Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.
Rev. Michelle LaGrave
March 16, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org
Rest has long been a spiritual practice or even a religious mandate of many people. Yet, life can feel so busy that we imagine there is no time to rest. How might we come to a better sense of balance in our lives that honors the need to rest?
Chalice Lighting
This is the flame we hold in our hearts as we strive for justice for everyone. This is the light we shine upon systems of oppression until they are no more. This is the warmth that we share with one another as our struggle becomes our salvation.
Call to Worship
YOU ARE NEVER ALONE
by Sharon WylieIt is okay to be tired of change
It is okay to be tired of everything different
Okay to feel weary of resiliency and wholeness and learning and growth
And okay to yearn simply for rest
It’s okay to be grouchy and unsatisfied
And all the ordinary human ways of being that we are
Let this morning be a reminder that you are loved
Let our time together soothe what is restless in you
May you be comforted in knowing that whatever you are
feeling today and other days
You are not alone. You are never alone.Come, let us worship together.
Affirming Our Mission
Together we nourish souls, transform lives, and do justice to build the Beloved Community.
Reading
REST IS RESISTANCE: A MANIFESTO (Excerpted)
by Tricia HerseyTricia Hersey, also known as The Nap Bishop, is the founder of The Nap Ministry. Hersey makes a historical connection between slavery and contemporary grind culture and views rest as one form of reparations for Black people. She holds a Master of Divinity degree as well as a bachelor’s degree in Public Health.
Everything we know about rest has been tainted by the brainwashing from a white supremacist, capitalist system. As a culture, we don’t know how to rest, and our understanding of rest has been influenced by the toxicity of grind culture. We believe rest is a luxury, privilege, and an extra treat we can give to ourselves after suffering from exhaustion and sleep deprivation. Rest isn’t a luxury, but an absolute necessity if we’re going to survive and thrive. Rest isn’t an afterthought, but a basic part of being human. Rest is a divine right. Rest is a human right. We come into the world prepared to love, care, and rest. The systems kill us slowly via capitalism and white supremacy. Rest must interrupt. Like hope, rest is disruptive, it allows space for us to envision new possibilities. We must reimagine rest within a capitalist system.
Sermon
NOTE: This is an edited ai generated transcript.
Please forgive any omissions or errors.
The Torah, the Tanakh, the Hebrew Scriptures, the Christian Bible, whatever it is you call these most ancient of the Jewish and Christian texts, they all begin, as most stories do, bear a sheet and The first story that is told about the creation of the world of our world and How after six days of work? God rested on the seventh God rested. God who some theologians later came to describe as omnipotent, got tired and had to rest.
So I ask if God, Godself, can get tired and need to rest, who are we not to? Who are we to say that we don’t need to rest, that there’s too much to be done that we can rest later. After X, Y, and Z things have been done, of course. Who are we to tie our self -worth, our sense of value, into how much and how quickly we get things done?
Notice the words I’ve used here, self-worth, and value. These are also monetary terms, which is no accident. Our Western Judeo and Christian history of laboring for people other than ourselves or our own communities is long and fraught and goes back to ancient times. When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, God took some extra time to specify exactly what God meant by saying, “On the seventh day, you should rest.” Not just you should rest, but your sons and your daughters, your male and your female slaves, your livestock and alien residents in your community. Everyone must refrain from work. Everyone must rest. No exceptions.
We know why, right? Because people are people, even ancient times, and because we know that somebody was going to try to get away with resting themselves while requiring other people to work.
In more recent history, our track record is no better and likely worse. With the rise of capitalism as it moves through its various stages, much of this nation’s wealth was created by people who were oppressed in many ways, especially blacks who were enslaved, but also indigenous people who were enslaved, white indentured servants, and white people who did not own property and could not vote, which included all women and all children for centuries.
The dominant culture of our nation has valued production, the more, the better, the faster, in terms of creating wealth. And it has done so for centuries, regardless of the cost, the cost, or the toll, the toll, more monetary terms. It has taken on human bodies and human souls. The more wealth, the better. The faster we acquire the wealth, the better.
And this has spilled over into our other aspects of our lives as well. Not just the creation of wealth, but also the arts. Think of ballet, the ballerinas with bleeding feet for our entertainment. Sports, think of any of them, but especially football, even our learning. The more difficult, the better, the higher numerical grade, the better, the faster we move ahead, the better, and our academia. The more journal articles and books published, the better, the more the better. It is all over the place.
So what do we do about all of this?
- The first thing is to acknowledge that this idea, this value, the more the better, is one aspect of the dominant culture in our country.
- Next thing is to acknowledge that this aspect, the more the better, is a problem. It exists and it’s a problem.
- And finally, the work is to dismantle this aspect of our culture. Stop putting such a high value on the more the better.
After all, look at where it’s gotten us. to right here, exactly where we are with billionaires running our country, some of them not even elected.
And for those of you who haven’t picked up on it yet or aren’t familiar with the work of Tima Okun and others, I am talking about dismantling one of the toxins of white supremacy culture. I know that phrase white supremacy culture is really hard. It’s really challenging and difficult. So I talk about dominant culture instead a lot. But it’s the same thing. To do this, it is helpful to look to the leadership of those who have been most adversely impacted by this culture, by toxins like the more, the better, the faster, the better. Enter Trisha Hersey, author of the reading you shared with us earlier today from her book, This is resistance, a manifesto.
Slowing down our grind culture, turning away from the focus on production, dismantling the constant push of the more, the better. It’s not only good for our bodies and our souls, it is also an act of resistance. A bill of reparations owed, an act of allyship, and a deeply theological imperative.
One of the places we have begun this work is right here in our church, because the more the better has been true here, right? We count the number of programs the church offers. we count the number of people who show up to a program at the church. We count the number of minutes there are in a sermon or a worship service. And we make judgments on those. The sermon’s probably the only one which the longer the better might not hold true. (audience laughing) The exception to prove the rule. And by the way, this morning will be shorter than my usual so that you have a little more time to rest on your Sunday.
I know. I know how much there is to be done in all of our lives and in this country and in this world and from so many, many perspectives, I know how easy it is to feel a sense of overwhelm. I feel it, too. I struggle with finding enough rest, too. Sometimes that’s why we preach these sermons, is because we need to preach to ourselves. This is one of those cases.
We all feel the overwhelm, and we should know that we aren’t the first to feel this way. When the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. felt the weight of the struggle for change and justice, and its attendant exhaustion, and the fear for his own life that he lived under. He turned to a particular hymn, his favorite, “Precious Lord, Take My Hands,” which we will sing together shortly.
And as you go forth a little bit later today, after eating some pie, I encourage you to continue to explore. We began with our kids earlier today, the many, many ways of resting. Sleep, yeah. Sure, get plenty of that, but not just sleep. Find other ways to rest, too. And as you do, remember that in your resting and in your insistence upon rest, you are doing the work of the resistance. You are not taking a break from doing the work of the resistance; by resting, you are resisting.
May it be so. Amen and Blessed be.
Extinguishing the Chalice
We extinguish this flame, but not the light of truth, the warmth of community, or the fire of commitment. These we hold in our hearts until we are together again.
Benediction
by Tricia Hersey
You are worthy of rest. We don’t have to earn rest. Rest is not a luxury, a privilege, or a bonus we must wait for once we are burned out … Rest is not a privilege because our bodies are still our own, no matter what the current systems teach us. The more we think of rest as a luxury, the more we buy into the systematic lies of grind culture. Our bodies and Spirits do not belong to capitalism, no matter how it is theorized and presented. Our divinity secures this, and it is our right to claim this boldly
Whether you are a resistor, or an ally, or a little bit of both, … Go, boldly claiming your divine right to rest and in doing so, bless all others as you yourselves are blessed.
Amen and Blessed Be.
Most sermons during the past 25 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.
Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them by clicking on the podcast link above or copying and pasting this link. https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/first-unitarian-universalist/id372427776
