[A sermon delivered to the Hinckley Unitarians congregation on 18th of July 2021]
(Readings: Jeremiah 23:1-6 and Mark 6:30-34, 53-56)
We are living in an increasingly anxious society. I am sure that many of us have seen reports in the media about the mental health of young people today. Last summer, during lockdown, UK Universities saw at least one student die every week, all these sad cases were either traced back to mental illness, drug abuse or both. During my time in university chaplaincy a few years ago I was on the front line of this struggle to keep some of the most vulnerable students alive and healthy. We, very sadly, did not always succeed, and I have never forgotten the feeling of receiving dreaded emails with ‘Student Death’ in the subject line knowing that members of our chaplaincy team would soon have the task of breaking awful news to friends and course mates and would be spending months working with the students affected, to be present with them as they piece themselves back together after such shattering news.
Please do not get me wrong, while it had its challenges and very hard moments, I genuinely loved working in chaplaincy. Yet I do have one criticism of that form of ministry. Chaplains are so focused on helping people piece themselves back together or creating opportunities for self-care as a preventative measure, that it is all to easy to forget to ask the question of why are young people increasingly suffering from mental illness in the first place? Creating moments of mindfulness and restful prayer and reflection on campus can only go so far if the causes of mental ill health are systemically present in the lives of young people. Indeed, I think I think the causes of mental illness is very likely systemic in our society in a way that affects us all. Not just the young. To be fair on my chaplain colleagues, I think we in congregational ministry can be just as guilty of the same offence. We all to easily get caught up fighting the fires we see in front of us that we forget to look for the arsonist with the box of matches!
The truth is that we live in a society that values productivity above all else. Everything has a value and a price – for our society time really is money. To a certain extent we all buy into this system, even if only subconsciously. How many of us, if we are introduced to a new person will instinctively ask, “so, what do you do?” and expect a job title or brief role description and a place of work? I know I do. I think this shows us how we let ourselves fall under the illusion that our work, that part of our lives that is deemed most economically productive, defines ourselves and others. If we do not maintain our productivity, or, at least, maintain a rate of productivity that is better than that of our colleagues, not only do we run the risk of loosing our job, but a key part of our identity too.
With this pressure to be productive and competitive comes exploitation and stress. Even if our boss or manager is a highly benevolent figure the temptation to exploit ourselves is still there.
Do not get me wrong, stress is not always bad, indeed it can even be helpful for what we do and beneficial for ourselves.
To look back on our first reading today from Jeremiah, no minister wants to be a bad shepherd. The stress of keeping a flock together through changing times is, for the minister, very real indeed. Especially when shepherding a flock of Unitarian sheep who, quite rightly, take great pride in not all facing the same direction! Yet, when entrusted with the responsibility and empowered to act and react appropriately, this stress can be a great motivator for any budding Minister.
The potential positives of stress are not just true for ministers. Studies have shown that short exposure to stressful situations can be beneficial for our physical and mental health and help us live a healthy and active life for longer.
Yet these are stresses are those that do not last indefinitely and ones that we have some control over. Issues that many people, especially young people feel stressed about (such as climate change) do seem to last indefinitely and appear inescapable. As a result, these types of stresses are fundamentally unhealthy and anxiety inducing.
I am not suggesting that we should not be worried about climate change. However, it is interesting to observe that, while our society is very good at passing the anxiety of impending climate catastrophe down onto the individual, it is less good at empowering us to change the systematic structures that cause it. The responsibility to do something gets past on to us, yet the structural ability to do something about it continues to rest with those who value wealth creation for the very rich over and above preserving the planet we all live on.
The system that generates wealth for the few through squeezing every ounce of productivity out of us and cannibalising our own planet is also ruining the health of our very minds.
The urge to spend all our time productively is so engrained into us that, over the pandemic, a Clinical Phycologist friend of mine informed me that one of the most common causes of anxiety among his patients was now the feeling of guilt they had of not spending their time away from work productively enough. The very understandable fact that some people are, through no fault of their own, unable to spend time during a pandemic and resulting global crisis calmly learning Spanish or teaching themselves how to make sourdough bread while they were unable to work was enough to make those people guilty to the point of becoming dangerously unwell.
While we hear talk of the importance of maintaining a healthy work/life balance, this mostly comes from those who understand that human productivity falls if we do not get enough rest and that, if human productivity falls, then their bank accounts loose out!
Rest is vital not just because it enables us to work at our best, but because rest is precious and valuable in and of itself. The biblical creation story reminds us that rest is holy – “on the seventh day God rested” because it was – in and of itself – a good thing to do, not because God had some workplace target to meet and needed a power nap beforehand.
Even when our work is wholesome and good and dear to us we still need to rest. During the gospel stories Jesus and the disciples repeatedly withdraw to rest, to pray, and to recharge. Our second reading captures a brilliantly human and relatable moment that sandwiches the feeding of the five thousand story. Jesus has set out the disciples to minister to the needs of the people and they have come back returning to debrief and take stock of their experiences and rest. Jesus sees their need to rest and encourages them to do exactly that, only for even more people in need of their ministry to seek them out before they get the chance.
So if you find yourself in need of rest do try to have it and have it guilt free, but, should your plans for rest not work out, do not blame yourself. You are doing no worse than Jesus and the twelve apostles did.
Amen.
