Sunday, August 26, 2001
Rev. Dale Ostrander

"What’s It All About?"

Jeremiah 1:4-10
Isaiah 58:9b-14
Psalm 103
Luke 13:10-17 

This is an end of summer sermon, that time when vacations are over and we’re having some difficulty getting back into the busy swing of things – back to work and routines and responsibilities, and all those E-mails and phone messages, things left undone and things to do.

I don’t know about you, but while I generally love the Fall season with cooler weather, football season, and what feels like a time of new beginnings, it takes me awhile to get into it. I’m still in recovery from jet lag and vacationing in the Colorado Rockies.

And, it doesn’t help being back to pull up to those backed-up intersections and see those little signs posted on light poles and trees suggesting that if you really want to lose the weight you’ve gained, you should call this number and sign up; or that you could avoid this commuter traffic and earn X number of dollars a month by working in your own home. Just call this number.

So, even if you generally love your life and work, it’s not unusual to experience those ambivalent feelings about getting back into it all. Although, perhaps if you have children at home you are happy to see school start again.

But in spite of the re-entry problems, vacations are important – the change of pace and setting, more relaxed time for reading and reflection, being outdoors, and perhaps the opportunity to take in other places of beauty and difference. This experience of beauty and difference is expansive and opens us up to a broader sense of connection to the larger world and God’s creation. It can also be a time of special connection in our relationships with spouses and partners, family and friends, and with ourselves.

Earlier in August in his column, George Will spoke favorably of the job the president was doing and how America is working. Maybe so, but what I questioned was his touting the fact that Americans work even when they’re at play, because during their vacations they are in daily contact with their offices by e-mail from their cabins and cell phones from their canoes. Isn’t that just great!

In her column in Newsweek this past week, Anna Quindlen speaks of the need for vacations, and certainly for us who live in what she calls the "U.S. of Type A." While she has some fun with the estimate that our president has so far spent more than 40% of his term away from Washington on vacation, maybe he’s setting a good example for us, and that he should give the American people a month off too. A month of Sundays, she says, would even please the religious right and the family-values people. She goes on to say that all evidence points to the need for such time off. Study after study shows that Americans suffer everything from heartburn to herniated discs to headaches because they are plagued with job related stress. She reminds us that the European Working Time Directive provides for four weeks paid leave a year. She also points out that, for a variety of reasons, one in four Americans reported being incapable of even taking the vacation to which they were entitled. She says that perhaps George W. Bush will become the Vacation President, and model for a grateful and tired nation one who stops and smells the roses (she said onion rings).

Our vacation in Colorado involved a couple of days in Denver, including dinner with the parents of the fiancé of one of our sons, then four days in Estes Park with some of the Ostrander clan, and then Meg and I doing some tent camping further up in the Rockies along side the Poudre River in the Poudre River Canyon area of Northern Colorado. It’s a dramatically scenic area, and certainly one that puts you in touch with the beauty and awesomeness of creation. And on a clear night the heavens are full of the glory of millions of stars. And to think that this is just a portion of the billions and billions of which Carl Sagan spoke.

It was a wonderful and relaxing time away, so re-entry takes a little time – which brings me to the title of this sermon, "What’s It All About?" These words came back to me recently when I was listening to a new CD, a Father’s Day gift from my son. One of the songs is a bluesy version of "Alfie", from that 1966 British movie. The song goes like this…."What’s it all about, Alfie, is it just for the moment we live…." And now I find myself continually humming it. If like me you remember that movie and song, it dates us. Of course, this is also a reminder that I haven’t kept up with the popular songs for years now.

But, back to the question, "What’s it all about, anyway?" What drives us and keeps us going? Or what really matters, when so many of us feel there’s never enough time, and that making a living, making a family, and having a life requires a lot of sacrifice and juggling, and sometimes feels just overwhelming.

In one of the scriptures this morning we heard the story of God’s calling of Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s calling comes in the midst of chaotic and changing times in ancient Israel. Political and social structures were falling apart and throwing the religious traditions into question as well. The Lord says to Jeremiah, "before you were born I consecrated you, I appointed you a prophet to the nations….to pluck up and pull down, to overthrow….to build and to plant."

Well, talk about a lot of responsibility! Jeremiah says to God, "Oh great! Lord, I don’t know how to do this….I’m just a boy….this is too scary and overwhelming….I’m not up to it."

Don’t you feel that way sometimes? Overwhelmed by everything on your plate; all that needs attention; all that you feel you ought to be doing?

Or, perhaps you feel like the woman in the gospel story today – bent over and crippled for 18 years. We don’t know the exact cause of her malady, but she was bent over and could not straighten up. We also know that she lived within a culture that regarded women poorly. And her suffering was perceived to be punishment for sin. Therefore, she was viewed as possessed of an unclean spirit, and to be avoided. So, she was suffering as well from an oppressive cultural and religious tradition.

As the story goes, Jesus was spending a typical Sabbath in the synagogue, and he was teaching. Suddenly he stops as this woman appears. He calls her over to him, even touches her, and heals her. Well, this caused a great commotion. The leader of the synagogue reminds the people gathered that healing is not allowed on the Sabbath. And we also know that in the synagogue men were forbidden by rabbinic law to give any public recognition to a woman – not to mention one considered possessed and unclean.

And, besides, she’s been ill for 18 years. So, what’s the great emergency to do this on the Sabbath?

Jesus’ response is critical of this unimaginative, unloving religiosity. Luke’s narrative points out how human regulations and traditions can conflict with God’s broader purposes that he sees revealed in the ministry of Jesus. Isn’t it interesting that Luke speaks here of a "spirit" that had crippled her for 18 years, and of her being "set free from this bondage." It’s a story about liberation and compassionate response to human need.

While we in the United Church of Christ are hardly subject to religious law, we do know about unfair laws and traditions in our society and world that degrade and keep some bent over and crippled. But, there are times when even we ourselves feel bent over, burdened down and oppressed by tradition and circumstances; by the expectations of others, or those expectations we have of ourselves; by the responsibilities we’ve taken on and are committed to doing; but still never quite feeling like we’re doing enough, or all that needs to be done, or that we’re doing it well enough – at work, at home, with family and friends, and even in the church, even CCC.

This is a very busy place. We are an energetic, busy people. And then we go and complicate our lives more with moving and building and worrying about money, and interrupting our lives further with Sunday afternoon classes and services.

What’s it all about anyway? As we return from summer and prepare for the Fall, it’s important to reflect on these things and get our bearings once again as the people of God. What is our calling, and what does it mean to be faithful in our own time?

First of all, let me say that it’s not all up to us to see that everything that needs to happen happens in this world. And it’s not all going to happen in our lifetime. We need a larger perspective. It’s always helpful to me to have some time away from the busyness of this Washington area and my life here, as much as I love it, and recognize that there’s a whole world out there, and not everyone lives and thinks and sees things exactly as we do. Otherwise, why would Jesse Helms have stayed in office so long? But, he’s leaving, so God is good and things can change over time!!!

It’s always helpful to me when I’m out of the range of the light pollution and I look up and see all those stars. Yes, I feel small, but it reminds me that it doesn’t all depend on me. I’m part of something much bigger. I have my role and place in time, but it isn’t all on my shoulders.

Being in the Rockies helps too. I learned a little bit about the geology of the Rockies. Three hundred and fifty million years ago central Colorado was flat landscape covered by shallow sea. Then two hundred seventy five million years ago the ancestral Rockies were thrust up by forces deep within the earth. Erosion of wind and water wore them down over time. Forty million years ago they rose again, followed again by erosion. Then twenty five million years ago another uplift, along with erosion and glaciers created today’s Rocky Mountains, canyons and river valleys. This too reminds me that we are part of something much bigger and on-going.

And I believe that each of the scripture lessons for this Sunday in the church year have a word for us about what matters, about the meaning and purpose of our lives, and about what it means to live in God’s love and be faithful in our own time. Listen to passages from Isaiah 58:

"If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, (and) the speaking of evil,

if you offer food to the hungry, and satisfy the needs of the afflicted….your light shall rise in the darkness….your gloom be like the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your needs in parched places….and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters never fail….You shall raise up the foundations of many generations….you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in."

And Isaiah says that if we honor and delight in the Sabbath as a holy day, then we shall delight in the Lord and know that we are really part of something – a treasured heritage.

In the book, To Life, which we have been reading in our Adult Class, Rabbi Kushner speaks of the Sabbath as a day we claim for ourselves, to get our souls back and bring a sense holiness and wholeness back into our lives – a time of rest and restoration. I would add a word also about not neglecting vacations.

Jesus says, "Come unto me….and find rest for your souls. And this morning’s gospel story of Jesus healing the woman on the Sabbath reminds us yet again that the Sabbath was made for us and that we are called into freedom and graciousness and compassionate living.

And the Psalmist speaks of living in gratitude that our lives have been redeemed from the pit of aimlessness and alienation and brought into relationship, and that we are held in God’s steadfast love.

In the midst of his feeling inadequate and overwhelmed, the Lord promises Jeremiah, "Don’t be afraid, for I am with you and will deliver you."

And the Lord God says to us, "I have blessed you with this heritage. I have saved your life from being wasted and spent on the trivial, so that it will truly matter. I have given you loving friends and family and this caring community. I have shown you how to share life with others. So, you are not alone. You are my people, I will be with you and satisfy your needs, even in those parched places. And you will carry on and be a blessing to the generations." Amen

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