Sunday Service | Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, Week 6: October 25, 2020
We had some technical issues this week, with the internet crashing at the church building. But we kept going and recorded the whole service to share with you all!
David shared a testimony about how his view of God has changed over the years, and that a lot of that has come from learning more and more about himself. His prayer for us is that we would grow to love who we are, and that in that, we find out more of who God is. If we allow ourselves to be loved unconditionally, we will see a God who also loves unconditionally.
Last week, we talked about grief & loss, and this scripture speaks of those same themes:
Psalm 137
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
There on the poplars
we hung our harps,
for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
How can we sing the songs of the Lord
while in a foreign land?
This psalm begs God to remember what his people had been through, and to come through on his promises. These people were in challenging times, but the Jews still counted on God in the midst of their grief. God’s promises do not fail, even in the middle of terribly dark circumstances. His promises will not fail us either.
No matter how difficult a situation is, we can obey God. Our task is to remember God. Our task, like in this psalm, is to sit still long enough to be with God. Our task is to see God and reflect on his promises.
Covid-19 is not comparable to the captivity of the children of Israel. However, the correlation lies in that the children of Israel had to learn how to worship God in a different way. They had to learn to make changes in the way that they connected to God. So many elements of the life they loved were gone, and they had to remember that God had not changed. This is equally true for us today.
Many of us are having to learn to grieve our losses, to “sit along the river, and weep.” We are having to reassess the way that we find hope and joy, and how we worship God.
Even us today are having to reassess how we are worshipping God all across our community and our country. Our team has to weekly reassess how to make our livestream service work because of technology. But what remains the same is that God will follow through on his promises. God’s desire for us is that we be free people. We may have to make changes in order to step into that freedom that he has for us.
This scripture in psalms says, “How can we sing the songs of the Lord in a foreign land?” This year is foreign to us. Moving forward into an election season, we are entering foreign territory. Still, God wants us to be free.
Today, let’s look at 2 Spiritual Disciplines:
The Daily Office
The Sabbath
These two disciplines are how we “sing the songs of the Lord” even in difficult circumstances, even when we are not as free as we desire to be, as God wants us to be.
We want to grow in our relationship with God, but often we are not taking the time to be still and be with him. We struggle with sitting still to be with him. These two disciplines are aimed at the heart of deep roots and deep connection with God. These are counter-cultural acts go against how we normally operate.
The Daily Office
Some of us grew up doing daily devotions or having quiet time. But most of us get away from structured time with the Lord. This is a discipline that has been practiced by people through generations. The goal is not turning to God so that you can get something; the goal is simply about being with God, in the company & presence of God.
Office comes from the latin word “opus”, which means work. The daily office is a daily work of meeting with God. It is a daily work of being present with the Lord. We see this throughout the Bible:
Psalm 119.164
Daniel 6.10
Acts 3.1, 10.9
Jesus himself following the Jewish concept of praying multiple times a day.
We see this throughout scripture as people “did the work” of being with God, seeking his face. In Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, the author says that this rhythm enables us to seek God daily, so that we are able to continue to do so when we face circumstances that throw off our normal rhythms.
How do we practice the daily office?
There are 4 Elements to the Daily Office, though our personal practice will look different for each of us:
1: Stopping
This is the essence: unhurried time with God. Stop activity, pause to be with the living God.
2: Centering
Slowing down and being still to connect with your body and yourself. If your mind wanders,
let your breath bring it back.
3: Silence
Being absent from being people and things to be attentive to God. Quieting your inner and
outer voices, so that you can hear God. This is very hard for us.
4: Scripture
Reflecting on scripture allows us to know God. The Psalms are a great place to start.
Meditate on scripture. Listen to it, follow a reading plan. If it helps, do it. If not, don’t.
The purpose of the daily office is to remember God, and to commune with him all day long. Start somewhere. Start with 5 minutes or however long you need.
Remember that we are not doing this to please God or to be more loved by him; we are doing this to increase our awareness of God in our lives.
Sabbath
We’ve spent a lot of time talking about Sabbath this year. Sabbath means to cease working. God even practiced Sabbath; he worked and rested after his work, and he blessed the Sabbath. In receiving that blessing, which was also a blessing for the earth and for all creation to be blessed and multiply, that means that Sabbath has the ability to create life!
We also know that Sabbath is a commandment, one of the ten commandments, it has a qualifier (a why) and a blessing. Moses in Dueteronomy 5 tells us that Sabbath is a remembrance of the liberation that the Israelities experienced through the Exodus.
When we practice Sabbath, we are saying, “God you are it; you are the center of my life. You are the source of my life, you are everything.”
It is a practice, an act of preparing ourselves to be ready for the Lord. When we practice, we are readying ourselves, to be ready to see God and to show up. When we practice Sabbath, we say, “God, I trust you.”
The 4 Principles of Sabbath:
1: Stop
God wants us to not work all the time! We can stop and enjoy the fact that it is not all on us.
2: Rest
This fills us back up. Doing what replenishes you.
3: Delight
Take time to savor the good things.
4: Contemplation
Pondering the Lord. This is why worship has often been a part of Sabbath.
Ways we can execute Sabbath
We have to make a plan to rest; otherwise, we’ll just be caught up in doing all the things. Sabbath is intended to remind us that we are free.
Why haven’t we run with our arms wide open to practicing Sabbath? We’ve been talking about it most of the year. The answer for many of us is this imagery: “The plane is already in the air, and I’m trying to make repairs in flight.”
This can feel overwhelming. There is so much uncertainty, fear, changes.
Here’s the truth: if you call yourself a Christ-follower, you actually have to follow him, and what he models and gives to us is this practice of Sabbath.
We have to pick up our Bibles and read them. We have to live free. We have to follow what scripture says.
Being a disciple of Christ means that we are students of Christ and we have to do what he does. This may take changes as well.
Questions on Sabbath:
1: Do I really need a whole day of Sabbath?
Yes. But start small. The goal is 24 hours, but you can’t rush there. This is the beat that we
are meant to march to.
2: But I have kids. Resting for a day isn’t an option, right?
Not true. Children AND Sabbath are both gifts. Stop what you can: chores, errands, email,
scrolling, etc.
3: Speaking of kids, what if they have something going on on my Sabbath day?
We can still practice Sabbath by going to these events without multitasking. Take the long
drive there. Notice everything around. Just be with your kids. Count that as Sabbath.
4: How do I keep from not making Sabbath work?
Practice self-compassion. It highlights the abundance of freedom. Give yourself grace. Let
go of perfectionism on Sabbath.
5: How do we decide what is okay and not okay for Sabbath?
What do I need to stop doing that relates to work? What’s a drag? (don’t do that) What
activities create delight and fun in you? How can I structure my day to make myself more
aware of God? What might help me to see God’s goodness around me today?
The most important thing to remember is this: We have to plan this. Make a plan and stick to it for a month. Ask: What worked for me? What didn’t?
The whole idea of Sabbath is us: for us to be aware of God, listen to him, and rest vulnerably with him. Sabbath enables us to say, “I will not be a slave of this world; I will be free in God.” Sabbath is turning over our work, our money, our status, our plans--everything, so that we can be with God, letting go of all the things we control to know his control.
This is how we learn to sing the songs he has given us in these foreign times, instead of being burdened by our security and pride. To refuse Sabbath is to refuse to receive the gift of freedom.
Practicing Sabbath is one of the ways that we learn to sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land. We can’t just talk about these things though, we have to practice them.
A charge for us:
Do something. Identify 5 minutes today that you can give to the Lord. See how it feels.
Make plans for how we can practice Sabbath. How we can live as free people with these practices.