"Resting, And Then Working Some More" July 23, 2006 Pentecost 7 Proper 11

(First read the text for this sermon: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56)

The story begins with sheer and utter exhaustion. (No, I’m not talking about Robin Hudson and me, after returning with the youth from the ELCA Youth Gathering – although that fatigue made me alert to how this morning’s story begins, in Mark!) It’s the story of the apostles, and Jesus. The apostles had been working hard. Jesus had sent them off on a mission trip (Mark 6:7-13), and told them to be entirely dependent upon the grace of others. They were to take no provisions for the journey, trusting that God would provide for their needs. What a test of faith! How high their anxiety would have been!

As this morning’s story begins, the apostles have returned home from that trip. They are reporting their experiences to Jesus. Here’s what we read. The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, "Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while." For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.

Jesus speaks compassion. His friends are exhausted, and the continuing demands upon all of them are incessant. They can’t even find a few minutes to grab something to eat! "Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while," says Jesus.

You’ve felt such need, right? Lots of times! Sometimes, it’s so hot, and you’re so tired, that all you want to do is to drink iced tea and stare at the TV, sitting in the air conditioning. So did Jesus feel the same way – lots of times! It is a false image of Jesus, to ignore his humanity, to think that he was always giving, always calm, always pleased to encounter yet another person in need of the joy and the healing of God’s new age. Instead, when you look for this in the gospel stories, you see that Jesus works hard to meet the never-ending hungers of the people he encounters, and then he also has a regular need for retreat, for refreshment. Jesus’ rhythm is to work, and then rest, and then to work some more. And so, this morning we read: And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. They need time for some sabbath rest, for refreshment in God.

There’s a story I heard so long ago I can’t remember where it comes from. It’s a story about a group of wagon train pioneers moving out into the western territories of America, during the 19th century. Some in the group observed the sabbath, and the Biblical invitation to rest. (That invitation is for not only human beings, but also for animals to be given a day of rest.) And so, when Sunday came, these folks decided to stay in their camp. Others in the larger group, though, were impatient. They thought of all the days they would waste, on the long and difficult trip, if they took every seventh day off! So they pushed on, leaving the others behind.

Which group, do you think, got to their westward destination first? It was the group of folks who observed sabbath each week. They were faster over the long haul, precisely because they rested every seven days! The first group had pushed their horses so relentlessly that, over time, the animals could no longer put in a full day’s work. They hadn’t been rested enough during the journey.

That’s true for you and me as well, during our own life-long journeys of faith. Over the long haul, we are more productive, if we observe a rhythm of working hard, and then resting, and then working some more.

Indeed, this is built into creation! The Third Commandment is, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy,” and that Commandment is actually a wonderful gift! How sad it is that many spurn what God offers. Imagine, the gift of a day of rest each week! A day of refreshment in God! A day during which you are free from the need to produce anything useful or “constructive” or “productive!” A day during which you can waste time! A day during which you receive new energy, from resting in God!

That’s what sabbath time is.

The gift of sabbath time is based in the first creation story in Genesis (2:2-3), where we read that God created the world in six days and, on the seventh day, God rested from God’s work. There are two places in the Bible where sabbath is taught specifically. Those are the two stories of God giving the Ten Commandments: in Exodus and in Deuteronomy. In Exodus (20:8-11), we are invited to rest to imitate God’s own resting, in that creation story. The writer of Deuteronomy is more political! In Deuteronomy’s version of the Ten Commandments story, sabbath time is presented as a tool to combat an oppressive and dehumanizing culture! In Deuteronomy (5:12-16), we are reminded that we were slaves in Egypt. The Pharaoh enslaved us in our work! We were given an impossible burden of work, and no time off by that brutal taskmaster. But, Deuteronomy reminds us, we are no longer slaves! God has freed us from slavery! We are free to receive the gift of sabbath! Here’s what that means. We are free to resist the dehumanizing expectations of anyone (including and most especially ourselves) who pushes us to always be accomplishing, always be doing, always be working. You and I are free to take sabbath time – to rest, to be refreshed in God, to be re-energized in God.

We read that Jesus tells the apostles: "Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while." It is interesting to notice the Greek words that the gospel writer uses for “deserted place.” They are “eremos topos.” Our English word, “topographic” comes from topos, “place.” Eremos means “desert,” or here, “deserted.” It’s the same kind of place where, in Mark 1:12-13, Jesus spends time being strengthened by God during his testing with Satan. It’s the same kind of place where, in Mark 1:35, Jesus withdraws to pray, after healing miracles.

So, retreating for sabbath time is not mindless escape. It is a time to allow God to re-collect our minds and psyches because they have been scattered into pieces by the anxieties and stresses of daily life. Sabbath time is a gift that God offers to us, an opportunity to receive God’s healing and energy. Sabbath is an opening in time, an invitation to allow God to re-form us in wholeness.

That’s what the sabbath time of rest is intended to be by God. Imagine – the chance to rest from the need that we feel to produce; the need that we feel to prove our worth. Since I’ve just spent a week with 20,000 youth, imagine, for teenaged girls, resting from the need to prove that they are beautiful, through their use of the proper make-up and the coolest clothes; to leave that compulsion behind and to rest in God’s love! That would be sabbath. Imagine, for teenaged boys, the gift of rest from macho posturing and the need to cover up their hungers and weaknesses with poker face expressions, instead, receiving grace and love from God. That would be sabbath. (Of course, each one of you knows how often those demonic concerns follow girls and boys as they grow into women and men.)

God loves us so much more than we love ourselves. God is so compassionate to us, that God invites us to stop for a day of rest – to spend a day a week in pure joy and refreshment, a day of doing only what we want to do, a day of doing only what restores our energy in God’s love and grace and compassion!

After such rest, then we have the energy to work some more. Sabbath rest makes us more productive! Sabbath rest refreshes you and me, and increases our compassion, which is the work God gives us to do.

Here’s what we read in the story from Mark. As [Jesus] went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. When you and I are compassionate, we are simply imitating the model of Jesus, who is compassionate to all who are poor and hungry.

Here’s how this morning’s reading ends: When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

What hunger Jesus encounters! What compassion he shows!

You and me, too. Compassion is our work, given us by God. But, just like Jesus, we cannot feed others unless we allow God to feed us, regularly and habitually. That is why God invites us into sabbath time. What a wondrous gift!

In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.


Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia