It Would Have Been Enough

Pr. Jaz Waring

Epiphany 2 January 14, 2024

I walked into the discount grocery store with $20 in my pocket to buy groceries to last at least a week. Getting laid off work and living on my own required me to get creative with my budget. I ate a lot of bean burritos when I was broke. Buying a large can of Rosarita Traditional refried beans was about a dollar at the time, and I’d get a stack of flour tortillas. This was enough to feed me lunch and/or dinner, mixing it up with instant ramen or scrambled eggs. This was may manna for my wilderness season of unemployment. It sustained me and warmed my bones until I was able to get constant income. Sometime I look back at that challenging time with a sense of nostalgia, but I don’t want to live through that ever again. We’re continuing our series on sabbath and rest. The last time I was here, I talked about how we rest in the face of injustice. This week, we’ll get into how we can rest in the face of scarcity. Israel gets a bad wrap for complaining in the wilderness. In context, I think they had a right to complain. They were refugees escaping slavery, and were stuck in an arid wilderness. They could not cultivate the land to produce food. So when the food they grabbed on the way out of Egypt ran out, they rightfully complained to management. They began to look back on their past experience of oppression with rose-colored lenses. Sometimes the oppression you know feels better than the liberation you can not see. God responds to the cries of Israel, a common theme in Exodus and the Hebrew Bible. God provides quail and manna to sustain them while in the wilderness. This mysterious carb from heaven was a gift that revealed God’s presence with them. The manna was not your ordinary bread from heaven, it had very quick expiration date. If you tried to save some leftovers for the next day, it would rot. I’ve had similar experiences with avocados. This was an intentional exercise in trust, teaching Israel how to navigate the age old question: how do you know when you’ve had enough? As the story continues, God told Israel that on the day before the sabbath, to collect twice as much food so that it would last the next day. This is tip number one for rest in the face of scarcity: If you don’t plan on resting, then rest might not ever come. We need to be intentional with how we use our time and resources so that we can enter into our rest. However, Israel would rather work than trust God to provide for them. God created the world with abundance for everyone. However our sinful and imperfect systems do not distribute resources equitably. There is enough food in our world for every mouth to be fed. There is enough housing in the world for everyone to have a permanent home. There is enough money in the world for everyone to have affordable healthcare and more than a barely-living wage. Instead, we as a society create scarcity and hoard our resources. Theologian Walter Brueggemann writes about the “myth of scarcity” in his book, The Covenanted Self: Exploration in Law and Covenant. He writes about an over 1,000 year old Passover song called “Dayenu” which means, “It would have been enough” or as he puts it, “There is enough in God’s goodness.” The song goes through the Exodus story, God’s miracles, and the gift of the Torah, with the refrain “It would have been enough.” For example, here are a few lines from the song: If God had brought us out from Egypt, and not carried out judgements against them Dayenu, It would have been enough. or If he had given us their wealth, and had not split the sea for us Dayenu, It would have been enough or If he had supplied our needs in the desert for forty years, and had not fed us the manna Dayenu, it would have been enough. If he had fed us the manna, and had not given us the Shabbat, Dayenu, it would have been enough. This song displays the abundance of God because if God had not given or done more, it would have been enough. They would have found satisfaction, but God didn’t stop there! God kept going, kept giving, kept protecting God’s people. There is enough in God’s goodness for us. We can be completely satisfied in God’s goodness, not because of our work, but because of who God is. God is abundant and does not want to withhold any good thing from us, and we also live in a world that has created scarcity. These two things can be true at the same time. So how do we rest in the face of scarcity? We have a Dayenu kind of faith. A Dayenu kind of faith trusts that there is enough in God’s goodness for everyone. A Dayenu kind of faith resists the urge to hoard, or overwork ourselves. A Dayenu kind of faith influences these corrupt systems in order to serve the public good. When you don’t have enough, you can trust in the goodness of God, who provides the Bread of Life, the Body of Christ, fleshed out in community. Christ is the Bread of Life, sent from the heavens to sustain us, and to be a sign of God’s presence with us. We consume the Body of Christ in Holy Communion every week to nourish our spirits and re-member ourselves as an interconnected beloved community across time and space. God may not send money and food from the heavens to provide for us, but does provide for us through community. God’s presence within each of us has the grace and the ability to be God’s hands and feet, and make the world a more equitable place. When everyone does their part, and takes only what they need, there is room for all of us to rest in the goodness of God. So if God has given you the strength to get out of bed, but not brush your teeth. Dayenu, it is enough. If you had the strength to brush your teeth, but not to cook for yourself Dayenu, it is enough. If you had the strength to cook for yourself, but not get out of the house, Dayenu, it is enough. If you had the strength to get out of the house, but not to work or run errands, Dayenu, it is enough. If you had the strength to work or run errands, but not to pay your bills Dayenu, it is enough. If you had the strength to pay your bills, but not do something you love, Dayenu, it is enough. There is enough in God’s goodness for today, and for you. Amen.

Sermon on Genesis 1-2:3

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

As we begin our yearlong theme of Sabbath for 2024, I wanted to start with a sermon series on what the Bible says about Sabbath. From now until Lent, we’ll be exploring some parts of the Bible that we don’t always spend a lot of time on—passages about Sabbath, Jubilee, and rest.

And where better to start than The Beginning?

This is one of the better-known passages we’ll be looking at. But we often look at it for what it says about what God created and our place in the world and our relationship with creation. We gravitate toward the beautiful imagery of God calling things into existence and the drama of “Let there be light!” We read with delight about God creating humanity in God’s image. But we rarely focus on God resting and what that means for our practice of Sabbath.

But the conclusion of the creation story is when God rested and enjoyed what God had made.

This is an amazing story. When we look at creation stories from other cultures in that area at that time, we see gods creating the world and humanity by accident or for the purpose of having servants. In Genesis, we see God calling forth heavenly bodies and arranging the sea and the sky—intentionally, with purpose and beauty.

And God calls all of it good.

And then, God creates humanity in God’s own image and entrusts these human creations with the care and keeping of the good world God had made. And God saw that it was very good.

And certainly the creation of humanity seems to be the climax of the story—the completion of creation at which time God called it “very good.”

But that’s not where our story ends. It doesn’t end with the sixth day and the completion of what God created. The story doesn’t end until God rests. And God doesn’t just collapse on the sofa and hide from the world, exhausted. God rests intentionally, setting aside that time for rest and enjoyment. God blesses and hallows the seventh day because God rested on that day. The day of rest has God’s special blessing on it.

There’s an organization called The Bible Project, and they release educational videos about the Bible. They have a really great one on Sabbath that I’m hoping to show you soon. In it, they observe that on each of the first six days of creation, it reads, “and there was evening and there was morning, the [first, second, or whatever] day.”

But that doesn’t happen on the seventh day. It’s like the seventh day never ends. The Bible Project folks argue that it’s because that state of rest and enjoyment is how creation is supposed to be always. The initial work of creation was complete, and the world was ready to enjoy for the rest of time.

And we don’t earn that. Humanity had barely existed before God called all creation to rest and commune with God.

Similarly, Jesus had just come on the scene in our reading from the Gospel of Mark today. He hadn’t risen from the dead, healed anyone, cast out any demons, collected any followers, or even taught anyone anything. And yet, when he came up out of the water after being baptized, the voice of God came from the torn-apart heavens and said, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

God was “well-pleased” with Jesus? He hadn’t done anything yet!

If that sounds a little cold, like Jesus’ existence wasn’t enough and he had to prove his worth, remember that next time your inner critic starts whispering that you’re not good enough or that you have to prove yourself to the world.

It’s only after Jesus is fortified by his identity affirmed in baptism that he goes out into the wilderness and withstands all kinds of temptations.

Jesus didn’t please God because of what he did or how much he sacrificed. Jesus pleased God because of his very identity as a beloved child of God.

This is why we’re beginning our Sabbath journey here: beginning at The Beginning.

Sabbath can easily become an obligation, another “to-do” on our list, or another reason to feel guilty when we don’t follow it like we want.

But that’s not what Sabbath is about. We don’t have to earn rest, just as we don’t have to (and indeed, can’t) earn God’s love.

Yes, Sabbath is a practice, but it’s a practice rooted in our identity as children of God who live secure in God’s love and enjoyment of us and the world we live in.

We practice it, because we so easily forget who we are and whose we are. I’ve heard of yoga and meditation teachers who remind their students that it’s called a yoga practice or a meditation practice, not a “yoga perfect” or a “meditation perfect.”

Let’s cultivate our Sabbath practice this year, not to make us more perfect people or to please God more or to check off another item on our spiritual to-do list. Let’s practiceSabbath: let’s experiment with different ways to rest, let’s play more, laugh more, breathe more, nap more, feel the sun on our faces more and the grass under our feet more. Not out of obligation or even because it’s good for us (though it is), but because we are God’s, and this is God’s creation—made to delight in.

I invite you,if it’s comfortable to do so, to plant your feet on the floor. Imagine the ground under your feet supporting you, grounding you. Now, I invite you to take your finger and draw the sign of the cross on your forehead. Now repeat after me:

“I am God’s beloved child.

God is well-pleased with me.”

Beloved children of God, God had you in mind even at the creation of the world. It is not possible for God to love you any more than God already does. Nothing you have ever done or ever will do can change that.

God delights in you and in creation and invites you to do the same. Our Sabbath practice is grounded in our identity as children of God.

Rest well, beloved.

Sermon on Luke 2:1-20

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

“Sleep in heavenly peace / sleep in heavenly peace.”

When many people think of Christmas Eve, they think of singing “Silent Night” in a darkened sanctuary surrounded by twinkling candles. It’s a still, peaceful image—there’s a hush over everything.

And yet, the Christmas story involves noise and mess and chaos.

Mary and Joseph had to travel, which is chaotic whether in the first century or today, as anyone who traveled to be here tonight knows.

Also, an important part of the Christmas story revolves around childbirth. I’m not a parent, but I know that many people in this room know firsthand that there is very little peace and quiet involved in that process. And newborns, despite the lovely photoshoots where they’re sleeping with adorable little hats on, are…let’s just say: good at exercising their lungs.

And then, there are some shepherds working the graveyard shift, maybe settling in for a long night of protecting their sheep from nighttime predators—hoping there will be little to report in the morning. But no: they were scared out of their minds when a messenger of God materialized in front of them. They were in for not only a divine message and a heavenly concert—they then had to travel through the night into Bethlehem to find the baby the angels told them about.

Side note: if it weren’t for the strong culture of hospitality, I’m sure Mary and Joseph would have been very happy not to have nocturnal visitors to their newborn baby.

And then, the shepherds returned, praising God for everything they had seen. They didn’t just drag their weary bodies back to the fields—they were so excited by what had happened that they shared their story—maybe disturbing their neighbors on the way.

We haven’t even touched the Gospel of Matthew’s account ofthe wise ones who traveled much farther than Mary and Joseph and the jealous, bloodthirsty King Herod.

There is a lot of noise and mess and chaos in this story. Not a lot of rest for anyone involved.

And still, the Gospel of Luke notes that “Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.”

Somehow in the middle of the noise and mess and chaos, Mary still found wonder.

Somehowshe found it in the midst of unexpected guests in the middle of the night while staying in someone else’s home. She found it even when her weary eyes and aching body cried out for sleep. She found it in the face of an uncertain future and many questions.

Somehow, God decided to break into the noise and mess and chaos of our lives in that moment. God chose Mary and Joseph to raise Godself in occupied Roman territory with no riches or luxuries or political influence. God shared the good news with shepherds, not kings or priests or emperors.

God became human despite the noise and mess and chaos.In the least likely parts of our human story, the little Lord Jesus lay asleep on the hay (or maybe was not so quiet after being woken up by cattle lowing). Jesus lay in the manger right in the middle of our noise and mess and chaos. God doesn’t shy away from it.

And still we strive for perfection in this season (or at least a family Christmas dinner where no one cries or yells at anyone).

Even tonight, there might still be some presents that need wrapping, tomorrow a breakfast to be made. More travel, more traffic, more lines to wait in. More notifications of not-to-be-missed deals online and in store windows.

Or perhaps the turmoil is within—loneliness, grief, resentment, worry, hopelessness. This season stirs up all kinds of emotions—not all of them welcomed or accepted in the general ethos of holly and jolly.

The noise and mess and chaoscan’t be avoided no matter how many matching pajamas we have or what emotions we compartmentalize until after New Year’s.

Real life can’t be tied up in a neat bow. Real life happy endings don’t appear at the end of 90 minutes like a Hallmark movie.

The noise and the mess and the chaos are real.

And still, God chose to enter our noise and mess and chaos. God didn’t wait until things were perfect and shiny and neat.

God embraces every part of our noise and mess and chaos even today.

We can lay aside our expectations of perfection and shine and neatness, because life doesn’t work that way.

If Mary treasured in her heart what was happening amid the noise and mess and chaos in her life, then we can too.

God invites us every moment to notice God’s presence.

Even in our busiest times, God is here, embracing us in our noise and mess and chaos.

With every inhale, we breathe in God’s Spirit, and with every exhale, we breathe God’s love into the world.

Even at our most frantic, we still breathe.

And, as anyone who has ever meditated knows, breathing can calm the chaos, even just a little. In our breath, we return to ourselves and to God.

Who couldn’t use more of that?

That’s why at First Lutheran, we’re going to be spending the entire year of 2024 exploring the idea of Sabbath.

Sabbath is time to rest, enjoy, and turn our focus to God in the midst of the noise, mess, and chaos.

Our society doesn’t want us to rest. It wants us to grind, to be more efficient, to turn our hobbies into side hustles, and if, God forbid, we must rest, it’s only so we can work harder when we return to work.

That’s not how Sabbath works. Sabbath is a holy time.

It was a holy time when Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.

It was a holy time whenthe angels sang “Glory to God” in the middle of a random field in front of some ordinary shepherds.

It was a holy time whenGod took on a tiny, helpless body that needed rest and sleep and became part of our noise, mess, and chaos.

And however noisy, messy, and chaotic your life is, this is a holy time too. May you find rest and joy in it and sleep in heavenly peace.