Welcome to the Monday Mailing #16 – Sacred Time
I am most thankful for yesterday…and “mostly” having the Sunday off. It was a rich blessing to experience the worship the Presbytery of Boston put together and shared with the Synod of the Northeast. It was especially meaningful to hear the words of the co-moderator of the 223 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, (U.S.A.) – her work with the Psalm of the day challenged me…and I need that in my life.
It was nice to have largely two days off. I still arose to the beck and call of the Kitty-Boys…breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I puttered around the house, had a socially distant viewing of Hamilton (at 2:30 pm Kari and I both started watching – she in WV, me here – sending texts to each other about needing tissues!) and generally relaxing. It was nice. I sat on my front porch as I leisurely drank my morning coffee. I refrained from opening my computer, looking at emails or answering the phone…except for those most necessary things. I didn’t read the stack of Christian Century or Presbyterian Outlook magazines. I poked around one or two of my family lines…and took naps with the Kitty-Boys. I felt, and still feel, more calm for it all.
Sacred Time is important to us all. More so if you are more introverted than extroverted…but the hallowing of time is important to us as people of faith. We hallow that Sunday morning hour+…some hallow the daily prayer routine, and others make holy a time in their day for prayer. The thing to remember is that there is not any one right way to Hallow our time…but to do it. To take time to be in the presence of the God who is always there, and say, “Here am I, Lord.”
But that is a dangerous thing to do. Pausing like that in our day, in our life opens us up to God’s Spirit in potentially dangerous ways. God may call to you to change the world…God may tell you to “pick up your cross and follow”…God may confront the nice little life you’ve constructed for yourself, and your life will never be the same. But we know that. We who are “people of the book” and “followers of the Christ” know that God wants for everyone the things we already enjoy. God wants us to listen, and discern, and even wrestle with what is means to make creation into the just, equitable and peaceful creation it was always meant to be. Sometimes we have to listen to God, in order to hear the voices of those who are not heard in our communities, our nation, our world.
Sacred Time … not gonna lie … it is dangerous … but oh so worthwhile!
Peace in the Sacred Times –
Pastor Janice