Sacred Play

Deuteronomy 5: 12-15

Roger Lynn

October 20, 2019
(click here to listen to the audio of this sermon on YouTube)

Later this week I will be engaging in a significant spiritual practice with a long, rich history – I will be going on vacation for a week. I tell you this not because I think I need to somehow justify it to you. This congregation has always been very supportive and generous about such things. I simply want to  remind you that play can, indeed, be a spiritual practice.

Deeply embedded within both the Old and New Testament scriptures is the understanding that rest is a sacred activity – one which has the potential to put us in touch with God’s presence in our world and in our lives. It is so important, in fact, that it is built into the very core of the Ten Commandments – Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy! The Sabbath was understood as a day of rest. Now to be sure, over the years some very unhelpful ideas have come to be associated with what it means to “keep the sabbath.” It became a “law” to be enforced, rather than a benefit to be enjoyed. But trying to define and restrict an idea with narrow, legalistic attitudes does not negate the fundamentally positive nature of the concept. We need rest. Our bodies need it. Our spirits need it. Our relationship with God needs it. Our relationships with each other need it. You wouldn’t think that such an idea would need to be part of the Ten Commandments. You wouldn’t think we would need to be convinced with arguments like, “Even God took a break after six days.” It seems like such a “no brainer.” But somehow we keep forgetting. There is always one more thing that “needs” to be done. There is always something so important that it can’t wait another five minutes, or five days. Why is it that a phrase like, “Stop and smell the roses” is included in our collective cultural wisdom? Because we know that it is true, and we also know that we continually need to be reminded.

Of course it is true that there are important things to do. But it is also true that if we never take time to rest we will soon render ourselves incapable of accomplishing any of them. And it is worth remembering that we are not in this life alone. Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr put it this way, “Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime, therefore, we are saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore, we are saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone. Therefore, we are saved by love.” Taking time to rest and play helps us to keep things in perspective. The ancient Hebrew people knew they needed to have regular opportunities to remember that God was, indeed, in the midst of them. “Remember the Sabbath, and keep it holy.” Take time to relax long enough to notice that we don’t have to do everything ourselves. We have God and we have each other.

Making opportunities to rest and play will look different for different people. If strapping heavy packs on your back, walking several miles into the wilderness, and then sleeping on the ground is not your idea of a good time, then please don’t feel obligated to engage in that particular form of rest and relaxation. By the same token, if you don’t find a luxury cruise in the Caribbean particularly appealing, don’t force yourself just because someone else thinks it’s restful. Find what you enjoy doing, and do it. Just remember to approach it as play rather than as work. If you do that, then it will naturally become a spiritual practice, because when we are rested and relaxed and not stressed out by the franticness of life, we are much more likely to notice God’s presence all around us – whether it is in the beauty of the wilderness landscape, or the joy of some new hobby, or the laughter you share with family and friends in a quiet moment. Our play becomes sacred play not just when we remember to include God, but when we get so caught up in the moment that we let go of the tight control we so often have on our lives. It is in such moments that God’s presence stands a chance of slipping past our defenses. 

It is important to be intentional about our rest and our play, whatever form they take. “Remember the Sabbath, and keep it holy.” Sometimes that will mean going on vacation. Sometimes that will mean remembering to actually take your days off. Sometimes that will mean going for a walk after dinner or sitting out in the backyard watching a meteor shower. The point is not so much what we do, but how we do it, and even more importantly, that we do it. In a world that seems to be moving faster and faster all the time, with our lives becoming busier and busier, we need to slow down enough to give God room to be noticed. So remember your mother’s advice – go outside and play. After all, it is a spiritual practice.