A Theology of Play for the New Year

I wrote this note just four days before Christmas. How does one write about the new year when the image of Christmas looms large? You know the feeling. Too many things to do and not enough time to do them. Gifts to buy, cards and letters (even sermons to write, worship to do... not to mention the hospital calls.) The sense of being pressed between two walls moving toward you and working frantically to get all that needs to be done completed.

All too often our experience is to accomplish what we can between the rush and rancor of each day. While urgency is helpful, even essential to effective living, to work and live under undue pressure or place it on those around us is not simply unhealthy... it is not good theology.

Time and again in the ministry of Jesus we see him pressed to God's work and yet available to the people around him, and his work stands unequaled in comparison to any we know. However, he did more than model mission and ministry; he gave us a pattern for spiritual life which if followed can be strong and durable.

The Bible records that Jesus prayed, taught, healed, fed and worked with people; but he took time to draw apart and be with God alone. He took meals with friends and relaxed, even laughed along the way. Those of us rooted in the Protestant tradition get the work ethic of Jesus. We strive to model our lives by the examples he gave, however, the idea that he had a play ethic either insults or confuses us. Yet, the record would seem to indicate he had a lively sense of humor. The pitched conversations he had with those in authority and his insistence on children being allowed in his presence are but two clear indications.

To follow Jesus is our calling but not just half way. How about in this new year taking time to do God's work, but also taking time to do God's play as well. Part of the mission we have as believers is to enjoy the time we are given in this world in which we live and each other. In the meantime, we have things to do, places to be, people to meet and pressures to live up to. Nobody said a theology of play was easy. To a new year filled with love and laughter! Amen

Dr. Joey K. McDonald
First United Methodist Church
4832 Tujunga Avenue, North Hollywood, CA 91601