- Missions Meets on September 20th after Church.
- CROP Walk October 4th in Whately. Join us in walking, donating, and accepting donations!
- Morning Walks are now on Thursdays at 10am (instead of Friday).
- Holly Fair: November 28th.
Visit our Calendar of Events to explore our upcoming dates and times
All are Welcome. If you are uncomfortable with the word God, please feel welcome to insert your own word for the divine or Mystery in your life (Universe/Grace/Spirit/Divine).
These Reflections are written to be read aloud, please forgive any writing errors. You can find the recording HERE (usually late Sunday morning).
SUNDAY REFLECTION:
“I make a point to appreciate all the little things in my life. I go out and smell the air after a good, hard rain. These small actions help remind me that there are so many great, glorious pieces of good in the world.” –Dolly Parton
It is in times of collective grief that we are reminded of what matters most. We return to what is most precious. We remember our common humanity, the inevitable for all of us, and the joy of being people together…and the joy that we can bring to one another. The importance of making this life a little better for one another.
As a light goes out, yet still shines on in legacy and memory, we are reoriented. We learn something. We…remember.
This is the sweet in the bitterness of loss.
There is so much to glean from this past week in music, theatre, and art. In words and charity and a life lived with deep, unshakable faith. One of the notes I took from this week is that, yes, there are lessons to be learned and gleaned from lives well lived. There is work to be remembered and taken up. There is inspiration. But before we get to that…we are creatures prone to doing and keeping busy to avoid feelings…we need the space to grieve. We need time and space to feel…
We need rest.
Another note I heard this week, that made me laugh out loud, was: “God save us from making Sabbath productive” -Cameron Trimble. This was in reference to the “selling point” for Sabbath that: those who practice Sabbath are blah-blah-% more productive on Monday.
More productivity is not the point.
More productivity is not the need or the Blessing.
It’s good to remember that Sabbath came after a time of slavery, where there was forced labor…seven days a week. What a gift Sabbath is! What a release. We don’t want to re-enslave ourselves to productivity and work…especially at the expense of living well and loving well.
These notes of grief and sabbath connect together..
We avoid grief in productivity that seems like a good and sensible way to keep going, to keep moving forward. Going and moving forward is different than moving through. That’s trying to take the skirting path, put our blinders. There is no skirting path, or ignoring, or escaping the muddy, icky, sad filled path of grief. Avoidance, blinders, rushing forward just makes things harder. Truly. It does. Trust me. Grief can’t be avoided or rushed.
Grief requires…rest. It is in rest that we find grace and healing for the aches in our lives.
Sunday is a lovely opportunity to…rest.
Sunday, we can put down our weary burdens. Rest our heavy loads. Let go of our mistakes. Be in community. Trust in something bigger than ourselves helping to guide our course. We might refresh and renew and remember. We might acknowledge our gifts and blessings and acknowledge those Love Notes from Grace. We remember that we are not alone in our sorrows, in our pains, in our struggles, and in our griefs.
We remember that we have a common need for joy and hope and laughter.
We come to remember our common humanity and that we are, each and every one of us…Beloved.
Too often, church, Sunday, Sabbath becomes another place to do more. To rest to be more productive. Another place of not doing enough.
Often, we come away feeling like we’re not doing enough, we’re not enough. That we should work harder, do more, push more. Sometimes, we come away feeling like nothing we do is good enough or right enough or big enough. That it’s all impossible.
Our place of rest and love and community becomes another place of striving and reaching and pushing. Another place where we continually miss the bar, fall, fail, and are never enough.
We are doing enough. Yes, we can always do more. Yes, there is always something more that needs attention. But sometimes what we are doing is enough and what we need is…rest for our weary souls and hearts and hands, so that we can take up the great and hard work we are already doing with more grace, more kindness, more compassion…
We’re like little hang gliders trying to run on jet fuel.
Maybe Sabbath is a place to take the jet fuel out of our little engines.
We are created creatures not meant to run on jet fuel. We are not meant to fix all of the world’s problems on our own. That is work done together. That is work begun in our own small corner of it all.
It feels like there are enough places telling us we’re not enough. To do more. To be more. To make more. To reach higher (often for a bar that continually moves). Enough places encouraging us to seek what is wrong and who is wrong.
Maybe this is a moment and a place to remember…
You are loved. Exactly as you are.
Your fellow humans are loved. Exactly as they are.
The earth and the more than human world is loved. Exactly as they are.
We are loved exactly as we are.
There’s no jet fuel needed for our little hang gliders. We might do better to trust the wind and our course. To trust that we are exactly where we are meant to be, exactly as we are, carrying our unique and precious gifts needed in this world.
Maybe, this quiet time we rest. We lay down some weary burdens. And maybe we don’t pick them all up when we leave today. Maybe some of them can be left to Grace for a time.
Maybe we take a moment to breathe. A moment to check our compass to see where it is leading us. A moment, perhaps, to reorient our compass toward Love, our gifts, toward what matters most, toward our simple lives and those around us who need us.
Quiet, Sabbath, feeds gratitude and generosity. And generosity ripples, no matter how big or how small. We don’t have to be more to give. We don’t have to have more to give. We don’t have to wait to be enough to give.
Rest your weary soul. Remember your dreams. Find your gifts. Reset your course, because while the wind is what supports us and gives us our lift and our direction…we can use our compass to find our way…
Let yourself rest in this good company. Let the wind under your wings settle. Remember Sabbath. Remember rest. Not to be more productive on Monday, but to be more you…the perfect you that is a beloved child of Grace.
Community Church of North Orange & Tully 