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| Rublev's Icon of the Hospitality of Abraham—in which we are invited to BE with God |
The Rev. Seth Olson © 2023
Video of this sermon may be found here. This is an Oops to Yeah style sermon (noted in parenthesis below).
Father,
Son, and Spirit, Holy Trinity One God, let my words be your words, and
when my words are not your words, let your people be wise enough to know the
same. Amen.
(Oops) A few years back, when I was a baby priest, when Kim and I were simply two crazy kids without two kids of our own, I received a phone call from a number that I did recognize. This was not at all uncommon, so I picked up the call wondering if it could be a parishioner in need. Then there was that unmistakable pause, an obvious sign that this was not family, friend, or neighbor. Still for some reason, yet unknown to me, I stayed on the line.
The nasally voice on the other end finally came through, “Hello Mr. Olson, this is Debra calling our valued customers on behalf of Charter.” Without any room for me to interrupt, she kept going, “Sir, I have to let you know that this phone call is being monitored for quality assurance purposes.” As she continued, I wondered when she would take a breath, so that I could say I am not interested in whatever she was selling, but still she kept speaking, “What we are doing today is making sure that you are getting the best services at this time okay.” For a second, I thought that was my chance, but she persisted about bundling services and faster internet.
Finally, she took a breath and without thinking the following words emanated from my mouth: “I’m too busy to talk about this.” Before she even got a response out of her mouth, “When would be a good time to…” Click! I hung up the phone! Conversation over!
“I am too busy.” The words shocked me as they exited my mouth. Not that they were untrue then and even more so now, but hearing those words forced me to recognize my unhealthy behavior. Yes, we are all too busy to take phone calls from telemarketers, but “I’m too busy” might as well be the tagline for my life, and I have reason to believe I am not alone.
(Ugh) The contemporary American lifestyle generally and the Homewood way of life specifically is very busy, and pre-pandemic being busy was seen as a badge of honor. A few years back there was a great article written by Greg McKeown entitled “Why We Humblebrag About Being Busy.” To humblebrag is to, in a subtle way, talk about how much time we are spending on this project, that presentation, or some other report. McKeown suggests that the even more disturbing trend is that when we get into a state of “toomuchness” we try to fight it by adding more. More technology, more programming, more stuff does not usually lend itself to a simpler life.
McKeown is not alone in his assessment of the toomuchness of it all. There are others pointing to how we are busying ourselves with more and more programming (more soccer practice, more dance rehearsals, more social clubs, more pickleball games). It is as though we came through the pandemic, tried to keep doing everything we learned during that time to survive, and now we are trying to add back everything else we did before we knew what COVID-19 was. Instead of taking time to rest, when we do have free time, we fill it with doomscrolling through bad news, keeping up with the Jones on social media, or numbing our feelings away with one device or another. I don’t speak just as an observer, I am guilty of this too. Hi, it’s me. I’m the problem it’s me. There is another way though.
A few years ago, Brad’s good friend and pastor at Grace Methodist Church, Stephen Ingram wrote an open letter to the parents of his youth group members informing them that their children are in a bad place. As he wrote, they are “more stressed, full of anxiety, depressed, suicidal, over committed, over medicated, over worked and over extra-curriculared, and it is killing them, sometimes literally.” Ingram informed the parents that their children will probably not go to Harvard, or play professional sport, but that is okay because when we finally stop pushing ourselves and busying ourselves and extra-curricularing ourselves to death, when we finally shut down the devices and turn off the TV and finally let ourselves rest we start to discover something that we cannot otherwise experience. We heard it earlier this morning… It’s the model that God gave to us as a great gift—a gift we too often ignore.
(Aha) God spent a big chunk of time, six whole ages according to Genesis, creating the earth, the stars, the sun, the moon, the waters, everything that crawls, walks, swims, or flies and even us human beings (made in God’s own image). Yet something happened when God culminated this very good work. “And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.” God rested. God didn’t do anything. God sat around, maybe God strung up a God’s sized hammock to just chill. I don’t know, but God did not do anything. God just was. When was the last time that you just were.
(Whee) McKeown and Ingram and Genesis encourage us to engage in a disciplined pursuit of less. Find the essential things that are crucial for the joy of life, and sand away the rest. It will probably be like cleaning out your closet—messy at first, but eventually freeing after giving away things that feel like they no longer belong to you. Yes, in giving all that away you will feel free. Somewhere in the midst of this freedom, where less is actually more—more joy, more peace, and more love for life—somewhere in this essentialist type of living is an opportunity. We heard that opportunity in today’s Gospel lesson.
This good news comes from the very end of Matthew’s Gospel account. The disciples have found themselves back where they started in Galilee. It’s fitting that Jesus brings them full circle, then he gives them what we call the Great Commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” Now, this commission might sound as though being flies out the window as Jesus said to go and do, but there was one last thing that Jesus said in that commissioning. “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” God is the great I AM, God is within the very act of being.
God in Jesus called his friends up a mountain. Earlier in this chapter of Matthew, the women (followers of Jesus) discovered that the tomb was empty and after conversing with angels, they learned that the disciples were to rendezvous with Christ on a mountaintop.
Yes, they are in Galilee where so much ministry happened, and yet they are called away from the madness of doing, so that they could be with Jesus. Now some of those on the mountain worshipped while others doubted, but neither of these things can happen if we are too busy zooming, scrolling, doing, and going. For us to even know what it is we are to do we must first slow down and be with God in our internal reality—our inner life, within our very souls.
(Yeah) Speaking of reality. Today is Trinity Sunday. When ordained ministers do our best to express the truth of the ultimate reality, which is God’s nature—Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now, I’ve spent the first ten minutes up here trying to tell you that we are not supposed to do something, so much as we are to be with someone—namely God. Thus, I believe our task on this Sunday is not to comprehend the Trinity but to be with a relational God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A God who is healthy community in God’s self. A God who is both self-differentiated and self-giving.
The trouble is that most of our lives we are too busy to experience anything other than the most urgent item on our to-do list, the most pressing family matter, the next bill, or whatever demands our attention. We become slaves to the urgent such that we take no time to slow down enough to notice that we are living within the life of the Trinity—let alone to contemplate the great mystery of God’s nature. To paraphrase Richard Rohr: a mystery (like the Trinity) is not something we cannot understand, it’s something we can endlessly understand. However, we cannot engage in this relationship if we are too busy. God is leaving breadcrumbs leading us home, back to the Table, hinting at how we already are in relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We will miss the greater glimpse of what a highly communal God looks like if we are too focused on doing ministry such that we never are with God simply being in relationship.
God who is both infinite and incarnate, transcendent and immediate, eternal and processing. God who is Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer. God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is trying to speak with you. Are you too busy to take God’s call? Remember, the Great I AM is with you always, even to the end.
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