Sermon Series: Everyday Faith: Seeing God in the Small Things (2 of 4): 2-9-25

The Holy Gospel according to Matthew. Glory to you, O Lord.

Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ.

Today, we are in the second week of our sermon series about finding God in the small stuff.

And today, we're talking about peace in the pause, experiencing God in even

small moments of rest and silence.

When our kids were growing up, flying five people anywhere was unaffordable,

and so we took driving vacations.

I'm sorry, I have a spot on my glasses.

And so they were good travelers, and when our kids were little,

they had just come up with a video player in a bag, and it hung on the back

of the front seat, and we put a VHS tape in, and then it had this little screen,

and the kids would watch that in the back seat.

And thank goodness for that, because we drove long distances.

And I remember a moment in the car, I think it was 2004, And the kids had watched

a Disney movie called Brother Bear about a tribe in post-Ice Age, Alaska.

And there were three brothers in this movie, and they all received their animal

totem necklaces with a quality that each of them had to achieve in order to become a man.

And the oldest brother received the Eagle of Guidance.

And the second brother received the wolf of wisdom.

And the youngest brother, who did not like his totem, was given the bear of love.

And in the movie, the youngest one had to learn empathy and that love is not a weakness.

And at the end of the movie, there was a page of animal totems with pictures

for the children who watch the movie to pick which animal totem fit for them.

And Daniel and Jacob thought that their younger sister Leah might be the salmon of enthusiasm.

And Jacob thought of himself as the falcon of adventure.

And they liked the idea of being the otter of fun, But,

of course, Daniel thought of himself as the wolf of wisdom or the eagle of guidance

because he was the oldest and he could then boss his brother and sister around.

But then from the back seat came the real point of this story.

Jacob, who was seven years old, piped up and said, Mom is the polar bear of sleepiness.

That wasn't an option on the screen.

Yeah. Out of the mouths of babes.

Why was I the polar bear of sleepiness?

Because I was tired all the time. I didn't rest. I never got enough sleep.

So when we hit a smooth stretch of highway with Dan driving, what did I do?

I nodded off.

It was never part of the plan. I never planned to fall asleep.

I don't sleep in cars and on airplanes and in the orthodontist waiting room like Dan did.

I worked, of course. Come on.

But there I was, always nodding off. I don't know how I did it,

because I usually can't fall asleep in weird places.

I was lucky enough to fall asleep in my own bed for five hours.

But it's crazy, isn't it? How hard it is to rest, to pause, to take a break,

to put up our feet, to schedule time, to have time.

What is really so great about constant productivity?

Have you ever felt guilty about resting? If not now in this stage of retirement,

if that's where you are, then did you in this stage of life earlier in working and raising children,

like it's somehow a moral failure to rest?

As if it's a luxury rather than a necessity? tea?

If somehow it's wrong to take two or three or more weeks to recover from a major medical procedure?

We live in a culture that glorifies busyness. The more we do,

the more valuable we feel.

We wear exhaustion like a badge of honor.

Maybe we should make an animal totem of it. Maybe Jacob was on to something.

We should all earn the polar bear of sleepiness.

I remember in my 20s when I was in seminary and working out as a new pastor,

the fuller my calendar looked, the better I felt, and the more faithful I thought I was.

And I loved it when I opened my two-page paper calendar and people could see

how full every square was.

I was like, yeah, that's right.

I really have it going on.

Rest often feels like something we must earn when i ran a home business when

i stayed home with kids one of the successful sales directors said in a convention

speech when you pass away you can get all the rest you want i thought oh my god i have to be dead.

It's really hard not to get in give in to

this constant message of doing more and doing better and we feel lazy or weak

or unworthy or unvalued if we're not in constant motion yet even when we push

ourselves to exhaustion we still don't feel satisfied or at peace there's always more to do.

The list is never done. So even when we sit down or turn off the light at the

end of the day, it's hard to turn off the mind, the lists and the didn't do's.

Both rest and peace can feel elusive.

So, of course, our Bible passages today remind us that pausing,

that taking breaks and truly resting has nothing to do with being weak or lazy

or unproductive or less valued.

In fact, rest is a form of faith.

Taking a break is indeed holy. I feel like we should have that, like, on a banner.

Taking a break is holy. Resting is sacred. Have you ever seen a banner like that?

Taking a nap is holy. Rest, as we so easily forget, is even ordered by God in the third commandment.

I know I've preached about this recently.

Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor,

and on the seventh day you shall rest. Exodus 34, verse 21.

Exodus 34:21

And it's not just 10 or 15 minutes, but it's a whole day of taking a break.

And I think this is why I love Psalm 46, because be still is also a command.

It's not a suggestion or an idea, like when you feel like it,

maybe consider being still.

No, no, that's not what this is. It says, though the earth be moved and the

mountains shake in the depths of the sea, though the waters rage and foam,

and though the mountains tremble with its tumult, be still.

In other words, when chaos is breaking loose around you, and you feel like it's

all going to hell in a handbasket, and it seems like you have to do more, be more, fix more,

stave off disaster, be still then.

Right then, in that moment, in the middle of a crisis, be still, then know that I am God.

It's a command to be still in the chaos.

Know that God is with you. God is in the middle of whatever it is you're in the middle of.

God who made the heavens and the earth, who is bigger than your present calamity,

whatever it might be, personal or professional or political,

God is with you to give you peace.

Peace in the pause. Be still then and know that I am God.

We can know God more fully when we are still.

And in this stillness comes not only peace, but perhaps clarity too,

that God can do something that we cannot.

For Jesus Christ, who has conquered death itself,

has spoken the very same words to the storms that rage around us like it did

for the disciples on the Sea of Galilee and the storms that rage within us. Peace.

Be still.

Be still. Be still.

Jesus has vanquished death itself. Surely, surely he can handle my life.

My health my work

my beginning my end

surely jesus can lead me in the right paths in this valley of the shadows surely

goodness and mercy can be seen

even here even now when i just stop doing and take a moment for being,

being in the stillness,

being in the silence.

I wonder if we avoid the stillness and the silence because we are afraid that

God is going to judge us with the harshness with which we judge ourselves.

But in the silence and the stillness, I have never heard God say,

try harder, do more, you can rest when you are dead.

I've never heard God say that to me. I've spent a lot of time now in silence

and in stillness. I've never heard him say that.

But Jesus does say, come to me.

Come to me. Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

This yoke that Jesus talks about is the bar that goes across two oxen that share

the weight of the plow for the farmer.

So to take on Jesus' yoke means not that life is always easy,

but rather that Jesus carries the weight beside us, with us, and for us.

Come to me and give your burdens to me and rest.

True rest is not found simply

by doing nothing but in trusting

jesus who is always alongside us

helping us carrying the troubles and the burdens that are too great for us guiding

us in all things knowing what we do is never up to us alone experiencing peace

is not in doing more but it is in trusting more,

trusting that God is carrying our burdens in Christ, who is always alongside us.

You know, I think that we forget that while we are resting, God and Jesus Christ

is still working on things that we cannot do.

Isn't that just about the best thought there ever was for those of us who are

overburdened? Isn't that awesome?

When I'm resting, God is still working. Awesome.

I love that. Woohoo. I'm going to take a nap, but it's all good because I know

God is still on the job and Jesus is working on what I cannot.

That is a formula for peace and rest. Isn't that awesome? Can you take a nap now?

Okay, repeat after me. God is still on the job.

God is still on the job when I am resting.

All right. So talk about peace in the pause. Talk about peace in the pause.

So this week, as we experience God in the small stuff, I invite you to pay attention

to the small ways that you can build pauses, breaks, rest, silence in your days.

So you can be still and know God. So you can rest in Jesus.

See, we can make changes in our behavior. And it's God that does the supernatural work of peace.

And transformation, right? You see that? We make a change in our behavior and God does the rest.

So too often, we build up to a vacation, or we build up to the weekend,

and by the time we get there, we're too exhausted to enjoy it.

Hello? Am I just talking to myself here?

All right. So, and those we love notice that we're too worn out to show up for

them or to enjoy the ride.

So trust me, you don't want anyone calling you the polar bear of sleepiness

on your next trip. I've done that for you.

This is the advantage of having a pastor who is as flawed as I am,

because I've already done that for you.

So I encourage you, ask yourself, what is one way you can intentionally create

space for stillness in your life?

What does it look like to put another boundary or ask for a different time boundary

at work, or to take two 10-minute breaks in the morning and in the afternoon

to breathe some fresh air?

Have you ever tried taking a Sabbath of complete rest where you're not doing

four household tasks, five loaves of laundry, three errands in a day,

and just truly having a day of Sabbath rest?

What about turning off distractions like computers and phones at 8 or 9 p.m.

And just calling it a day?

What about limiting your social media time? Cutting it in half. Stopping an hour early.

Spending time in prayer and silence. Even five minutes can help you experience

God. If you have to go in the bathroom and shut the door, right?

Any strategy works, right? I'm not beyond praying in the bathroom, in the shower.

I've had revelations in the shower, right? We relax under of the hot water.

If that's your five minutes, go for it.

All right, I will preach about absolutely anything. You all know that by now, so...

So I am much better at rest and stillness and naps than I ever used to be,

but it's still difficult for me not to overwork.

And you know that about me. It is so hard. Dan and I take Fridays off,

and in the morning, the first thing I do is think,

does Dan have to go to the store today, and maybe I can sneak in these three

tasks and do some work without him knowing it?

I still do that. I did that last Friday.

And then I have to convince myself, no, you're not supposed to work on your

day off. You're supposed to rest.

Okay, I still do that on Fridays. And I have already worked six days.

And I have to convince myself not to work on Friday. That is a disease right there, right?

So that is something that only God can fix.

But I can change my behavior by talking myself out of it and putting my butt

on the bed and reading something unwork-related.

Very difficult for me. I'm just telling you, I'm right there with you in the trenches. Okay.

But I do believe that God is more

powerful than I am, which is why I do believe I am a work in progress.

So that's why I'm working on my bingo card, and I hope you are too.

And if you're on streaming, you can link this in the Facebook description. and in the weekly word.

So I've been working on my bingo card, and this is the only job where I can

stand up in public and say, I took a nap on Monday, and you would all be excited about that.

So I got to X that off my bingo card because I actually took one nap this week.

Woo-hoo, right? Yay!

Um, so, um, we can all take little steps, small behavior, small goals to help

us make progress on wherever it is in this spectrum that we need to make progress.

But the wonderful thing is, I do trust God to do more than I can ever ask or

imagine. And I absolutely trust that God is working all the time,

even and especially when I do manage to rest.

So please practice with me, be still, go outside and get a breath of fresh air,

turn off your phone, take a nap, receive peace in the pause,

trust and know Jesus more and more deeply, and just see what God can do for you when you rest.

You don't have to wait until you die.

Isn't that awesome news? Let the church say amen.

Go into the world seeing God in the small stuff, in love shared,

in moments of rest, in the beauty of creation, and in the joy of serving others.

Live your faith in every day knowing God goes with you as you love, serve, and welcome all.

Thanks be to God and we will.