Rest and Resilience
It’s a fraught weekend. The continuing unimaginable destruction of fires in one of the major metropolis in the world – our Los Angeles. The Gaza cease fire deal, for which we give profound thanksgiving. The annual celebration of the life and ministry of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the inauguration of a president whom many of us find the very contradiction of the Christian love and freedom for which Dr. King gave his life. This new president has promised “shock and awe” from the beginning days of his administration – and many of us believe we need to be prepared to protect our undocumented neighbors or indeed our own families So I just want to pause and acknowledge that our systems are on overwhelm. It isn’t just you. It isn’t just me. This is too much for us to process. It is. So I just want to say that out loud for all of us. It’s ok to shut down. It’s ok to cry one moment and laugh in another moment. It’s ok to just want to duck under the covers. It’s ok to party that We are Still Here. However, you and yours are getting through – it’s ok.
And because we are privileged to have the resources of community and of scripture – I want to use that this morning. Let’s use what we have to address what we are going through.
And what we have are readings about feasting upon the abundance of God’s house, drinking from the river of God’s delights, and a party in which, at the behest of his mother, Jesus provides the very finest wine – and enough of it for all the partygoers to get completely plastered if they want. – Which honestly, is one way to get through…
It’s a genius combination of current events and liturgical scripture – because here’s the thing – as completely counterintuitive as it is, both science and spirituality point us to the fact that rest and delight go hand in hand with resourcefulness and resilience. Rest and delight on the one hand and making a difference in the world on the other hand are not antithetical but deeply related. After all, the foundational principle for true productivity – the kind that makes a difference – is revealed to us in the first verses of the first chapter of our scriptures – which show us God creating in regular rhythms – night and day, producing and blessing, working and resting. That pulsing rhythmic design is imprinted within us. We are rhythmic creatures – designed to be on and off – the off being essential to the on.
We are meant for work! We are also meant for rest and recovery. We are meant for producing and we are meant for partying.
And I know you might not think of it this way – but Eucharistic worship is a party – hosted by the Divine, hosted by the King of Love, the Prince of Peace and everyone is invited and everyone is welcomed. You can come here and relax. You can come here and be in the company of those who celebrate you just as you are. You can come here and be a human being – not a human doing. Why? This is a day we affirm again that God can be trusted to set things right – it’s not all up to us. Praise God!
Three days after he was assassinated, Martin Luther King’s dear friend, Nina Simone, sang a concert at the Westbury Music Festival in New York. One of the most stunning voices in the history of blues music, Nina was, as was much of the country, broken-hearted, questioning and on the brink of hopelessness. Nina dedicated the concert to King and she sang two songs in his honor. The first was a full and angry lament on the condition of the black community. The other song was very different. It was a sultry, peaceful song called Sunday in Savannah. The concert was after all on a Sunday – and Sunday, the Sabbath, was the day Dr. King was always off the streets and in the pulpit and even though she didn’t share his faith, Nina knew that King’s deep seated commitment to non-violence and the ground of all of his hope had everything to do with where he spent his Sundays. Here’s the truth – the non-violence of Martin Luther King Jr. was rooted in Sabbath rest. His hope was grounded in his trust in Jesus, the King of Love. As his biographer Richard Lischer notes, one doesn’t sit down at a segregated lunch counter or face fire hoses and dogs because such action makes sense or is guaranteed; it is only because there is a greater logic at play. The civil rights activist and politician Walter Fauntroy said this of Rosa Parks but it could it be also said of King: “When [she] sat down in the front of the bus, she was making a statement as to whether or not God could be trusted” (Lischer, 1995) King’s world contained two diametrically opposed realities – the inherited and ongoing suffering resulting from enslavement and oppression. And a complete trust and faith that God does have a purpose for the world, particularly for those who bear the brunt of poverty and violence.
King knew in his bones that God’s goodness would ultimately triumph over the chaos of suffering, and this trust underlay the entire civil rights movement under King’s leadership – whether it was personally shared by everyone in that movement or not.
A lay Canadian Anglican pastor, Kirsten Gfoerer writes, “There are multitudes of audio recordings of King’s ministry in his home church. In them, he tells of the terrors of his week and asks his congregation for prayer before offering thanks to God for allowing him to come home one more Sunday… then the preaching ends, the singing begins, and he bellows praise at the top of his lungs.”
This is where we stand. In this community. In the community of Jesus. In the Holy Spirit. In the wine-soaked river of God’s delight. And when we stand here – in the house of God’s abundance, we cannot be moved. We are like the psalmist says, we are like trees planted by the water. And like Jesus promised, we will bear good fruit, fruit that lasts, fruit that provides nutritional benefit for the world’s needs, shade and rest and food for the lost and the lonely and the forgotten as well as for all the rest of us.
It is said of King that the more pessimistic he grew with regard to humanity, the more optimistic he became about God. Even in the darkest period of his own discouragement, he continued to say to African Americans and to all of us, “Go ahead! God can be trusted” (Lischer, 1995).
And that trust in God my friends comes from rest in God. Rest in God renews and restores and deepens our relationships at home and in the community. Rest in God that allows us to move into whatever is ahead with courage and conviction and creativity. That rest builds up our faith and confidence in the One who says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and how is to come, the Almighty.” And rest results in both delight and in action. Delight in one another, delight in the beauty of the world, and action taken together with others to protect all that we delight in – the trees, the air, the water, the democracy, and our neighbors. Let us gather our hearts together and pray.
5 Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, * and your faithfulness to the clouds.
6 Your righteousness is like the strong mountains, your justice like the great deep; * you save both man and beast, O LORD.
7 How priceless is your love, O God! * your people take refuge under the shadow of your wings. 8 They feast upon the abundance of your house; * you give them drink from the river of your delights.
9 For with you is the well of life, * and in your light we see light.
10 Continue your loving-kindness to those who know you, * and your favor to those who are true of heart.
–Psalm 36: 5- 10
We pray, O Lord, for all those in and around Los Angeles, those who have lost homes and businesses, the firefighters and all those who work tirelessly around the clock to contain this disaster, we pray for the Israeli hostages, for all the people of Israel, for the people of Gaza, those who have lost homes and loved ones, those who have lost everything, we pray for peace in the Holy Land, and we pray in thanksgiving for the life and legacy of your servant, Martin, and that we may continue in our own ways and in our own time to work for racial equity and the reduction of poverty, and we pray for our democracy and for the new president. Amen.
