Play heals and moves us out of survival mode. God uses delight to unstick weary people and reopen imagination. When we play, our brains and our spirits move out of survival mode and into creativity, openness, and trust. It’s not escape from what ails us; it’s medicine.
September 13, 2026
Season of Play
“Out of Survival Mode”
Matthew 6:25-27
Mark 10:13-16
Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl
Matthew 6:25-27
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life?
Mark 10:13-16
People were bringing children to him in order that he might touch them, and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.
Out of Survival Mode Matthew 6:25-27; Mark 10:13-16
We continue to embrace our invitation to PLAY as people of faith this week with the reminder not to worry, that God cares for all creation, that just as God takes care of the birds of the air, God will provide for us as well. We also hear the story of how the disciples tried to prevent the little children from coming to Jesus, but he reminded the disciples that whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child will not enter it. And although this is not part of our reading for this week, I think it is interesting to note, that author of Mark follows up this story about Jesus blessing the little children with the story about the rich man asking what he needed to do to inherit eternal life and Jesus responded with a go and sell all your possessions and follow me.
All these stories combined remind us that there is more to life than possessions and money. That there is more to life than allowing worry and fear to be what guides our decisions and actions. These stories combined remind us that the Beloved Community of God does not ignore or deny that scary and painful stuff happens in all our lives. Instead, what they do is expand our vision. They call us to stop focusing only on the problem, to take a step back, to see the larger picture, to pause, to breathe, to step out of the anxious mindset because when we do that, new insights begin to emerge. Our brains, our bodies, our very beings shift from fight or flight to curiosity and openness. And I’m going to tell you…we can’t just will this to happen. We can’t just force ourselves to make the switch. Something needs to be the vehicle for helping us make the switch. And that is where play comes it. It shifts our focus and fixation toward abundance and joy. It breaks the cycle of being so caught up in trying to fix a problem that we forget about everything else.
For example…As a church, as people of faith, so often we get caught up in the doing of church with all the food drives, community projects, and ways to help create a little bit of God’s Beloved community in our world that we forget how to simply be church. You know like that song we sang as kids at Vacation Bible School, the one that goes here’s the church, here’s the steeple, open it up and there’s all the people. Sometimes, as the church, we get so focused on our calendars, so focused on the details of how we are going to live out our mission, focused on the programs, the projects, the numbers and the budget, that we forget that one of the biggest draws to being a part of this church, or any church is the people. Sometimes in the doing of church, we unfortunately allow, and yes to our detriment, encourage the mentality which turns people into cogs of a machine, and we no longer see them…as well, people, as our brothers and sisters in Christ. And when that happens, we lose our connection to each other and to our God. When that happens, we become stuck. We spin our wheels. We buy into the narrative that if we just work harder, if we just pour more resources into it, if we just put our heads down and keep grinding, everything will be fine.
Just stop and think about that for a moment. Think about what this type of mentality, what this type of functioning, what this type of narrative, what this way of doing church which we all embrace as the way church should be done, think about what this type of relationship says about how we see each other, how we see God, how we experience God in our lives. Think about how this type of narrative shapes how we view our relationship with each other, how we view our relationship with God. Think about how this way of doing church shapes our understanding of who God is.
If we only see each other as cogs in a machine or, to quote Pink Floyd, “bricks in the wall”, if we only see each other as something to be used to achieve a goal, if we only see God as task master who does not care anything about us, instead only cares that we earn God’s grace, that we deserve or are worthy of healing and wholeness. If we only see church as numbers and budgets, then we have missed the whole point of God’s love and grace. Then we have missed the whole point of God’s Beloved Community. Think about that for a minute.
Yikes! No wonder people are leaving the church. No wonder people don’t want to have anything to do with God. If that was what church was really about, if that was who God really was, I certainly would not want to be a part of it either. Would you? So why do we allow this mentality to shape our understanding of the church? Why do we encourage it even when it comes to doing church, to being church?
Thankfully, our faith story and our faith practices invite us to proclaim a different narrative. From beginning to end, we are told God wants to be in relationship with us not because of what we can produce and certainly not because we are better than any other church. Our faith story, our faith practices remind us, invite us to see the world differently, to tell a different story…a story of joy, a story of love, a story of hope, a story of grace, a story of wonder which all add up to a story of Play.
You see, “The general function of all play is to help people make meaning of their lives and to give them the tools to cope with the real world.” Sounds a lot like what we are called to do as the Body of Christ, not to solve all the world’s problems but to reflect and remind all that God is with us. I’ll even go a step further and say that the “comprehensive skills that make religion possible are the skills of play”…in play, it’s called imagination, in faith, we call it visioning. In play its called cooperation, in faith, we call it being in community with one another, in play it is called following the rules of the game, in faith, we call it justice, mercy and grace. In play, inviting someone to join in and share our “toys” well, that’s the same language we use in faith.
Or let me say it this way…if you hear nothing else this morning, please hear this…Nothing about our faith is about survival. Nothing about our faith is about grinding out results to prove our worth. Nothing about faith is about scarcity or only focusing on our worries and fears. Instead everything about our faith is about new life, rebirth and new beginnings. Instead, everything about our faith is about receiving God’s peace, is about knowing we can say, “God hold what I cannot”. Instead, everything about our faith is about reminding us, calling us, grounding us in the knowledge that God loves us more than we know, that God’s grace always, always, always meets us in the imperfection. Everything about our faith tells us, shows us that our God wants us to thrive, not just survive. The good news is that God sees us, God hears us, God is with us. And in doing so, God invites us to tell a bigger narrative, a narrative which proclaims that death and destruction will not have the last word, a narrative that proclaims love and light will overcome, a narrative that invites us to imagine the possibilities of healing and wholeness for all God’s people.
And that is what I want us to reclaim this morning. I want us to play with some kaleidoscopes this morning. Such a simple toy. It is not fancy or the latest gadget. It doesn’t take much to operate it, just a twist of the lens. The kaleidoscope uses mirrors inside a tube to reflect loose bits of colored glass or beads into a changing, symmetrical pattern. But maybe what you didn’t know is that the name of this toy comes from the Greek words which mean (beautiful) (form) (to view). Just by turning the end, the pieces shift and move, patterns change and a new picture comes to view.
(View through kaleidoscope for a few moments)
Tell Me what you see… Just like the kaleidoscope, as people of faith, when we invite joy into our being church, when we break out of the doing and simply be in community with one another, when we ground ourselves in a larger narrative that encourages us to dream, to imagine, to vision, pieces shift and move and a new picture comes to view. All because we allowed a little play in our day. As people of faith, when we play, our brains and our spirits move out of survival mode and into creativity, openness, and trust. This joy, this delight interrupts the cycle of worry long enough for grace to slip through the cracks. Because in a world obsessed with outcomes, it invites us to experiment, to take risks, to simply be in the moment. Because it allows us to view all the beautiful forms around us, to truly see each other as brothers and sisters in Christ and not just cogs in the machine. Because this joy, this delight invites us over and over again to expand our focus, to tell a larger narrative, and to always remember God wants us to thrive and not just survive. May it be so. Amen.
See also: Theology Tuesday for Sunday, September 13, 2026 – Out of Survival Mode Matthew 6:25-27; Mark 10:13-16.
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