Preaching at PCC

The following message was delivered at Pescadero Community Church by Gail Dee on August 8, 2010.

Gayle Dee: "Practicing Sabbath"

Sound Recording

24 minutes 30 seconds. Click above to play or click here to download the mp3 file (22.8MB)

Written Notes

Practicing Sabbath
Mark 1:32-37, 6:7, 12-13, 30-32
Preached 8/8/2010 at Pescadero Community Church
© Gayle A. Dee

Over this past year, I was part of small team involved in planning the annual church retreat at Mt. Hermon for Community UMC in Half Moon Bay, where I had been active in ministry for over 10 years.
It was the third year we had done this retreat, ….. and we were struggling with coming up with a good theme and a program for the weekend.
But… we were also quite aware that the previous two retreats had too much packed activity into them (albeit good stuff… Anne)… but we had come up short on the “RETREAT” part of the weekend. There wasn’t enough downtime.
As one of the retreat leaders… I was exhausted by Sunday afternoon.

This past April…this time around…We wanted it to be different.
I was sharing this wish with Anne Dilenschneider, ….explaining that we wanted the retreat to have a lot more time for freedom…with minimal structure and requirement… and yet offer ways for people to experience “God Moments”….
Just enough structure for people to lean on, …but always with the choice to not participate … go off and do their own thing…
I was looking for a way to say this succinctly and capture some kind of theme… so we could even tell people what this retreat was about…
Hearing all this… Anne immediately declared… “That’s Sabbath!” ….“Well Duh”. Of course, …we were talking about Sabbath.
Such was the state of my life – caught up in the compulsion to produce … while yearning for…. the renewing and restorative spirit of Sabbath

Well… the retreat happened …and it was wonderful. As one of the retreat planners and leaders, I found myself constantly challenged to walk the talk… to not stress over it, … or over-design it to ensure the PERFECT experience for everyone in attendance… or work for hours preparing the parts I was responsible for… right up to…and even beyond… the opening night of the retreat…
To instead… make time for Sabbath in my life… right in the middle of the planning and the leading.

The challenge for me… and for my teammates… was that Sabbath did not come naturally to any of us… not at all!
We’re busy people, …expert multi-taskers…, accomplishment-oriented people…
And yet we were also people… who longed to step away from the morass of the demands and expectations of our busy daily lives…
…but we were not well practiced nor experienced at disconnecting from it all… so that we could simply BE… spend time with God… enjoy the company of others… observe Sabbath in our own lives.
So…that was our prayer… That we might be Sabbath people… as we crafted Sabbath time with others… and with God.
The remarkable thing for me was…at least for this one retreat experience… it worked.
We let the Spirit lead… when unexpected things happened…we made it up in the moment. We laughed, …we played, …we learned from each other, …we caught more than a glimpse of each other…and in our closing, …people shared that there truly had been many special “God moments” in so many surprising ways.
For me…It was the first time I was actually energized at the end of a weekend where I had leadership responsibility.
It was an eye-opening experience. …And a hard one to replicate…

Why is Sabbath - as a regular daily/weekly practice - so hard for most of us?

Even though so many of us …long for enough time to break away ..and be free from…
…the hurry and worry, …from deadlines and growing to-do lists, …from the rapid pace of modern living…from the tyranny of needing to conform to expectations set by others… in our workplaces, …in our communities,… even in our families …
… all caught up in the same cultural morass that places high value on ever-escalating attainment of success, …status, …productivity …profit, …all with youthful resilience.
A big reason it’s so hard, I think… is because we’ve come to accept the busyness of our lives, …which can often border on overwhelm… as a NORMAL LIFESTYLE. …It’s just the way life is these days.

I have fallen into that trap before… and find that it creeps back into my life from time to time.
In fact, …it’s why I live on the Coastside at all!
Twenty years ago, … successfully climbing the corporate ladder, …AND …overwhelmed by a workaholic existence, …working 60-70 hours a week,… never taking a vacation… my only friends were at work… too busy to see my family.
It felt like a trap… and a exhausting rut that I couldn’t get out of
So…I thought that if I could live every day where it felt like a vacation, …that would improve the quality of my life… and help me find the respite that I couldn’t seem to find any other way. That’s when I moved to El Granada.
That worked for a time…. But it was only a temporary fix.

Gratefully… things did eventually change for me… but not until I responded to being nudged, …then compelled… to spend prayerful time alone, …seeking meaning, …seeking God… seeking community and belonging…
…which led me back to church…after 30 years away.
Without realizing it…by the Grace of God… I had been steeping myself in Sabbath time… in relationship with God…and in the company of some caring and supportive people.
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Seems it used to be easier… Social structures used to support more Sabbath time in our lives…
…and still do for some… if you are a member of the Jewish community who actively practice Shabbat (the Hebrew word for Sabbath) - on the 7th day of the Jewish week - from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday …EVERY WEEK
For Jews, Shabbat is a day of rest and spiritual enrichment, …a day of joy to look forward to throughout the week, …a time when all of the weekday concerns are set aside …so that people may devote themselves to a time of remembering God’s goodness and sovereignty in their lives.
It is a day of remembering that God created heaven, earth, and all that is. Also a day of remembering the Exodus and freedom from slavery to Pharoah.
…A day marked by family observance, …synagogue attendance,… and rest. Shabbat is a day of freedom… from concerns, …deadlines, …schedules …and commitments.
It is a spiritually and physically restorative time. And they observe Shabbat EVERY WEEK!

In the Christian tradition, Sunday is the Sabbath Day, …but it is no longer a widely practiced day of worship, prayer, remembrance, recreation, and renewal.
We’re too busy with so many other things now…

My childhood memories of Sabbath are that … SUNDAY WAS CLOSED??!!
Looked like Stage Road after Duartes is closed
Time was set aside FOR US in that version of society -… we couldn’t go to the mall or to Safeway. …Nothing was open. …There were no youth sports leagues to commit families to weekend schedules.
We didn’t work on Sunday. Most people went to church.
Sunday was a time to be at home… to spend with family or friends or in community… to play.

In my family growing up, …I remember our Sabbath time was Sunday…
We drove to and from church with my grandparents,… singing my grandfather’s favorite old songs, telling stories, and he would recite his favorite poetry…
Once home, …my grandmother would prepare Sunday dinner …and at 2:00 in the afternoon,… we all sat down to eat and talk, …sharing our lives with each other.
Then …card games …or baseball in the street …or sometimes a Sunday drive.

Those times are long gone now - There’s been a major shift …and it’s still shifting…
And in the process… Time for Sabbath has been filled up … with 24/7, …always-on availability and connectivity …to a never-resting world …made possible by faster & faster technology… by long commute times…many competing priorities for our time…
I’m a GEEK – love technology… BUT… it can soak up all our time…
Lost, what sociologists call… the Third Place.
HOME being the first place … WORK being the Second Place… we spend our time
The THIRD PLACES …are those free or low-cost places we gather informally… to catch up… to shoot the breeze… to work out our problems…talk for hours… to relax and play together
Largely… Front porches, …front yards, …kitchen tables…local coffee shops…, street corners, …school yards …parks …corner bars …churches …were our Third Places
… places where Sabbath time could be cultivated naturally & effortlessly
TODAY… still exist, but not nearly as much
Replaced by… Starbucks (market strategy is… it’s not about coffee, it’s about connection), …Peets, … Facebook… the internet
Being a THIRD PLACE in the community… is a major thing that the Church could reclaim…
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The Bible readings today are just two of many examples in the Gospel …where Jesus goes off by himself to pray, …to be alone in communion with God

He doesn’t wait until all his work is done… He’s still got a Big TO-DO list
Instead…HE STOPS in the midst of it all… and withdraws to a place of solitude – to BE with God… to pray, to be restored, renewed, and refreshed in love –
…so that he might be fully present and centered in the love of God …when he again returns to minister to the needs and hopes of the masses of people…who are always there…seeking him.

In the second Bible reading… Jesus makes his disciples do likewise!!
After having fanned out across the countryside…proclaiming the Good News … healing a constant stream of people, …they return to where Jesus is, …and this pace continues…there is no time even to eat.
Again we see… right in the midst of this big workload that the disciples have… Jesus takes them “away to a deserted place… so they can rest awhile”. So they can pray, be restored, and become rooted again in the love of God…
…so that when they return to their work, (which hasn’t gone anywhere while were gone)…their work will bear good fruit that nourishes others…

There is much wisdom for us today in these Gospel stories…
Like Jesus and his disciples… we are called to important, life-sustaining work to do in this world. The work we do matters.
But…, we can’t do it well over the long haul, …if we are always running on empty.
We all benefit mentally, …physically, …emotionally, and …spiritually from …
Stopping… Withdrawing…Finding God ,… being restored, renewed, and delighted in God’s love…
…on a regular basis… and right in the middle of our busy, unfinished schedules

In a strange sort of way… it is helpful to know that we human beings have been living out-of-rhythm, out-of-tune lives throughout the ages.
Our captivity to being busy with NEVER enough time, …along with conforming to the expectations of the outside world … is our current expression of the human condition
Like dogs at a whistler’s convention…….. we can get whipsawed and worn out from being bombarded by so many demands for our attention
Our lives lose their natural rhythms… our song goes out of tune…
We crowd out and can no longer hear God’s voice …nor can we hear the voice of others …in our busyness.
We become separated from God and one another…

PRACTICING SABBATH is our way of return…
to a living rhythm …out of erratic noise. …
to harmony …out of strained dissonance.

So… How do we bring the renewing, centering practice of Sabbath into our lives – weekly, even daily basis?

My question exactly!
Being more a sojourner on this journey, and not the expert….
I consulted some of the resources we used for the Sabbath retreat… especially from the work of people like Terry Hershey:

Here’s what sounds good to me for a start… on a weekly or daily basis…

1- Practice the art of DOING NOTHING
Withdraw like Jesus to solitary and prayerful places – disconnect for a time right in the middle of your busy schedule and to-do list, and JUST BE >> don’t have to go far >> any place where you can experience the presence of God; a place that energizes you

2- Practice being LOST IN WONDER
Cultivate reverence, …a sense of awe, for LIFE everywhere you find it…and LIFE is EVERYWHERE …once we become more practiced at noticing it
…For me this means, …leaving my iPod and earbuds behind on my meditative walks, …and listening instead for the songs being sung all around me… and tapping into the natural rhythms of life pulsing all around me.

3- Find or create your own PLACE OF SANCTUARY where you can JUST BE – make a special place in your home, …hang out in a garden, …the beach, …the front porch > a place of safety and reconnecting that works for YOU.

4- Cultivate RELATIONSHIP
Enjoy the company of others with no other agenda > create a new Third Place to gather ...practice coming to conversations with others in a spirit of fascination and curiosity (set judgment aside),… listening for who they truly are, …listening for how God is speaking TO YOU through them.
This is something that happens here at PCC …and it draws me to this church


In closing, I want to read a teaching story by Wayne Muller, from in his book, Sabbath.

At an abbey in the south, where they grew all their own food and also grazed cattle, there was a nun. And every afternoon she would go out and collect herbs for cooking and so on.
Then a permaculturist suggested that they rotate their fields, and keep the cattle paddocked in small sections that changed from time to time. This is a system that the ancient Hebrews knew about quite a few thousand years ago: the need to rest the land, to give it Sabbath. And so the abbey followed this advice.
One spring, after two or three years of this practice, the nun went out to collect her herbs one day. She discovered a dozen new herbs and grasses growing that she’d never seen before.
Where did they come from? Nobody planted them. The seeds were always there. But since they were always being trampled by the cattle, there was never enough time or sunshine or warmth for them to break through and flower.
-- Wayne Muller

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Gracious God,
Let us be cultivators of untrampled soil in our own lives… so that the seeds you have already placed in our hearts will break through and flower.

Amen.


Posted on this website by permission of the author.
Sound recording by Detlef Matthies