Preached by Pastor Grant Lynn Ford at the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, November 12, 2006, at the 8:40 and 11:10 am services.
The Phoenix Affirmations: # 11
The Path of Jesus is found where Christ’s followers care for their bodies as temples of the holy and take time to pray and play, to worship, and to reflect, as essential parts of their vocation.
Eileen Caddy
Stop sitting there with your hands folded looking on doing nothing. Get into action and live this full and glorious life NOW. You have to do it.
Mark 2:18-22
18The followers of John the Baptist and the Pharisees often went without eating. Some people came and asked Jesus, “Why do the followers of John and those of the Pharisees often go without eating, while your disciples never do?”
19Jesus answered:
The friends of a bridegroom don’t go without eating while he is still with them. 20But the time will come when he will be taken from them. Then they will go without eating.
21No one patches old clothes by sewing on a piece of new cloth. The new piece would shrink and tear a bigger hole.
22No one pours new wine into old wineskins. The wine would swell and burst the old skins. Then the wine would be lost, and the skins would be ruined. New wine must be put into new wineskins.
My cat, Just Jack, has taught me a lot of great things. For instance, his advice for success: “Climb your way to the top. That’s why the curtains are there.”
When it comes to personal relationships, his advice is: “One day, ignore people; the next day, annoy them; and then play with them when they’re busy.” He also proposes: “When in trouble, just purr and look cute.”
When it comes to neatness, he suggests: “Whenever you miss the sandbox, cover it up. Dragging a sock over it helps.”
He believes we humans don’t take good care of ourselves. He has a remedy, though: “Always find a good patch of sun to nap in…and nap often.” And, of course, he reminds us all: “Life is hard, and then you nap.” Now that there’s good preachin’!”
As for just fooling around, he claims: “Curiosity never killed anything except maybe a few hours.”
But his all-time ‘right-on’ bit of advice: “Make the world your playground.”
Lots of us just don’t play enough. We don’t take time to really laugh, to chortle and gurgle until the tears come squirting out of our eyes. We tend to take life too seriously, as though living is hard work.
It was novelist Samuel Butler who said: “All of the animals except for [humanity] know that the principle business of life is to enjoy it.”
And President Abraham Lincoln wisely advises us: “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”
Today’s affirmation urges us to “take time to pray and play, to worship, and to reflect”, suggesting that all these things — praying, playing, worshipping, reflecting on life — are equally important components of a well-balanced Christian life.
That great theologian, Robin Williams, gave me my life-quote (the axiom I live by): “Life is a gift. What a shame it would be to return it unopened.”
It was Jesus himself who said: “I have come that they might have life, and live it up extravagantly.” John 10:10 author’s translation
Barbara Bush, who is smarter than the man she married or the boys she raised, tells us: “At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a [spouse], a friend, a child, or a parent.” Now that’s some good stuff right there!
Many of us have lived for years hoping that someone would tell us that what we are doing is important and significant and that we are marvelous for doing it. Most of us wish we had heard it from our father or maybe our mother. And most never hear those words.
I had struggled with my father for most of my life. He was the Great Hunter who killed his deer and elk every year, along with many fish, dungenese crabs, razorback clams and all kinds of other wildlife. We ate all winter on the food from the walk-in locker at the community freezer.
I was not the least bit interested in hunting Bambi, but I was happy to cook him up later for dinner. I hated fishing, but loved fish!
So we just never saw ‘eye-to-eye’. He was a man’s man, or so he thought, and well, you know about me…
When he was 86 he called me to wish me a happy birthday. Mom had died several years before, so he took over the ‘birthday’ thing. At the end of an hour’s conversation, stretching from Oregon to Florida, he said to me: “I just want you to know I’m proud of you…and I love you.”
I was stunned to silence. I think he embarrassed himself just a little, because he quickly hung up. Those were the last words I have heard him speak, because just a few weeks later he went into the hospital for some tests on his heart, and he came out a week later in a hearse.
He was still the redneck, homophobic, dyed-in-the-wool Right Winger that I grew up with…but he blessed me, like Abraham blessed Isaac, and Isaac blessed Jacob.
I never again slavishly worked for anyone’s approval, not a family member, a boss, or even a church board. I work because I love what I do, I meditate and pray—not because I have to, but because I love the peace and energy—and I play, sometimes with others and sometimes all by myself. After all, shopping can be fun!
And most of all, I love life because I am blessed. You are too. If your father or your mother or some matriarchal or patriarchal figure has never blessed you, may I step up to the plate? You are wonderfully, fantastically, amazingly blessed because you are wonderful, fantastic and amazing. So live that way. Remember the words of Jesus: “I have come that [you] might have life, and live it up extravagantly.” And above all, be blessed!
Be blessed with a love for what you do, whether it’s working or volunteering. Be an amateur. The word comes from the French form of the Latin root of the word meaning a “lover of”. Retain its French inflexion (“am-a-tEUR”) because you are doing what you do for the love of doing it!
Be blessed with a love for what you do out of the generosity of your heart. Singing in the choir, being an usher, serving on a board, helping with services at an adult living facility…the list goes on and on. We have all kinds of opportunities to be involved. When I say ‘involved’, I truly mean, making yourself a part of something wonderful and satisfying.
Be blessed with prayer and meditation in your life. Don’t pray because you have to; pray because it seems right and good and even fun at times. I used to be afraid I wasn’t praying enough. But now prayer is a conversation I keep going with God. Our daily prayer list hangs right by my computer, and several times a day I look at those names and envision those folks in a healing light. That’s not work or effort and struggle. That’s prayer, pure and simple.
Be blessed with times of recreation and rest and above all else, times when you just kick back like a little kid and play, doing silly, fun things, where you just forget how serious and important and adult you are. Remember Jesus’ advice: “Be a kid!!”
Be blessed with intimacy in your life. For heaven’s sake, enjoy those pleasurable moments. I believe that sex is adult play. I’m not suggesting that you engage in this kind of play therapy with everyone in your path. There are reasons why that may not be all that healthy, physically, psychologically and spiritually. But please don’t think of sex as something dirty. Realize that it is a gift from God who wants you to play and laugh and giggle and be exuberant or tender with your partner.
Robert Fulghum, author of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, tells us: “Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life—learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.”
Or as Henry Van Dyke said: “Be glad of life, because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars.”
Or as Jack would say: “Make the world your playground.” And that’s the Truth!
I love the gift of life.
I open it with joy!
I play and I pray.
I laugh and I sing.
I love what I do.
I share life with others.
I am wonderfully blessed…
as I live the Christ-life…
and I like it like that!
And so it is! Amen.
