excuses too. The thing is we have to stop thinking about evangelism as being something that is inauthentic to who we are. We are entrusted with the gospel to share it. It is who we are.

In Matthew 25 Jesus tells a parable about three servants who are entrusted with talents while their master is away. Two of the servants invest the master’s money and make him more. One of the servants buries the talent in the ground afraid to risk losing it. And when the master returns he punishes the servant who buried the talent because he did not work to make it grow. What if instead of money, this parable was about the gospel? What if the gift we have been given and entrusted with to share is the gospel message that all are welcome, that all who repent are forgiven, and God’s grace is bigger and more faithful than any of us can imagine, that the Body of Christ is alive an well and serving the least of these in Jesus’ name? How might it change our attitude about evangelism if this were the message?

In 1 Corinthians 4:1 the Apostle Paul tells the church, “Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries.” Servants of Christ and Stewards of God’s mysteries. And when we are doing this, acting as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries it will be a sign that we love God. You see we don’t become good stewards because it is what we are supposed to do. We become good stewards because we ultimately love God and we want to give God our best, in the same way we want to give our children and nieces and nephews and grandchildren whatever they want because we love them. In that same way, we become stewards of all of God’s good gifts because we love God and it makes God happy and we love watching God be happy.

In our passage from this morning the Apostle Paul tells the church at Corinth about the gift of reconciliation. Through ‘Christ God reconciled the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.’ Because Christ gave his life, we are forgiven and made right, we are a part of God again, through Christ our brokenness can be healed, our sin is forgiven, and our life with God is eternal. Why would we ever let that message end at our doors? This is not a confidential meeting. We are sharing the gospel! If your life has been changed by Christ Jesus, become an ambassador for Christ and a steward of the gospel. You will be amazed at what God can do.

Amen.

Series: Creating a Culture of Generosity Stewardship as Radical Hospitality

3/10/12

Series: Creating a Culture of Generosity

3. Stewardship as Radical Hospitality: The Invitation Matters

Micah 6:6-8

Pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

 

So, in a little less than a month, Abbie turns 5. And for at least a month now, she has been planning the party to celebrate this big event in her life. This week we looked at party decorations: table cloths, centerpieces, plates, cups, napkins, plastic ware, streamers, balloons, and a piñata…oh yes, she is planning a party. While it is not her whole focus, I found it interesting that the table was important to her. She wants the tables to be set well. There is something very inviting about that, to have a well-set table. It considers that the hostess will take good care of her guests. It is the beginning of the responsibility of being hospitable.

The Bible has a lot to say on the subject of hospitality. In fact, the Biblical standard for hospitality is a radical shift from what we think of as proper etiquette. The Professor of Hebrew Bible at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, Dr. Rick Lowery, describes the Biblical model for hospitality as a dance between the host and the stranger, the other, where by each part is taking a serious risk to share at table together. You see, in Biblical times a stranger could be a very dangerous person, and it was a risk to invite them to your table because they could do you and your family harm. On the other hand, when a stranger accepted an invitation they would be like one of the family with the responsibilities of a family member to share in the work that is required by having a meal. Thus the Biblical model of hospitality is that we invite the stranger to our table, and care for them, and they become one of our family until they move on.

One example of this Biblical model of hospitality is Genesis chapter 18 where three men approached Abraham’s tent. When Abraham saw them he ran to them and bowed down to the ground and humbly invited them to stay and have their feet washed and eat before they moved on. They agreed. Abraham had Sarah make cakes with the choices flour, he killed a tender and good calf, and brought curds and milk and set it before them and then he stood under a tree while they ate. Then the men informed Abraham that Sarah would become pregnant. This is the story where she laughed. Abraham had hosted the Lord at his table that day, but this was an example of the beautiful dance that is Biblical hospitality.

This example of hospitality point to another misconception we tend to have about sacrifice in the first testament. The Hebrew people are supposed to bring a sacrifice to the temple, or to the synagogue. This sacrifice could be for ritual cleansing, as in response to sinfulness. Dr. Lowery describes it this way, “a bloody appeasement for an angry and wrathful God, and we want to avoid human sacrifice so we offer an animal sacrifice to appease God and he will get off our back.” Sometimes this is what sacrifice is about. However, more often, God is the radically other, the stranger we meet, and it is our responsibility as God’s people to prepare the best table we can, for the stranger, who is God. And in doing so, we seek to become friends with God.

So how are we doing at being radically hospitable? Do we bring our best table to share with the stranger? Do we run out to meet them and humbly invite them in?

Our text this morning is a favorite of mine. Asking us what does the Lord require of us, but to do justice, to love kindness (some versions translate it mercy), and to walk humbly with our God. It sounds lovely and simple, but before we get too comfortable let’s put that phrase back in context. Israel asks, “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high?” In other words, what shall my offering to God be, what shall I bring to sacrifice? Then Israel makes a list of the finest things it could bring to the alter, “burnt offerings of a year old calf, thousands of rams, tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

Do you see now?  Do you see the context of this request for us to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God? In the context of Biblical hospitality, where God is the radically other, the stranger and we are to set a feast before God as a way of becoming closer to God, and in the context of sacrifice to God being about bringing our best to the table, rather than appeasing an angry and wrathful God, Micah tells us that our burnt offerings, our stuff, even our children are not what God wants. God wants us…

God wants us to give of ourselves. God wants us to see the opportunity of meeting a stranger as an opportunity to meet God. God wants us to do justice as a sacrifice. This is not a simple lovely thing to sing happy songs about; this is a call to action, to live justly, to do justice to and for others. We cannot do that if we are afraid of conflict. We are to love kindness and mercy. That doesn’t mean we simply think about being kind when we can remember to do random acts of kindness, it means we live in kindness as a way of living for God as a sacrifice to God. Now let me define kindness as being different than being polite. While being polite is often kind, God does not expect us to sacrifice ourselves as doormats on the alter of kindness. We are to be overly kind to strangers in an effort to get closer to God. And we are to walk humbly with God. We are to bow down. We are to welcome God in mercy and grace. We are to offer our best service to the stranger who is God. We are to run out and meet God and invite God in to join us.

In this Lenten sermon series so far we have discussed stewardship as keeping Sabbath, and as self-care. Remember the idea we can work six days and rest and God will provide enough, rather than trying to shove eight days of work into seven days of the week? As we consider taking care of ourselves as a form of good stewardship, maybe we should consider how that affects our worship and our relationship with God. If we are so busy that when we come to worship we come merely to receive from God the rejuvenation to get through another week, but then we keep that goodness to ourselves, where is our hospitality? How are we being the body of Christ?

Because God has first loved us, let us also love the stranger with our very best.

Amen.

Series: Creating a Culture of Generosity #2 Self-care as Stewardship

2/24/13

Series: Creating a Culture of Generosity

2. Caring for What Is God’s

Romans 12:1-8

Pray: Bless our time with you this morning, that we may hear your word and be inspired, filled with your Holy Spirit in blessed and challenging ways. Amen.

 

During this season of Lent as we reflect on our faith journey, both our individual journeys and our journey as a congregation, I am preaching a series on stewardship. That’s right, six sermons about stewardship. Who’s feeling nervous? Well, first of all, don’t worry. When have you known me to be a preacher who preached at you? This is not an opportunity to wag my finger at you. Stewardship is an issue we struggle with and in fact many churches are struggling with, and we need some help remembering where the emphasis needs to be. People become uncomfortable when the word stewardship comes up because it has become so associated with the annual pledge drive that people assume stewardship is all about money. Well, stewardship is about money, but it is not all about money. When discussing the beginning of the Center for Faith and Giving, our general minister and president Rev. Sharon Watkins said, “the only thing people are more afraid to talk about in our churches than evangelism is stewardship.” Who agrees? I do. Money, religion, throw in politics and you’ve got the trifecta of things people really don’t want to talk about.

The thing is, the more we avoid talking about stewardship, the more we misunderstand what it is. The more we pretend the elephant is not in the room, the bigger the mess becomes. We are not meeting our expenses, and that’s a huge problem. So how do we change it?

Let’s start by openly and honestly talking about stewardship. Last week, we talked about the importance of keeping Sabbath. What would change if we actually practiced being faithful to God by believing God will bless us with enough if we take one full day of rest? God finished God’s work of creation in six days and on the seventh day rested. What if instead of trying to fit eight days of work into seven days of the week, we trusted God to bless us with enough to work six days and have what we need for the seventh day of rest? How many things would have to shift in our living to live Sabbath into our practice? Two words I hope you are challenged by, trust and enough. Do we truly trust that God will take care of us? And do we depend on God’s abundance to give us enough, or do we believe there is never enough?

This week we are looking at self-care as stewardship. Don’t raise your hands, but whose guilty of neglecting your own care? We don’t eat right, we over schedule ourselves, we push through the pain hoping it will go away, we avoid or put off seeing the doctor, we don’t exercise, we put ourselves in intensely stressful situations, sometimes intentionally to see if we can get better results. It’s funny to me, in a culture where we tend to be so self-centric; we are not very good at taking care of ourselves. We seem to be so busy we tend to zoom in on the quick fix, and the instant gratification in order to keep moving and get back to what makes us happy, I mean busy, I mean completely stressed out. And then we wonder why we walk around feeling empty, tired, overwhelmed all the time. Let me give you a clue, it’s not because church isn’t fulfilling your spiritual needs, it’s because you are not taking care of yourself.

I like to call it the airplane syndrome. When you get on an airplane they explain to you that in case of a drop in pressure oxygen masks will drop from the ceiling. While the crew instructs the passengers about how to put on their masks, they explain, put on your mask first, and then help others. The point being, you can’t help anyone else with their mask, if you are not breathing yourself. So give yourself the time to put on your mask, the seconds you take will save your life and your loved ones. If we would practice this, maybe we wouldn’t feel so in need of those forms of instant gratification to get us through.

In our scripture today the apostle Paul is writing to the church in Rome and he talks to them about the importance of treating our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship. Other scholars translate the word spiritual as reasonable. How many of us think of our bodies as a gift from God? And how many of us treat our bodies that way? Even those of you who are fit, do you spend time stressing over things you cannot control? Do you give yourself over to what the world teaches, that there is never enough, so I better soak up all I can now, cause I can’t take it with me, and anything I can save will take care of me later?

Here are some of the problems with that kind of living. 1. Where is the trust in God to provide for us? Yes we have brains, and yes we must be prepared to ration out resources over time to plan for the bigger picture of ministry, but do we not believe that God is the provider of all good things? Do we believe that God has promised to take care of us and of our needs? Do we believe God has called us to fruitful ministry? Have we forgotten that God also equips the saints to fulfill the ministry to which they are called? No, we can’t wait for God to magically fill the offering plate, but where is our faith in God? 2. The scarcity model that says there is never enough so we better save for a rainy day, and avoid spending at all costs, denies the call to mutual care.

As we read the rest of this passage of Paul’s letter, we see the balance of everyone having their own part in ministry and being a functional member of the whole body. (Read 12:6-13.) We are all a part of the body, folks. Everyone’s gifts are needed. And when one is missing from the body because they are sick, or busy, or resting because they did not take care of themselves, the body is lacking. Each of us is a vital part of this body. We must take care of ourselves if we are going to add to the ministry God calls us to live out.

Now, don’t miss hear me. I am not suggesting people should never get sick, or get hurt, or you can never have a Sunday off to rest, however, I am suggesting that when Sunday becomes a recovery day for Saturday night, there might be some self-care issues to deal with.

I want to come back to the issue of mutual care. As a part of the body, we are accountable to Christ and to one another. I don’t think we hold one another accountable. People feel like church is a volunteer activity, unlike mandatory work. But church does not work as an organization if we are not accountable to one another. Which brings me back again, to the issue of self-care.

God has blessed each of us with bodies for the task of living and learning and growing in faith. God has blessed us with a body of Christ in which we share mutually with one another, so that no one is in need. God blesses us with more than enough to share. Let us honor God’s good gifts of more than enough, by taking care of ourselves so that we can respond to God’s call with all that we have and all that we are.

Amen.

Series: Creating a Culture of Generosity #1 Practicing Sabbath as Stewardship

2-17-13

Series: Creating a Culture of Generosity

1. Practicing Sabbath as Stewardship

Genesis 1:31 – 2:4a

Pray: Calm our fears and our discomfort; ease our minds so that we may be fully present to hear your word, and to know your teaching. Amen.

 

When was the last time you had a break? Some of you may be good at taking vacation, taking time for yourself, taking care of your spirit, but my guess is all of us push a little harder than we should. What’s the phrase, no pain, no gain? We work so hard to push eight days of work in to seven days of time, we never settle down. For some of us I think this is a matter of trying to keep up with an ever growing workload, and a culture that says there is never enough. For others I believe there is a fear that if we slow down for a minutes we might never be able to keep up again. Still for others, there is a mission to fulfill what has been instilled in you as the only way to be, busy. I wonder what would happen if we all started to practice Sabbath?

Let’s look for a few moments at the creation story of Genesis 1. God creates the world from a dark and formless void. First God creates light and calls it day, and separates it from darkness, which God calls night. God looks at this creation and delights in what he has made, wow! And there is evening and then morning, the first day is complete. On the second day God creates a dome and calls it sky and it separates the waters below from the waters above and God steps back and looks at what she has created and delights in it. Wow! The second day is complete. On the third day this pattern continues, God creates land and vegetation, God delights in what it has done, wow! There is evening and morning the third day. Then on the fourth day God creates the lights in the sky, the sun, the moon, and the stars, to coincide with day one’s light and darkness. He delights in what he has done, wow! Evening and morning the fourth day. On the fifth day, God creates the first creatures. They coincide with day two, creatures that swim in the seas and fly in the sky. She delights in what she has done, wow! The fifth day. And on the final day of work God creates the creatures that fill the earth to coincide with day three. And on this day, the sixth day, God creates humanity in it’s own image. This time God steps back and is really impressed so it really delights in creation saying, really, really WOW! And there is evening and there is morning, the sixth day is complete.

As humans, we tend to focus on our own creation when we read this story. We tend to think of humanity as the pinnacle of this story, the best part. After all, it was only after God’s creation of humanity that God said, tov maov, really, really wow! But in traditional Hebrew writing it is when there is a break in the pattern that we should be paying attention. Day six is still a part of the pattern. It is day seven that breaks the mold. Hold on to that thought for a moment. Consider that the seventh day is the climax of this story and put a pin in it for a moment while we look at the creation of humanity.

(Read Genesis 1:26 – 30) The word dominion is one that get’s misunderstood quite often. A better word might be to rule, but not to rule over, rather to be the benevolent ruler, as God rules. You see, God creates humanity and gives us a job. No other creature gets a job, just us. We are made in God’s image, in God’s likeness and we are to be fruitful and multiply, and we are to rule the creatures of the earth as God rules, not becoming God ourselves, but learning from God’s ways. God goes on to explain that there is food enough for all creatures on earth. There is an abundance of food for all to be filled and satisfied. Notice God does not say there is an unlimited supply. We have to share. And as we share the food regenerates. And we have the job of ruling, being sure that everyone has what he or she needs to thrive.

Now here is where the break in the pattern happens. On the seventh day, God is finished, and God rests from all the work she had done. And God blessed the seventh day and made it Holy because she rested. The amazing blessing of the Sabbath is not simply that we take time to worship God for an hour, hour and a half. But God intended for us to understand the generosity of God’s creation by understanding that in six days of work, there is enough for seven days of life. Let me say that again, because it bears repeating. In six days of work, there is enough for seven days of living. So on the seventh day, God rested, and we should rest too.

Let me go back to the question I asked at the beginning of our sermon, I wonder what would happen if we started to practice Sabbath?  I wonder what would happen if we began to live as though we believed that in six days of work, God will sustain us for a seventh day? I wonder how our productivity might change, how our relationships might change, how our faith might change if we would actually take a day off? And maybe that day isn’t Sunday. Maybe Sunday is time for worship and church work, maybe it is another day that we honor as Sabbath. Or if it is Sunday, then maybe we need to think about covenanting to do church work on another day, but how might our lives improve if we understood God’s holy day of rest to be one that we practiced because God has given us enough? There is enough in abundance if we will be good stewards, good rulers, good caretakers.  If we will practice good stewardship of our time, we will see that there is enough.

As we continue in this journey in Lent, moving through the wilderness of stewardship I would invite you to consider one way you can practice Sabbath, by giving yourself rest and claiming it as holy, claiming it as a holy practice of your faith. Let us be good stewards of God’s generosity, rather than trying to fit eight days of work into seven days of living, let us rely on God that all of our work, job, family, church, all of our work can fit into six days, and we can rest for the seventh knowing that God will provide enough.

Amen.