Reflections on "Turn It Off" Genesis 2: 1-3; Mark 6: 45-46

I enjoyed the sermon a bit, although I ran into one of the dangers of preaching -- how to preach God's Word and avoid trite themes.  The sermon ought to be more than a self-help, therapeutic talk.  This week tackles a subject, taking sabbath, that has biblical roots, but is also addressed by lots of pseudo-psychologists.  I tried to let the Scripture inform us, but not sure that was achieved.

Int the prayers, I addressed to some extent the terrorist attacks.  Perhaps I should have devoted the sermon to it.  Certainly, it was hard to bring that theme into this particular sermon topic

“Turn It Off” November 22, 2015; FPC, Troy; iPhone theology series; Genesis 2: 1-3; Mark 6: 45-46

Introduction: I thought about turning off my cell phone for 24 hrs. in preparation for my sermon this week.

To disconnect. Take a time-out. Take sabbath from my phone, if you will. I thought it would be a pretty insightful experiment for this sermon.

I actually had a two week window (since I was not here last week) to find one day to turn it off.

But, which day: the days I was out of town and away from my family?

could not do it on the day I had a child at home recovering from surgery for a day?

I did have a day when I was gone to a seminar, but then the person I was picking up asked me to text when I was leaving the church, so I needed the phone them; plus, the place hosting the seminar did not have wireless, so I could not connect my tablet to the wireless, which meant I had to use my phone to check email and check out the web when the seminar got a little slow (and during lunch I ran to a nursing home for a visit and had to use my map app since I had never been to the nursing home before.

what days would I not have a child off to college somewhere who might need to call me?

Turn it off. I'm not sure my phone ever gets turned off unless if freezes up and I have to turn if off to reset it.

Move 1: If God had a cell phone back during the time of creation, do you think God would have turned it off on the

a. On the seventh day God rested.

1. Six busy days, which I suppose are an argument for hard work.

2. but then God rested.

3. I wonder why?

b. God giving us the example of resting on the seventh day, taking Sabbath, reminds us that we are not God.

1. Always having something to do can make us feel important.

      2. The thought process goes something like this: “If I always have something to do, then I must be important. Work cannot make it without me. The volunteer group cannot make it without me. I must be really important. I must have value.”

            3.  as if the world could not continue without our involvement.

           4.  To believe that we cannot take a break elevates us to a god-like status.

           5.  And we are not God.

           6. And even God rested.

b. God resting also reminds me of the importance of fellowship.

1. Remember that God is Trinitarian; God in three persons -- Father, son and Holy Spirit.

2. If go back earlier in Genesis, we discover God using the plural “we” and “us” in describing how God acts to create.

3. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all there at the beginning.

4. In recent years, theologians have shared the insight of how a Trinitarian God models community. As Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three persons in one, we are called to model that by being in fellowship with each other.

5. God resting is actually Father, Son, and Holy Spirit sharing that time of rest together.

5. As we enter the holiday season, most of us have busy schedules. Lots of things to do, places to go, people to see.

              7. We would be well-served to remember the example of God resting.

8. Look for those moments of fellowship. Maybe with family. Maybe with friends.

              9. Not time spent doing, but time spent sharing and being together.

            10. Tinsel, by Hank Stuever, Tammy loves Christmas. She decorates people's homes as her job. She meets with friends for a gift exchange. She gives her kids everything they want and more. In fact, the year the author observes her she and her husband surprise their kids with a ski trip. An elf brings the news to their house.

She is searching for “that moment.”

That moment finally occurs when she and her family are stranded in a hotel by a snowstorm, unable to fly home. Two days later they have to drive home. Forced captivity. Forced out of the hustle and bustle of Christmas. And there she discovers “that moment.”

11. That moment when the hustle and bustle give way to connecting with one another.

Move 2: Jesus and the disciples just finished up a pretty exciting event when we catch up to them in the Gospel of Mark.

a. they have just had 5000 or more people gathered with them.

1. Pretty exhilarating.

2. Big crowd.

3. Things are hopping.

            4. They even manage to feed the 5000.

           5. If we fast forward ahead, we will see that soon the disciples and Jesus will have people racing to them to be healed, to listen to them teach, to just be in their presence.

           6. But right now, Jesus needs a break.

           7. He sends the disciples away from the crowds and off to their next stop while Jesus himself heads off to the mountains for some time alone.

b. Notice what Jesus does when he goes off by himself.

1. he prays.

2. Time to refocus.

3. reconnect with God.

            4. get back to the core of who he is.

c. We know how busy life can be.

           1. I read recently about a study entitled “Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century” done by social scientists affiliated with UCLA.

The scientists working with UCLA’s Center on Everyday Lives of Families studied the dual-income families the same way they would animal subjects. The team of anthropologists and archeologists spent four years studying 32 middle-class Los Angeles families in their natural habitat — their toy-littered homes — and came to conclusions so grim that the lead researcher used the word “disheartening” to describe the situation we have gotten ourselves into.

They videotaped the activities of family members, tracked their moves with position-locating devices, and documented their homes, yards, and activities with thousands of photographs. They even took saliva samples to measure stress hormones.

The researchers conclude that American families are overwhelmed by clutter, too busy to go in their own backyards, rarely eat dinner together even though they claim family meals as a goal, and can’t park their cars in the garage because they’re crammed with non-vehicular stuff.

Lots of reasons: Costco and the temptation to buy, buy, and buy leads to consumerism and cluttering.

Garages crammed with stuff.

They researchers determined that a refrigerator door cluttered with magnets, calendars, family photos, phone numbers, and sports schedules generally indicates the rest of the home will be in a similarly chaotic state.

Computers and TVs demand our attention and lead us to ignore others.

Too many work demands. Working at home keeps the home from being a place of family time or community.

“Something like 50 of the 64 parents in our study never stepped outside in the course of about a week,” she said. “When they gave us tours of their house they’d say, ‘Here’s the backyard, I don’t have time to go there.’

They get lost in their very busy lives and never get to the places or the relationships that they say they want.

(Beth Teitell can be reached at bteitell@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter@bethteitell. http://www.boston.com/community/moms/articles/2012/07/10/new_study_says_american_families_are_overwhelmed_by_clutter_rarely_eat_together_and_are_generally_stressed_out_about_it_all/?page=full as mentioned by David Lose Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Penn. Sunday, July 15, 2012 http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=1494

           2.  Maybe your life is not quite like that, but I bet you can see some resemblances.

           3.  As we survey our busy lives, we look to Christ and see how he needed time out.

           4.  How he needed to step away and pray.

          5. Perhaps you feel the need to get back in touch with God.

c. Christ the King Sunday is the end of the liturgical calendar. It anticipates Advent and Christmas, the busy time of year.

1. What's the last thought before heading into the busy-ness - Christ is King.

2. We are about to get really busy?

3. Commit to time outs. Intentional times to focus on family, to focus on turning back to God.

4. Do not let the busy-ness of celebrating Christ arrival into our midst keep you from discovering Christ in your life.

conclusion: When I start the process of turning off the iPhone, the screen comes up where I can swipe to turn if off.

But at the bottom of the screen is another button. The “Cancel” button.

Which one will you push?