Summer Sabbath
How do you rest? I think it is so important to remember that all of us need time to rest. A few weeks ago in a sermon, I shared the story of a South American tribe that went on a long march, day after day, when all of a sudden they would stop walking, sit down for a while, and then make camp for a couple of days before going further. They explained that they needed the time to rest so that their souls could catch up with them.
Wayne Mueller in his book, Sabbath, points out that in the busyness of modern life, we have lost the rhythm between work and rest. All life requires a rhythm of rest. There is a rhythm in waking and sleeping, of nature growing and laying fallow, there is a rhythm of the tides coming in and going out. There is even a rhythm to our breathing in and out, in each inhale and exhale.
I think many of us have found ourselves out of rhythm at some point in our lives. Despite a culture that supposes that action and accomplishment are better than rest, we need to rest. God invites us to rest.
It is in the times of rest that our best ideas emerge, when we experience joy and delight, we experience the nudges from the Spirit about which way we should go. If we don’t rest, we forget that it is God who turns the world, not our determination and tireless effort.
“Sabbath is time for sacred rest; it may be a holy day, the seventh day of the week, as in the Jewish tradition, or the first day of the week, as for Christians. But Sabbath time may also be a Sabbath afternoon, a Sabbath hour, a Sabbath walk--indeed, anything that preserves a visceral experience of life-giving nourishment and rest. Sabbath time is time off the wheel, time when we take our hand from the plow and let God and the earth care for things, while we drink, if only for a few moments, from the fountain of rest and delight.”
I hope these summer months will provide you and your loved ones time for this kind of rest. Vacations, quiet moments walking in nature, playing games with friends or napping in the hammock. Mostly I hope you find ways to for your soul to catch up with you.
Children’s Ministry Summer Break
As we practice these seasons of work and rest, it feels important for us to do that in our life as a church as well. I want to share that our Director of Children and Family ministries, Erika McCoy, will be taking some sabbath time this summer and will be away through July 22nd. Erika has worked tirelessly throught the covid-19 pandemic and as our congregation and family ministry continues to grow by leaps and bounds and another amazing year of Art Camp. We want our staff to have time to be restored in body, mind, and spirit.
During this summer season, we will pause our Sunday School classes during June and July so our teachers and volunteers can also have some time to be renewed. All our children and youth are always welcome to participate in worship and we have new children’s worship materials available for our young people to worship in age appropriate ways. We will also ensure that the service is streaming in the Great Hall so if families would like to worship together there that is an option. Nursery Care for our youngest children will continue throughout the summer. And, on July 28th, as we did last year, we will gather for Worship in the Park at Swaim Park. Then, beginning in early August, we will return to our normal Sunday morning programming.
I hope these summer months are a season for rest and renewal for all of our members as we travel, seek the presence of God in the world around us, and spend time with our loved ones. St. Barnabas has some wonderful opportunities to gather over the summer months and to simply be with God in worship.