july 12, 2009

Anna Blaedel
First UMC, Osage
07.12.09
Psalm 24
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

It has been a week. Busy. Full. Rich. For me, and for many if not all of you. There are many pieces and parts of your week, of our community’s collective week, that I don’t know. But I do know: we lost two saints of God, two pillars of this community. And we gathered together to mourn and celebrate and laugh and cry and offer these ones we love back to God. We have fed each other, and been fed—with sandwiches and bars and hugs and conversation around tables. We have had loved ones undergo surgeries and hospitalizations, and waited and prayed with others while tests were done, and held our breaths for results to come back. We have prepared for Relay for Life, and marked the love and loss that propelled us into this organization. We have left for vacation, and returned from vacation. We have welcomed family and friends, returning after months or years of being apart. We have gone to work. Cared for and played with kids, our own or others. We have struggled with sense of call, and vocation. We have looked for work. We have gathered for Bible study, and searched scripture, searched our hearts, finding meaning and questions and love. We have mown lawns and weeded gardens and cleaned houses and offered comfort and found ourselves in need of comfort. And this, I know, is only the tip of the iceberg. It has been a week. Busy. Full. Rich.

Our gospel text for this morning is perfect, it seems, for such a week. Although, I must confess, we are reading it this week by mistake. In the busyness of this week, I got my dates mixed up, and turned to this text, the text assigned for next week. We are reading this gospel text by mistake, but it is a mistake, I believe, filled with God’s grace.

This morning’s gospel story from Mark is about our need, Jesus’ need, for Sabbath. For retreat. For prayer. It is only when we find the quiet center, when we stop, when we accept Jesus’ invitation to “Come away, and rest awhile,” that we are able to be faithful, and act with compassion, and find healing, and be whole.

I almost missed the meaning of this parable entirely. For months, I have had plans for this weekend, plans I have looked forward to, anticipated with eagerness and joy. Two dear, dear friends whom I have not seen for far too long, so long I can’t even remember when, have planned to come visit with my parents. We would then go together to Decorah to hear Greg Brown play at Seed Savers, one of my favorite musicians, one who has long soothed my soul and offered rest and wonder through his songs. On Thursday, I thought we should cancel. I was tired. My house was a mess. My refrigerator broke sometime this week, leaving my food spoiled, and me unable to prepare food or feed them. The timing just wasn’t right, I thought. There was too much work to be done.

Thankfully, these friends knew otherwise, and convinced me we should still get together. They reminded me that dear friends are exactly the ones who don’t care if your porch isn’t swept, or your dog bathed, or a feast prepared. Like Jesus in this story, they extended, or re-extended an invitation: Come away…rest a while.

When Jesus invited his disciples to come away, to rest, he did not wait until they had completed all their work. He invited them to rest in the middle of their busyness, when they had no leisure, even to eat. He invited them to pray. One translation of the biblical phrase “to pray” is “to come to re st.” He knew their need. He felt it himself. To regroup. To take Sabbath.

Wayne Muller has written an invaluable book called Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in our Busy Lives. I find I need to return to it again and again. When I am wise, I turn to it. When I am not, it seems to find me. He writes: Sabbath is a way of being in time where we remember who we are, remember what we know, and taste the gifts of spirit and eternity. Like a path through the forest, Sabbath creates a marker for ourselves so, if we are lost, we can find our way back to our center. “Remember the Sabbath” means “Remember that everything you have received is a blessing. Remember to delight in your life, in the fruits of your labor. Remember to stop and offer thanks for the wonder of it.” Remember, as if we would forget. Indeed, the assumption is that we will forget. And history has proven that, given enough time, we will. (6)

So. Another confession. The lectionary has us reading verses 30-34, and 53-56 of the 6th chapter of Mark. I know how important it is to read the surrounding verses of any biblical text. The context is often crucial to understanding the meaning. I have been teaching this during our Wednesday evening Bible study, and we have been discovering just how important this practice is. But, it was only Saturday morning that I read what was left out, verses 35-52. I’m going to read the story again. Here these words of good news from Mark 6: 30-56:

“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. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he 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 it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.” But Jesus answered them, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth (two hundred days of labor) of bread, and give it to them to eat?” And Jesus said to them, “How many loaves have you? Go and see.” When they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to sat before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. And all ate and were filled; and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand.

Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After saying farewell to them, he went up on the mountain to pray alone. When evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was along on the land. When he saw that they were straining at the oars against an adverse wind, he came towards them early in the morning, walking on the sea. He intended to pass them by. But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out; for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” Then he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

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.”

I almost missed one of my very favorite gospel stories. I almost missed the miracles. Where over five thousand were fed with five loaves, and two fish. Where Jesus reveals something of his power, and tells the fear-filled, hard-hearted disciples, “Do not be afraid. Take heart.” This is what happens when we rush. We miss the important parts. We fail to see the miracles. We forget that we already have what we need to feed others, and to be fed.

Turning back to Wayne Muller’s writing on Sabbath: “If you work all week and forget to rest, you will become brittle and hard, and lose precious nourishment and joy…If we forget to rest we will work too hard and forget our more tender mercies, forget those we love, forget our children and our natural wonder.” (32.)

Muller continues: “All Jesus’ teaching seems to hinge on this singular truth concerning the nature of life: It is all right. Do not worry about tomorrow. I have come that you might have life abundantly. Be not afraid. Over and over, in parable, story, and example, he insists that regardless of how it goes for us, we are cared for, loved, safe, all right. There is a light of the world, a kingdom of heaven inside us that will bear us up, regardless of our sorrow, fear, or loss…The reign of God is already here. It is within you, and among you.” (43)

The tricky part, the leap of faith, is stopping long enough to see it. Being still, so that we will know. Resting, that we might remember.

One of you left a wonderful message on my voicemail a few days ago. The joy-filled voice made me laugh in delight and filled me with gratitude. Left by someone who rarely misses church, who gives generously of time and energy and passion within this community, who works very hard throughout the week, this person apologized for not being in the pew for a couple of Sundays. “I just needed to take the time,” he said “to enjoy the wonder of God’s creation.” To be outside. To get away. To rest a while, and pray. “Have a most beautiful morning, and God bless you. I can’t wait to see you all on Sunday” the message ended. The blessing he received from this time away was passed on. A gift.

The prophet Isaiah offers these words of blessing: If you…call the Sabbath a delight…then you shall take delight in the Holy One…

Wayne Muller writes: “Sabbath implies a willingness to be surprised by unexpected grace, to partake of those potent moments when creation renews itself, when what is finished inevitably recedes, and the sacred forces of healing astonish us with the unending promise of love and life.” (37)

Surprised by unexpected grace…partaking in potent moments when creation renews itself…astonished by sacred forces of healing…receiving the unending promise of love and life…Remember the Sabbath…Delight…Stop…Pray…Walk…Listen to music…Make music…Share a meal…Come away…And rest awhile…May it be so. Amen, and amen.