December 16, 2012
Weary
- Isaiah 40:27
- Rev Ruth Chadwick Moore
He came a little sooner than we expected. Although Mark and I hadn’t talked about it, I’m pretty sure we wanted to space our children out at least two or three years apart. But our son John came just 21 months after our daughter Hadley was born. It was just another example of us not being able to control everything in our lives – try as we might! (It was also an example of failed natural family planning!)
And he was a beautiful baby. Bright blue eyes and gorgeous red hair. It was an easy delivery and I went home 36 hours after he was born. And then the nightmare began! John was the worst baby I have ever known. He nursed constantly, always wanted to be held and never slept during the day for more than 20 minutes at a time. He slept a little longer at night, but was up two or three times a night. Mark was working really long hours trying to establish himself in a law practice and I was home alone with a sweet but constantly talking toddler and a screaming baby.
We were living in Washington then and on Sundays Mark would put John in the snugli and take him all over the city. If you were holding him and walking with him he rarely cried. So they rode the subway all over our nation’s capital and visited every museum that was open on Sundays. Mark has particularly fond memories of the Textile Museum. While the boys were gone, Hadley and I would collapse in bed, read a few stories and take a nap.
By the time John was 9 months old he was walking and eating solid foods. But he rarely napped during the day and was still getting up at least once a night to eat I was so exhausted from lack of sleep I thought I would have to be institutionalized. So I decided it was time that we teach him how to sleep through the night. (Notice I said I thought it was time, Mark wasn’t so sure.) So this book we read told us to feed the baby, rock him a little until he was drowsy but not asleep and then put him in his crib. If he woke during the night you were to let him cry for a while and if he did not settle down you would go in and lie him back down and pat his back and say night, night and then leave. The book suggested that the baby would cry for a few minutes, but would then settle down and go back to sleep once he realized he would not get picked up or fed. The first night John cried for 6 hours even though Mark and I took turns going in and reassuring him that he was fine and that we had not abandoned him. Needless to say, we did not get much sleep that first night of sleep training. But the book promised us that the second night would be much better and the crying time would be diminished. The next night John sobbed for 8 hours. It was horrible. We were beyond exhaustion and Mark couldn’t stand it anymore. So he lifted John out of the crib, rocked him in the rocker and gave him a bottle. For some reason John needed to be held and fed long after most babies sleep through the night. And Mark – bless his heart - continued to do the night feedings for 9 more months. Yes, it took nine more months – until John was 18 months old – before he finally slept through the night.
Weary. Weariness is defined as fatigue, being tired or depleted in strength and energy – to exhaust your strength or endurance. That is how we felt for the first 18 months of John’s life. The first time he slept through the night we woke up at 6 am and thought he had died! Caring for young children is exhausting. Shopping and wrapping and baking and decorating for Christmas is exhausting. Caring for an aging parent can be exhausting. Sitting by the bedside as your spouse or best friend moves from this live to the next is exhausting. There are so many life events that make us weary.
And then our culture and its demands on us can also be exhausting. I agree with Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor when she says: “I do not mean to make an idol of health, but it does seem to me that at least some of us have made an idol of exhaustion. The only time we know we have done enough is when we are running on empty and when the ones we love most are the ones we see the least. When we lie down to sleep at night, we offer our full appointment calendars to God in lieu of prayer, believing that God – who is as busy as we are – will surely understand.”
There are also different ways to become weary. Physical weariness is the most obvious. But emotional and spiritual weariness are also realities. Physical weariness is most often cured by a good night’s sleep, but emotional and spiritual weariness require something more.
During this Advent season we have been talking about longing for something more. We are often overwhelmed by the wants and worries of life. Threats of violence and war are all around us. Many of us are growing older and others of us are sick or in constant pain. Then there is anxiety, or boredom or loneliness and we feel like life is draining out of us. Even working for the church and the good of others can cause emotional or spiritual weariness.
So what does God tell us about weariness? How do our bible passages speak to us today about spiritual and emotional weariness – which most of the time end up being the same thing any way.
Well our Isaiah passage tells us that even the young and the strong grow weary. But then we learn that although we get weary, God never gets weary. And then we hear that God gives strength to the weary. So this is what I hear Isaiah telling us. All people get weary, God never gets weary and God offers strength to the weary.
And then we hear how we can receive that strength, that renewing, that life that we so desperately need.
Let’s hear Isaiah 40:31 from three different translations of the bible.
Good News: But those who trust in the Lord for help will find their strength renewed.
KJV: Buy they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
NIV: But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
So we’ve got three words here: Trust, Wait and Hope. So which translation do we want to follow? I mean we only want to do one of these things because we’re already weary right?! And these three words seem so different to me.
So let’s see if I can put these words into perspective. I order a lot of my Christmas gifts on line. Now even if I can pretty much track when the package is supposed to arrive, I’m never quite sure when it will be delivered, so there is this wonderful anticipation – I don’t know when it is coming, but I do know that it is on the way. This is an example of hope, trust and waiting all rolled into one. I’m waiting in hope because I believe that my package will be delivered. By placing an order with a reputable company I have every reason to believe that I will receive what I am hoping and waiting for. So even if it takes longer than the tracking email tells me, I still wait, I still hope and I still trust – wait, hope and trust all rolled into one.
But what if you saw me hovering around my mailbox one day. You might ask me what I was doing. And I could say, “I’m waiting for a million dollar check to come in the mail.” You would ask me who is sending this check and I would answer,” I don’t know, but I’m hoping it comes today.” And you would then tell my husband that I had gone off the deep end. Because what I am doing is just wishful thinking, not hope – or not biblical hope anyway. Biblical hope always has a reasonable foundation. In other words, there is a reason for hope. I obviously have no reason to hope or expect that someone would send me a check for a million dollars out of the blue. So in this case I would be waiting and maybe even trusting – but I would be doing so foolishly because I had no basis for that hope.
And then what if you saw me at the mailbox again and you could tell that I was really angry. And caring person that you are – you would say, “What’s wrong Ruth?” And I would shake my junk mail in your face and say, “This is all I got in the mail today – bills and catalogues! I ordered a sweater from L. L. Bean yesterday and it’s not been delivered yet.” So once again you would tell my sweet loving husband that I had gone off the deep end, but then you might also say to me, “Ruth, you just ordered it yesterday. It will come. Just wait!” So in this scenario I had hope and trust, but I didn’t wait.
So now I have given you three examples of hoping, waiting and trusting all working together – or not. So even if these three words seem very different, an attitude of waiting, hoping and trusting – when all three work together – what we see is faith. I’ve kind of gone the long way around, but let’s see if we can use these examples to get back to God’s words to the weary.
There are a lot of reasons to be tired. You may have little children who never sleep. You may have worries that keep you up. You may not be eating right or you may need to professionally deal with emotional and relationship issues
But if you aren’t just tired of body, but are weary of spirit, then the solution for that is in our translations of Isaiah 40:31 – Wait, trust and hope. Is this like waiting for the million dollar check? No, because we have good reason and experience and the history to hope in God being there for us. Does the strength always come right away and in the way we want it? No, because God’s time is not necessarily our time – so we sometimes have to wait for it. And in our waiting and in our hoping we have to trust that God loves us and wants the best for us and is here for us – that God is ready and willing to renew your strength of body, mind, heart and soul if you just hope, wait, trust – in other words, if you have faith. As Christian financial counselor Larry Burkett once said, “God is never late, but seldom early.”
I finished the rough draft of this sermon on Wednesday afternoon. When I write a sermon I share with you what the scriptures mean for my life and what I believe they could mean for your life. So sometimes my sermons are too inwardly focused. God’s Word, God’s church and God’s disciples also need to be outwardly focused, and looking for ways to share with those outside the church the Good News of God’s love in Jesus Christ. So I am grateful for the following words that Teri’s friend and our denomination’s former moderator – Cindy Bolbach - shared in July of 2012. It gives us a different take on the words from Isaiah and it gives us the challenge to not always be focused on what God can do for us.
In Cindy’s last presentation to the denomination she specifically used the scripture passage we have talked about today- Isaiah 40:31, as well as referencing the story in Mark Chapter 2 – the story of Jesus healing a paralyzed man. Mark’s gospel tells us that four friends brought the paralyzed man to Jesus to be healed. But the crowds were so thick around him that the friends went up on the roof above Jesus and dug a hole through it so they could lower their sick friend down to Jesus. Cindy is speaking about her cancer diagnosis, some of the political and theological tensions in the church, and what she learned during the two years she traveled all over the country meeting Presbyterians.
“At the heart of the gospel, at the heart of each community of faith that seeks to proclaim the gospel, is not our structure or form of government. At the heart of the gospel lie disciples like those in Mark who are willing to take risks, willing to do whatever it takes to help others see Jesus. Not just [carry] those whom they like, but maybe even [carrying] those they don’t know, those they don’t like. Willing to go up to the roof, willing to cut a hole in it.”
“Over the past two years, I have seen those disciples at work in every nook and cranny in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)… and over the past few months, I have felt those disciples. While struggling with cancer, I have been up lifted and supported by those disciples. Many disagree with me, but they have reached out to help me to the roof and carried me to see Jesus… None of [our disagreements] matter without disciples who are willing to take risks for the sake of the gospel. Let’s not worry about process and structure; instead, let’s pray that we will be given the faith that Jesus saw in those disciples. Let’s commit ourselves to be those disciples who will take risks, who will carry others up to the roof… If we commit ourselves to lift someone we don’t know, someone we don’t like, we will soar on wings like eagles, we will run and not grow weary, we will walk and not grow faint because we will be helping people see Jesus. What more could we ask for?”
May it be so, Amen.
Into This Silent Night
Into this silent night
as we make our weary way
we know not where,
just when the night becomes its darkest
and we cannot see our path,
just then
is when the angels rush in,
their hands full of stars.
(Kneeling in Bethlehem by Ann Weems)
References:
SermonCentral.com, “Words to the Weary” by Mary Lewis
www.pcusa.org/news/2012