Holy Play
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
August 11, 2024
Good morning, Friends, and welcome to Light Reflections. Today, at the Meetinghouse we are having Sunday Funday! Every year, I like to start my message on Funday Sunday by giving a little history of this special worship time. Funday Sunday came about when our youth affirmation class brought a request to our Monthly Business Meeting almost 6 years ago, now.
Their request was for a time to worship through play. That means bouncy houses, slip n’ slides, all types of board and outdoor games, and lots of yummy food! If you have experienced one of our earlier events, it is a lot of fun.
And this is not the only Meeting in which I have celebrated Sunday Funday. In Oregon our Meeting also celebrated Sunday Funday in this same manner. I think it may have been our two youngest boys who shared this with the other youth here to bring it to First Friends. However it happened, I am so glad it did.
This morning, instead of a longer message, I just want to devotionally have us consider what it means to experience worship through play. A topic that seems to fit well within what we have been talking about regarding joy.
Our guiding scripture text is a familiar one from Galatians 5:22-23:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
To begin this message, I want to share with you something that I have read before on Sunday Funday to help people understand the importance of play in our lives and worship.
It comes from White Plains United Methodist Church. It is titled, “The Spiritual Discipline of Holy Play.”
When you think of spiritual disciplines what pops into your mind?
Tithing? Fasting? Solitude, Prayer, Study?
Ever think of play or playing being a spiritual discipline?
It’s not the first one that comes to mind, if ever. But according to Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat (who I highly recommend their book, Spiritual Literacy: Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life),
“Play is the exuberant expression of our being. It is at the heart of our creativity… It helps us live with absurdity, paradox, and mystery. It feeds our joy and wonder.”
“Exuberant expression of our being”, huh?
What does exuberant mean?
According to Merriman-Webster, exuberant means “joyously unrestrained and enthusiastic”.
When’s the last time you were joyously unrestrained? (Be honest – that may be hard for some of us staunch or stalwart Quakers.)
And play “feeds our joy and wonder.”
How do you feed joy and wonder? (that is a good query to consider this morning and ongoing).
Have you ever watched a toddler discover something new to them - A butterfly. A lightning bug. A shiny stone. That’s how one feeds joy and wonder. It’s through curiosity. We adults do the same, but for us it may be a book, a musical instrument, a new pair of shoes, a flower in a garden, the engine in a classic car…I think you get my drift.
Oh, and joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Paul lists it right there in Galatians 5:22-23 (our text for today) –right there between love and peace.
And how do we get more joy?
BY PLAYING!
And not just playing alone, but as I spoke of last week by playing with one another.
We need to be honest; Christians have had an unbalanced relationship with play throughout the centuries. The concept of a Protestant work ethic has been a boon to the economy, but it often has come at the expense of leisure time and play. We do not know how to rest well or play well. We talk about it a lot with our kids, but we adults are just as bad. We get too serious and hunkered down in our work and careers and neglect finding time for play.
Throughout history, the church has expressed skepticism about the benefits of entertainment, including movies, music, and games. There was a time when the church boycotted movies, broke vinyl records, and burned books to keep one pure – oh wait…some still do. But entertainment–movies, music, games–can also lead to joy, play, and even laughing – and I believe they can move us deeply, giving us a spiritual experience.
As I mentioned in As Way Opens this week, I have found a lot of joy in watching the Paris Olympics (anyone else?). The importance of family and community in the lives of the athletes is so evident. The joy on the faces of the athletes, their families, and supporting communities has been contagious.
I love what St. Francis said,
“It is not fitting, when one is in God’s service, to have a gloomy face or a chilling look.”
Sounds like St. Francis thinks we’re to go around with some smiles and some laughs and some joy. And we smile and laugh and get filled with joy when we play, have fun, and yes, even worship, together.
Play can be holy when it brings us together in community, when it lightens the burdens of our spirits and when it helps us to produce joy. One of the things I love at First Friends is how many smiles I see each Sunday as people simply interact with each other.
The struggle is that we often take ourselves and even the Divine too seriously, forgetting to smile, laugh, even enjoy our relationships.
Also, we must remember that…
…we can experience joy even in the mundane. We can find joy in thousands of different ways…We just have to look for the joy and then actually engage it.
Victor Shamas (author of The Way of Play: Reclaiming Divine Fun and Celebration) writes,
“Play is a sacred act. When we are playing, the essence of all creation flows freely through us. We are expressing our true nature and connecting with the very core of our existence. There is nothing more spiritual than that.”
This is why our youth saw Funday Sunday as a time to worship through play – it is sacred.
We, also, must admit our Creator God has a sense of humor. Just look at the world around us. Giraffes and duckbill platypuses and hammerhead sharks and all those weird fungi growing in the woods, and then there are people – you and me.
My goodness, people are funny. Some of you right here are really funny and I so appreciate that. I know I need people around me that both want to laugh and make me laugh.
It is one of the things I love deeply about my wife, Sue, she makes me laugh at the depths of my being. When we were traveling for Sue’s creativity fellowship this Summer, we laughed so hard at times I had tears rolling down my cheeks.
And folks, that was probably because we saw our time away as a time to play together. We dedicated an entire month to unplug and play and it brought us real joy! We didn’t have to look that far for the joy, it was available in everything we did – from driving, to hiking, to eating, to singing out loud, to watching a sunset, to spending time with old friends. Joy and play were readily available if we were willing to see and engage them.
If we try to incorporate holy play into our everyday lives, we may find a sense of wonder and joy even in the ordinary, along with a reminder to laugh at ourselves, to not take ourselves too seriously. We may even be energized to deal with challenges and difficult conversations that would have overwhelmed us otherwise.
Particularly in these times where there is a lot of anger, frustration, fear, and divisiveness all around us, we need to look for the joy, we need to, as we do with our kids, tell ourselves to turn off the T.V. and social media and go outside and play with a friend. Go to a movie, go to a concert, play some pickleball, share jokes with a friend, play a board game with friends, go to a sing-a-long, go on a road trip to a new place, get out of your house and play!
So, that is how I will close this devotional thought this morning. Take a moment to review that query:
How do you feed joy and wonder?
Then, turn off the t.v. and social media and go outside and play with a friend. I have a feeling it will be good for your soul!