On Sabbath
Reading and sermon preached by Reverend Carolyn Patierno
June 11, 2006

From Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives, by Wayne Muller

What makes life fruitful? The attainment of wisdom. The establishment of a just and fair society. The creation of beauty. The practice of loving-kindness. Thomas Jefferson suggested that human life and liberty were intimately entwined with the pursuit of happiness. Instead, life has become a maelstrom in which speed and accomplishment, consumption and productivity have become the most valued human commodities. In the trance of overwork, we take everything for granted. … We do not have time to savor this life, nor to care deeply and gently for ourselves, our loved ones, or our world. … Can this be the happiness of which Jefferson spoke?

How have we allowed this to happen? … I suggest that it is this: We have forgotten the Sabbath.

Sabbath is more than the absence of work; it is not just a day off, when we catch up on … errands. It is the presence of something that arises when we consecrate a period of time to listen to what is most deeply beautiful, nourishing, or true. It is time consecrated with our attention, our mindfulness, honoring those quiet forces of grace or spirit that sustain and heal us.

Sabbath does not require us to leave home, change jobs, go on retreat, or leave the world of ordinary life. We do not have to change clothes or purchase any expensive spiritual equipment. We only need to remember.

I preached a sermon on Sabbath at the conclusion of my first year at All Souls. It was 2002. I was still serving on a denominational committee at the time and as it was the General Assembly Planning Committee and GA was a mere two weeks from the date I preached that sermon, my life was a scramble of activity. About a month later I went to visit Bob Treadwell-Hill. Bob and I had a candid relationship that is; we were pretty blunt with each other. He asked me how I was doing. I said that I was fine … something of the like. He replied, “Yeah, right. You work too damn hard and then every once in awhile you pop your head up to tell the rest of us to rest.” I was busted. He was right.
It took me another year but finally I did resign from that committee with the commitment that I wouldn’t volunteer for anything new for at least six months. I stuck with that commitment. It was the first big step I took to reclaim a sense of balance in my life. And the steps began with that brief exchange born of my embarrassment. Bob was right. And I remembered that the preacher typically preaches what she needs to struggle with herself.

In fact, in my life as a minister, as a preacher, sermon writing is the consistent lesson on Sabbath as the creation of a sermon demands quiet and learning and discernment. A sermon is not born of stress or under pressure – not a good one, anyway. A sermon is born out of rest and reflection. Although he was not speaking of sermon writing when he wrote the following, Wayne Muller, author of Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in our Busy Lives, might as well have been when he said:

By saying no to making some things happen, deep permission arises for other things to happen. … Sabbath implies a willingness to be surprised by unexpected grace, to partake of those potent moments when creation renews itself, when what is finished inevitably recedes, and the sacred forces of healing astonish us with the unending promise of love and life.

I am blessed with a built in demand for Sabbath to “consecrate a period of time to listen to what is most deeply beautiful, nourishing, or true,” as Muller encourages. I have to spend part of each day considering matters that eventually land in this pulpit. If I don’t rest and read and reflect, the sermon can’t be writ.

And yet, clergy are among the most notorious over-workers. The temptation is overwhelming. But I have managed to personally, recognize the need for Sabbath not only for my own well-being but also for the well-being of my ministry.

But there is something of that need in all the work that we each do – no matter what your work may be. We all would do well to pause to rest and read and reflect. To interrupt the break neck speed with which we approach so much of our lives.

Said Muller:

Within [the] sanctuary [of Sabbath], we become available to the insights and blessings of deep mindfulness that arise only in stillness and time. When we act from a place of deep rest, we are more capable of cultivating what the Buddhists would call right understanding, right action, and right effort. In a complex and unstable world, if we do not rest, if we do not surrender into some kind of Sabbath, how can we find our way, how can we hear the voices that tell us the right thing to do?

Indeed some of the most healthy decisions we make are made when we stop to listen to the voice still & small, deep inside all … calling … singing. If we consider the work of the congregation, especially in the last year, we’d see that many decisions demanded quick response. The leadership rose to the occasion. But other decisions don’t require such an approach. Several of us are in the midst of making a big decision about one of All Souls’ ministries and involvements. I’m grateful for the long period of time we’ve agreed to take for discernment. In that length of time for reflection, we are trusting that the right decision will emerge … will be illuminated for us all.

This approach is contrary to the snap, crackle, pop approach that is typically applied in decision making. It is a Sabbath approach. And to a large extent, it is counter-cultural, even. But that’s what congregation life is about, really. What a faithful life is about – countering the most destructive messages we receive from the popular culture. Messages that say that time is money … that rest is a waste of time … that we have miles to go before we sleep.

Balance. We are in desperate need of a balance. Like this: “And so Mr. Murry who worried too much / and Thumbkin, who worried too little / lived out their days in a cozy teapot / and met somewhere right in the middle.”** As the season turns from spring to summer, the pace of our lives naturally yearn to slow down. We would do well to pay attention in any way that we can. As we pay attention, we may not need to change very much in order to welcome Sabbath sense into our lives. “Sabbath does not require us to leave home, change jobs, go on retreat, or leave the world of ordinary life. We do not have to change clothes or purchase any expensive spiritual equipment. We only need to remember,” said Muller. We only need to remember.

When I lived in NYC I made a very minor adjustment in my daily life that had a very huge impact. I stopped crossing the street against the “Don’t Walk” light. I waited until the light turned green. Even if there was a safe break in the flow of taxis and buses and cars and bike messengers, I would wait on the curb, passed by a steady stream of fellow pedestrians. I would simply wait on the curb and … wait … breathe …and have myself a little Sabbath time.

It doesn’t take much … setting the table, preparing a meal, calling a friend, writing a letter, reading, singing, all are acts of Sabbath. Anything that takes us, not out of time, but into real time is an act of Sabbath. Pop quiz. Who wrote the following?

There were times when I could not afford to sacrifice the bloom of the present moment to any work, whether of head or hands. Sometimes, in a summer morning, having taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a reverie, amidst the pines and hickories and sumachs, in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sang around. I grew in those seasons like corn in the night, and they were far better than any work of the hands would have been. They were not time subtracted from my life, but so much over and above my usual allowance. HDT

Yes. Henry David Thoreau offers us great reminders that Sabbath is not time subtracted from our lives but rather time that is so much over and above our usual allowance.

What can you do to honor the natural and necessary rhythm of your life?

I quoted Lynn Tavormina in my June newsletter column. She said that worship offers her the opportunity to pay attention to her life. That thought has stayed with me since she said it at one of our newcomer gatherings. And as I mulled over this idea, I read a story about a Jewish woman who in her adulthood had abandoned the Friday Shabbat tradition. After some years, while visiting family for a wedding, she stayed with a cousin who did keep the traditions of their childhood and indeed of their religious and cultural heritage. She described walking into her cousin’s as entering another world, so warm and inviting was it. She felt a deep unexpected belonging. She and her family gathered around the table and the Shabbat candles were lit … prayer began … she burst into tears so affected was she by the overwhelming and loving warmth of that ritual gathering.

We understand that at All Souls where there’s always someone weeping on Sunday morning. Indeed, at any given time, there could be up to a half dozen people crying. That’s why we keep tissues in the pews. I assure you now from the pulpit but more often I assure you on the receiving line, when you sheepishly turn red eyes to me, or tell me that you cried through most of the service – I say then as I say now that that’s one of the reasons why we come to services: to weep. At the conclusion of our full weeks, we come together to yes, pay attention to our lives, and to sit in quiet with others with whom we share the journey. We lay down our defenses our burdens our speed our joy, sorrow, and concern so that we may turn our attention to the quiet and to laughter. We reflect. And we sing. We lift our voices and sing hymns some of which have been sung by generations of people of faith and others that lift up a bright future.

We rest. And when we physically and psychically and spiritually shift from high gear to worship, sometimes, it makes us cry. Just the experience of breathing deeply can make us cry. Allehuia.

This hour (plus some) is vital to our well being as a congregation and as individuals. But if we pause for one hour only during the course of a long week, we do so at our own peril. Our spirits need more than the hour we spend here. We need to honor the signs that say to us implicitly and explicitly “Don’t Walk” “Slow on the Turn” “Stop”.

Summer time is upon us. Let’s keep learning about that balance, incorporating moments of Sabbath into our daily lives. What great things will come from our learning. Quiet. Rest. Restoration. Recreation. Peace.

Happy summer.

May it be so. Blessed be. Amen.

** From the story for all ages: Mr. Murry & Thumbkin by Karma Wilson

Benediction: Only in the soil of Sabbath tranquility can we seed the possibility of beginning a new day, a new week – even a new life – again and again, each time with fresh eyes rested and refreshed, born within the completely gratuitous sanctuary of time. Wayne Muller

TOP