Texts: Deuteronomy 5:1-7; 12-15; Mark 8:31-38

Before Sabbath was a holy day, a noun, it was a verb, with nothing particularly holy about it.  To sabbath means to cease, to desist, to rest.  Verbs are action words, and sabbath is an action word meaning, basically, to refrain from action.  Sabbath is the un-verb.

The first four times the word appears in the Bible it is in verb form.  It’s mentioned twice in Genesis 2, where the Creator Elohim famously and somewhat mysteriously ceases, rests, sabbaths from all creative activity.  This happens on the seventh day, which is not yet called the Sabbath.  The seventh day is declared holy because on it Elohim sabbathed.

It’s mentioned nowhere else in the book of Genesis, and so we’re on to Exodus, chapter five, where Pharaoh is scolding Moses and Aaron for daring to ask for a three day holiday for the Hebrew slaves.  Holidays and paid vacation leave were not a part of the slave memorandum of understanding.  Rather than give them a break, Pharaoh makes their work more difficult, demanding the same quotas for brick production, while making them provide not just labor, but some of the materials.  From now on, the Hebrews will have to gather their own straw to mix with clay.  Pharaoh says to Moses and Aaron, “Why are you taking the people away from their work.  Get to your labor!  Now they are more numerous than the people of the land and yet you want them to stop working!”  It’s that very last phrase that translates Sabbath.  To sabbath = to stop working.  Pharaoh is anxious about the demographic shift of the foreign slaves starting to outnumber native born Egyptians, and yet Moses wants them to sabbath?  How could this possibly help Pharaoh’s bottom line?  In Pharoah’s economy, sabbath is…

Texts: Mark 1:9-15; Exodus 16:1-5; 13-26

Over the years I’ve watched my fair share of TED talks.  One that left a big impression was also one of the shortest.  It’s a talk by Jessa Gamble from way back in 2010 titled “Our natural sleep cycle is nothing like what we do now.”   Rather than the standard 18ish minute TED talk, this one is only three minutes and 55 seconds.

Her talk goes something like this: Humans, like all other multicell organisms, plants and animals, have an internal clock.  It’s part of our chemical make up, linked to the daily cycle of light and darkness.  Humans evolved close to the equator, where days and nights are about equal, so our body clocks are most naturally equipped for this kind of cycle.  But we’ve spread to every corner of the globe, where daylight and night time hours are not evenly split, and of course our modern world of abundant artificial light throws another curve at our sleeping patterns.

But we seem to have a fairly persistent body clock, even when we don’t know whether it’s night or day.  Jessa Gamble cites studies of people having their watches taken away and living in a bunker underground for weeks and months at time, with a combination of darkness and artificial light.  After the initial disorientation, participants settled into a consistent sleeping pattern, what Gamble and others refer to as our natural sleep cycle.  It matched up with what we know about pre-industrial sleeping patterns.

It turns out we most naturally sleep twice, rather than once.  Participants would go to sleep around 8pm, wake up around midnight, have about a two hour span of alert wakefulness, and then go back to sleep from about 2am until sunrise.  Eight hours of sleep in a ten hour window…ish.  During…

Speaker: Julie Hart

Text: Luke 9:23-24

Then he said to them all, If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves (their self-centeredness or ego)  and take up their cross daily and follow me.  For those who want to save their life will lose it and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.  What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?

1.I’ve got great Christian credentials! I grew up in the community church from conception on, attended every Sunday, was involved with my youth group, attended church camp from third through 12th grade, served on camp staff during my college years and even married one of my church camp counselors.  But, somehow I missed a very important message.  It could have been my fault or it could have been the church’s and I suspect it’s a little of both.

Finally, in my mid 30’s when my dad entered alcohol treatment I found my way to a 12 Step Alanon meeting for Adult Children of Alcoholics, I was introduced to the idea of turning my will and my life fully over to the care of God.  This is step 3 of the 12 Step journey- a process based in the Christian tradition.  Here’s the abbreviated version of steps 1-3. I can’t do life alone anymore because I am so unhappy. I believe there is a God that can restore me to health and I’m finally willing to surrender my will & ego and let God take charge.  Now, this might sound easy to you but it hasn’t been for me.  The message I had absorbed growing up was to take God on to call in hard times and to do my best to make the world a better place.   The idea of…

Text: Genesis 28:10-19     

Coming of Age Celebration

What do a baby doll, a Bible, a notebook, a water pitcher, a blanket, a red kick ball, and a communion cup have in common?  This winter I’ve been a guest in each of our elementary school age Sunday school classes.  Our Christian Education Commission asked me to talk with our young people about rituals in the church and why we do them.  Those objects are some of the props I’ve been carting around.

Many of these rituals are ones we share in common with other Christians.  In these classes we’ve started out by gathering in a circle around the red kick ball, which serves as our sun.  We talk about the liturgical calendar.  So far we’ve managed to circle through the seasons of the church year without breaking out in a spontaneous game of dodgeball, but there have been a couple close calls.  After the full circle we talk about Communion and baptism and what they mean to us.

We also talk about the different rituals they will experience as they grow up in this particular congregation.  We dedicate babies as a way of blessing families and committing to raising children as a community.  We give Bibles to second graders and encourage them to be in lively conversation with Bible stories.  Toward the beginning of high school we have a catechism class that gives a big overview of how Mennonites have understood Christian faith.  At the end of high school, we wrap you in a blanket that will be yours to take with you wherever you’re headed next.

Toward the middle of that progression, usually in your twelfth year, is this Coming of Age celebration.  It’s our way, as a congregation, of marking that major transition from childhood to adolescence.  We like to make a…

https://joelssermons.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/20180204sermon.mp3

Text: Genesis 28:10-19     

Coming of Age Celebration

What do a baby doll, a Bible, a notebook, a water pitcher, a blanket, a red kick ball, and a communion cup have in common?  This winter I’ve been a guest in each of our elementary school age Sunday school classes.  Our Christian Education Commission asked me to talk with our young people about rituals in the church and why we do them.  Those objects are some of the props I’ve been carting around.

Many of these rituals are ones we share in common with other Christians.  In these classes we’ve started out by gathering in a circle around the red kick ball, which serves as our sun.  We talk about the liturgical calendar.  So far we’ve managed to circle through the seasons of the church year without breaking out in a spontaneous game of dodgeball, but there have been a couple close calls.  After the full circle we talk about Communion and baptism and what they mean to us.

We also talk about the different rituals they will experience as they grow up in this particular congregation.  We dedicate babies as a way of blessing families and committing to raising children as a community.  We give Bibles to second graders and encourage them to be in lively conversation with Bible stories.  Toward the beginning of high school we have a catechism class that gives a big overview of how Mennonites have understood Christian faith.  At the end of high school, we wrap you in a blanket that will be yours to take with you wherever you’re headed next.

Toward the middle of that progression, usually in your twelfth year, is this Coming of Age celebration.  It’s our way, as a congregation, of marking that major transition from childhood to adolescence.  We like to make a…