Genesis 1:31 – 2:3, Matthew 6: 19-24, Exodus 20:17
First image: dolphin/cow
Well, we are a week into our Sabbath experiment, so the first thing I need to ask is, how’s it going? Any interesting experiences yet? Does anyone want to say anything about how you’re practicing Sabbath, and how it’s going?
* * * * *
Last week I talked about saying “no,” and that question: what do you need to say “no” to in order to really rest? There’s a fine line between saying no to the burdens we carry, to laying down our heavy load on Sabbath, and between the kind of “no” that becomes itself oppressive. Does anyone want to say anything about how that’s going for you?
* * * * *
This week I’d like to talk about the first question in the list – what, for you, would be a perfect day? (Second image: cat/couch potato) Or more particularly, I think – how would you spend a day if the only thing on your agenda was to seek your deepest joy? Is this it? Or would it be more like this? (Third image: family hiking) I find this a very challenging question. We are regularly asked, “what would you find enjoyable, or diverting, or fun…” – but deepest joy is not something we often think about.
What is it that makes you truly and deeply happy? This might even be a threatening question. What if I ask what gives me deep joy and find that I have no answer? The truth is, many of us don’t. A Sabbath of delight brings us face to face with the fact that there is little real joy in our consumer lives. In a way, that’s the way our economy is designed. (Fourth image: shopper)
So let me first talk about where happiness is NOT to be found.
What do they call us North Americans, on newscasts, whenever the news is economic in nature? Consumers. What a horrible, demeaning thing to call a human being! But increasingly, that’s the label we put on ourselves, isn’t it? It means that increasingly, we look to the marketplace for our happiness. And there, according to Wayne Muller in his book on Sabbath, “we are offered something that looks very much like happiness – a tantalizing substitute for happiness – something more easily acquired, more quickly and conveniently bought and sold. We are offered the satisfaction of desire.” Not happiness, but the satisfaction of our desires.
Here’s how it works. (fifth image: half full glass) You know the image. Here’s a glass – it’s both half full and half empty. A metaphor for our lives. In a consumer culture, some thousands of ads a day teach us to look at the half that is empty: thousands of times a day, we are shown images of the things in our lives that need to be improved, updated, replaced. We are shown images of people who are happier than we are, more in love than we are, more attractive than we are, more connected than we are. And we are told what to buy in order to improve our lot in life.
In other words, fill up the glass – satisfy your desires – and you will be happy. Only when you fill up the glass, only if you satisfy your desires, will you be happy. Are you with me?
The trouble is, the satisfaction of desire is a very temporary thing. A new desire is just around the corner – especially with thousands of ads a day to fan them up! And this is not accidental. Have a look at this: (sixth image: quotation)
Our enormously productive economy…demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, or ego satisfaction, in consumption… We need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.
Victor Lebow, Journal of Retailing, 1955
That’s from the Journal of Retailing in 1955. That’s what drives our economy, isn’t it? The ever-increasing need for you and I to buy stuff. That means – back to the half-empty glass – that our attention must always be on the empty half of the glass, that we must always be kept wanting, needing – that in fact our economic health depends on our continuing unhappiness. That’s the way the system is designed. Are you with me?
That means the core economics of our time are a profound violation of our Christian values. In almost every advertisement, we are encouraged to covet – to want what we do not have, to desire something that belongs to another. In all our lives, we are taught to serve not God but mammon, the pursuit of wealth. In spite of all our prosperity, we lack happiness because all our effort goes towards the satisfaction of our ever-increasing desires. The Buddha actually taught that the pursuit of our desires is the foundation of suffering.
So… what is it that brings joy? Real joy? For me, there are two possibilities.
The first thing that occurs to me is that joy comes from finding and living out our true calling. (seventh image: mission worker and children) Joy is a “mission thing” – it comes from helping others, making a difference in the world, doing what I am deeply called and made to do. I believe, for instance, that I am actually called to do what I do as a minister. When a worship service really clicks, when I’m leading a group and someone has one of those “a-ha” moments, when I am part of one of those really significant conversations, when the spirit of God blows in – I don’t just go home happy. There’s something deep and powerful that clicks into place. Deep joy. When we find and live our calling – when we find where our deep fulfillment meets the world’s real need – that’s joy. Do you know that kind of joy? Have you found your particular missional niche, the way that God’s love most naturally flows through you? That search and discovery is a big part of what the church is all about, I think, but for this Lenten season, we’re going to put that aside. Because this is not Sabbath joy. This joy is a work-week joy, a six-days joy.
Sabbath joy, I think, comes from gratitude and appreciation. And I believe that these things are in as short supply in our consumer culture as is deep joy.
(next image – half full glass) Sabbath is meant to be a different kind of day, with a different kind of spirituality. If for six days you want to focus on the empty side of the glass, and let it pull you forward, okay. But on the Sabbath, instead of focusing on the empty part of the glass, we focus on the full part. The image for the day is the seventh day of creation. God has made all that is, and each day of creation God has found that it is good. On the sixth day, when all is done, God declares that it is all very good! Paradise, in fact – the Garden of Eden. All is perfect. No one has messed anything up yet. It’s all fresh and new – not even any weeds to tend! There is no need to change anything, fix anything, build anything – all that God needs to do is savour it. Enjoy it.
The Sabbath is a day for gratitude, and appreciation.
Here are a couple of practices for you. The first one your grandmother probably taught you. Count your blessings. This is something you can do no matter what is going on in your life, no matter how good or bad your circumstances are. Simply focus your attention – not on what brings you pain, but on your blessings. You’ll be amazed at what happens in your soul if you keep doing this.
And the second comes from the book on Sabbath by Wayne Muller. He got it from his friend Doug Wilson, who calls it “Slotha Yoga.” When you wake up, don’t get up. Just lie there for a while, remembering your dreams, feeling comfortable in the warm bedding, watch the light. Try it. If you’re late for church, just say “I was doing my slotha yoga.”
Even Sheryl Crow can sing about this: happiness isn’t having what you want, it’s wanting what you have.
Sabbath is about savoring your life, enjoying the world, loving things and people just the way they are. Just for one day, forget about fixing things, completing things, renovating, improving, healing – and just savor the now. Live into what is, and give thanks. Count your blessings. Somewhere in here is, I believe, the secret of deep joy. (Last image: mountain stream) AMEN.
