"Faithful Waiting" by Rev. Jillian Hankamer, 3/23/2025

A sermon for Northminster Church

Luke 13:6-9

I. Intro

-Tricia Hersey, founder of The Nap Ministry

-started when she was a seminary student, working, single-parent

-Noticed how refreshed she felt after naps, “I was exhausted physically, mentally, spiritually, and I just didn’t see any other way except to take a radical leap and say: ‘I don’t care, let the chips fall where they may…If I fail out of school, that’s fine if I don’t finish that grade — because I’m going to bed.”^[1]

-”began inviting people to nap collectively while she offered soothing sermons about the sheer power of sleep and dreaming.”^[2]

-The Nap Ministry was born

-”She urges followers to use time they might otherwise devote to extra work to sleeping instead, the stretches they’d spend staring at a screen to staring into space. Tense moments given over to worry about disappointing others would be better spent reflecting on our own needs and comforts, Hersey said. It’s about collectively refusing to run ourselves into the ground.”

-The Nap Ministry is not a religious movement

-”a spiritual antidote to the very earthly problems that are plaguing communities: exhaustion, chronic diseases and mental health crises, issues she sees as arising from systems of capitalism and white supremacism.”^[3]

-Not sleeping to sleep, rather while ‘’...it’s about literal naps…it’s also about imagination work, justice work…It’s about education: We need to understand what the systems are doing to us, so that we can resist in a way that is fruitful for us.”^[4]

-Has staged collective napping and daydreaming events

 -invites strangers to lie down and let tensions dissipate

-guided reflections about their divine right to rest

-often accompanied by music

-”Inevitably someone wakes up crying, explaining how profound it feels to give themselves permission to rest…”^[5]

-Practices what she preaches, “She guards her time preciously, penciling in naps, meditation and rejuvenation through walks or pampering rituals. ‘I judge success by how many naps I took in a week, and how many times I told somebody no; how many boundaries I upheld,” Hersey said. “To me that’s justice, that’s liberation, that’s freedom.’”^[6]

II. Lenten Theme and Exegesis

            -On-going Lenten theme, “everything in between”

            -this week is rest and growth in perplexing parable about fig tree in vineyard

            -first, parable is confusing

                        -why is owner doing planting if he has gardner?

                        -is he micromanaging or didn’t plant tree correctly?

                        -why plant fig tree in vineyard?

                        -second, many not great explanations of parable

                        -from Amy Jill Levine and Ben Witherington III

-Cyril of Alexandria (c. early 400s) “proposed that the tree represented Judaism/the synagogue, and it would be cut down so that the gentile church could be planted.”^[7]

-German biblical scholar F.C. Baur (c. 1840s), “the fig tree, finally cut down after such a long time of unfruitfulness, is a picture of the Jewish people and their guilt.”^[8]

-”Or, the owner and the gardener are the two sides of God, one representing justice and the other mercy. The three years the owner has waited for fruition represent the three years of Jesus’ public activity.”^[9]

                        -May be tempted to point to fig trees in other gospels

-in Mark and Matthew, Jesus curses the tree which withers immediately

-”For Mark, the destruction of the tree foreshadows the destruction of the Temple. For Matthew, the fig tree is an illustration of the miraculous might of the faithful, who can wither trees and move mountains.”^[10]

-For Luke “neither of these ideas come to mind…For Luke, there is a fig tree in a vineyard.”^[11]

                        -Fig trees can’t be rushed - Jesus’ original audience would’ve known this

-like strawberries or asparagus, you can’t expect fruit immediately after planting

-Commentator Jeff Chu, Jesus’ audience “might…have found the vineyard owner’s question laughable. They would have understood the absence of fruit on a young tree wasn’t a sign of failure…”^[12] but a need for maturing.

-After all, “Maturity requires time and care, attention and patience.”

-Just because we can’t see a plant doing things doesn’t mean it’s inactive

            -reminds me of Mary Lenox in the Secret Garden

                                    -despite owner’s words, “nothing is wasted.”^[13]

                                                -time, effort, attention

-”Down below, the fig tree isn’t just gathering strength; it’s also building relationships. Soil-borne fungi are finding home in its root, boosting the tree’s capacity to resist disease and take in nutrients. In return, the tree feeds the fungi.”^[14]

-In meantime gardener “waters, weeds, and fertilizes.”^[15]

-Importantly gardener waits and “faithful waiting doesn’t mean doing nothing.”^[16]

III. What God says about herself Exodus 34:6-7 and Habakkuk

-Exodus 34: 6-7 - The Lord…a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness

-Habbakuk 2:3 - For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.

-Despite our constantly working, rarely resting, performance-driven society the Eternal doesn’t require such a pace

-no where in scripture are we told that God’s love for us is determined by our productivity

-Over and over, God’s instruction is to celebrate sabbath, be still and know

-Not an instant-gratification God and doesn’t expect instant results from us

-Perhaps most importantly: we too often “believe the lie that we can control more than we actually do”^[17]

            -work hard enough

            -try hard enough

            -believe hard enough

            -do enough

            -give enough

-Perhaps why Jesus told it

- Maybe Jesus is preaching “to his very human self”^[18]

-preacher often peach messages we most need to hear

-if anyone was in position to be tempted by the lie of productivity it’s the one who came to share God’s good news

IV. Illustration

-Cole Arthur Riley is a writer and poet

- creator of Black Liturgies, “a space that integrates spiritual practice with Black emotion, Black literature, and the Black body”

-one of her books is Black Liturgies which is full of stunning work

-includes these words about prayer, “Let rest delivery you back to yourself. Exhaustion won’t serve you in world more interested in using your body than protecting it. Lie down. Breathe slow. We rest that we might dream.”^[19]

V. Good News

            -Lent is about many things, not least of which is choosing a different way

            -Choosing to slow down and reflect

            -Choosing a different pace from world around us

-Not engaging the way we “should” in favor of living and resting in the ways God provides

-I know how many of you are tired, exhausted even, by worries, rage, disbelief, fear

-Can’t take that from you thought I would like to

-Can offer this good news: this morning’s parable and all of Lent are “our invitation: Slow down. Do your part. Remember the promise…the harvest will come.”^[20]

-Can also leave you with beautiful prayer from Cole Arthur Riley,

“Rested God, we want more than a life lived exhausted. That you have woven healing rhythms of rest into our minds and bodies reminds us we are worthy of habitual restoration. Remind us that when we pause or rest, we are restoring not only our own bodies but the very condition of a world held captive by greed and utility. We grow weary of socieities who view us as more maching than human, more product than soul. The fear that we won’t survive without overworking stalks our day. Liberate us from the depraved socioeconomic structures that require the poor and vulnerable to sacrifice their own rest at the altar of survival and opportunity. Remind us that the beauty and paradox of our humanness is that we were made to close our eyes, that we might see. May it be so.”^[21]

^[1] Melonyce McAfee, “The Nap Bishop Is Spreading the Good Word: Rest,” from The New York Times,  October 13, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/13/well/live/nap-ministry-bishop-tricia-hersey.html

^[2] Ibid.

^[3] Ibid.

^[4] Ibid.

^[5] Ibid.

^[6] Ibid.

^[7] Amy-Jill Levine and Ben Witherington III, The Gospel of Luke, New Cambridge Bible Commentary, 2018, pg. 366.

^[8] Ibid.

^[9] Ibid.

^[10] Ibid, pg. 367.

^[11] Ibid.

^[12] Rev. Jeff Chu, Commentary on Luke 13:6-9, from Sanctified Art Everying in Between Sermon Planning Guide, pg. 14.

^[13] Ibid.

^[14] Ibid.

^[15] Ibid.

^[16] Ibid.

^[17] Ibid.

^[18] Ibid.

^[19] Cole Arthur Riley, adapted from Black Liturgies, 2024, via Instagram.

^[20] Chu, ibid.

^[21] Riley, ibid.