Sermon 8th Sunday after Pentecost

Text: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who leads us to the still waters of Sabbath.

            There is a great book that I’ve mentioned a few times called A Year of Living Biblically. In it the author A.J. Jacobs attempts to live a year following all of the laws of the bible, mainly the Old Testament due to his Jewish roots. A large part of the book is full of awkward situations like what to do when he sees a couple in the park he knows are committing adultery, the bible says to stone them, so he has taken to carrying pebbles around with him to throw a such people. But, just as much as humorous scenes like this are deep scenes of great meaning. When he gets locked in a bathroom by accident and with no reading material and after counting the tiles about 4 times opens himself up to prayer and finds a source of great comfort.

            Besides the project on attempting to pray more often, another project he focuses on for a longer period of time is the commandment to take Sabbath. He admits he is a self-aware workaholic, usually working late in the office, and keeping up on emails and the like as well when at home in the evenings and on the weekends. And so he forces himself to put things away. He finds himself reaching for his computer to check email unconsciously, the urge to know what is going on in all realms of life is hard to put away.

            For a series of about 4 years I gave up TV for lent in an attempt to find more Sabbath time, and wow is it hard. There is a short story by Edgar Allen Poe called the Tell Tale Heart, in it a man murders an elderly man and buries him beneath the floorboards, he is then consumed with paranoia and swears to continue to hear the beat of the heart beneath the floor. Eventually he gives up and tells that he did it.

            It’s sort of like that when we try to put things away for Sabbath. They just continue to call and call. I find myself checking email constantly on my phone, I usually know, have read, and responded to those that need response within minutes of receiving them, regardless of where I am.

            We find ourselves unable to get away, things constantly at our beck and call, whether we want them to be or not.

In our text the disciples are returning from their expedition we read about two Sundays ago, they have gone out with staff, sandals and nothing else, and now return to tell Jesus what they all did. But, Jesus’ fame has followed them just as it follows Jesus. And they do not have time even to eat. And Jesus tells them, come here, sit, and rest all by yourselves. Jesus invites them into Sabbath, into holy rest. That’s what Sabbath means, it’s not talking about a day of the week, but a day of holy rest.

            Sabbath is part of the commandments because we need it. If God needed rest, we certainly need rest, and yet we seem to be unable to find it. If we have a weekend off, we give ourselves chores to do. On vacation we find the need to continue to check work emails, we think we still need to keep up with everything, we dread getting back, dread taking that time off, because we know that the world doesn’t stop, and it seems like when we get back from vacation, we need a vacation to recover from it.

            We need Sabbath. It’s needed because we wear ourselves out. Every year it seems as if we hear stories of the new thing that will simplify our lives, and every year we find ourselves busier and busier, taking on more and more. That’s what happens to the disciples, they have returned back, and the crowds will not leave them alone. At times it seems as if Sabbath is impossible, because the world is always seeking us.

            But, Jesus gives them Sabbath. He does not send them out again to help this crowd, he instead goes himself, he has compassion for the crowd and heals them. The crowd is yearning for Sabbath just as the disciples yearn, they hunger for release from pain and suffering, that each day wears more and more. We yearn for that Sabbath. And Jesus comes to us. That is the only way to truly enter into Sabbath.

            It is a day of rest, but it is a day of rest in God. To really enter Sabbath we must get away from the notion that we can do everything. Get away from the notion that we have to do everything. That it all relies on us. We must entrust ourselves to God and let God remove the obstacles that drain us, that overwhelm us, that crush our very beings. We must entrust ourselves to God, and be refreshed, restored, and recreated, so we can be sent again.

            The word rest that is used here is used only one other time in Mark. It’s in the garden of Gethsemane as Jesus is praying, concerned about what is about to happen to him, he returns to Peter, James and John and finds them sleeping. And he wakes them saying, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Enough, the hour has come.”

            There is a time for rest, and a time for not resting, God sends us as well, but we are sent full. Because of Sabbath we are sent refreshed and restored, we are sent as new creations. And when life again overwhelms we return. We return to Sabbath and we find ourselves in a cycle, not a cycle of hurt, the world constantly pushing us down, but a cycle of hope, where when we are over-burdened God gives us rest and we are restored. We go from here and when life darkens we pause to bask in God’s compassion, allowing ourselves the time to lay our hurts and fears at Jesus’ feet, and allowing him to touch us, heal us, refresh us, and send us out again. When we walk through the darkest valley, we fear no evil, because God is with us. When we are overwhelmed, God lays us in green pastures, by still waters. That is Sabbath, and it is so needed.

            Let us pray,

God of rest,

We ask you to lead us to still waters, to lay us down in green pastures, to restore our souls, feed us, nourish us, comfort us, lead us into your Sabbath rest. When we feel overwhelmed  help us to turn to you for relief.  Amen.