- Psalm 37:1–8NRSVUE
- Psalm 37:23–28NRSVUE

Hope Of The Nations

Faithful One

- Genesis 2:2–3NRSVUE

- Deuteronomy 5:12–15NRSVUE

Slow Down (part 1)

Intro

What does slowing down mean to you?

Is it a positive thing or a negative?

Choosing to go slow vs. not having a choice

What do you associate with the positive connotations of slowing down?

a break, change of pace from rushing/full schedules/overcommitment

rest

space

opportunity to connect, notice, respond vs react

If you’re new here, I just got back after being away from my work here for 13 weeks - a combination of a few weeks of vacation with some time for rest and renewal that is built into the job description of a pastor. Every few years, we recognize together that I will need to step away and take a time away from the demands of pastoring to rest, to be renewed, to have space for other things that often get crowded out during the usual seasons.

For me, this sabbatical was not about being productive - sometimes a pastor might take a sabbatical to pursue more education or to write a book or… other times the sabbatical is more about rest.

And for me, after these almost 7 years with you all - I was recognizing a weariness and a fatigue, that unchecked, I think would be a recipe for burnout. And so, together with PT and the Personnel Committee, we determined that the spring of this year was the right time for me to step away and to seek to have time to SLOW DOWN in a very intentional way.

My sabbatical included time:

at home with Gordon and Mack & Brendan

with Rory, walking some of my favourite trails and finding a few new ones - sometimes with an audiobook, sometimes with the Merlin ID bird app

some time and space to do some intentional grief work - both on my own and with my therapist; and capacity to go through the remaining things from my Mom that I just hadn’t had the time, space or emotional bandwidth to sort through last year (and so had put them in storage)

to travel:

Toronto-Coburg-Kingston-London,

Kelowna for Brendan’s last tournament of the season (there was a lot of local basketball, parloff and track & field too as his elementary school time wrapped up!)

Canmore-Calgary,

Nelson for a friend and colleague’s ordination service, as well as being at Michael Caveney’s final service at Kamloops United before his departure

Vancouver to connect with a couple of friends and family members,

and a two week Europe trip that had been long dreamed of, planned and then made possible when I received an unexpected inheritance from an uncle who passed away in 2024.

Over these next weeks, I thought I’d share with you all some things I noticed, discovered, re-learned during this more spacious season. And, it’s also a time when we might hear a few stories from other people as well.

We’ll think together about how sometimes we get to choose to slow down, other times, something will stop us in our tracks. Forcing new rhythms, a new and slower pace, acceptance of new limitations. And we’ll also wonder together about where we might be being invited into embracing SLOW in ways that our souls are longing for, our bodies need, and our community require for flourishing.

But today, I thought maybe we could begin by thinking together about slowing down on purpose. About where the idea of slowing down even comes from and how it intersects with a Christian understanding of being human. Let’s explore together the idea of stillness (which you could also call SLOWING DOWN) and sabbath in the texts Becky is coming to read for us now. Would you stand to hear these words from two sections of the Torah?

Readings

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Sermon

Slowing down. A change of pace. Time for rest. Why do we do it? Do we HAVE to? Or do we GET to? Is it a necessity or a choice? (Depends, doesn’t it)

But if we were to CHOOSE to go slow. If we were to opt in to taking a break or changing our pace. Why? What would be our motivation or our reasoning?

In our first text today (Gen 2)

Genesis 2:2–3 NRSVue

2 On the sixth day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.

God rested. God slowed down. Took a break.

God rested.

Does this surprise you?

The part about God resting sometimes surprises me? I mean, I know the story. I know that in the second creation narrative, God rests after making all the things.

But God rests?

This question uncovers my own assumption (and possibly yours) that rest is something we earn.

I don’t know what it looks like for you, but it might sound something like this…

I get up, I do all the things. I try to check all the boxes. (I don’t, just to be clear, but I sure to expect that today will be different from all the other times and I might just get ALL. THE. BOXES. checked.

Then, exhausted and disappointed in my own performance of personhood, partnering, parenting and pastoring, I fall into bed and … well lay there thinking about all the things I didn’t get done. Or all the situations that don’t have an easy answer. Or all the people that should just do the thing I suggested. Or about how maybe I suggested the wrong thing. Or about the air quality. Or the evacuations. Or the …

You see why I needed to take a break?

Then, the alarm goes, the coffee is brewed and we start the whole process again.

I rest because if I don’t, I might get sick. I might get even more stressed. I might break.

Now, I have been a Christian for awhile, and I have heard lots of sermons and teaching about why taking a sabbath is important. And, as a pastor, the reality is that Sunday doesn’t really work as a sabbath for me - It’s usually my shortest workday of the week, but it’s also the most exhausting workday. I find, especially if I’m preaching, that I’m pretty wiped out by the time we’re locking up and heading out for lunch.

So I take Friday as my “day off” and I really try to make Friday mornings especially a time of spaciousness. A second cup of coffee. Maybe sitting with my novel or a book I’m enjoying. A longer dog walk. Cooking for my family with a little more time. Maybe enjoying a movie together in the evening, or an episode of The Other Bennet Sister!

Slowing down.

But God slows down? Rests?

Why does God rest?

And what does God resting have something to teach me about looking at rest as more than just “recharging the batteries” so that the tool of my life can be useful again?

What if rest, stillness, sabbath is more about a rhythm of ceasing the usual things in order to enjoy the gifts that are all around me?

What if rest is given not earned?

What if rest is available all the time and something I can learn how to do by intentionally slowing down. Or even STOPPING once in awhile?

God rested. And humans need rest too.

God told humanity that they had been created in such a way that they would need rest. And not just pausing at the end of every day for the biological requirement of sleep, but also stopping every week. Taking a different pace. Ceasing from the usual things in order to rest and recover, but also in order to remember who we really are and what God is really like.

Deuteronomy 5:12–15 NRSVue

12 “ ‘Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 14 But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. 15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

Three main verbs:

Observe the Sabbath - SLOW DOWN

Keep it holy - Rest matters and will need to be protected

Remember who you were… a slave in Egypt (who never got to rest or slow down without consequence) and that God looked at that and said, ‘No’ - this is not what I made humans for.

Remember what God did - brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm (ie. you didn’t do anything to set yourselves free)

Our call to worship included a call to slowing down as well… did you notice it there?

Psalm 37:5 NRSVue

5 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.

7 Be still before the Lord and trust in him; do not fret…

A story from sabbatical…

3 weeks of detoxing from carrying things that I can’t actually carry anyway.

Fatigue. But also addiction to being called on. (which is a good thing in and of itself)

But soemtimes we get the cart before the horse and we begin to think that the reason we DESERVE to slow down is BECAUSE of all the things we’ve accomplished, all the ways we’ve helped, all the ways we’re important.

Slowing down can be detox. Sabbath, when practiced well, is a mini detox.

[FILL IN HERE… share a story? summarize?]

Stillness - slowing down OR fretting - which comes more naturally?

For you as an individual? For your household if you live with other people? For us as a church community?

Prayer?

Slowing Down at the Table

THE LORD’S SUPPER: HUNGERING FOR JUSTICE

This pattern highlights the Kingdom dimension to the Lord’s Supper – hungering and thirsting for justice.

GATHERING SENTENCES

Gather us in, the lost and the lonely, the broken and breaking, the tired and the aching who long for the nourishment found at your feast.

Gather us in, the done and the doubting, the wishing and wondering, the puzzled and pondering who long for the company found at your feast.

Gather us in, the proud and pretentious, the sure and superior, the never inferior, who long for the levelling found at your feast.

Gather us in, the bright and the bustling, the stirrers, the shakers, the kind laughter makers who long for the deeper joys found at your feast.

Gather us in, from corner or limelight, from mansion or campsite, from fears and obsession, from tears and depression, from untold excesses, from treasured successes, to meet, to eat, be given a seat, be joined to the vine, be offered new wine, become like the least, be found at the feast.

Gather us in!

30 The Lord’s Supper

INVITATION

This is the table, not of the Church, but of the Lord. It is to be made ready for those who love him and who want to love him more.

So, come, If you have much faith and if you have little, if you have been here often and if you have not been for a long time, if you have tried to follow and if you have failed.

Come, not because it is I who invite you: it is our Lord. It is his will that those who want him should meet him here.

A communion song may be sung here.

THE STORY

On the night on which Jesus was betrayed, he sat at supper with his disciples. While they were eating, he took a piece of bread, said a blessing, broke it, and gave it to them with the words, ‘This is my body. It is for you. Do this to remember me.’ Later, he took a cup of wine, saying, ‘This cup is God’s new covenant, sealed with my blood. Drink from it, all of you, to remember me’.

So now, following Jesus’ example and command, we take this bread and this wine, the ordinary things of the world which Christ will make special. And as he said a prayer before sharing, let us do so too.

PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING

This may be said extempore or using a written prayer such as the following

Gratitude, praise, hearts lifted high, voices full and joyful: these you deserve.

For when we were nothing, you made us something. When we had no name and no faith and no future, you called us your children. When we lost our way or turned away, you did not abandon us. When we came back to you, your arms opened wide in welcome.

And look, you prepare a table for us offering not just bread, not just wine, but your very self so that we may be filled, forgiven, healed, blessed and made new again. You are worth all our pain and all our praise.

So now, in gratitude, we join our voices to those of the Church on earth and in heaven:

The Sanctus may be spoken or sung

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

The prayer continues

Lord God, as we come to share the richness of your table, we cannot forget the rawness of the earth.

We cannot take bread and forget those who are hungry. Your world is one world and we are stewards of its nourishment. Lord, put our prosperity at the service of the poor.

We cannot take wine and forget those who are thirsty. The ground and the rootless, the earth and its weary people cry out for justice. Lord, put our fullness at the service of the empty.

We cannot hear your words of peace and forget the world at war or, if not at war, then preparing for it. Show us quickly, Lord, how to turn weapons into welcome signs and the lust for power into a desire for peace.

We cannot celebrate the feast of your family and forget our divisions. We are one in spirit, but not in fact. History and hurt still dismember us. Lord, heal our church in every brokenness. Amen.

THE SHARING

Taking and breaking the bread

Among friends, gathered round a table, Jesus took bread, broke it and said, ‘This is my body, it is for you’.

Taking the cup of wine

And later he took the cup of wine and said, ‘This is the new relationship with God, made possible because of my death. Take this – all of you – to remember me’.

Look, here is your Lord coming to you in bread and wine.

These are the gifts of God for the people of God.

The bread and wine are shared according to the appropriate custom. A quiet prayer song may be sung as the elements are distributed.

THE PEACE

Christ who has nourished us, is our peace. Strangers and friends, male and female, old and young, he has broken down the barriers to bind us to him and to each other.

[Having tasted his goodness, let us share his peace.

The peace of the Lord be always with you.

And also with you.

The peace may be shared, giving time for participants to greet each other. ]

CONCLUDING PRAYER

(ask them to stand so we can go right into the song)

Loving God, we thank you that you have nourished us at this table. We pray for those who hunger and thirst – may they be filled! And may we, with them, feast at the table of your eternal kingdom. This we ask through Jesus Christ, who was and is and is to come, and who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.