Building Faith in our Family

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Building Faith in Our Family April 25, 2010

Texts: Mark 7:9-13; 10:13-16; Luke 18:15-17; Eph. 5:25; 6:4

Ken Shigematsu

Big Idea: Our family is the furnace in which our faith grows.

Prop: back pack, rule of life half-sheet

In the movie Up in the Air George Clooney plays the role of a guy named Ryan Bingham, the consummate corporate soldier. He works as a hired gun helping companies downsize by carrying out their firing.

He also works as a motivational speaker (show photo here). In one of his set speeches he asks the question:

How much does your life weigh?
Imagine for a second that you're carrying a backpack.
I want you to feel the straps on your shoulders. Feel them?

I want you to pack all the people in your backpack…

Start with your casual acquaintances... friends of friends…. and then (gradually) you move the people you trust with your most intimate secrets, brothers, sisters, your children, your parents and finally your husband, your wife, your boyfriend, your girlfriend. Get them into that backpack. Feel the weight of that bag. Make no mistake your relationships are the heaviest components in your life. The slower we move the faster we die. Make no mistake, moving is living. Some animals were meant to carry each other to live symbiotically over a lifetime. Monogamous swans. We are not swans. We are not those animals.

His message: you can live free, without a commitment to people. And he does. He’s single, he has no kids, and according to his sister Kara he’s never been present for the family he comes from.

So, it’s ironic, when his younger sister Julie’s fiancé Jim gets cold feet on their wedding day, Ryan is asked by his sister Kara to approach Julie’s fiancé, and to approach Jim and persuade him not back out of his wedding with Ryan’s sister.

Ryan reluctantly agrees. He enters a children’s Sunday School room in the church to talk to Jim. Jim says, I was laying there in bed last night and couldn’t sleep. I was thinking about the wedding and the ceremony and all—us buying a house, moving in together, having a kid…having another kid. It begins to snowball. Thanksgiving. Christmas. Spring break. Football games. All of a sudden they are out of school. Getting jobs. Getting married. And then, you know before I know it, I’m a grandparent. I’m retired. Before you know it, I am dead.

I was just thinking, What’s the point? What is the point?... What am I starting here?

Ryan says, Marriage is the most beautiful thing in the world…What everyone aspires to.

Jim says, You never got married. That’s true. Ryan replies. Jim adds, You never tried.

Ryan replies, Well, it’s hard to define try. I am not going to lie. Marriage can be a pain in the ass, and you’re kind of right… I am not the guy you normally want to talk to about all this stuff. Think about it. Your favourite memories? The greatest moments of life? Were you alone?

Jim says, No, I guess not.

Ryan continues, I don’t want to sound like a Hallmark card, but life is better with company. Everyone needs a co-pilot.

Life is more complicated with a co-pilot, a family, a community. There are strings attached. It can be a pain in the posterior. But, as even Ryan concedes, it’s also better. Life is better with a friend, some kind of family, some kind of tribe, some of kind of community to do life with.

If we are followers of Christ, we are not called to a solitary journey. We are called to a group outing. Today as we conclude our series on the rule (or rhythm) of life (prop: the trellis that supports the growth our relationship with God) we are going to look at how our rule relates to our family life. We will survey not one, but several scriptures in the process.

Pray:

If we are followers of Christ, one of our highest calls is to love our family. In Scripture, family does not mean just our nuclear family or family in sense of shared blood, but people we walk most closely with.

The writers of Scripture assume that family is much more broadly defined then just the nuclear family. Theologian Rodney Clapp, points out in his book, Families at the Crossroads, that the picture of a family that most of us take for granted is not something that springs from Scripture, but streams down to us from the nineteenth century European bourgeoise family. While the average household today in North America today is between 2 and 3 people, the average Hebrew household was typically 50 or 100 people.

Sometimes loving our family and those we are closest to can be very difficult: As Ryan Bingham (George Clooney’s character in Up in the Air), family can be a pain in the _____. Life in many ways is simpler without a backpack of people…

But if we are followers of Christ, one of our highest callings is to love our family.

Jesus taught in loving our parents we are loving God (Mark 7:9-13). 1

Jesus, though he himself was single, called on married people to love their spouses. In Jesus’ day a man could divorce his wife for any and every reason. On matters of divorce most Jewish people followed Rabbi Hillel’s teaching who allowed divorce under a wide range of circumstances, even as minor as a wife burning dinner. Unlike today, a divorced woman in Jesus day would not be able to support herself financially. So Jesus God’s teaching on divorce in a more robust way was protecting the well-being of women.

In Paul’s day men treated their wives as chattel property. Men treated regarded their wives as little more than servants, in many cases physically abusing them. Husbands also assumed that it was their right to roam sexually. In the Roman Empire, Paul’s call for husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church would have also been completely radical (Ephesians 5:25).2

5 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

The New Testament’s call for adults to love children would have also been radical. In a culture where children were socially powerless, Jesus welcomed and blessed them (Mark 10: 13-16; Luke 18: 15-17). In a time when a father in the Roman empire was allowed to punish his children in any way he saw fit (including selling them into slavery or issuing the death penalty), Paul calls on parents to not exasperate their children, and to nourish them3 in the training and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4).4

4 Parents, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

The Scriptures call for us to love members of our family (and remember family in Scripture isn’t simply referring to our nuclear family, but the community of people we are called to do life with).

As we respond to God’s call to love our families—we are not promised that all of our “personal needs” will be met, or that it will always emotionally be fulfilling, or that the people we love will change in the way we want them to change, but we are promised that as we faithfully love those right around us, we ourselves will be changed.

In 1 Peter 1 we read that we are called into places of suffering and struggles so that our faith is of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine. In James 1 we are told to welcome trials and challenges so that we grow in perseverance so that we become mature, not lacking in anything.

2Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

James 1:2-4
Gary Thomas in his book Sacred Marriage asks, “What If God Designed Marriage to Make Us Holy More Than to Make Us Happy?
What if the purpose of family was more to make us holy, more than to make us happy? What if the purpose of family was more to refine us, than to have all our personal needs met?
(Of course, we want to happy in marriage and in our family, but what if the higher of those two goals was holiness?)

What if God designed family ideally as a place of unparalleled joy, but also as a furnace to refine us… to humble us, shrink our selfishness, help us to love well?

I’m not suggesting this is easy. When we run into relationship challenges with our parents, families, our spouses—we naturally want to cut and run. But when we cut and run we remain unrefined. With God’ grace, we are to live out our faith in the furnace of our family.

Generally speaking, parents, and mothers in particular, can persevere with their kids. Mothers don’t typically look at their young children and say, “My needs aren’t being met. I want out.” They tend to patiently work things through. We can be much more forgiving of our young children, than we with our parents, siblings, and spouses.

Now, let me be clear, there are times when we have no choice. For sake of our survival we have cut things off with a spouse, and sometimes separation or even divorce is the lesser of the two evils. If we are experiencing ongoing abuse from a family, we must separate from that family member or family.

But we are also called to engage in the struggle of family and community life—not with the mindset of “You’re here to make me happy,” but with heart that says, “With God’s grace, I will live out my faith in the furnace of my family.” Family is a furnace that can burn us, even led to the fire of hell, but it can also lead us to heaven. But, let’s say, “With God’ grace, I will live out my faith in the furnace of my family.”

For example, let’s live out forgiveness in the furnace of our family.

Forgiveness

Jesus, when teaching us to pray, said , “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6). Paul in Colossians 3:3: “Forgive, as the Lord forgave you.”

Recently I was at a Living Waters ministry fundraiser called A Thousand Whys. During the evening a man named Dave came to the microphone and said, “My wife and I were both committed Christians, but were separated for two years.” He shared that while they knew in their minds that God intended them to stay together as a married couple, because they had hurt each so deeply, they had lost hope in the viability of the marriage. Finally, in a last ditch effort to save their marriage they took Living Waters. Many think Living Waters is ministry that focuses only on sexual addiction, but it helps a person experience working through wounds they have received from their family of origin. With the help of God (working through Living Waters) they were able to forgive each other and they are now back together again.

Marriages and family furnaces are where we can get burned. It’s never easy and it’s almost always a process, but family is a place we can exercise our faith by forgiving others. Paul in Colossians 3:3 said: “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” As we exercise forgiveness with God’s help, we are refined and become more like Jesus. (David Bentall?)

(Optional alternative illus: A week ago Friday I heard David Bentall at prayer breakfast downtown. When David Bentall was in Grade 5. His dad came into the den and told me, “Turn off the television and do your homework.” I said, “Dad, I am watching Casper The Friendly Ghost. Leave me alone!” My dad didn’t threaten to spank me. He didn’t threaten to take away my allowance. He just simply said, “Son, you just can’t be president unless you do your homework. Turn off the TV.”

Beginning that day it was just assumed that I would one day be president our family company. His dad and uncle were senior leaders of the company. David officially joined the company right out of UBC. For the next 10 years he worked hard to succeed his uncle as president. He had been willing to give his life for the company. Then all hell broke loose as his dad and uncle had a bitter falling out. David was caught in the middle of the crossfire. He felt like the rug had been pulled out from under him. My career at our company was arbitrarily cut short. He was surgically removed.

Several years later he met this gentleman who said that he was there when they were plotting everything they did to him. He said, “You are the only person I know who wouldn’t have committed suicide based on what happened to you.”

David said, “During this horrifically painful time, my career and my self-esteem were literally in tatters. I often felt it was not fair what was going on. Like an animal caught in a trap, the more I tried to wriggle free, the worse the jaws of futility tightened around me.”)

Let’s say, “With God’ grace, I will live out my faith in the furnace of my family.”

Family is also a place for us to love others. On the night he was betrayed Jesus said to members of his spiritual family, “A new command I give to you, Love one another as I have loved you.” Our society thinks of love as feeling. Something we can’t control. Love is a hole in the ground, something we fall into, but God calls us to stand into love, to make a decision to love. I know its well-worn phrase, but love begins at home.

I may have graduated from a great theological seminary and be the senior pastor of a dynamic church, but if I don’t love my family and those right around me, it doesn’t mean anything.

When I was a single person, I typically traveled on an average of once a month to speak or serve as a consultant. That rhythm altered slightly when I got married, but had to change significantly when our son Joe came into the world. Six weeks after the birth of our son, I went on a week-long ministry trip to Mexico City. My wife pleaded with me not to go, but at the time I felt like my role as the leader of the group that was about to convene in Mexico City made my presence essential. Besides, I had told the group I would be there, and I was too vain and embarrassed to pull out at the last minute. I was hoping that Joe’s sleep habits would magically improve at week six when I was gone, but it tanked. He became colicky--screaming through the entire nights. It was the hardest week of Sakiko’s life. As I look back it was one of the worst decisions of my life (I have made many bad decisions, but that ranks as one of the worst).

After I returned, we had a long talk about my schedule (appropriately, she was doing most of the talking). As a result, I cancelled my work-related travel schedule for the next year to be able to spend more time at home. I set new rhythms for when to be home from work by 5:15 p.m. (Fortunately we live a 13 minutes walk from Tenth.) As you know, if you care for young children, the hour before dinner is one of the hardest of day. I set new guidelines on how many nights out per week (there may be exceptions to the rule, but an exception is by definition an exception, not the norm).

There’s a part of me that loves to travel and serve in various ways (and as Tenth rises in its profile, more invitations seem to come from further afield), but there’s also a bigger part of me that wants to be stay and be present with my family and to be present to what God is doing here. Last week, I was with my son Joey, aka buddy-boy. I was looking at him. Thinking he’s a year and ¾ now. How much do I remember of his face as new born, as a one year old? Some of those memories are fading. I wish I could freeze those precious moments, but I can’t. Time is marching and I don’t want to miss his childhood.

Some of the pastors I went to school with are now on the speaking circuit, pursing national ministries on the side--I don’t feel called by God to that now. Other people can do that. As a person with workaholic tendencies, I would be less than honest if I didn’t at times I feel conflicted, but I feel at peace with the direction I am pursuing. I am not doing it perfectly by a long shot. If you ask me, I’d say I’ve cut back a lot. If you ask my wife, she’s very supportive of my work here, but still I am working an awful lot. I am in process. (But here’s a little secret--I’m discovering that family life is more fulfilling that trying to climb the proverbial achievement ladder.)

With God’ grace, you are I are to live out our faith in the furnace of our family.

Affirmation:

Family can also be a place of affirmation. Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:11 says, Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up… As a staff a couple of years ago, we decided to stop sending birthday cards from our staff to someone on their birthday. Instead, as a staff during our lunch time we would offer a spoken word of affirmation about our colleague. I know that sounds a bit corny. But, it’s meaningful both for the birthday boy or girl, and also meaningful for those who share the affirmation.

I grew up in family with five siblings. We grew up in a family where we experienced regular, meaningful affirmation from my mom. My dad is person of few words. When he doesn’t want to talk someone, he says, “I don’t speak English.” But, his affirmations when expressed carry a lot of thought and weight. My siblings are in California, Montreal and Vancouver, and we have family conference calls every month or two. At one of our family conference calls a few years ago one of my younger sisters said, “I know it’s sounds stupid to say this, but all of us kids have felt free to pursue risky careers because we were always encouraged by mom growing up, and because we know that even if we fall on our faces and fail, we will always going to be welcomed home.”

We are stronger because we’ve had strong affirmation from our parents. Even if you’re not a parent, through your sincere, affirming words to others in your family you help to build a more positive family culture. For example, let’s say you’re a daughter in your family, and let’s say you affirm your mother (mother’s day coming up in two weeks), she may be empowered to become a more loving spouse or more caring mother to your brother.

Let’s say, “With God’ grace, I will live out my faith in the furnace of my family.”

This is the closing message of a rule of life series (which we began around of life since the Olympics for just over two months now and we’re closing the series today).

The rule of life can be and is best lived out in a family or in a smaller spiritual community. It is lived out with and for others. I don’t mean for this to sound burdensome, but every part of our rule of life can be lived in a family or community. Here are some examples. Perhaps pick one or two to begin to live out with others.

(use half sheet and hold up)

Sabbath:

A household can practice the Sabbath together. Ideally, this will include the practice of unplugging for 24 hours, worshipping together in community, praying, and playing.

Ideally, Sabbath is a day worshipful, joyful, refreshing day where we pray and play.

Prayer: Families that pray together stay together. As we know 1 in 2 marriages break up. According to one study cited by a respected Christian ministry, among couples who pray together every day that number jumps to 1 in 2000. I don’t how they can verify that number, but I do know I’ve been seen a lot of couples break up, but not one where the couple in daily pray to God broke up. I’m sure there are some couples who pray every day and break up, but I’m sure it’s rare. (If you’re a single follower of Jesus, and if you marry one day, it’s so important to marry a fellow follower of Jesus so you can seek God together).

Care for our Body: According to my friend Dr. Martin Sanders, 80% of all exercise equipment is purchased in the 2 weeks before Christmas and the week between Christmas and New Year’s, but typically by spring 85% is no longer being used: it typically sits idly for a year or two then is eventually posted on Craig’s list or e-bay.5 A great way to share life as a household and to sustain one’s physical conditioning is to stay in shape together. One of the number one factors in whether people get into good physical conditioning is their whether their peers are in good shape or not.6

Money: The household is an ideal place to live out a rule of life around money and simplicity. Generosity can be taught, but it can also be caught. Part of the reason, I have tithed from the time I was 15 is because as a follower of Christ, I saw my parents faithfully tithe and go beyond the tithe. Part of the reason, I have been averse to unnecessary debt is because of my parent’s example. (If you’re a single follower of Jesus, if you marry one day another of the reasons it’s so important to marry a fellow follower of Jesus is so you’re on the same page with money).

Study: According to one study, in the typical home in North America the television or radio is on for 7.9 hours a day (see Adele Calhoun), this doesn’t mean people are watching or listening for that many hours), but these media are on. A friend named Sam I’m in a small group with tells me at their home as a family they don’t watch television at night. They instead read. Some households are asking not only about where and when to watch television, but also whether to have a television in a place where people eat or would otherwise engage in conversation.7 They have books everywhere so they can read together.

Sexuality. In the healthy household, we can live a life-giving sexuality. No abuse. No pornography. I’ve talked to a number of men who struggle with sexual issues because as boys they found their dad’s pornography under his bed. A family ideally is a place where this is healthy affection and touch.

Work: We didn’t specifically have an entire message on work, but in the older agrarian societies family members worked side by side. Most of us today, do not live on a farm, but we can work together. It can be something as simple as doing chores, or something as big as going on a mission together. Which leads to our last point.

Missions:

I know this is just off the radar for a lot of family in the larger culture, but why not consider using some of vacation for mission locally or in Cambodia or some other place. (Club Med family?)

Matthew Chan was a part of our church when he was studying at UBC. Matthew grew up in a Christian family. When he was 12 years old, he went on a missions trip with his parents to China. He and his parents were visiting a poor province in northwest China. There, Matthew encountered dirty and sick children, many of whom had bellies swollen from hunger and malnutrition. I remember talking to Matthew about how deeply it affected him and made him want to pursue a vocation in helping to improve the health of children in the developing world. At end of UBC he was selected as a Rhodes Scholar. There he pursued master’s degrees in global health science and another in international development during the second year to prepare to serve the world.

The goal of the family life is not happiness, but holiness. But as we pursue wholeness and we love each other, we will be happier. The paradox is that if we are looking for happiness in family, we may not find it, but if we look to love and serve others, we likely will. Mother Teresa has said, (Mother Teresa No Greater Love 131). People who truly love each other are happiest people in the world. They may have very little, in fact they may have nothing, but they are happy. In a family there are strings attached; sometimes the straps on our backpack feel heavy, but in family we also experience many of God’s greatest gifts.

In this series on a rule of life I’ve talked about balance from time to time. Balance is important, but that’s the goal of the rule. The goal of the rule isn’t even the rule itself—as if that were an end in and of itself. The goal of the rule or trellis (hold up) is to support the growth of our relationship with God. We can’t always lead a balanced life, but with the help of the Holy Spirit we can always lead a Christ-centered life. That’s the goal.

When younger Christian leaders ask me, “What one piece of advice would you give me?” I find myself saying, “Live by a rule or rhythm of life that enables you to keep Christ at the center. If you do, you’re never going to stop growing. You’ll be fruitful. And you’ll finish well.”

So it is with you, if you live by a rule with Christ at the centre (where each event of your life draws you to Christ--even your work, exercise and play) then you’ll never stop growing, you’ll be fruitful, and you will finish well.

The path to the rule of life for me was birthed as part of a contemplative journey on while on a pilgrimage to the holy places of Ireland. So I want to close this message and series by offering a blessing from Saint Patrick:

As you live by the rule of Christ…

may the strength of God pilot you,
the power of God uphold you,
the wisdom of God guide you.

May Christ be in on your right, Christ on your left,
May Christ be in front of you,
behind you, under you, above you, and within you.

Play as Prayer

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RULE OF LIFE M8 SERMON NOTES April 18, 2010

TITLE: Play as Prayer

TEXTS: Ecclesiastes 3s:4; Zechariah 8:5; Isaiah 11:8

BIG IDEA: When we play, we feel God’s pleasure in our pleasure.

On Christmas Eve, I talked how a young man in jeans and a baseball cap stood in a subway station in Washington DC and from a small case removed a violin.

The Washington Post was conducting an experiment to see if people would stop to listen to something truly beautiful, or if they would hurry past (all of this is caught by a hidden video camera.)

It was 8:00 a.m. on Friday morning in January--the middle of commuter rush hour. For the next 45 minutes the violinist plays six beautiful, famous pieces of music. Over 1000 people pass by. After three quarters of an hour, with hundreds of people passing by, few turned to even look at him and only seven people stopped what they were doing to hang around and listen to the music at least for a minute.

Who was the violinist beneath the baseball cap? One of the most famous in the world: Joshua Bell. Three days earlier, he had played his violin in Boston’s Symphony Hall with people paying $100 to hear him.

One of the few people who wanted to watch him play that morning was Evan. Evan is three years old. He is a cute black kid in a parka and he keeps twisting around to watch Joshua Bell, while his mother, Sheron Parker, tries to get him to go out the door of the subway, because she wants to be on time for her class. She deftly moves her body between Evan’s and his, so that Evan can’t see him playing the violin anymore. As they leave the subway station, Evan is still trying to pull away and get a look.

Almost all the adults hurried past Joshua Bell as he played.

But, every single time a child walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch.

We adults are so busy, or focused on “what needs to get done,” that we fail to enjoy the beauty that is clearly in front of our eyes. Children don’t need instruction on slowing down to enjoy life. They find what they like and do it. As we get older, we feel guilty for slowing down to enjoy something, or stopping to play. Many of us feel like we always to ought to be doing something “productive.” The irony is that we can feel guilty about working too much and guilty about playing, too (Banks, Stevens 853).

But, part of a healthy spirituality and therefore part of a life-giving rule or rhythm of life will include joy and play. A person who is engaged in faithfully following Christ will pray and play. In The Holy Longing, Ronald Rolheiser writes, “A healthy spirituality will combine prayer, social justice, and mellowness of heart.”1 If we are focused only on prayer and social justice, we can become overly intense and serious. He says that sanctity is as much about having a mellow, relaxed, joyful heart as it is about believing and doing the right thing, as much about proper energy as about truth.” Gustavo Gutierrez, the father of liberation theology, suggests by having a healthy spirituality we will feed our souls in three ways: through prayer, both private and communal; through the practice of justice; and through having those things in our lives: good friendships, good food and wine, creativity, and healthy leisure that keep our soul mellow and grateful.”2

Some us feel that if we were independently wealthy or retired, we would have the time to play. David Steindl-Rast has wisely said that leisure is not the privilege of those who have time, but rather the virtue of those who give to each instant the time it deserves.3

The beauty of living by a rule or rhythm of life is that we have a kind of monastic bell that enables to give each instance of life the time it deserves (not necessarily the time we feel like giving it). In the midst of all the time pressure in our lives, our monastic bell, our rhythm can help us, as they say, to stop and smell the roses.

Life is a gift. God longs for us to enjoy this gift. Unlike some ancient creation myths, God did not create us as slaves merely to do the dirty work of maintaining the earth, but made the earth for us to take delight in it.4 In Genesis 2:9 we read that “The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food…”5 As we saw last week, the God did not provide food merely as fuel for human beings, but to delight our eyes and taste buds as well. The earth was created for God’s pleasure and ours as well.

We read in the book of Ecclesiastes that God ordains times to play: “There is a time… to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.”6

God promised Israel that when he would return to bless Jerusalem, a sign of that blessing would be that the streets would be filled with boys and girls playing.7 (Zechariah 8:5)

In Isaiah we read that on the new earth the child will play near the hole of the cobra, and the child will not be harmed… (Isaiah 11:8, TNIV).

God experienced joyful play at the creation of the world. In the first pages of Scripture, we see how God created the earth and delighted in his handiwork. The maker declares that all he has had made is very good.8 In the ancient Book of Job, we see how God’s creating the earth inspired joy. God appears to Job out of the storm and asks:

“Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?...
while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?”9

God’s act of speaking our planet into existence caused the angels to spontaneously sing for joy!

Jesus described God his Father as a person who would throw a feast with music and dancing when repentant sons and daughters would come home (Luke 15:11-32).

Jesus worked hard; he also enjoyed life. He had a thousand days to “save” the world, but spent several of those days celebrating at a wedding in Cana.10 When the wine ran at the reception, Jesus performed his first miracle, by supplying the wine. He ate, drank, and celebrated with people with such zest that he was accused of being a glutton and drunkard (Matthew 11:19. Look at Bruner). Jesus also had the most important mission ever, but he took time to welcome and enjoy the company of children. Enjoying the company of children, he would have played with them (Mark 10: 13-16; Luke 18: 15-17). Jesus had a great sense of humour. Seeing him through our cultural lens, we may not detect of all of his humour, but he taught with wit, irony, and hyperbole. His comment about how it is more difficult for a rich person to enter into enter heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle would have had people bent over cackling in laughter.11 A movie portrayed Jesus as playing a ball game with some other men, Jesus leaping, catching the ball, and jostling his body with others as he did so. Some people were scandalized. But Dallas Willard rightly asks, “Why not?” 12 Why couldn’t we imagine Jesus throwing, leaping to catch a ball, tackling someone in a football game, or riding a snowboard?

God foreordains our play, God plays, and when we play we reflect the nature of a God who plays. In fact, if we belong to Christ as poet Gerard Manly Hopkins wrote, “for Christ plays in ten thousand places.” Through our “limbs” and “faces.”

God’s delight in our joyful play

Some people grew up experiencing the Sabbath as a dreary day of don’ts: don’t play baseball, don’t play games, don’t chew gum. Others who were raised in a home or a church where the emphasis was on thou shalt not. You may have an image of a God who frowns when people have too much pleasure.

But God delights in our joy.

When our son Joey had just turned one, we were at a park in our neighbourhood and a man was a lobbing a tennis ball to his dog just a few feet away. Five or six young children gathered around to watch. Joey shuffled to edge of the group. Each time the dog would catch the ball, Joey would arch his head back, and burst into convulsive laughing. As the dog twisted his body and jumped and caught the ball, our son would laugh so hard he would wobble, lose balance, and fall backwards on his bum. Seeing Joey’s joy, the children in group began to giggle with glee; they pointed to him they began saying, “He likes it… he likes it…” The dog owner started turning his head toward Joey each time he’d toss the ball to his dog. The middle-aged man would out break out in a grin, saying, “That’s a happy boy! That’s a happy boy!” I took great joy in the contagious joy of my son. As we can take sheer delight in seeing our own children light up with joy, God, our Father, takes delight in our joy as well.

I know a pastor who says, “I believe that God takes most delight in me, when I am water-skiing.” He feels God takes more pleasure in him when he pushes in the edge of his ski as it turns on the lake, creating a wall of water, than when he’s praying or preaching. I am sure this man’s statement could be misinterpreted as a way to rationalize a self-indulgent pleasure. But, if he feels most fully alive when he’s gliding across the water, and if we believe that like a loving parent God delights in our joy, then it not so far-fetched to imagine that God takes special delight in this pastor’s waterskiing.

What is play? Play is doing something for its own sake.

Though there are many benefits to play (including developing the neural networks in our brain, boosting our immune system, and fostering creativity), real play isn’t motivated primarily for some utilitarian result. Play something we do for its own sake. 13

One of my favourite movies is Chariots of Fire. The movie is based the true story of two runners who are preparing for the 1924 Paris Olympic Games: Harold Abrams and Eric Liddell. Harold Abrams is obsessed to achieve his goal of winning the one hundred meter dash. Only by winning Olympic gold does he feel he can validate his existence. When his girlfriend Sybil asks him if loves his running, he responds, “I am more of an addict. It’s a compulsion, a weapon.” As he waits to run in the Olympics finals of the 100-yard dash, he confides to his friend and teammate Aubrey his fear: “I have ten seconds to prove my existence.”

Eric Liddell, on the other hand, runs for the sheer pleasure of running. In the movie, his religious, austere sister Jenny expresses her disappointment with Liddell’s passion for running: “I don’t want God’s work spoiled with all this running talk.” Liddell responds, “I have decided to go back to China for missionary service.” Jenny is overcome with joy. But, then Liddell adds, “I’ve got a lot of running to do first, Jenny. You’ve got to understand. I believe God made me for a purpose, for China… but he also made me fast. When I run, I feel his pleasure…” When we do something for the sheer pleasure of it, for its own sake, whether we do it extremely well, like Eric Liddell (who went on to win a gold medal, shattering the existing world record, in the 400 in the Paris Olympics) or do it poorly, what we do is play.

We contrast the word “amateur” with “professional” or someone who performs with “excellence.” Sometimes we use the word “amateur” to describe mediocrity. With derision we say, “He’s such an amateur.” But the word “amateur” means “lover.” G.K. Chesterton said, “A man must love a thing very much, if he not only practices it without hope or fame or money, but even practices it without any hope of doing it well.” This is the origin of Chesterton’s famous twist of the traditional proverb: “If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.”14

My wife Sakiko is a gifted artist. As an elementary school student she took first place in a multi-province art competition in Japan, but because she was raised in a country where almost everyone pursues an education to position themselves to get a job, Sakiko majored in political science at university and worked as a journalist, rather than pursuing art. Since coming to Canada she has occasionally taken classes at Emily Carr, but she is not drawing or painting to make money, but pursuing art for its own sake, for the sheer joy of it. She’s playing.

When I look back on my childhood and teenage years, I enjoyed playing competitive sports: ice hockey, baseball, basketball, and football—but my favorite memories of playing sports were those pick-up games of road hockey and football on the cul de sac in front our house. We would play until it was too dark to see the ball (props). Sometimes, of course, we would argue or about whether the ball crossed the goal line or if hard physical contact was intentional or incidental. But, I loved those pick-up games because I was playing for the sheer joy of playing--not to impress a coach or a girl or to build my resume. I enjoyed the games in our cul de sac for their own sake.

I am not an accomplished sailor, but I love to sail. A few years ago, my wife and I set out on a 6 day sailing course, on a modest 32 foot keel boat. As we crossed the Georgia Straight on our way to Vancouver Island we faced 5-6 foot waves. On the Gulf Islands, we picked and then feasted on clams from the beach and munched away on raw kelp we had pulled from the sea. We sighted eagles, otters, and sea lions. We saw a breathtaking, exquisite orange and hot pink sunset at Montague Harbour. I love being on the water. I love sailing, but I have chosen to not race, because I know that I am so competitive that if I race, sailing will no longer feel like play, but work, like a contest to win. Playing is doing something for the joy of it. If something becomes more important than the play itself, like winning, or your golf score, or impressing someone, even getting into good shape, it ceases to become play.15

There have been times when I have “played” competitive basketball, but it was anything but play. I was self-absorbed, preoccupied with my personal stats, fuming over a issed layup, or trying to impress a girl. Play is doing something for its own sake.

When we play we reflect the image of a God who plays. When we play we feel God’s pleasure in our pleasure.

While play is something done for its own sake, it also offers wonderful gifts for spiritual life.

Spiritual Gifts of Play

I also know play can also have a dark side. A person can get addicted to certain forms of play. It’s not that unusual for people who are addicted to video games to play for 48 hours straight (Brown 177). The Washington Post featured five guys in South Korea who were addicted to playing video games and who died from the blood clotting of sitting for several hours in the same position (Brown 177). Gambling is play, but it is addictive and causes you drift from God. Some forms of play cause us to drift from God… we can sense that, but play can also draw us to God.

Renewal

Play is also called recreation because it has the capacity to re-create us, to make us new. Play renews our mind. Stuart Brown, a medical doctor and former professor of at the University of California at San Diego, points out that play helps develop the amygdala (where our emotions are processed), the prefrontal cortex (where executive decisions are made) and cerebellum (which is responsible for attention and language processing).16 Play refreshes our bodies. Taking a walk, doing a few jumping jacks, even standing with one foot on a wobble board can energize us. Because our mind, body, and spirit are connected when our mind and bodies experience renewal through play, our spirits are lifted too.

When we play we feel God’s pleasure in our pleasure.

Window to God

Play can also serve as a window to God. In his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis describes play experiences as a boy where he was pointed to something beyond this world, to something transcendent. When he was six years old, he gazed at a miniature toy garden his brother made for him out of moss, adorned with twigs, and flowers. In his play he heard the voice of joy calling him. The voice of joy, he discoved years later, turned out to be the voice of God.

Play and contemplation

Play can lead us to God and help us contemplate God. One of the great obstacles to contemplating anything, including God, is self-absorption. Play can help to spring us free from our self-absorption. In their book, The Practice of Spiritual Direction, William A. Barry and William J. Connolly write, “If you have ever been so absorbed in watching a game, reading a book, or listening to music, that you have been surprised at how much time has passed, or how cold or hot you are, or the anger of a friend who has been asking a question for a few minutes, then you know the power of paying attention to something, and you have a personal example of a contemplative attitude….”17 (check this quote) Barry and Connolly who are both experienced spiritual directors suggest that what may help a person to engage in contemplation is looking at, or listening to, something other than yourself—music, nature, art—anything that will absorb a person.18 Contemplation is a form of prayer. Simone Weil, the French mystic, defined prayer as, “Paying absolute attention… The Poet May Sarton, says if one looks long enough at almost anything, and looks with absolute attention at a flower, a stone, the bark of a tree, grass, the snow, a cloud, something like revelation takes place. Something is ‘given’.”19 We experience pleasure.
I find the woods a powerful place of renewal where I am drawn outside of myself, transfixed by the mysterious beauty of God’s creation all around me, by the different shades of green in the leaves, the rays of sunlight that spill through the branches above me, the cool breeze that runs through the through the trail: all these gifts of God—gifts of play help to feel God’s pleasure and pray.


When we play we feel God’s pleasure in our pleasure.

Play also helps to foster deep bonds with other people.20

When couples feel like they are drifting, a marriage therapist will encourage them to play together, to do something novel the together. When a couple plays together they laugh, touch each other. If they are doing something novel, they experience a boost in dopamine levels in their brain and they bond.21 But this is also true of course in our friendship with others. As we play together, laugh, sweat together, we feel a greater level of attachment. Some of the best times we have had as a Board of Elders have been when we have hiked, or sailed, or skied together. These times of play have built on our relationships and made our work more fruitful. Recently some of the staff went curling together. Everyone said they, “I’ve never played. If you saw us, you would have believed us. But we had a good time.

When we play we feel God’s pleasure in our pleasure and when we play with others we feel God’s pleasure in our shared pleasure.

Create a Rule (or rhythm) of Play

A healthy rule of life will include a rhythm of play. Much like you take time to nourish yourself with food, take time to experience the nourishment that comes from play. There may be times, of course, when we curtail our play for other priorities. When we are facing final exams, crunch time at work or a new child comes into our world, certain activities in our lives will get dropped—a life-giving rule will be flexible. But, taking time to play when we feel we can afford it least, may be the most beneficial time to play. When my friend’s second baby came along—on the one hand he felt like and he and his wife would need to give up their running—a source of renewal for them both—but upon reflection he and wife realized they were so exhausted from parenting a new born and a toddler, that they decided to find a way spell each other off baby-care so they could experience the renewal of running for themselves—and each other, and their babies! One of the serendipitous gifts of play is that it increases our energy for work, whether parenting or for creating something new. You likely know the experience of working on a seemingly intractable problem and then took some time to relax or play, or perhaps you had a nap or a shower, and then serendipitously you experienced an “a-ha” moment and the answer presented itself. Like honoring the Sabbath, we may find play yields its most valuable gifts when we feel we feel most tempted to cut it out.

Take your play history

Take your play history. Was there something as a child you loved to do? Something that gave you unfettered pleasure? Earlier I described how my wife loved art as a child, but felt she had to give that up to concentrate on more practical studies that would help land her a job. Now as an adult, she is rediscovering her love for art. A friend of mine loved road hockey and desperately wanted to ice play hockey as a boy, but being raised in a single parent home in relative poverty, he was unable to pursue that dream. Now as a middle-aged adult he loves playing ice hockey in one of the local leagues.

Be yourself

Try not to be self-conscious. One of the things that inhibits us as adults from playing is self-consciousness: seeming incompetent, uncool, or looking goofy. Years ago, we had a family reunion north of Tokyo at my grandfather’s country club. After dinner one night we walked to the karaoke room. It was February in the off-season for golf so we our family and relatives were the only ones in this party room. When it was my turn to sing, I sang a duet with my sister Hana and we gyrating our hips and throwing out heads back in mock imitation of a rock star as we belted out Go Johnny Go. Since the audience was just family and relatives, I felt less restrained and (in a rare moment) was able to cut loose and ham it up. When you play give yourself the permission to do something you’re not especially good at, to try something new and even look a little foolish.

Keep in simple

Keep it simple. Recreation is a big industry and can consume our lives. Loving play doesn’t mean we get caught up in getting all the most expensive fancy equipment. Play can be as simple as taking a walk or throwing a tennis ball to a dog.

Prayer

Let play become a form of prayer for you. Remember that when you experience joy, as Eric Liddell Liddell experienced, God experiences joy in you. Knowing this can make our play a prayer. I typically have sailed with a group of people who don`t believe in the existence of personal God. As we have sailed on along beautifully the Sunshine Coast, I sense I am moved and grateful for this beautifully at deeper level because I experience this beauty and joy and play as gifts from God. Choose play that ennobles and draws you to God and others.

When we play we feel God’s pleasure in our pleasure.

Faith, Food, and Fitness

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Faith, Food, and Fitness April 11, 2010

Texts: Romans 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 4:7-12; 1 Kings 18:16-46; 19:1-9

(Remember to mention the blog.)

Props: Trellis: pillow, yoga mat, bread, bar of soap, half-sheet.

Connections Dinner

One of my sisters as a teenager was swept off her feet by a dashing young man who had a muscular, ripped body that resembled a Greek god. Her excitement over this guy at first was palpable. Though my sister was an avid athlete herself, committed to working out, when she learned that her boyfriend worked out 7-8 hours day to maintain his body, rather than being impressed, she began to wonder about his priorities and depth.

We regard people who are obsessed with working out to achieve a certain body type as being vain and superficial. This is especially true for those who value the development of their spiritual lives. In fact, devoted followers of Christ can actually swing the other way and have a bias against working out because they feel this may pander to their vanity, or that it will consume time and energy that could be directed to more “spiritual” activities like prayer or Bible study or Christian service.

Certainly, excessive working out (and some forms of dieting) can be motivated by vanity and can suck up time that would otherwise be devoted to more important matters, but exercise and care for our bodies can also serve as part of a rule trellis (show) of life that enables us to be more present to God and available to people.

Ancients Greeks believed that while the soul was good, the body was evil. Christians at various times in history have viewed the body as sinful. But the scriptures affirm that while the body has been influenced by the fall (like our mind and spirit) and has the capacity for evil, our bodies also reflect the image of God, and are worthy of respect and care. Our bodies, the apostle Paul tells us, have the potential to serve as instruments for God.

God becoming flesh and blood as a human being in Jesus Christ shows us God views the human body with honour and vessels that can be full of grace and truth. The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4 that those of us who belong to Christ bear the treasure of Christ’s life in our jars of clay, that is our earthly bodies. He also wrote in Scripture that, “Our bodies are temples of God’s Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:19).

When I was living in southern California, working to start a new church, a generous couple who traveled up to half the year for their for work, offered me the use of their lovely home overlooking the ocean, free of charge. Because John and Carol had been so gracious to me in so many different ways, because the house was also their primary place of residence, I wanted to take good care of it. No house-wrecking parties while they were gone. I’m not handy, but I tried to keep the house clean and in good shape. If we’ve given our lives to Christ, they are inhabited by the Holy Spirit, our ``houses`` are not our own, and therefore we are called to care for the houses (bodies) that God has entrusted to our care.

Paul speaks of the future resurrection of our bodies as a compelling motive for treating our bodies properly in the present time (I Corinthians 6:14). Our bodies aren’t like a car that will one day be driven off a cliff in a movie scene or end up in some junk yard.

When the baseball legend Mickey Mantle was dying of diseases brought on by a life of heavy drinking, he said that he would have taken better care of himself had he only known how long he was going to live… How should we “take care of ourselves” when we are never to cease? When there will be continuity between our bodies now and our bodies in the life to come? (Willard DC 86).

We are to honor God, by offering our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God (Romans 12:1-2). We are to offer our bodies not as instruments of sin, but as instruments of God (Romans 6). Part of the way we can offer ourselves most fully as an instrument to God and the world is by caring for our bodies.

In story of Elijah in 1 Kings 18-19 we see how important the care of our bodies is to God.

The prophet Elijah, zealous for the honor of God, challenged the pagan prophets to a showdown. He set up a contest where the prophets of Baal built an altar and sacrificed a bull to their gods. They would then call upon their gods and ask them to “answer by fire” and consume their offering, proving their gods were real. The prophets of Baal called out to their gods all day long. Nothing happened. Then Elijah built an altar to the LORD and doused it three times with water until a small moat formed around the base of the altar. Elijah cried out to God, and God answered with fire consuming the whole sacrifice! It was a stunning victory for the living God, but also the peak moment of Elijah’s ministry. But Elijah, having expended an enormous amount of physical, emotional, and spiritual energy crashes. Angry Queen Jezebel threatens to retaliate against Elijah by killing him. Elijah, completely spent, was afraid and runs for his life to the wilderness of Judah, He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. "I have had enough, LORD," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." (1 Kings 19:5) Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. Then we read that all at once an angel touched him and said, "Get up and eat." 6 He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.

7 The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, "Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you." 8 So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. 9 There he went into a cave and spent the night.

Burned out and depressed, we’re told he fell down under a broom tree. What did God do? He didn’t give him a passage to read from the Bible, pray for him, or say, “I know a great therapist.” He allows Elijah to sleep. God gives him fresh baked bread. God cares about our bodies more than we do. Then Elijah was able to run for 40 days and 40 nights until he reached Horeb which from Beersheba was about 200 miles away. Though he was running to get somewhere, his running would have been rigorous exercise. Today, I want us to look at how we can care for our bodies through sleep, eating, and exercise (would love to read about your thoughts on this on the blog—go to our website).

Sleep was one of God’s gifts to Elijah and sleep is one of his gifts to us.

Sleep

Many people believe that they will be more productive if they sleep less. For years I believed that. In my early twenties I worked for a corporation in Tokyo, Japan. As you ride subways there, you find the people who are fortunate enough to get a seat are sleeping. Perpetually overworked and notoriously sleep-deprived, Japanese “salary-men” (corporate soldiers) try to catnap wherever they can. For years I assumed that if I could get by on less sleep like my dutiful Japanese colleagues, I too could be more productive.

I was also mesmerized by the example of the Navy Seals who, as part of their training, get by on five hours of sleep in a week (not per day, but for the entire week).

But over time, I came to discover from Scripture and experience that getting enough sleep is a gift from God and can enable us to flourish in our relationship with God and with each other.

Sleep as we saw in the message on Sabbath can become a way for us to recognize our dependence on God. We see that Adam is given the gift of his wife Eve while he was sleeping (Genesis 2:21). In Psalm 127 we are reminded that God provides for us while we sleep.1 Solomon, who was author (or at least the subject) of Psalm 127, received his greatest gift, his legendary wisdom, while he slept! We sleep and we wake--we find that God has been working…making cherry blossoms and puppies…

Sleep gives us an experience of a daily Sabbath where we turn our productivity--things we are tempted to depend on--over to God. It puts us in place of trust.

(Look at Whack on the Side of the Head and the book on brain by the Cambridge prof).

Getting a sufficient amount of sleep will also help us stay more attentive to God and others, and be less self-absorbed, and irritable.

It also enables us to be healthier. According to Dr. William Dement, a former Stanford professor and the author of the Promise of Sleep, sleep more than any other factor (including diet or exercise and heredity) predicts longevity and health.2

When a baby is born, a good parent will help the newborn learn how to sleep. Most of us may assume we know how to sleep. We’ve doing it our wholes lives, but up to half of the people in North America report having trouble sleeping at some point in lives. Each person is unique and the amount of sleep someone needs will vary from person to person, but a typical person needs between 7-8 hours of sleep a night.

We can help to foster better and longer sleep through an evening ritual that helps us slow down: it might include prayer or the practice of the Ignatian Examen3, identifying where you experienced feelings of consolation: joy, peace, being alive, connection with God and where you experience feelings of desolation: anger, sadness, lethargy, a sense of distance from God.

You might include a time to unplug from TV, electronic gadgets and computer. I have recently tried to read more late at night, and not do as much computer. I have a friend who describes himself as a ``thinkaholic``and finds it`s hard to slow down his thinking process. He`s often tempted to go into his home office late at night and do more work. So now he has a sign outside his home office: that says open on the one side and closed on the other. He has limits to his office hours at home. Dimming the lights at a certain time. Setting a standard sleep time and wake up time to set your sleep rhythm and train you to stay on schedule.

Napping can also be a way to experience refreshment.4 For some people taking a nap is not feasible during the day, but others avoid taking a nap because they think many people feel that napping is for weak people guilty about sleeping during the day. Martin Marty, a deeply respected theologian, finds that a brief nap increases his energy for hours. He has for decades taken two naps on most days. He says, “What keeps us awake and stressful is guilt about yesterday and worry about tomorrow.”5

Winston Churchill was a leader who also understood the restorative value of naps:

You must sleep some time between lunch and dinner and no halfway measures. Take off your clothes and get into bed. That’s what I always do. Don’t think you’ll be doing less work because you sleep during the day. That’s a foolish notion held by people who have no imagination. You will accomplish more. You get 2 days in one—well at least one and a half, I’m sure. When the war started, I had to sleep during the day because that was only way I could cope with my responsibilities.6

Not everyone, of course, has the luxury of being able to take a nap on a workday, but when it is possible, naps can provide refreshment of body, mind and spirit and enable us to more fully enjoy God and serve people.

God gave Elijah the gift of sleep, but also the gift of fresh baked bread. Food is also a gift from God and a way we can care for our bodies.

Eating

One of the key factors in health and longevity is a healthy diet. Part of the reason why the Japanese, and the Okinawans, in particular, live so long, with the highest rate of people living to 100 years in the world, is because they maintain healthy, balanced diets.7

Monks have recognized how food affects our spiritual lives.

So Rule of Saint Benedict offers counsel for the body and the soul commending time for meals and laying out that a monk’s day should be begin at a certain time because by then the monk’s food would be fully digested.8

A person might associate a rule around food, with the images of a monk in a habit with sunken cheeks eating gruel. (Saint Benedict’s Rule of Life addresses food. Ch. 39). But Benedict rule requires monks in good health to abstain from eating the meat of four-legged animals such as beef or lamb, goat, but poultry and other two-legged animals, as well as fish and other creatures, are permitted. The Benedictine Rule not allowing the four-legged versus other animals would be expense: raising or buying four-legged animals for meat required wealth in Benedict’s day; by contrast, chickens could be raised by leaving them to forage the monastery grounds, and wild fish could be caught for free.9 Saint Benedict wanted to foster prudent spending among monks when it came to food, but allowed the monks to spend more on food to encourage that which is required to promote health.

Similarly, ideally a rule around food would include prudent spending, but also an eye for health.

Sometimes, of course, these two goals can be in tension with each other. More nutritious food is typically more expensive (There`s a reason fast food is cheap. Be wary of those $1 burgers!). Food that is organically grown is good for us and for the earth, but not everyone can afford organic food. But, a preference for buying nutritious, organic, locally grown where possible is good for us and good for the world (the average meal travels 1500 miles from the farm to the supermarket10). Some people have tried to resolve this dilemma by buying better, but less, food.

But, it is possible to swing to an extreme here and become a health food junkie. The term orthorexia has been coined to describe people who are obsessed with health foods. These people only eat food they regard as healthy and ``pure``: they may insist on eating only organic food, or only fresh foods, or only raw food. Their self-identity becomes wrapped up in their eating choices. Ironically, rather than receiving nourishment from eating, they experience stress. They feel fear, rather than joy.

Prudent spending and healthy choices are important, but Scriptures show us that God created food for our enjoyment. Kathleen Norris in her book, The Cloister Walk, describes visiting a Benedictine Abbey and being served strawberry shortcake. Monks and nuns too—contrary to what we might expect—enjoy food!

Food is not provided by God merely as fuel for human beings, but also to delight their eyes and taste buds as well. In Genesis 2:9 we read that “The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food…”11 (what about NLT?) Food is a gift that God intended us to enjoy. Enjoying good food (which doesn’t necessarily mean expensive) is part of God’s gift to us.

The other day someone who came to Tenth was eating some snacks, and joked, “I eat so much here at Tenth that I feel guilty because I’m eating up all of my tithe money.” In the Old Testament tithes were sometimes used to support feasts for God’s people. Tithes typically went to the Levites who led worship, and in some years part of the tithe went to foreigners and to those in need.11 But during other years something astonishing happened. According to Deuteronomy 13:24-26, when the place to make a sacrifice was too far away for God’s people to bring their sheep and chickens to sacrifice, they were simply to sell the animals and crops and use the money to buy whatever they wanted for food and drink and feast and celebrate at the place they would have a sacrificed the animals. Part of worship of God meant celebrating a special meal.

When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper we typically serve a minuscule piece of bread and sip of wine (or grape juice), but in the first century church the Lord’s supper was an actual sumptuous meal, not an appetizer, but a full dinner, where the poor were welcome.12 Food is part of God’s gift and meant to be enjoyed individually and in community.

In Japan where part of my family resides, people are conscious about eating a healthy diet: eating plenty of vegetables, and preferring fish to red meat, but it is also widely believed there that if a person enjoys their food it will foster good health. Ironically, being too fastidious about food, cutting out whole categories of pleasurable foods, counting every calorie, it is believed, can back backfire and undermine a person’s health. If a person experiences too much stress over the screening process that they have to run their food choices through, it’s not good for the person.

The occasional treat can be beneficial for one’s health as it helps releases pleasure chemicals like serotonin and endorphins in the brain that help promote a sense of well- being. There is nothing sinful about occasionally eating chocolate or ice cream. Some people think it’s a sin because it may seem to violate Hollywood’s unhealthy, unrealistic commandments around a women’s beauty: you have to be tall, sleek and weigh no more than 100 pounds and resemble Kate Moss or Kiera Knightley. (Someone recently told me she no longer reads Cosmo or In Style because they set up unrealistic standards of what a woman ought to look like and left her feeling depressed.)

As long as you don’t have any health or developmental reasons to not fast, fasting might also be something to consider in your rule of life.13 Fasting promotes our health and healing by resting our digestive organs (and a 3-day fast can help to detoxify our bodies).

Don`t confuse fasting with dieting. Losing weight is not a healthy motivation to fast. Besides fasting, like most diets where you deprive yourself of food, won`t be effective long term as a way to lose weight. The motive for fasting is to draw us closer to God. Though it is not a regular practice that is required by Scripture, God’s people throughout the ages have fasted as way to seek God. Jesus assumed that people in his day were fasting for spiritual reasons (Matthew 6:16-18). It is a practice that is encouraged when a person wants to turn to God in a new way or hear from God. I typically fast for a 24 hour period once a week (that is, I begin my fast after dinner and then I skip breakfast and lunch the next day and break the fast with dinner) and in the summers I may do a 3-day fast. In my hunger I also feel a greater dependence on God and I am reminded that we live not on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). Fasting also frees up time and money. Christians have had a great history of fasting to feed the poor. It is estimated that in the year 250 A.D. in Rome under Pope Cornelius, 10,000 Christians fasting 100 days a year may have provided a million meals to the poor (p. 144, Darwin on Trial).

As we`ve seen in this rule of life series, balance is what is desired. So it is when it comes to food, spend in moderation, avoid the extremes of gorging on food and starving yourself. Instead, eat healthy, and enjoy your food. Remember the motivation for eating well is not look like a runway model, but to become more available to God and others.

Elijah slept, he ate and then he ran for 40 days and nights until he reached Horeb which from Beersheba was about 200 miles away. (and before this with God’s help he had run from Mount Carmel to Jezreel, a distance of over 100 miles. That’s almost 4 times the length of a standard marathon. I know people have run 100 mile races, but they are great athletes in superb condition. No one in the Bible runs like Elijah. I know he’s not running for exercise, but to get somewhere. Nonetheless, it’s great exercise.)

Exercise

The Apostle Paul, in writing to his young friend and protégé Timothy, said, “Physical exercise has some value, but godliness has value for all things” (1 Timothy 4:8). Clearly, Paul’s point in writing what he wrote was to emphasize the fact that godliness in the development of character is of great value. But, Paul is also stating that physical exercise has some value as well. Even if you have not been in habit of exercising regularly, as is true of fasting, through regular practice your body becomes accustomed to it and craves it.

Part of the key to exercising, as is true in other spiritual disciplines, is to stay with something long enough so it has a chance of becoming an enjoyable habit, which is typically 4-6 weeks. Bruce Hindmarsh is a theology professor at Regent College. He says. “I’m not an athlete, but I began jogging to help me deal with depressions.” He says, “If we bear the cross (of exercise), the cross will bear us.” If we give to exercise, after 4-6 weeks exercises will start giving to us.

Exercise can also be a form of prayer. Bruce Hindmarsh recites Scriptures or collects (brief prayers from the lectionary) as he runs.

As I exercise, occasionally I will offer brief prayers, but mostly I simply entering into a more “prayer” space as I become more aware of God when running or swimming.

Choosing exercise that you enjoy will help you experience exercise as more prayerful, and will also help you stick with the exercise over time.

It is possible to get exercise doing something you don’t enjoy. It’s also possible to get a comparable (and to get an even superior workout) doing something you enjoy. I don’t especially enjoy running on a treadmill, but I will if that’s the best option I have for exercise while traveling and staying at a hotel, I’ll do it. But, I love to run outside, especially in the woods. I feel a sense of gratitude and joy and experience a sense of worship as I run in the woods. The only weight I lift these days is a wiggling 90 centimeter and 32-pound toddler. But if I did lift weights for exercise, I don’t enjoy lifting weights with a natalist (universal) gym. I enjoy lifting with free weights. I feel more grounded physically and spiritually (and I know this sounds perhaps a bit cheesy), but as I lift I am reminded that God is my strength. I love to swim. Being in the different medium of water and rhythmically using so many parts of my body, fills me with gratitude and joy and gives me a sense of what it is like in God--I live and move and have my being (Acts 17).

Exercise can give us a sense of joy and lead to the heart of worship. It also clears our minds and our spirit in ways that cause us to be more attentive to God and people. It also releases natural chemicals in our brain: endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine which create a sense of heightened well being.

Dr. Stuart Brown, a medical doctor and clinic researcher who taught at the University of California at San Diego, conducted a year-long experiment showing how regular physical exercise could help seriously-depressed women rise out of their depression. This year-long study involved a five-day a week commitment on the part of women who were depressed and unresponsive to antidepressant medication (or refused to take it). Many were experiencing self-doubt and angst as they asked themselves questions like, “Why didn’t my marriage work out?” or “Why don’t I have more friends?” They were persuaded to reach 80% of their maximum cardiac output for forty-five minutes four times each week. The first three months were titanic struggles, but the positive effects of conditioning, exercise, and group connection allowed the majority (some had dropped out) to note the lessening of their depression and the overall rise in their sense of well- being.14 When we are feeling low we may not feel like exercising, but this may be the very time when exercise would be the most beneficial.

If you haven’t been in a regular routine of exercising, build your rule here slowly.

My brother is an artist and filmmaker. He wouldn’t describe himself as an athlete, but he got into regular exercise rhythm by vowing to do one push up a day. While he’s on the ground, he says I might as well do more… A habit has been ingrained for him. He now uses his program on his I-pod touch to regulate his push up routine so he ensures his strength is growing (9 one day, 10 the next, 9, another day, 11 another, etc).15

Find a way to work exercise into your rhythm. Carry this cross and it will carry you.

As is true with eating, remember the motivation is not to look like a Greek god or goddess, but to make you more available to God and others. The key again with the rule is balance: ideally you have some kind of exercise routine—even if that routine is walking, but don`t become obsessed with it. A wise rule of life enables us to give to each thing in our life its due: not less, but not more, either.

This may seem like a somewhat secular sermon, but the simple rhythmic acts of sleeping, eating, and exercise enable us to honour our bodies in mysterious ways we may not be aware of.16 People who suddenly become homeless lose these routine gifts that most of us take for granted and experience a sense of feeling disorientated and desolation.

Kathleen Norris in The Quotidian Mysteries writes about how neglecting the basic acts of self-care, “shampooing the hair, washing the body, brushing the teeth, drinking enough water, taking a daily vitamin, going for a walk”—can be a signal that we are experiencing isolation from reality itself. Norris notes that being willing to care for our bodies is a part of what constitutes basic human sanity, a faith in the everyday.17

Our body, mind, and spirit are connected…. if our bodies are fit, our mind works better and our spiritual life will flourish. The way we use our bodies will profoundly shape our spirit and relationship with God. So a rule of life will address how we use our create bodies.

Conversely, if we neglect our bodies, our bodies will let us know: perhaps through illness, perhaps of an accident. Our bodies can take desperate measures to get our attention.

The story of Elijah shows that God cares for our bodies more than we do. So, don’t feel guilty about caring for your body.

Parker Palmer says, Self-care is never a selfish act -- it is simply good stewardship of
the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer to others.

The motivation for caring for our bodies is not to look like a god or goddess or wanting to live forever (we have eternal life through Christ—this is why we celebrated Easter), but we do so we to be more available to God and others, so we can offer all of ourselves as a living sacrifice--holy and pleasing to God.

A Morning Beyond Belief

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A Morning Beyond Belief April 4, 2010

Text: John 20:11-18; 31

Ken Shigematsu

Two weeks ago my wife and I brought a potted, pink hydrangea plant to our retired neighbor Lorraine.

Her husband, Bob, had died a year before on that very day, March 20. He had been a perfect neighbour. In the fall, Bob would always rake our leaves (by the time we noticed he was raking and come out, he’d be ¾ done). In the winter when it snowed and we were out of town, Bob would shovel away the snow on the pathway leading up to our house and the sidewalk in front of our house and beside our house (we’re on a corner lot) so it would appear that someone was home.

Bob was 75 years old when he died, and he was in great shape. He had been retired for about 10 years from his job as an elevator mechanic (check facts). As a young person he had been a baseball and hockey player and a golden gloves boxer. Wiry and athletic, at 75 he was still going to the YMCA every morning for a 6:00 AM workout. So it came as a stunning shock when we learned on a Friday just over a year ago that while working out at the Y, Bob had suffered a massive stroke, and within 24 hours he was dead. We experienced deep grief. And whenever the leaves fall, whenever it snows, when we are planting flowers in our front yard, as we did last week, we think of our neighbour Bob.

When you lose a beloved neighbor, a close friend, a father, a mother, spouse, a child, you feel like a part of you has gone with them. You feel a hole in your heart, like something has been torn away from you.

And this is how Mary Magdalene would have felt on the Sunday after her teacher, her guide, her friend Jesus experienced a horrific, unjust death on a Roman cross the Friday before. According to John 20, on that Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the cave where Jesus’ dead body had been laid and saw that the stone had been removed from its entrance.

She stood outside the tomb weeping. She knelt to look into the tomb and saw people sitting there, dressed in white, one at the head, the other at the foot of where Jesus' body had been laid (they were angels but Mary’s vision blurred by her tears wasn’t aware of that). "Woman, why do you weep?" they asked her.

"They’ve taken my Master," she said, "and I don't know where they put him." She turned away from the mouth of the cave and saw Jesus standing there. But she didn't recognize him. She assumed he was the gardener.

"Woman,” he asked her, “Why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?"

"If you’ve taken his body somewhere, tell me where you laid it, so I can care for him."

Jesus looked at her and simply said, "Mary."

As he uttered her name, her eyes were opened…

She said in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" (which means "Teacher!")

She embraced Jesus.

17Jesus said, "Don't cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go to my brothers and tell them, 'I ascend to my Father and your Father, my God and your God’."

18Mary Magdalene went, telling the news to the disciples: "I saw the Master!" (John 20).

When Mary had walked onto the cemetery grounds where Jesus’ dead body had been laid, she simply assumed like everyone else, in the same way that we would have assumed, if we had seen someone crucified three days before, that Jesus was dead. When a soldier had pierced Jesus’ side with his spear as Jesus hung on a cross, she had seen how the watery serum had separated from his blood—a sure sign of death.

Mary Magdalene was also a Jew, and there was nothing in Jewish tradition that would have caused anyone to anticipate that someone in their time in history would rise from the dead. And so when Mary first saw Jesus, she assumed that he must be the gardener.

She was, of course, in the one sense wrong, but in another sense right. As theologian G.K. Chesterton has said, “In one way she was right because the man she saw was God, the Gardener of a new creation he had just ushered in, God the gardener who would take the chaos of creation and bring new order and beauty to it, the gardener who would uproot the thorns and weeds of our world, and replace them with blossoming flowers and rich harvests, the gardener who would make all things new.

She doesn’t recognize who he is until he turns to her and calls her by name, “Mary.”

In that moment her eyes are opened and after the initial shock and fear of seeing him alive, she feels a surge of joy and cries, “Rabboni!” which means “teacher,” and embraces him.

Do you hear the Gardener? Do you hear the risen Christ calling your name?

And Jesus says in verse 17, “Don’t cling to me.” We are not exactly sure why he says that.

Mary is not offended by his words. Biblical scholars like N.T. Wright have argued that when Jesus said to Mary, “Don’t cling to me,” he was saying that her new relationship with him was not going to be like the old one. He would not be going around Galilee with her and his 12 disciples, walking the lanes with them, sharing meals, talking face to face. They would see him, but it would soon be time for him to ascend to the God, his Father and send his Spirit to indwell us.

Jesus tells Mary, “Go tell my brothers and sisters I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”

Up until this point in Jesus’ ministry, Jesus has typically spoken about God as the Father--as the Father who sent me, or my Father. He has called his followers disciples, servants, and friends. But now, all this has changed. In verse 17 Jesus says, “Go and say to my brothers and sisters that I am going to my Father, and to your Father, to my God and your God.” As a result of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross for our sins and his rising again, something astonishing has been achieved—a door to a new relationship with God has been opened. We are being welcomed into a new world, a new beautiful garden where we can know God the way Jesus knew God, where we can enter into an intimate relationship as sons and daughters with a perfect Father who loves us more than we can imagine…a garden, where like Eden, we see God as our God, as our Father without any barriers.

That is why we celebrate Easter, because through the death and resurrection of Christ, a door has been opened to a new garden where we know God as our Father, Jesus as our Brother… a Garden where we can experience the life that we have always longed for…we can come home.

When Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon, he said those famous words: “One small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.” When Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose again, it one was small step out of a tomb, but the greatest leap for mankind as he opened the way for us to experience life with God in the way he had experienced life with God. He opened the way for us to experience life of God now and forever.

When Christ died on the cross, he absorbed our sins, opening the door for us to be cleansed and enter into a new garden where God is our Father, and where Jesus in our brother, and a garden where we will one day be re-united with lost family members, friends, a beloved neighbor who has received the gift of grace of God…a garden where we know that like a seed that falls into ground and “dies” and then rises out of the ground as a hydrangea in the spring, life and not death will have the final word.

This is why we celebrate the promise of Easter: it was a morning beyond belief, a morning when through Christ rising from the dead, a new garden was created.

Pray: