Saturday, March 26, 2016

Abundance


At the time, when you didn’t know God, you were enslaved by things that aren’t gods by nature. But now, after knowing God (or rather, being known by God), how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless world system? Do you want to be slaves to it again? You observe religious days and months and seasons and years. Galatians 4:8-10 CEB

I’m taking a day off. Well, sort of. So far I’ve washed yesterday’s dishes, fed the cats, set up some kombucha to ferment, cooked and eaten breakfast, helped Kay with her taxes and now I’m writing this. Later, I’ll work on some liturgy for April. But after the last few days, this is still a break. Holy Week’s a busy time at the church, and consequently for pastors and church staff. I don’t know how much energy I have for something new or creative...

Last time I mentioned my “Life Abundant” list. I’ll go that direction and see what happens.

Our Women’s Thursday Noon study group has been working our way through Galatians. It’s been interesting, and sometimes fun (although a couple women who are less interested in deep study may’ve been practicing some P/A behaviors through absenting themselves).

A couple weeks ago we were looking at the text above. I wrote “days, months, seasons, years” on the board. We briefly described sacred (things connected with the holy) and secular (strictly worldly things). Then I invited everyone to brainstorm about the important days in our lives – calling them out – while someone added them to a growing list on the board. 

The question came up, “Is Thanksgiving sacred or secular?” Our answer: “Yes.” 

Gradually the list included major holy days as well as the birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays important to anyone with family or friends. 

And the question surfaced about that boundary between sacred and secular. We flipped to John 10:10b and read: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (NRSV). 

What does this mean in light of that Galatians passage?

Even today, most faithful people still tend to separate our days into the sacred and secular, but if Jesus came so that we might have life abundant, isn’t that an invitation to live all moments of all of our days as if they are sacred (touched by the holy)?

The idea certainly puts a different face on what some of us do with our free time! (No more writing or looking at foul things online!) 

Scrubbing toilets, sacred? Defragging the laptop? Working on taxes? Yes. Yes. And, Yes.

Thank you (again), Brian 
Anyway, at the end of class, we each accepted the mission of working on a “Life Abundant” list of things that we can celebrate. The one stipulation was that it’s NOT to include the sort of things we appreciate because of our social location. It’s to be the sort of stuff that a person with barely a roof over their head might notice and value.

Weekends at the cabin? No. Abundance of shopping opportunities? No. Spring’s first dandelion. Yes. Humming? Yes. Legs that move under us? Yes…

Care to join us?

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