Preparing for our time together (Isaiah 41:1)

Hi Everyone!

In preparation for the discernment team gathering next week, I thought that Isaiah 41:1 is a good place for us to be. (From The Message)

"Quiet down, far-flung ocean islands. Listen! Sit down and rest, everyone. Recover your strength.
Gather around me. Say what's on your heart.
Together let's decide what's right.

I would also like to invite us to take part in the Ignatian Examen:
Where have you seen God in the first half of our time together?
Where have you felt an absence of God in the first half of our time together?

Text and Refelction for March 23-30

"The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, 'Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.' For many were coming and going, and they had not leisure even to eat." (Mark 6:31-31)

This past week has been a busy week - a Holy Week - but a busy week! Many of us have spent the last several days gathered around Jesus, some teaching, some leading worship, some doing the myriad tasks related to celebrating the great mystery of Easter. As I tried to rouse Andrew this morning he said, "I think after Holy Week should come Sleeping Week when we all get to sleep whenever we want."

True rest is becoming a rare and endangered species for many Western cultures, pushed to the margins of life. There is likely a sense of both hope and guilt when we encounter the invitation to "come away and rest for a while." We may feel the urgent need for restoration and rejuvenation that a deserted place could offer us, and yet we feel the pull of the familiar world of activity through which we often find affirmation.

In Mark's gospel, the disciples have just been travelling about in pairs healing the sick and casting out demons. They had been so busy they hadn't even had time to eat. Their time away with Jesus seems short as the crowds soon find them. The disciples are ready to send the crowds away so that they can go into the villages and find something to eat. The author of the Gospel of Mark then relates the story of the 5000 men fed from five loaves of bread and two fish. Finally, through God's great hospitality, everyone's hunger is satisfied!

Often for me, it seems like hard work to rest in God and accept the hospitality and nourishment that God offers. And so, I often remain tired and hungry. Soon, we will gather as a Sabbath community and share our experiences of resting and our experiences of resisting a rest ;). It will likely mean that we have to work especially hard to prepare for our time away. I just hope we can enter our time together without guilt over what we leave behind and without guilt over how well we've "done" Sabbath.

I look forward to seeing you soon.

Peace,
Amy

http://branemrys.blogspot.com/2006/11/wisdom-from-abba-poemen.html

For Holy Week and the yearning for Sabbath

Psalm 42

As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
My tears have been my food
day and night,
while men say to me all day long,
"Where is your God?"

These things I remember
as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go with the multitude,
leading the procession to the house of God,
with shouts of joy and thanksgiving
among the festive throng.

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.

My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.

Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.

By day the LORD directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.

I say to God my Rock,
"Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?"

My bones suffer mortal agony
as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
"Where is your God?"

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God

Reflection on Ecc 4:9-16

Over the past few months I have found it hard to commit to my weekly sabbath ritual mostly because I have been doing it alone. I invited members of my congregation to join me for the ritual during lent and no one joined me. I was really disappointed. Day after day I feel more and more isolated and disconnected from my life, my ministry and people on this team and I don't think I'm alone (Maybe it's the weather, or maybe not). Regardless of the reason isolation has always been a struggle for those of us in leadership with Youth and Young Adults.

In the Ecclesiastes passage I am reminded of the importance and value of friends especially in Youth and Young Adult Ministry. I do not feel like we are a three fold cord as the scriptures suggest we should be. I believe that we are connected with God, but I do not always feel like this ministry is connected to the wider ministry of the church -- through no fault of our own. Part of the frustration is that we don't often fit into the structure as it is defined. We struggle to find our place within the institution.

As usual, I found wisdom and inspiration on this struggle in the writings of Henri Nouwen. In his book, Bread for the Journey the April 14th entry, Nouwen reflects on the importance of relationships and leadership. He captures the advocacy role of leadership in Youth and Young Adult ministry in the image of the "Good Shepherd." He writes:

"Good Shepherds are willing to lay down their lives for their sheep. As spiritual leaders walking in the footsteps of Jesus we are called to lay down our lives for our people. This laying down might in special circumstances mean dying for others. But it means first of all making our lives -- our sorrows and joys, our despair and hope, our loneliness and experience of intimacy -- available to others as a source of new life."

As leaders in Youth and Young Adult ministry there have been many who have laid down their lives in advocacy for the youth and young adults of the church, and it hasn't been for nothing. The fruits of these sacrifices have been seen and heard at General Council 39 in 2006 where the prophetic voice of youth and young adults across this country of ours were embraced and listened to by the wider church. But how do we keep this from being an isolated event?

I take comfort in the words from Ecclesiastes as we continue to struggle to find our place in The United Church of Canada. In Ecclesiastes it says, "Better is a poor but wise youth than an old and foolish king who will no longer take advice...I saw all the living who, moving about under the sun follow that youth who replaced the king."

How do we let the wise youth be the Shepherd who leads the sheep (the church), who lays down their life for our church? The gift of youth and young adults is their honesty, energy, willingness to risk, doubt, compassion , and passion for justice. How can we, the church, allow ourselves to be embraced by the youth? How do we create a space for youth and young adults within this church? How do we learn to embrace each other and keep each other warm? How do we grow in trust with each other? How do we move from being independent to being interdependent where we ensure that the wise youth are respected and heard? What do we as a national church need to let go of in order to give the land a time to lay fallow?

Gracious God, I long for the church to be open to being filled with your grace, your wisdom, your patience and your love. I am reminded that taking time to honour your gift of the sabbath makes space in our lives for you, it makes space for people to connect in body as well as in spirit with others.

I wonder how the practice of sabbath could enrich our faith at the National level, how could honouring the sabbath as an institution bring healing to the people called to lead us as a church? How can sabbath free us from isolation and bring us back to the table together to feast and honour each other? Imagine what ministry could be if we were intentional with the advice in Ecclesiastes:

If two work together there is reward -- abundance

If two lie together there is warmth -- compassion & love

If two stand together there is strength -- justice.

It's time to stop being single strands of thread and instead twist our three fold cord together. Blessings my friends, Karen

The Value of a Friend

Hello everyone,

I've been spending a lot of time this past week reading from Ecclesiastes, and this passage caught my attention. It is about the value of a friend which I have come to believe is essential to the practice of sabbath.

Ecclesiastes 4: 9-16

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.

For it they fall, one will lift up the other; but woe to one who is alone and falls

and does not have another to help.

Again, if two lie together, they keep warm;

but how can one keep warm alone?

And though one might prevail against another, two will withstand one.

A three-fold cord is not quickly broken.

Better is a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king,

who will no longer take advice.

One can indeed come out of prison to reign, even though born poor in the kingdom.

I saw all the living who, moving about under the sun, follow that youth who replaced the king;

there was no end to all those people whom he led.

Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him.

Surely this also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

I'll add my reflection later this week after I've had some more sleep!

Warm Fuzzies,

Karen

Reading Week March 2-8

Hello Sabbath Sisters and Brothers,

I wanted to announce this weeks reading, although somewhat late, still time for reflection and inspiration during this Lenten Season.

Psalm 27: 7-14 (i have included a text I enjoy)

O Lord, hear my voice when I call;
have mercy and answer.
Of you my heart has spoken:
Seek God's face.

Instruct me, Lord, in your way
on an even path lead me.
False witness rise against me,
breathing out fury.

I am sure I shall see the Lord's goodness
in the land of the living.
In the Lord, hold firm and take heart.
Hope in the Lord!

I pray that this reading offers you sabbath inspiration in the week to come!
Peace
Michael