Stillness Sermon

Opening Song: Slow Me Down

Tomorrow is today in the crazy world I live
Yesterday rings on right now
One eye focused on the future
One eye focused on the past
I’m blinded to this present life I live

Lord slow me down
And help me see clearly
What I need to see the morning I wake up
Lord slow me down
And help me hear the rain fall
Instead of looking for the sun to come up
Lord slow me down

I do not understand what I do in this life, Lord
What I want to do, I don’t do, but what I hate I do
It is no longer you who has control of me
It’s my humanness, it’s Satan’s evil scheme

Oh Lord, I’m running to you
With open arms and a searching soul
Oh Lord, I’ve tried it on my own
I’ve wandered so far from home
With persistence I have run
But now I want to

Slow down, so help me see clearly
What I need to see the morning I wake up
Lord slow me down
And help me hear the rain fall
Instead of looking for the sun to come up
Lord slow me down

Lord slow us down

Scripture Reading: Psalm 27
1 The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When the wicked advance against me
to devour[a] me,
it is my enemies and my foes
who will stumble and fall.
3 Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
even then I will be confident.
4 One thing I ask from the LORD,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.
5 For in the day of trouble
he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent
and set me high upon a rock.
6 Then my head will be exalted
above the enemies who surround me;
at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make music to the LORD.
7 Hear my voice when I call, LORD;
be merciful to me and answer me.
8 My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”
Your face, LORD, I will seek.
9 Do not hide your face from me,
do not turn your servant away in anger;
you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
God my Savior.
10 Though my father and mother forsake me,
the LORD will receive me.
11 Teach me your way, LORD;
lead me in a straight path
because of my oppressors.
12 Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
for false witnesses rise up against me,
spouting malicious accusations.
13 I remain confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
14 Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.
Prayer: Hope beyond all human hope,
you promised descendants as numerous as the stars
to old Abraham and barren Sarah.
You promise light and salvation
in the midst of darkness and despair,
and promise redemption to a world that will not listen.
Gather us to yourself in tenderness,
open our ears to listen to your word,
and teach us to live faithfully
as people confident of the fulfillment of your promises.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
(--taken from http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/prayers.php?id=119)

Sermon:

Do you know what you were doing on October 5, 2004? I do. I was teaching music at Erwin Elementary School. And a colleague made me angry. She made her lack of planning my emergency and then blamed it on being busy. I wrote a poem that day. Can anyone relate to this?


We're busy.
Life is busy.
Everything is busy.
Busy, busy, busy!

But how hard is it,
Is it that hard?
To communicate,
share,
discuss,
or explain,
Expectations,
needs,
wants,
desires,
and to ask for help
In advance
not on demand,
not making lack of communication
an urgent problem?

We're busy.
Life is busy.
Everything is busy.
Busy, busy, busy!

I guess we should just rename ourselves
Bumblebees.

Last weekend, I had the privilege of leading a women’s retreat at Lake Gaston. Almost all of the women on the retreat stated that they needed to get away from the busyness of life. On Thursday morning, the intern who led the Wake Med Spiritual Care staff devotion spoke about the trap of being overly busy. On Thursday afternoon, I opened When The Heart Waits by Sue Monk Kidd and read about the dangers of being busy. Yesterday, I read a text message from a friend who wrote that she was trying to slow down because she’d been too busy. I don’t know about you, but I’m sensing a theme.

Busyness is part of today’s culture. In fact, busyness fuels today’s culture. Doing tasks quickly. Staying constantly connected. Desiring instant gratification. Eating fast food. Demanding short checkout lines. Expecting ten minute oil changes…

Busy.

We’re taught that the less time things take, the more things we can do. The more things we can do, the easier it is to avoid the unknown. The more we avoid the unknown, the more secure we feel. The more secure we feel, the more we are afraid of losing that security.

Sue Monk Kidd writes, “What has happened to our ability to dwell in unknowing, to live inside a question and coexist with the tensions of uncertainty? Where is our willingness to incubate pain and let it birth something new? What has happened to patient unfolding, to endurance? These things are what form the ground of waiting. And if you look carefully, you’ll see that they’re also the seedbed of creativity and growth—what allows us to do the daring and to break through to newness. As Thomas Merton observed, “The imagination should be allowed a certain amount of time to browse around.” Creativity flourishes not in certainty but in questions. Growth germinates not in tent dwelling but in upheaval. Yet the seduction is always security rather than venturing, instant knowing rather than deliberate waiting.”

Deliberate waiting. Deliberate stillness. Deliberate retreat from the demands of this world.

Jesus did it. Jesus balanced spending time in public ministry with people with spending time alone with God.

Abram did it. In our Old Testament reading from this morning, we hear God promising Abram that his descendents will be more numerous than the stars in the sky. When God made this promise, Abram had no children. So Abram waited. And a son was later born to Abraham and Sarah…after much waiting.
Today’s Psalmist wrote of the importance of waiting. “Wait for the Lord,” he writes. “Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”
And the Psalmist in Psalm 46 wrote about the important of waiting as well. In the midst of chaos and wars and things falling apart around him, the Psalmist declares a word from God: “Be still and know that I am God.” Be still. Know.
Deliberate waiting. Deliberate stillness. Deliberate retreat from the demands of this world.

(pause)
A few years ago, I had a friend who was being pulled in too many directions. Each role that she played demanded her full attention and she was feeling incomplete in them all. I wrote:
Yes, one calls me wife,
But wife is not my name.
I love, I support, I walk beside—
But it is not all of who I am.

Yes, two call me mommy,
But mommy is not my name.
I give care, I play games, I tend the house—
But it is not all of who I am.

Yes, some call me teacher,
But teacher is not my name.
I teach, I speak, I educate—
But it is not all of who I am.

And, yes, some call me friend,
But friend is not my name.
I spend time, I listen, I laugh—
But it is not all of who I am.

All parts make the whole:
The sum is who I am.
I am a person, complete in God—
I am who I am.
When God spoke to Moses in the Old Testament, the name that God used for himself was, “I Am.” And no matter how many roles we play—no matter how much we do to fill our time—no matter how busy we stay—we will never be complete without the Great I Am. And one of the only ways to connect with I Am through the noise of this world is in stillness. In silence. In the waiting.
Deliberate waiting. Deliberate stillness. Deliberate retreat from the demands of this world.

Leaving off the radio for part of the morning commute.

Watching the news only once a day instead of staying constantly connected.

Intentionally choosing the longest line in the grocery store.

Leaving work at work as much as you can.

Sitting in silence for a portion of every day.

Turning off your cell phone and computer when you go to bed at night so that if you wake up during the night you will sit with your thoughts instead of running away from them with technology.

Might it be uncomfortable in these moments? Yes. But that’s the point.

(pause)

During this season of Lent—this time of rending the heart—
of getting rid of all that hinders and the sin that so easily binds (Hebrews 12)—
the sins of commission that we readily identify—
lying, gossip, greed, cheating, gluttony, explosive anger—
and the sins of omission that we often overlook—
self-doubt, self-hatred, self-harm, feelings of inadequacy, prejudice, fear, busyness—
may we each commit to combating busyness by deliberately waiting for life and circumstances to unfold.

God is in the waiting.

Embrace God today.