Sermon: "Handling Stress" by Dr. Michael B. Brown
Right now I'm handling stress by taking a vacation! I highly recommend it. I've been running, biking, swimming, barbecuing, reading, listening to music, and practicing - which I love doing. I've also been thinking - clearing the mind and letting the Spirit in. And in my thinking I've been identifying some sources of stress in my life and how I might better deal with it.
From Worry to Prayer
I am officially a worrier. My worries include big ones: that I won't be able to meet others' expectations; that there's more music I want to learn than I have time left in which to learn it; that I'll look back with regret at not having found someone to share my life with. I'd like to thing those are important things worth worrying about.
Then there's the more trivial stuff, such as worrying that my love handles have become permanent fixtures, immune to exercise, or that the Yankees starting pitchers are looking vulnerable to collapse under the pressure of the postseason.
Then I'm reminded of that James Thurber quote: "Let us not look back in regret, nor forward in fear, but around us in awareness." (I've changed "anger" to "regret" because to me it carries more meaning.) By these words I'm inspired to sideline my worries in order to admire the myriad of butterflies dancing joyfully in the garden, to listen for wind whispering its secrets among the trees, to wonder what new discovery has elicited the distant dogs' excited barking. Butterflies, wind, dogs - they all seem to travel through life without the interior luggage I lug around.
I'd like to think that Jesus also got stressed out. When He needed a break from the paparazzi - or even the disciples - He opted for a "praycation." Alone with nature and talking privately with Dad, His divine batteries were recharged and things became clearer. This Sunday we'll close with Joseph Scriven's 1855 powerful hymn, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus," which contains these words:
"O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer."
Maybe Jesus even gave God an earful during these Father Son chats, pouring out his frustrations, doubts and exhaustion in the face of so much yet to accomplish. In her sermon "Out of the Whirlwind," Barbara Brown Taylor talks about how Job cried out in frustration to God. She writes, "God prefers Job's outrage to the piety of Job's friends. Devout defiance pleases God." In other words, the first step to unloading our worry and stress is to bring EVERYTHING to God in prayer - don't hold back.
From Discouragement to Trust
We at Marble all know David Sisco to be a brilliant composer and wonderful singer, but his added gift for writing lyrics puts him in rare company. For a 2003 Lenten sermon by Dr. Florence Pert David composed a magnificent song that he'll sing on Sunday: "When Love Gets Tough." As you can imagine the music is extraordinary, but to me the message is even more profound:
"When love gets tough you know God is working, When life gets rough you know God is there, God knows when you've been through enough, God loves you more than enough - when love gets tough."
Through David's words I hear the truth that when things are not going as planned, when life feels like we're sailing through squalls - that's when God is on overdrive working in us and through us. Barbara Brown Taylor again: "The most important time to pray is when prayer seems meaningless." She says prayer is about process, not merely about achieving desired results. In other words, trust the process and leave the results to God.
When we feel discouraged - when we can't make sense out of circumstance, when our greatest efforts come up short and our best intentions backfire - it is then we're truly on holy ground, for we can trust that God is working whether we see evidence of it or not.
From Burnout to Peace
Our middle hymn on Sunday is "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind" by John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892). (For reasons of inclusivity we've changed the title to "Dear Lord Embracing Humankind.") John Greenleaf Whittier was an American Quaker Poet and a passionate advocate for the abolition of slavery. His religion stressed humanitarianism, compassion and social responsibility - ideals which not only fell from his lips but coursed through his veins. He ran for Congress in 1832 and after losing he suffered the first of two nervous breakdowns. Soon thereafter he published an anti-slavery pamphlet, Justice and Expedience, which issued an unequivocal demand for immediate emancipation, thereby dashing his political hopes forever. He signed the anti-slavery declaration in 1833, saying he considered it the most significant single action of his life.
In the 1830's he founded the Liberty Party and was frequently mobbed, stoned and run out of town as he spoke forcefully and publicly against slavery. By the mid 1840's Whittier was burned out, discouraged, and severely weakened by exhaustion. He realized that his impassioned plea to end slavery purely on the grounds of humanitarian principle had been a failure, and that the only way toward change was going to be an incremental legislative approach. He removed himself from the public eye and returned to Amesbury, Mass., devoting himself primarily to writing for the rest of his life.
Against this backdrop we sing these familiar words from his inspired pen: "Drop Thy still dews of quietness, till all our strivings cease, Take from our souls the strain and stress and let our ordered lives confess the beauty of Thy peace."
As is often the case, there is also a verse that is omitted from hymnals which packs even more truth: "With that deep hush subduing all our words and works That drown The tender whisper of Thy call, As noiseless let Thy blessing fall as fell Thy manna down."
As courageous and visionary as John Greenleaf Whittier was, so emboldened by the truth seared onto his heart that slavery was an instrument of evil in America, perhaps his most courageous act was simply to stop and listen to that "still small voice." It is in that "tender whisper" of God's call that we receive the peace which not only passes all our understanding, but all our striving and ambition, all our worry and discouragement. It is nothing less than the true serenity of a heart surrendered to God.