“WHAT DID YOU DO ON YOUR SABBATICAL, TOM?”

A sermon by the Rev. Dr. Thomas D. Wintle, Senior Minister of the First Parish Church in Weston, Massachusetts, delivered on Pentecost Sunday, June 4, 2017. The scripture readings were Acts 2.1-27 and Mark 6.30-34.

“(Jesus) said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest awhile’” (Mk. 6.31)

I

Jesus had a wonderful way of cutting to the chase, getting beyond the usual worries and anxieties. The disciples were experiencing much coming and going, hurrying about teaching and gathering new recruits. There would soon be the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, with only five loaves of bread and two fish.

“Come away and rest awhile,” said Jesus. I did.

So, “What did you do on your sabbatical, Tom?”  folks have asked. I’ll tell you.

But I have to tell you about the fellow who came up to me after the town Memorial Day observance Monday. “I see you’re leaving us,” he said. No, I’m just coming back, from sabbatical. “Oh,” he said, “I thought I read you were going to Falmouth.”  No, no, that’s our INTERN, David Miller Kohlmeier!

So what happened here during the sabbatical? Apparently, the church did NOT fall apart. You had great services, sermons by some terrific guest preachers – good friends all, I owe them! I showed the list of guest preachers to a colleague who said: you should have thrown in some duds, so expectations were not set too high! And intern David provided continuity, his own good sermons, and racism workshops. I think this sabbatical internship helped him get his own church – in Falmouth, HE’S going to Falmouth!

I was pleased that David recruited some good lay worship associates: John McCahan, Bruce Peterson, and Chris Marobella. Thank you. Thank you also to Bill Sano and Matthew Chui for their always high musical standards and Bristol Huffman for inspiring our students (and our adults).

The church did NOT fall apart. I am reminded of what sabbatical ministers hope to hear on their return: “the church is fine . . . but we could not have survived another week without you!” Much of the credit goes to Parish Administrator Betsy Gibson who is the glue that holds this place together in so many ways. Thanks to Don Pierson, the Standing Committee and all the committees.

I’m also very much aware of some things I did NOT have to do during these five months (and I don’t mean committee meetings):

• President Trump was inaugurated. Many of my colleagues thought if it wasn’t the end of the world, at least we could see it from here. I did NOT have to comment on it in sermon or newsletter.
• Our denominational president of the Unitarian Universalist Association resigned over the appointment of a white denominational officer instead of an applicant of color. Then two other officers resigned. The denominational board of trustees appointed three blacks to be co-presidents for two months until the election of a new president this month. Not only do we not have enough black officers, but no woman has been elected president though several have run, so the UUA changed procedures and nominated three women, guaranteeing that a woman will win. I did NOT have to comment on it in sermon or newsletter.
• North Korea’s leader was doing crazy things with missiles and nuclear weapons; President Trump has been equally unpredictable. I did NOT have to comment on it in sermon or newsletter.

I feel like the poet who said "I'm going to sell the poetry business, and just observe the world without the slightest need to comment about it." It's very calming.

That’s not all.

• Retired Marine Staff Sgt. Jose Luis Sanchez ran the Boston Marathon with artificial left leg (the result of stepping on an IED in Afghanistan), carrying an American flag AND his trainer. I had no opportunity to comment but I saluted him on the television.  I salute also the three men in Portland, Oregon, who came to the defense of two Muslim women from an anti-Muslim tirade.

II

“So, what did you do on your sabbatical, Tom?”

I’m a firm believer in continuing education, what Franklin Covey calls “sharpening the saw.”

I took a full-day training on Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care. One discovery I wish I’d known when my mother was in her nineties: when they say tomorrow is Friday and we’re going to the grocery store, and it’s not, DON’T correct them. It only confuses them.

Aging can be tough. It’s not for sissies. And you need to keep a sense of humor. Do you know the story about a group of women who gather every ten years for a reunion? In their 40s they met at the Ocean View Restaurant because of the handsome waiters with buff bodies. In their 50s they went to the Ocean View Restaurant because of the good food and wine. In their 60s they went there for the good view of the ocean. In their 70s they went there because of the elevator and wheelchair accessibility. In their 80s they went to the Ocean View Restaurant because they’d never been there before!

I took a training at Harvard Business School on “Sacred Conversations” about how to talk to people who are dying. I’ve done this a lot in my ministry, but I still learned more.

I much appreciated a training on disaster chaplaincy. I am now a certified disaster chaplain with the National Disaster Interfaith Network. If you’re having a disaster, call me.

Best of all, I took a semester-long course at Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry on Trauma & resilience: post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, is NOT “all in the head,” there are very real physiological effects. Flashbacks take some people very much back to the original trauma. Healing is work.

I attended three UUA conferences. One in Santa Barbara in February (God is good), another in San Antonio, Texas (I visited the Alamo, and bought a Davy Crockett coonskin cap), and one in Greenfield, NH.

Usually one gives up preaching and leading worship during a sabbatical, but I did accept two invitations:

My first church in Lancaster, Mass., has a magnificent Bulfinch-designed building (Bulfinch also designed the Massachusetts state house and finished the National Capital in Washington). I preached at their 200th anniversary of the building in January.

And, of course, since David Miller Kohlmeier invited me to preach his ordination sermon in Charleston, West Virginia, in March, I had to accept. When I wrote on Facebook that “Charleston West Virginia is very different than Boston,” a colleague replied “That’s a master of understatement.”

I have to say that the hardest part of the sabbatical, which I did not anticipate, was backing off from pastoral care. What is going on in people’s lives? What am I missing? I did “come back” from sabbatical for the funerals of dear Jim Maynard and died-much-too-young Steve Pohlig. It would be hard to leave their final farewells to someone who didn’t know them. I thank Jean Masland’s Pastoral Callers Committee for being so attentive to parishioners’ needs.

And there was a fun component to this sabbatical. I attended worship at friends’ churches. It’s nice for a minister to worship without being in charge. I did discover early that it’s best to stop into their office before church to tell them I’m there … so they don’t say “is that Tom Wintle out there, looks like Tom Wintle, should I say anything or not?”

III

So what have I learned this sabbatical that is of any redeeming sermonic value?

Just this: Time. Time is a great gift. Protect it and use it.

I realized quite early that my previous sabbaticals were hectic, over-scheduled (including two at Oxford University), with very little rest, and I actually came back exhausted.

This sabbatical, by contrast, was slower.

Do you ever find yourself thinking:  “I did not have enuf time to …”, “I wish I had time to …”

The first thing I did last January was to read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Do you know it?  First my study at home (bookcases), then my office at church. The most helpful advice Marie Kondo gives is that one needs to declutter enough, right away, that you feel the reward of changing. It may be a gift to my successors that I discarded so many old files.

Well, decluttering also applies to our time, our calendars. If we do not reserve some down time in our schedules, we will eventually crash. I know, and most of America’s clergy know, that the Sunday Sabbath is pretty much dead for many young families today. There is just too much competition. Sunday schools are decreasing. But when will we attend to our children’s moral and spiritual upbringing?

If we declutter our calendars, if we don’t have too much on our plate, one can show up for other people’s special events.  My wife’s sister is dying. She wanted her siblings to come to her birthday this weekend. I’m so pleased that ALL of them will attend what is probably her last birthday.  Father George Evans has had a good 14 years as pastor of St Julia’s in Weston; I’m glad I was able to attend his farewell mass, the only Protestant to attend . . . because I had the time.

Today is Pentecost, the birthday of the Christian Church, when tongues as of fire descended upon the disciples, giving the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Can we clear our calendars, our schedules, our busyness, enough to be able to hear and receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit?

Do you remember what they are?

The fruits of the Spirit are: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Do you want, do you need, them?  It’s all about balance.

Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

It’s good to be back.