Stop It

Author: Mark Fenstermacher
May 14, 2021

It never made much sense to me. My Dad, a fairly reasonable and enlightened person, became inflexible on Sundays when I talked about doing homework. Doing homework on Sundays was not an option unless I had worked on it most of Saturday and not been able to finish. Sunday was sabbath time. Sunday was stopping time. Sunday was an opportunity to worship, to pray, to reconnect with God. Other than getting dinner on the table and cleaning up the dishes, Sunday was a time for doing nothing.

We lived in a corner of northwest Alaska, pre-internet and pre-DVD, without a television station or decent radio station. So, as a young teenager, I would ride my bicycle down to the ocean in the summer time or in the winter I would go sledding. I might stretch out on my bed and read, put together a plastic model of an airplane or car, or listen to the latest LP that had arrived in the mail from the Capitol Record Club. The family might play a game of CLUE.

I’d grumble, sometimes, and mutter to myself,  “How in the world is doing nothing so important?” My Dad was unyielding on his insistence that Sunday was a gift given to us by God.

Stopping is actually so important to us and our soul health, to our relationship with God, that God tells Moses it is one of the ten fundamental rules of the well-lived life: “Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. For six days you shall labour and do all your work.” In fact, the section on keeping the sabbath is actually the longest of any of the Ten Commandments!

Now, if you are like me, you may think you are too important to stop.

The author of the Bible knows how important we think we are, and so Exodus reminds us that even God stopped on the sabbath: “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.” 

Machinery in a factory needs to be shut down for routine maintenance or it comes apart. Ground needs to lie fallow and crops need to be rotated, or the earth loses its richness. Even God needed to stop so that God could look around and take in the miracle of creation...the gift of life...the beauty of it all.

The notion of sabbath keeping has almost—in the eyes of many—become a quaint, outmoded relic of the past, I think. That’s too bad because our failure to stop, to play, to just be, and to trust God to handle things while we are “off the clock,” often means we are frantic, exhausted and distracted. 

• Sabbath can be a time that reconnects us with God.
• Sabbath can be a time when we stop, and realize what counts most is living as a human being - not a human doing.
• Sabbath can be a time when we play and find the joy we misplaced along the way.
• Sabbath can be a time when our soul, heart, mind and eyes clear.

Before we leave our Lenten series “Emotionally Healthy Spirituality” too far behind in the rear-view mirror, I hope you’ll hold onto the gift of sabbath-keeping. And I pray that you will not only stop every seven days for twenty-four hours, but you will learn how to make sabbath moments in the middle of every “ordinary” day.

We will never go back to the “blue laws” that kept businesses closed on Sundays (nor should we), but I think we would be more alive if we joined God in stopping.

Stop it. See what happens!

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Join us Sunday in person at 8:30 or 11 am for worship (or join us online as we livestream each service) as we conclude our series on “Emotionally Healthy Spirituality”. Our worship services and sermons are also available on YouTube.

Sunday School for children in-person is now open at First UMC!

Watch for a letter highlighting some key happenings in the life of our church. You should be receiving it via the US Mail this week, or you can read it right here.

In our effort to do good and do no harm, we continue to mask as we enter the building, move around, and sing in worship. However, during worship, when we are not singing, people can take their mask off if they are remaining socially distant from persons who are not in their family unit.

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Wayne Peterson-Stephan, our Director of Children’s & Youth Ministries, announced this week his decision to return to his previous calling as a social worker and counselor in early June. Wayne will also be joining the United Church of Christ and seeking ordination through that denomination.  We are so sorry to see Wayne leave our team, and wish both he and his husband, Jordan, all the best. Members of the congregation will be receiving a letter from Wayne explaining why he is leaving and what his plans are. We look forward to celebrating his ministry with us and blessing him as he moves into a new chapter.

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After Wayne shared the news of his resignation with the Staff this past Monday, I told our ministry team to remember that:

1. Faith is leaning into the future - even when it may appear uncertain (Hebrews 11).
   
2. God provides.
3. Wayne’s decision should not be interpreted as a sign that our congregation is stepping back from our commitment to the full inclusion of LGBTQ persons in the life of God’s church. We are called to lift up Christ as the hope of the world, and we believe God’s love includes all people. “Come to me all you who labor and are heavy-laden,” Jesus says. We believe when Jesus says “all,” Jesus means all.

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I am blessed to serve Christ with you, and I am leaning into the future God has for us all.

In Christ and for Christ,
Pastor Mark

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