SERMON: Rest, Damn ye!

PENTECOST 7 | MARK 6:30-34 | “REST, DAMN YE!”

In the early 1800s, a young clockmaker and inventor nicknamed “Park” fell deathly ill. The doctors said that his liver was affected, and his kidneys were diseased. They prescribed for him a noxious medicine that was slowly poisoning him, and, in fact, several of his teeth had fallen out because of it. Park had all but given up when a friend suggested that perhaps he would feel better if he went for a brisk buggy ride.

He thought that was nonsense, but having no better ideas, he went. Unfortunately, the horse was uncooperative, and Park found himself stranded beside a farmer’s field. Park was too weak to even whip the horse into action, so he just waited until a farmer plowed far enough towards him to hear his feeble cries for help.

Eventually the farmer DID hear him, and Park asked him to start his horse for him. The farmer dutifully obeyed, and then a very strange thing happened. As soon as the horse started trotting, and picking up speed, a strange feeling of excitement and exhilaration overcame Park. By the end of the buggy ride, he was completely healed.

He didn’t know what to make of this strange occurrance until, many years later, he apprenticed himself to a Mesmerist and faith healer. Mesmerists, the predecessors to modern-day hypnotherapists, believed that there was a subtle ether, a dynamic, invisible substance that lay between all things and could be manipulated by the mind, especially for the purpose of healing.

After working for this Mesmerist for a couple of years, Park began to piece together the outlines of a healing system that was to revolutionize the world. He discovered that a person’s thoughts affect their health. He believed he has stumbled upon the healing method of Jesus, amply supported by the scriptures. For time and again Jesus tells the people he heals that it is their own faith that has healed them.

Park believed that it was not, as most people believed, the grace of God that healed people, not directly, anyway. But that healing came as a result of a mechanical, predictable, and scientifically verifyable principle of nature. Disease does not have its origins in the body, but in the mind; and that by changing our beliefs, our thoughts, we can change our health, for good or ill.

Park struck out on his own and set up shop as a healer in his own right. And people FLOCKED to him. From hundreds of miles around, morning, noon, and night, Park was flooded with patients. And they just kept coming. Over the next several years, he worked himself ragged, tending to the endless line of sick and desperate people that had sought him out.

Over the years, his students watched him as he lost his own vitality, and his own health. By the time he collapsed at the relatively young age of 64, he had healed some 12,000 people. His gravestone read, simply, “Phineaus Parkhurst Quimby, 1802-1866. Greater love hath no man than that he lay down his life for his friends.”

Park was truly an amazing man. Whether you put stock in his healing technique or not, he was certainly onto something. After all, the thousands upon thousands of people would simply not have kept coming if he had been a complete fraud. But his story is also tragic, because, had he cared for himself half so well as he cared for complete strangers, he might have lived to heal twice as many people as he did.

Park is not alone, of course. A lot of us have trouble caring for ourselves, even when our occupations are oriented around helping other people. The number one problem that besets ministers, in fact, is not poverty or irksome parishioners or meddlesome bishops or a million other possible complaints, it is BURNOUT. 2000 ministers per month leave the ministry in the United States. In fact, of every 20 people who enter the ministry, only one of them will retire. Do you know of any other jobs that have a turnover rate of 95%?

People in other helping professions have similar difficulties. Most of us go into our fields, at least in part, because we genuinely care about people and we want to help them. But we soon discover that there is a bottomless well of pain in the world, and that we can never draw all of the water off, no matter how hard we try, no matter how many hours we work, no matter how we sacrifice ourselves to make it happen.

That doesn’t stop us from trying, however, until we ourselves fall ill, until we break down, before we throw up our hands and say, “Enough! I’m out of here.” And the helping professions lose the very people that can do the most good.

Jesus is no stranger to this phenomenon. If you recall in our reading last week, Jesus is rebuffed by his native townsfolk and responds by sending out seventy of his followers to reduplicate his efforts far and wide.

In today’s reading, the seventy have returned, tired, hungry, worn out. Jesus tell them, “You need to take it easy for a while; let’s take a couple of days off, shall we?” But what happens? Jesus and the apostles run smack into that bottomless well of suffering. They aren’t able to get away. The people just keep coming, and coming, and coming. Finally, Jesus gives up on the retreat idea and just ministers to them. The scripture doesn’t tell us, however, what kind of toll it took on him and the disciples. But we can guess.

There is still a lot of suffering, a lot of need in the world. As Jesus once said, “the poor you will always have with you.” The sick, too, and the hurting, and the homeless, and the mentally ill, and…you name it. How do we do what we can do without sacrificing ourselves?

It isn’t easy. Part of the problem is the Catholic tradition of imatatio Christi, the imitation of Christ. This is the tradition that tells us that we are supposed to try to be as much like Jesus as we possibly can. And since Jesus sacrificed himself for others, well then, so should we!

Protestants also practice imatatio Christi, but they layer on another unhelpful tradition, the Protestant work-ethic. This tradition is deeply rooted in our culture, and it gives people the insidious message that if they are not accomplishing, accomplishing, accomplishing, they are not worthwhile. Unless we are incessantly producing, we have no gauge by which to measure our worth. So, if we are in the helping professions, we measure our value, our self-esteem, our job performance by how much suffering we can alleviate, how many people we can touch, how much we can help. Of course, those who are not in helping professions are also plauged by this horrendous notion. Job burnout is rampant across the board. People work themselves into the ground every single day, regardless of their job descriptions.

And this, my friends, is an evil. Now, don’t get me wrong. It’s good to help people. We’re supposed to do that. But the Judaic revelation is that we are worthwhile simply because we ARE, not because of how much we can accomplish. The Judaic revelation is revolutionary not only because of that, but because it is the very first time in human history that rest is mandated for the whole of creation, including and especially, those humans who work the hardest. And it’s not just a suggestion, it’s a commandment. Every seven days, you are to do no work. Every seven years, you must let the soil rest and not plant anything. When a young couple marries, neither of them is to have any responsibilities for any entire year. They get a year off to enjoy each other and to grow their love. How amazing is that?

But that is the graciousness of our God. That is the generosity, the care, the love for us that God has. God does not require us to work ourselves into the ground. Instead, God REQUIRES us to get enough rest, to take time to enjoy our lives, to play, to spend time with our families. Unfortunately, ministers, who should GET this more than other folks who don’t know the scriptures as well, somehow ignore it or overlook it, or somehow think it doesn’t apply to them.

The Episcopal Church just a couple of years ago released a study that says that the number one crisis in the Episcopal Church was not schism, not homosexuality, was not the place of women in the church. It was clergy self-care. And, as I’ve said, this is not just an issue for clergy. It is an issue for ALL of us. Because we are ALL ministers—we all have to pay the rent, feed our families, and still make tame to do good in the world. Because that’s the kind of people we want to be.

Yes, there are a million things that need to get done. Yes, there are more people to help than you can possibly get to. They can wait. They MUST wait. Because if you do not care for yourself, you may not BE there tomorrow to help anyone. Like Park, you might find yourself on the wrong side of the helping professional’s desk with bad news about your heart or your blood pressure or your sugar level.

In our reading from Exodus, the people of Israel are told that if they do not take a sabbath for themselves, they shall be put to death. Now, we presume that this means by some legal action, by stoning or some such thing. But even without such penal recourse, doesn’t it stand to reason that that is precisely what will happen? We don’t need anyone hurling rocks at us to punish us for not resting on the sabbath. We do quite a good job of punishing ourselves, just as Park did when he worked himself into an early grave. If we do not rest, we will die.

Caring for the world begins with caring for YOU. Yes, it’s trite. Yes, you’ve heard it before. Yes, it’s common sense. So why can’t we GET IT? I’m terrible at it, you’re terrible at it, we’re all terrible at it. Blame the tradition, blame the culture, blame the bottomless well of suffering, but when you come right down to it, we have to take responsibility for ourselves, each and every one of us, to care for ourselves FIRST, to love ourselves at LEAST as much as our neighbors, to put all our words about care and ministry and love into practice in our own lives before we extend those things to others. Charity doesn’t just start at home, it starts IN you, FOR you.

I’ve worked hard to find that balance for myself. It hasn’t been easy. I still have trouble “turning off” the monkey mind, turning off the computer, stopping thinking about work, or my next sermon, or worrying about what I have to do next, what I have to write next, who I need to visit next, and on and on and on. But I’ve built in structures into my life to make it manageable. I try to take at least one and a half days off every week. I make sure I get one long vacation of at least three weeks a year, and one or two shorter times away as I am able. I am looking forward to going to Spain next month not just because I love to travel, but because I love MYSELF, and I need the time away to restore my mental health, my physical health, and my soul.

Because I know I’m coming back. Because I know there will be a good amount of work waiting for me when I return. Because I know there is a bottomless well of grief in this world, and I want to be in as good a shape as I can, to do the most good that I can do. Because I want to support you to go out and do the most good that you can do. And that means caring for ourselves. Not just caring for each other. But YOU caring for YOURSELF.

Makes you uncomfortable, doesn’t it? Yeah, I know, me too. But that is what we are called to do. Not just by our families, not just by our doctors, not just by your minister, but by God. It’s not optional. It is a religious obligation.

Now, as liberal Christians, we’re not big on religious obligations. We don’t shake our fingers at each other and exhort one another to tithe, to fast on fridays, to go to mass at least once a week. Ours is a kindlier, softer approach to faith that takes into account the fact that life has hiccups and we’re all just doing the best we can.

But not this time. This time, I’m going to get my Irish Catholic priest on and give it to you mean. “Rest, doggon it!” Take care of yourself. Love yourself. It’s the true test of whether you actually believe all that stuff you tell other people when you tell them to “take care.”

By the way, Park’s work didn’t end when he died. His students picked up his work and carried on, and today, the New Thought movement has spread to every continent on earth, and has several million practitioners. Some of them call themselves Christian Scientists, some the Unity School of Christianity, some the Church of Divine Science and some the Church of Religious Science. All of them carry on Park’s work, whether they acknowledge their debt to him or not. And let us hope they carry it on with greater wisdom, with more care, especially for themselves. Let us pray….

Holy and gracious God, you commanded your people to rest, not due to some arbitrary notion, but because you love us. Help us to love ourselves enough to heed your commandment, not only for our own benefit, but for the benefit of those we so earnestly desire to be there for. Give us resolve, give us discipline, but most of all, give us compassion for our own bodies, for our own needs, and still the compulsive drive to “do” that nags at us incessantly. Help us to recognize, to feel and to know that just to be is a blessing, and that rest and recreation are not luxuries, but necessities. For we ask this in the name of Jesus, to took himself apart for a little while, often. Amen.

[Info and statistics for this sermon came from: http://mondaymorninginsight.com/index php/site/comments/newspaper_pastors_often_succumb_to_job_burnout_due_to_stress_low_pay/and http://www.yearofjubilee.org/2008/07/clergy-statistics-and-resources/]

SERMON: The Dream of Zion

JULY 4 2009 | THE DREAM OF ZION

That most curious artifact of American religion, THE BOOK OF MORMON, depicts the adventures of Lehi, a Jewish man and his family who are suffering in post-exilic Jerusalem. In a stunning vision of the coming Christ, Lehi is instructed to build a large ship and set sail with his family for a new land, that God would reveal to them. This land would be a land of righteousness, a new Jerusalem, a new promised land of peace and prosperity for Lehi’s descendants.

Lehi and his family arrive on the shore of a new world, which LDS scholars figure is probably somewhere in Central America. But wouldn’t you know it, the new world was not all it was cracked up to be. All the corruption that Lehi was trying to flee caught up with him as his descendents and other Jewish refugees formed warring nations and competed for…well, all of the petty things that humans everywhere compete for.

You would think that this story would serve as a cautionary tale for Joseph Smith himself, the translator of this reputedly ancient text. For not long after completing the translation, Smith picks up his whole fledgling church and relocates them from upstate New York to Kirtland, Ohio. But the Ohio folk aren’t too keen on these odd sectarians and their “gold bible,” and they tar and feather Smith in front of his house.

It may not come as a surprise to you that Joseph Smith has a revelation in which God says he is preparing a new place for them. Independence, Missouri, saith the Lord, is to be the New Jerusalem. But no sooner to the Mormons begin to settle there than their inhospitable neighbors–no doubt annoyed by their perfect hair and their sunny dispositions–threaten them with such violence that they high-tail it back to Kirtland. The New Jerusalem, apparently, will not be held in Missouri.

But not so fast. The Lord had spoken, after all! So, picking a new, remote corner of Missouri, the prophet and his people tried again. This time, their gentile neighbors responded with such vehemence that they murdered 17 of the mormon settlers, including children. Far from repremanding the mob, the governor of Missouri promised that if the Mormons did not leave his state he would have them killed himself.

The Mormons decided to flee once again, this time to Nauvoo, Illinois. So many of them descend upon this little town, in fact, that in almost no time its population rivals that of Chicago. THIS, now, will become the American Zion, the New Jerusalem, where God will establish his reign on earth, amongst his faithful remnant, the Latter Day Saints.

Emboldened by their success in Nauvoo, Joseph Smith announces he will run for president, so as to make all of America a holy land under God, and to hasten the completion of Zion. How do you think THAT went over with the Mormons’ gentile neighbors? Not well. Joseph is thrown in prison along with his brother, Hiram. But even that does not assuage them. The pitchfork-weilding mob overpowers the guards, and murders Joseph and his brother in their cell. Not a single man was prosecuted for this violence.

Fearing for their lives, the Mormon congregation at Nauvoo saddled their horses and loaded their wagons and headed out for a new location for their cherished Zion, although they didn’t know where they were going. Eventually, on the shores of the great Salt Lake, God revealed to them through their new prophet, Brigham Young, that this was, indeed, the spot. They formed the sovereign nation of Deseret, and celebrated the fact that Zion had arrived at last.

Or had it? I have always found the Mormons’ insistence on a physical, political reality for God’s kingdom to be unusual, even eccentric, but in fact it is deeply biblical, and is an expectation that was shared by Jews, Christians, and Muslims for most of their histories. It is only since the advent of America and our democracy that the notion of a physical Kingdom of God on earth has fallen into disfavor. Remember, the Jews certainly expected God to establish his throne in Jerusalem, and for many centuries, they were content that that had indeed already occurred. The problem for them was not establishing the Kingdom of God on earth, but KEEPING it there.

Christians anticipated a mellinial kingdom, where Christ would return and establish his Kingdom, and rule the nations with mercy and justice entertwined. St. Augustine, in fact, argued that when the emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, that the Kingdom of God had, indeed, arrived. The events predicted in the book of Revelation had come to pass, and that Christ reigned through his vicar on earth, the Pope.

Each of the Protestant countries hoped they would be able to succeed in creating the Kingdom that they thought God wanted them to bring about, none too successfully. Even the pilgrims came here hoping to succeed at this elusive destiny. The Mormons are only the last gasp of this triumphalist theology.

Which isn’t to say it hasn’t died completely. The Moral majority revived the dream of turning the US into a theocracy, and several of them are still at it, although most of them have been relegated to the lunatic fringe by now.

So, here’s what I’m thinking: Founding the Kingdom of God on earth? Do you think maybe we’re setting the bar just a bit high? I mean, on a good day, we only have one politician exposed for lewd conduct or adultery. We have major unemployment, crime is rampant, our prison populations are small cities in their own rights, and let’s face it, the clergy are a mess. Pick a religion, any religion. The Kingdom of God? Who are we trying to kid?

Here’s an idea: Let’s set the bar a lot, lot lower. Instead of trying to capture the elusive perfection that the Kingdom of God demands, why don’t we just try to be a Pretty Good society? You know, still having ideals, but ideals that are not so  IMPOSSIBLE that we set ourselves up for failure? Ideals like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Justice for all? The equality of all people? Government of the people, by the people, for the people.

Because, unlike how some on the lunatic fringe would have it, this much lower bar IS the dream of America. It has little to do with God, and everything to do with fallible people doing the best we can to BE the best we can.

And the fact is, even with the bar so much lower, we still have a long way to go. Some people are still more equal than others. Liberty is still a dream to many. Prosperity likewise. Justice can still be bought. Happiness has proved obstinately elusive for many folks. Don’t get me started on health care. It’s a right, not a privilege—that’s all I’m going to say.

St. Paul said, “When I was a child, I thought as a child…but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” The notion that we can found a literal, political Kingdom of God on earth—at this stage in our moral and psychological evolution—is a childish thing. It’s like playing dress-up in God’s wardrobe while he’s at the office. And normally, I’d say, yeah, you look good in big hats and fancy robes, so tear it up, have some fun. But this PARTICULAR game of dress-up is too dangerous. People really get hurt. Remember David Koresh? Jim Jones? Nasty business, this Kingdom of God game.

We’ve got our work cut out for us just creating a Pretty Good Society. We haven’t achieved the Dream of America yet, let alone some allegedly perfect Kingdom. And the Dream of America is a good dream. It’s developmentally appropriate. It may even be achievable. What’s more, unlike the Kingdom of God, where the benevolent patriarchs order everything for the multitudes of perpetual children, the Dream of America requires us not to follow, but to lead, to take responsibility for this dream. It is a group effort that requires all of us to buy in, to shoulder a portion of the load, and sometimes, to carry it for those that can’t. That’s what it means to be an American. The Pretty Good Society is within our reach, but it is going to take all of us to grasp that gold ring.

And okay, it’s not the Kingdom of God, but what is? If you can’t have the whole pie, half a pie still tastes pretty darn good. That’s what I’m celebrating today. A truly tasty half a pie. And everybody SHOULD get a slice. Let’s make this dream work and make sure everyone gets a slice, shall we? Let us pray…

Forgive us, God, for presuming that we can actually create a colony that mirrors your true and eternal Kingdom. It was silly of us, and a lot of good people got hurt. We’re going to knock it off, now. Instead, help us to live up to some goals we actually CAN achieve. Help us to take care of each other; help us to have compassion for those that have fallen on hard times; help us to extend our hearts to people we don’t even know; help us to put aside our own wealth so that everyone can just have enough; help us to create a Pretty Good Society, where everyone has power, everyone has enough food, everyone knows justice, everyone has a place to lay their heads, where everyone can see a doctor, where everyone can go to school and have a job and a meaningful life. It’s not the Kingdom, but it’s still a lot to ask, and we have so far to go. Bless us, bless our leaders, bless our Dream, make us the people we aspire to be in our best moments. For we ask this in the name of him who called us to peace, to justice, to compassion, even Jesus Christ. Amen.