Play: When the Streets Are Full of Life
by Abigail Browka
Zechariah 8:4–5 offers a remarkably ordinary picture of God's restoration:
"Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of their great age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets."
The passage does not describe peace through armies, or rulers, or wealth, or living behind safe walls.
It depicts peace through human bodies at ease out in the world.
That matters. For God’s people at that time, recovering from destruction, exile, scarcity, and uncertainty, this vision would have sounded almost astonishing. God's promised future is not pictured first as a grand monument or an impressive institution. It is pictured as elders sitting safely in public. Children playing freely in the streets.
The staffs in the elder’s hands are worth sitting with.
The staffs are included not as a sign of fragility, they are a sign of time.
These elders have lived long enough to need staffs. They have reached an age not everyone gets the chance to reach.
Some of us come from families, communities, and seasons of history where living long enough to retire safely is precious. Living long enough to play with grandchildren is not promised. Living long enough to see the next generation, maybe even great-grandchildren, is a miracle.
So in Zechariah's vision, the staff is not a symbol of weakness. It is a testimony.
Today maybe our own fine lines, wrinkles, slower steps, and changed bodies can be received that way too. Not as evidence that life is leaving us but gratefulness that long life remains.
The elders sitting in the streets in Zechariah are not outside the picture of restoration. They are part of it. Their presence says: God's future includes bodies that have aged, endured, softened, and survived.
In this scripture, the city is not restored because everything is impressive. The city is restored because its most vulnerable people can inhabit public space without fear.
That is a deeply embodied vision of salvation.
The elders do not have to hurry. The children do not have to hide.
The streets do not merely permit life. They are filled with it.
This also gives us a deeper way to understand play.
Play is not meant to be an individual luxury.
Play becomes possible within conditions of safety, trust, justice, belonging, and peace. Play is what emerges when bodies are no longer braced only for survival.
When a child can play freely, something holy is being revealed. When an elder can sit without fear, something holy is being revealed. When generations can share space, linger, laugh, and belong, something holy is being revealed.
In Zechariah's vision, life is not only protected. Life is enjoyed.
This is a needed word for the church.
So often, we organize our life together around worry. Will there be enough? Will the future hold? Who will come after us? How do we preserve what we love?
These are not foolish questions. But worry can narrow our imagination until survival becomes our only dream.
Zechariah invites us to a wider vision. God's dream is not only that the city survives. God's dream is that the city becomes joyful. Play heals by expanding the frame of life as we know it. It reminds us that restoration is not only repair. Restoration is delight. Restoration is belonging. Restoration is laughter returning to places where fear used to live.
As I finished writing this, I found myself humming Phil Collins' "Dance into the Light." #Throwback
Listen to it now. And dance.
The invitation is simple. Make room for joy. Make room for elders to sit. Make room for children to play. Make room for weary people to breathe. Make room for the vulnerable to belong without fear.
Prayer
God of the open street and gathered table, teach us to seek a peace deeper than safety alone.
Make us a people where life is not only protected, but enjoyed.
Expand the frame of our lives, until worry gives way to trust, fear gives way to belonging, and joy returns to the streets. Amen.
This blog entry is from a sermon prepared for Week 4 of the Season of Play series written by Pastor Abigail.
Rev. Abigail Browka is the Director of Innovation and New Faith Communities in the Upper New York Conference of the United Methodist Church and the Program Director of Preachers: Rest. Work. Play.