Rev. Kate Kelderman

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I love summer.  Every since I was a child I have loved summer.  There is so much to enjoy:  hot sunny days, afternoon swims in cool streams, and long evenings with popsicles and fireflies. But I think what I loved most about summer as a child was the change of pace.  The last day of school closed the door on a predictable rigorous routine.  And the first day of summer opened up countless avenues of adventure and the unexpected. In a tangible way summer offered a Sabbath rest for schedule weary lives.

 And it still can. 

 Most of us hurry through life at unhealthy soul shattering paces.  We keep tightly filled agendas and move rapidly from one appointment to the next. We leave very little room for rest and reflection and reach the end of each day with weary resignation.  Even our weekends are filled with soccer games, and trips to the store, and social engagements. But we cannot move at this pace endlessly. We need to slow down; we need to disrupt our hurried pattern of behavior; we need to remember the Sabbath.

 In the beginning when God created the earth and all that is, he rested on the seventh day.  And commanded us to do the same.  God commanded us to rest from our labors on the seventh day.  But in the last several decades we have lost that weekly pattern of work and rest. Now there is no pattern.  There is only work.  We have forgotten the healing, energizing, soul-restorative values of resting. 

 Summer offers a chance to remember.  Perhaps as the pace around us is disrupted we can adjust our inner pace as well.   We can find the rest we need to live joyfully and graciously.  We can choose a night of watching the fireflies instead of watching the TV.  We can choose a walk through the woods and listening to creation, instead of a walk through the stores.  We can choose to lie in bed some morning making a mental list of the many blessings of this life, instead of rising with the alarm.  We can choose habits that nurture the soul rather than splinter it.

In his song “On Hyndford Street”, Van Morrison describes beautifully the mood of a soul filling summer.

 In the days before rock 'n' roll on

Hyndford Street, Abetta Parade

Orangefield, St. Donard's Church

Sunday six-bells, and in between the silence there was conversation

And laughter, and music and singing, and shivers up the back of the neck

And tuning in to Luxembourg late at night

And jazz and blues records during the day

Also Debussy on the third programme

Early mornings when contemplation was best

Going up the Castlereagh hills

And the cregagh glens in summer and coming back

To Hyndford Street, feeling wondrous and lit up inside

With a sense of everlasting life

And reading Mr. Jelly Roll and Big Bill Broonzy

And "Really The Blues" by "Mezz" Mezzrow

And "Dharma Bums" by Jack Kerouac

Over and over again

And voices echoing late at night over Beechie River

And it's always being now, and it's always being now

It's always now

Can you feel the silence?

On Hyndford Street where you could feel the silence

At half past eleven on long summer nights

As the wireless played Radio Luxembourg

And the voices whispered across Beechie River

And in the quietness we sank into restful slumber in silence

And carried on dreaming in God.

This summer may you find time to dream in God.

Yours in Christ,

 Kate+

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