Sabbath

Everything [in] between Rest & Growth

Everything [in] between Rest & Growth

Everything [in] between: Part 3
Series based on the Narrative Lectionary & Sanctified Art
March 23, 2025
Luke 13:6-9

Jesus told this parable: “A man owned a fig tree planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. He said to his gardener, ‘Look, I’ve come looking for fruit on this fig tree for the past three years, and I’ve never found any. Cut it down! Why should it continue depleting the soil’s nutrients?’  The gardener responded, ‘Lord, give it one more year, and I will dig around it and give it fertilizer. Maybe it will produce fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down.’”

Luke 13:6-9 (CEB)

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 Reflections written by Rev. Jeff Chu

Slow down. Do your part. Remember the promise.

Two years ago, I planted asparagus crowns. The farmer who sold them to me said, “You know you’ll have to wait a couple of years to harvest, right?”

Of course I did. I had Googled: “how to grow  asparagus.”

Still, the next spring, when a slender spear rose from the midst of the previous autumn’s fallen leaves, I could barely restrain myself from harvesting it. I immediately imagined charring asparagus, and squeezing some lemon and grating some parmesan over the top.  Ooh — and how about a slightly runny fried egg?

Then I remembered the farmer’s counsel: “You know you’ll have to wait a couple of years to harvest, right?”

After briefly congratulating myself for my self-control, I tucked my dream back into the vault of future possibility. It wasn’t yet time for our homegrown  asparagus. It needed that year, then another, to  concentrate on its largely invisible labor: finding purchase in the soil, extending its roots, gathering strength to flourish.

Like my asparagus, the fig tree can’t be rushed. Jesus’ original, agriculturally sophisticated audience would have known that a fig seedling needs several years to bear fruit. They might even have found the vineyard owner’s question laughable. They would have understood that absence of fruit on a young tree wasn’t a sign of failure. Maturity requires time and care, attention and patience. It has always struck me as odd that a common reading of this parable imagines the vineyard owner to be God. (Such is our temptation toward hierarchical thinking that the most seemingly powerful figure in a parable must always be God.) That interpretation runs up against our belief that God is “slow to anger and abounding with steadfast love.” And surely a call to faithful waiting seems more apt and necessary for God’s ever-impatient people. As God reminds Habakkuk, “There is still a vision for the appointed time. . . . If it seems to tarry, wait for it. It will surely come.”

Faithful waiting doesn’t mean doing nothing: The gardener waters, weeds, and fertilizes. And modern science is teaching us what happens in the meantime. Contrary to the peevish vineyard owner’s assertion, nothing is wasted. Down below, the fig tree isn’t just gathering strength; it’s also building relationships.
Soilborne fungi are finding home in its roots, boosting the tree’s capacity to resist disease and take in nutrients.

In return, the tree feeds the fungi. Perhaps this parable is better read as a gentle rebuke against those of us who are all too comfortable with our on-demand, instant-gratification culture—and who believe the lie that we can control more than we actually do. Perhaps, too, this parable was a word that Jesus needed to preach to his very human self. After all, he’s the one who, in Matthew and Mark, curses a fig tree for failing to give him fruit when he wants it.

Perhaps this is our invitation: Slow down. Do your part. Remember the promise.

Whether asparagus or fig, the harvest will come.

 

The Gift of Slowing Down

The Gift of Slowing Down

Simple Gifts - Part 1

Sunday, December 3, 2023
Luke 10:38-42, Isaiah 40:28-31, Matthew 11:28-30, Psalm 37:3-7

The Lord answered, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things.  One thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the better part. It won’t be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:41-42 (CEB)


Listen to this Week’s Sermon here:

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Have you ever noticed that the only spiritual practice explicitly commanded in the law is Sabbath?  Yes, we are instructed in worship, prayer, and countless other means of receiving God’s grace, but Sabbath is right up there in the big 10.  John Mark Comer writes:

God eventually has to command the Sabbath. Does that strike you as odd? It’s like commanding ice cream or live music or beach days. You would think we’d all be chomping at the bit to practice the Sabbath. But apparently there’s something about the human condition that makes us want to hurry our way through life as fast as we possibly can, to rebel against the limitations of time itself.” (Comer, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, 159).

Sabbath is about rest, and it is about acknowledging our limitations.  It is a call to slow down and be still with God, just as Jesus encouraged Martha in the midst of her own well intentioned hurry.   Consider the following 10 symptoms of “Hurry Sickness.” 

  1.  Irritability (especially at little things)

  2.  Hypersensitivity

  3.  Restlessness (difficulty relaxing)

  4.  Workaholism / non-stoop activity

  5.  Emotional numbness

  6.  Out of order priorities

  7.  Lack of care for your body

  8.  Escapist behavior (overeating, social media, binging TV, etc.)

  9.  Slippage of Spiritual Disciplines / Devotional Life

  10.  Isolation


How many do you have? 

Resist the tendency to feel guilt or shame.  These symptoms are tragically built into our culture and have become normal.  The point is to become aware of just how busy and chaotic our lives have become.

Once we become aware of this reality, we can take Jesus up on his invitation, to “take his yoke upon us, for his yoke is easy, and his burden is light.”  Frederick Dale Bruner reminds us that a yoke is a work instrument.  You would think he might offer a mattress or a vacation for our weary souls, but no, Jesus, realized that the most restful gift he can give is a new way to carry life; not an escape, but equipment to be more fully present in each moment and to find peace and rest even in our work. 

Dallas Willard says that we must “ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives.”  In a season of preparation and of learning to pay attention to the coming of Christ in our world, this seems a highly appropriate invitation. 

This advent, let us learn to honor Sabbath together, to receive the gift of rest.  Let us, as Paul writes, “make it our ambition to lead a quiet life” (1 Thess. 4:11). 

We will fail multiple times a day, but each time we can slow down, breathe, and come back to the present moment.  Let us breathe deeply in the love and peace of the Spirit, and breathe out our anxious busyness and toil, that we may be present enough to encounter the gift of Emmanuel, God with us, in each moment of our lives.