What Summertime Teaches Us About Our Faith:

Take Time to Stop and Smell the Roses

It is precisely here and now in these days of summer that we have the opportunity –
and even the obligation –
to give listen to the declaration of God’s handiwork all around us,
to observe how God’s greatness is being revealed to us
in all the little events and quirks and miracles of the natural world
as they are being revealed to us.


So, its summertime in Drexel Hill.
A time where quite naturally everything seems to slow down.
Life all around us just isn’t as frenzied as it is at other times of the year.
Perhaps it’s the heat.
Or, the humidity.
Or, the heat index.
Or, the extra hours of daylight.
Or, whatever . . .
But, it does seem that the pace of things lessens, wouldn’t you say?

And, folks tend to spend more time out doors,
and/or more time in the company of others,
and/or
People in the cities sit on their stoops and put up chairs on the sidewalk so they can swap stories with their neighbors, and
say hello to all passersby,
and tease the young’ns.
Hammocks come out.
Awnings go up.
Flip flops and shorts are the order of the day.

When I started looking at it, it seemed to me that summertime in Drexel Hill reveals some lessons about the faith we profess.
And so, I have this series of sermons about these lessons.
It is summertime in Drexel Hill – and I am embarked on a series of sermons about what summertime teaches us about our faith.
Two weeks ago we emphasized that summertime teaches us that all moments are precious.
Last week we looked at how casualness is good.
This week we are considering how summertime encourages us to slow down and smell the roses.

We read the beginning of the song the Psalmist sings ( Psalm 19) which speaks to our experience here in the summertime:
The heavens declare the glory of God . . .
The [very] sky displays God’s handiwork.
Day after day it speaks out;
night after night it reveals God’s greatness.
[O for sure ] There is no actual speech or word,
nor is its voice literally heard.
Yet its voice echoes throughout the earth;
its words carry to the distant horizon.

It is precisely here and now in these days of summer that we have the opportunity – and even the obligation – to give listen to the declaration of God’s handiwork all around us,
to observe how God’s greatness is being revealed to us in all the little events and quirks and miracles of the natural world as they are being revealed to us.

But, alas, even knowing this,
even, perhaps, wanting to do this,
even thinking we should do this . . . .
We don’t, do we?
Usually because we’re too busy.
We just don’t have the time.

A while back, Forbes Magazine featured a special edition on a single topic that it called "the biggest issue of our age – time."
The editors wrote, "We've beaten, or at least stymied, most of humanity's monsters:
disease, climate, geography, and memory.
But time still defeats us.
Lately its victories seem more complete than ever. Those timesaving inventions of the last half-century have somehow turned on us.
We now hold cell phone meetings in traffic jams, and 24-7 has become the most terrifying phrase in modern life."

While many of us experience time as a source of distress, the Bible clearly presents time as a gift.
It is, in fact, the only means by which we can receive the grace of God.
Time and space are God's chosen media for self-revelation – as evidenced by the arrival of Jesus at a real moment in history at a real place on this planet – and they are the only media through which God may be encountered this side of heaven.
But most folks today experience time as a crushing burden.

After all, by definition, time is limited,
and chronically busy Americans chafe at such an unyielding limitation.

We may discern inequalities in certain gifts that God has given to us –
financial resources and Spirit-given empowerments come to mind –
but time is different.
With regard to time, we are all truly equal.
Each one of us, no matter who we are, no matter our circumstance,
each one of us is charged with managing exactly sixty minutes over the next hour.

In a culture that seems increasingly panicked about such a basic responsibility, what is the call of God?

It seems to me that summertime forces us to slow down and step back and begin to see time in accordance with God's perspective.
From God's perspective:
time is not our enemy.

We may complain that we don't have enough time or that our time is going too fast.
But, God's perspective is that we already have at our disposal exactly the number of hours we need
to do what God wants us to do –
and never to feel rushed.

The call of God is simply to slow down,
to be present at each moment as it arrives.
Time is a gift to be opened one minute at a time – and no faster.
And, today, our summertime lesson regarding our faith is another thing that Jesus did often and suggested that we do as well, just relax and let it be.
Or, as one preacher said, Chill.
Jesus chilled.
Jesus wants us to chill as well.
Relax and let it be.
Slow down and smell the roses.

Our stories of Jesus contain many that refer to Jesus taking time to chill out – to slow down and smell the roses.
The early Christian community seemed to remember that Jesus valued his time of rest.
Times of rest and recreation and relaxation became times of rejuvenation and restoration and re-creation.

Time and time again when Jesus had been through a very demanding time, he took time to shut down. Nobody had to tell Him to shut down – like we do here in Drexel Hill in the summertime.
Jesus knew when He was emotionally worn out. He knew when He was dangerously depleted.

The passage we read today comes right after the story of the feeding of the five thousand.
Jesus had just dealt with this immense problem of all those hungry people who wouldn’t go home until they got something to eat, and He had come up
with an answer.
He had taken a measly five loaves and a paltry two fish,
had blessed them, and had made them go
around.

Now you might think that miracle working was just a part of Jesus’ thing, no big deal.
Maybe so.
But my imagination runs wild at the picture of Jesus having to organize this mess, you know? The Bible says that He told His disciples to make
everybody sit down in groups of hundreds and fifties.
Let me tell you, getting the attention of five thousand people or five hundred or even five to get them settled is no mean task.
Nobody takes orders, especially from the preacher. And let me tell you something else, even getting the twelve disciples to follow instructions was no picnic.
Can’t you just imagine it?
“No, Peter, you just deal with one hundred like everybody else. You’re not pope yet.”
“James and John, get out there.
You can’t just sit up here at my right hand and my left hand; get moving.”
“Simon the Zealot, no, man, just get them to sit
down; no marches, no sit-ins against the Romans, not now.”
“Okay, Thomas, so you doubt this will work. Can you trust me, just this once?”
Not easy to get this thing organized.

And then – think about it – at the end they had all the scraps to clean up.
Now that is tough too.
Have you ever noticed that everybody is ready to come to a party,
and some are ready to fix it and serve it,
but nobody – I mean nobody – wants to stay around and clean up?!

“Great fish, Jesus; got to get your recipe – but I have to go now”.
“Loved your pita bread – let’s do lunch again sometime. Bye!”
So Jesus had to organize the cleanup crew.

I would think that Jesus was tired – and emotionally drained!
And He knew it!
It says, “Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side.”
He was so out of there!
And why not?
Jesus knew, and we are reminded every summer, when we don’t take time to relax, to rejuvenate,
to recuperate, everything is at risk:
our health,
our mission,
our faith.

The story goes that God created the world and all there is in six days.
And when that task was done, God rested.
I don’t usually anthropomorphize God, but here I have an image of God just sitting down under one of those shade trees and taking a break.

Well, the early Hebrew people knew that not only was this a story about God, but if we knew what was good for us, we would emulate that behavior and spend regular time just resting.

How we chill is almost as important as knowing that we should.
I suppose each of us has cultivated certain behaviors we use to chill and to rest and to relax.
What you do is not something that I may find relaxing. And vice-versa.

Suzanne finds counted cross stitching relaxing.
She will spend hours in a chair with fabric in her lap placing a needle laced with colored thread through a certain hole that she has identified was the correct one that will eventually make a picture whole.
I can’t watch her.
It is so unnerving for me.
I have no patience for that.

I listen to music, or turn on the tv, or read the funnies, or do a crossword puzzle, or figure a sudoku.

What do you do to get away?
What can you do to replenish yourself?

When we look at Jesus chilling we discover another way.
We are told that Jesus chilled by going to His private place of prayer and lingering there with God.
Jesus chilled by sending everybody else home –
He put the disciples out in the boat and sent all
the people home,
and went up on the mountain to pray.

And when He did, it filled Him.
It re-created Him.
It gave Him a new sense of His world.
When Jesus chilled, He prayed,
but His prayer did not make Him a stained-glass window zombie.
It energized Him,
it gave Him perspective,
it gave Him the freedom to deal with others in the right way.

We are reminded that Jesus chilled out because He knew it would equip Him to be that steady, calm, certain, healing presence in the midst of others’ pain.

When the little boat with Jesus and His disciples crossed over to the other side of the lake, people began to rush around.
They brought in everybody with a sickness,
everybody with a problem,
everybody who needed help.
It was such a crush of people that some of them just asked if they could so much as touch the hem of his garment.

You know how it goes, when the telemarketer says, “I will only take two minutes of your time”.
People always need more than they let on.
People need more than the hem of the garment, but they are afraid to ask for it.
They don’t want to be rejected.
We send them hostile messages.

Ah, but this Jesus.
This chilling Jesus.
This rested, prayed-up, replenished, complete Jesus.
With perfect calm; with total self-control;
with a wonderful sense of who He is,
all who touched Him were healed.

This Jesus, this chilled-out Jesus, this together Jesus knows exactly why He is here,
knows thoroughly what His life purpose is,
knows who His God is.
Jesus knows.
Knows Himself,
knows His purpose,
knows His God.
And Jesus chilling, equips Himself for God’s purpose.

Summertime reminds us to relax and just let it be.
It is in periods of rest that we discover, as Jesus did,
why we are here.
It is in periods of rest that we figure out,
as He did, what God wants us to do
and what God wants us not to do.
It is in periods of rest that we get rejuvenated and
recuperated, and refreshed and re-created to have the energy and the ability to do what we are called to do.

If we would follow Jesus, we need to be like Jesus chilling.
Jesus chilled.
You and I need to chill.

Remember the words of that old song?
“O Sabbath rest by Galilee,
o calm of hills above;
where Jesus knelt to share with Thee
the silence of eternity
interpreted by love.

Drop thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
and let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of thy peace.”

That seems to target what happens when we chill in the summertime.
And why we need to pay attention to the messages we receive about the faith we profess.

It is through these times of rest and relaxation and prayer and that we receive what we need to live as it is intended for us to live.
Glorifying God and
Helping others.
Amen.


A sermon heard by the congregation of Christ Presbyterian Church in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, USA, August 22, 2010