Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Genesis 126 through 2.3.

Then God said, Let us make humans in our image according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon earth.

So God created humans in God's image, in the image of God, God created them.

Male and female, God created them.

God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it with and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.

God said, See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit.

You shall have them for food, and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given you every green plant for food.

And it was so.

God saw everything that had been made, and indeed it was very good.

And there was evening and there was morning the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all their multitude.

On the sixth day, God finished the work that God had done, and God rested on the seventh day from all the work that God had done.

So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that God had done in creation.

May we hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.

And we covered a bunch of them.

And now as the summer's kind of winding down, we're shifting to a new three-part sermon series.

And it's gonna be on rest.

Rest being a major theme that's in the Bible, and it kind of follows Labor Day being this past week.

And it may seem also kind of counterintuitive to talk about rest, especially at this time of the year when so many activities are ramping up, schools are back in session, there are so many uh activities that take place in the fall, and then we have the holidays right around the corner, which are so busy.

So, like we're getting ready to be quite busy, and so why talk about rest in the midst of all of that?

Um we're hoping that that some of the short reminders we offer in our in our services can can remind us of the importance of self-care and rest, especially in the midst of all of the activity.

Uh, we face so much as human beings, and self-care and rest matters so much.

Okay, sometimes you may you may be familiar with these when like churches are trying to encourage uh different people to be involved in different programs of the church, different ministries to take part in.

A lot of times there's like a spiritual gift inventory.

I bet several of you have taken a version of a spiritual gift inventory at some point along the way.

It's kind of like a questionnaire, uh, and it helps you determine, you know, the kinds of things that you're equipped to do, what you're good to do, what you feel drawn toward doing, along with the kinds of things that the church is doing.

So it's the ways that the things you're good at doing kind of matches the things that the church is trying to do to help make a difference in the lives of others.

Um there's a quote I love from the Presbyterian writer Frederick Biegner.

He once said, Where the world's deepest need meets your deepest joy, you have found your vocation.

In other words, the place that God often calls you toward often matches what you are most drawn to and what you feel equipped to do.

As Barbara Brown Taylor, the noted preacher, writes: whether those hands are diapering an infant, assembling an automobile, running a food pantry, they are God's hands, claimed by God at baptism for the accomplishment of God's will on earth.

What are you made to do?

What are you created to do?

And how does that make a profound difference in this world that we live in?

To offer a slight variation, one of my favorite quotes of all time, this is from Howard Thurman.

He says, Don't ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive and go and do it.

Because the world, what the world needs most is people who have come alive.

So what is it that makes you come alive?

What are you drawn to?

And how do those gifts help enable you to make a profound difference in the world in which we live?

In Romans chapter 12, Saint Paul kind of gives a classical list of several of the spiritual gifts related to the early church.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

He mentions prophesying, that one sounds like so much fun.

I'm afraid I would get it wrong, you know, half the time, but but prophesying, I guess, about like what might be or or what should be, um administering, teaching, encouraging, giving, leading, showing compassion.

Sometimes translations have the gift of helps, you know.

I sometimes wonder if like in the post-COVID modern church era, like if it might include like, you know, running tech or making sure the live stream is working, brewing coffee, spiritual gift, big time.

Sometimes I think like in our polarized society, maybe St.

Paul today would emphasize showing compassion, maybe peacemaking, encouraging, trying to bring people together.

I don't know.

Um I think some of the stuff that we do at Brentwood could be on this list.

Our community garden, which we grow produce that gets donated to the local food pantries, so that hungry families and the Ozarks might have access to healthy, fresh produce.

Our refugee and immigrant support that Becky mentioned last week, that so many of you have been involved in, sometimes by by volunteering, sometimes by donation, sometimes by both.

It's all of those things coming together using those gifts that make a profound difference in the lives of our refugee and immigrant neighbors.

And by the way, we are continuing to try to raise money for our refugee and immigrant neighbors because of some of the snap cuts that they are facing due to new policies.

And if you want to support that work, we encourage you to do so.

Um, there's the crisis cold weather shelter.

We're getting ready to ramp up those efforts in the coming uh cold weather season.

You heard a lot about the Green Chalice team over the last couple of weeks and the way that they help us think about how we can be good stewards of the environment.

These are all important spiritual gifts.

We have our street outreach meals.

If there's anything that Jesus ever did, it was trying to make sure that everybody had enough food to eat.

There's enough food and drink to go around for everybody.

That's one of the things that communion symbolizes most centrally.

In God's world, in the kingdom of God, there should be enough food and drink to go around for everybody.

And the world's not exactly as we wish the world was, but we try to make it better.

Um and we we participate in those street outreach meals.

There are a number of justice and advocacy initiatives that Brentwood has been part of for many years.

All of these kinds of things are spiritual gifts that matter.

And the ways that we can find what we're able to do to plug in and make a difference changes lives.

It truly changes lives.

And all of us coming together doing what we can in a whole host of different capacities make a profound difference in our world.

And so thinking about the kinds of spiritual gifts that help us make a difference in the world really matters.

But I've recently learned about a spiritual gift that rarely gets listed on these gift inventories, but I think it's one we really need.

Or at least I think it could come in handy quite often.

Maybe we could add this to our next Brentwood questionnaire when we put together our next spiritual gifts.

Inventory, I think it could really take off.

And are you ready for it?

You ready?

Who wants to sign up?

The nap ministry.

The ministry of naps.

That sounds good.

Um, or maybe, as the Bible might put it, honoring the Sabbath.

Um this is a spiritual gift that I know I would love to get better at.

And I know so many people, including so many of you, that are so busy and exhausted and drained from all the things going on and all of the things that you do, the things you're aware of that happens in our world, that drain that exhaustion can take a toll so much that I'm kind of wondering if we need to start the nap ministry here at Brentwood.

I mean, could you like imagine be like, you know, um uh being in the evangelist of the nap ministry is like, oh, what's the good news?

There's a blanket and pillow right over there.

That's the good news.

I do kind of like being a grandpa.

I haven't been a grandpa for very long, but one of the real advantages is people kind of expect grandpas to nap, or at least it's accepted that grandpas nap.

And so, I mean, there's that.

I like that.

Um, but this all has an ancient pedigree to it, a very biblical pedigree.

Uh, thinking about creation from the book of Genesis, and you probably knew this before you entered this space today, but but after God creates the world, what does God do?

Rest, God joins that nap ministry, and God encourages us to do that as part of the rhythm of life.

It's part of the rhythm of creation.

In this story, the Sabbath is not a command of God, but it's part of the character of God.

And as those created in the image of God, part of what we do is follow that rhythm to rest.

And it's hard in our society to rest.

It's hard to find time, and there are demands, and sometimes we live in a society that no matter how hard you work, it feels like you can never get ahead.

There's not time to rest.

It's a challenge, it's a struggle.

And this theme gets echoed throughout scripture.

From Exodus chapter 23, we read 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 · chapter mention

And notice resident alien, that means the immigrant or the refugee in your midst, the foreigner in your midst.

Allow them to rest as well, to be refreshed.

Treat them with dignity.

And this is later repeated in Deuteronomy chapter 5.

Deuteronomy 5 · chapter mention

It's expanded to include your son and your daughter, any of your livestock, the resident alien in your towns.

As the biblical scholar John Dominic Croson summarizes, and this is from a book, it's a great title, by the way.

I wish I would have thought of this title and read, writ.

I'm trying to say, wish I would have thought of this title and written this book.

That's what I was trying to say.

But the title is How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian.

And it's struggling with divine violence from Genesis through Revelation.

So he wrestles with a lot of the passages in Scripture related to violence and tries to provide uh different context and understanding.

Um, it's a it's a really wonderful book that I highly recommend.

But one of the things he he mentions in this book, and I'm sorry that the uh uh text didn't come through, uh, so I'll go ahead and read it.

That's actually just a fancy new font that we're trying out today.

We've got like a one-week trial period uh which we can get our money back, but they have our credit card number, so it's all over, you know.

Okay, so here's what this quote actually says from this book.

The purpose, reason, and intention of the Sabbath day was to give all alike householders, children, slaves, animals, and immigrants the same rest every week.

And here's my favorite part of the quote, and this is the part that's actually kind of messed up at the bottom.

It was not rest for worship of God, but rest as worship of God.

Not rest so you can though go and then worship God, but rather rest as worship of God.

Getting that blanket and that pillow, taking that nap, resting, honoring that Sabbath, restoration, healing.

Not so you can then go to worship, but as worship.

Next week's theme is rest as resistance.

But the Sabbath Jubilee in the Bible it extends so far as to even let the land rest, to let those who are enslaved be freed, to have all economic debts released or forgiven.

This idea of the Sabbath Jubilee, it's a release, it's a reset of how things were supposed to be at the beginning of creation, where people are set free from all of the things that hold them back, that bind them, and even harm the land.

Okay, more recently, and it kind of sounds silly to say the nap ministry, but but this is actually a thing that is taking place in the churches today.

More recently, the theologian and activist Trisha Hershey, she started what she calls the Knapp Ministry, and you can follow her on Instagram, it's just at the nap ministry.

And and she is is serious about this topic.

You know, this isn't just kidding around being playful.

She's serious and for very good reason.

She has spent years challenging the idea that that our worth, oh my gosh, how many times are we told this?

She has challenged the idea that our worth is measured by how productive or how useful or how busy or how exhausted we are.

So often in contemporary American society, if you aren't busy all the time, people look down on you.

Hershey calls rest a form of resistance.

And she insists that resting is about much more than getting enough sleep.

It's about reclaiming our bodies, our imagination, our humanity, and our right to exist without it being tied to what we can produce, without constantly having to prove our worth in a society and economic system that constantly demands it.

So she has a great nickname for herself.

She calls herself the nap bishop or the bishop of naps.

Steve, I want some good nicknames by Thursday evening.

I don't have any.

All right.

She advocates for rest and for Sabbath as part of the healing work of ourselves and the rhythms of creation, but also an aspect of social justice, how God wants the world to be as God created the world to be, lining up with those ancient texts from sacred scripture.

And the messages often sound almost absurdly simple, but they are very counter-cultural.

Just simply stop.

Lie down.

It's okay if you don't answer that email today.

There are so many demands placed upon us in our society.

You know, I think about all the inventions that were supposed to help make the work week, you know, lighter.

Uh so you know, you can have your computer or your phone and work from home.

That just means people can always be in contact with you, right?

Um, and you know, the whole COVID thing kind of did a number on us that I think we're still recovering from in a in a whole host of ways.

But like, you know, it used to kind of be like, yeah, I'm sorry, that doesn't work for my schedule.

I can't be at the meeting.

And so now when you say that, somebody's like, okay, no problem, I'll send you the Zoom link instead, so you can like zoom in while you're doing whatever else you're gonna be doing.

Um, there's just a lot of challenges that are placed on us as human beings in our society.

Um, but the the nap ministry encourages us to step back from the grind culture or the hustle culture, that cultural and economic system that teaches us that doing more somehow makes us more valuable.

Also, just by the way, it's not just about, oh, by the way, think about it.

If I would just use this whole sermon time just as nap time, we all would have had a 10-minute nap by now.

Oh, I I I I should have yielded my time differently.

I'm sorry about that.

We would have like experienced, you know, the point as opposed to just hearing somebody talk about the point.

Um, but it's it's like um not it's not it's not just about refueling so you can then be more productive.

You know, or putting your oxygen mask on first so you can then take care of others.

Those things matter.

We have to refuel.

We do need self-care so that we can then you know care for others.

Those things definitely matter.

But this is not just about being able to take a 20-minute nap so that you can then you know be rested for 20 minutes and therefore be more productive.

It's about resisting the idea that we have to constantly be productive from a society that tells us and asks for more, more, more.

So, from the vantage point of the minister of, or the sorry, the bishop of Naps, ministry, it's not always just about getting more people to volunteer.

It's not about just getting more programs on the church calendar, about getting more things accomplished, more boxes checked.

Sometimes it's just creating space where people can finally just stop and breathe.

Where you don't have to perform, you don't have to be productive, you don't have to be resilient.

Culture shouldn't make it so hard where you have to be so resilient.

Where you can just remember that you are beloved before you accomplish anything.

So I'm not sure what that looks like for us.

Um it may be different, you know, depending on a whole host of circumstances.

It's not gonna be the same for everybody.

But over the next few weeks, I hope we can reflect together on what it might mean to take the spiritual practice of rest and Sabbath seriously, as the ancient text invite us to do.

So maybe over the course of the next three weeks, maybe it's just finding time to take a walk each day.

Maybe it's just spending ten minutes in silence.

Maybe it's reading sacred poetry.

Maybe it's fasting from technology.

Whatever it is, may you find the rest and the healing that you need as a beloved child of God in this weary, weary world.

And may you remember that the God who created rested, and you are invited to rest in the peace and the love of God that transcends anything we produce, anything we consume, anything that we are.

And be looking for the updated spiritual inventory list from Brentwood real soon.