Broadway Christian Church · Columbia, Missouri

Morning Worship · July 30, 2006

Eighth Sunday After Pentecost

Prayer of the Day

Lord Jesus, you called your disciples away from their busy labors and led them to a remote place to find rest and restoration.  Help us in this hour of worship, Lord, remember that you are God, and we are not.  Give us the grace to enjoy your promised rest this day and always.  Amen.

Scripture

Mark 6:30-34;53-56

The apostles rejoined, returned, gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.  Indeed, there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his disciples did not even have time to eat, so Jesus said to them, “Come.  Let us go to a quiet place.  Let us get away from the crowds for a while and get some rest.”

So they went off in a boat by themselves.  But many saw them going, and people from all over the town ran on ahead to meet them as they landed.  As Jesus stepped ashore, he saw the huge, vast, large crowds and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.  So he began to teach them many, many things.

Later, when he and his disciples went to Gennesaret, the people carried the sick on mats to wherever he was, and they begged him to let them just touch the edge, the hem of his garment, and all who touched him were healed.

Message

Take a Break

Rick Frost

I had a really, really interesting week.  Jan had a meeting out on the East Coast and invited me to tag along.  I loved that.  That’s fantastic.  So I jumped on a plane last Monday and flew to my birthplace, Baltimore, Maryland.  It was my first visit to that part of the world since that day. 

If you have been to the Inner Harbor you know what I’m talking about.  It is an awesome place, featuring live music in the streets, Fort McHenry where the “Star Spangled Banner” was written, and crab cakes that just won’t quit.  I slept well in a quiet room on the sixth floor of the Sheraton.  I wrote this sermon in the mornings.  In the afternoons I went out on the streets and in the neighborhoods where my parents and grandparents had once made a life together.  It was good to take a break.

That leads me, of course, as you knew it would eventually, to our text for today.  Jesus and his disciples had been very busy.  They reported to him all the things that they have done and they have taught.  So Jesus says to his disciples, “Come away with me to a quiet place, a lonely place, all by yourselves, and let’s take a break.  Let’s rest a while” (verse 31).

Mark says that Jesus proposed this little getaway, because there was a “constant coming and going of people, so much so that they didn’t even have time to eat.”  So, says Mark, they got into a boat, went off to a remote place all by themselves.

Point:  The point is this.  I see in this text what some people in this room and people that you and I know need very much.  I see here clear biblical and theological permission for sincere, dedicated, earnest followers of Jesus to take some time off.  To take a break.  To take that vacation.  According to Mark, Jesus is not suggesting.  Jesus is not making a special offer.  Jesus is not saying, “Hey, if you don’t have anything else better to do…”  No!  What Mark says is Jesus commands.  Jesus, the good shepherd, is the one who not only cares for the huge, huge crowds and all of their various needs.  This is not taking anything away from that.  But also Jesus cares deeply and is keenly sensitive to the needs and the welfare of his under-shepherds, his disciples, his followers.

Now, some may say, “You know, Rick… I think you are stretching that one.  I mean… If you think of all the commands of Jesus, this is not the one that jumps out.  When you think of the commands of Jesus, you think of the hard stuff.  You think about all the problems in the world.  You think about all the violence in the world.  You think about all the suffering in the world.  You think about all the massive needs of the people of this world.  Those are the things we remember.  Those are the things we hear from the lips of Jesus.  That’s what we focus on.  This command, if it is a command, is pretty easy,” they say.

Well… I’m not so sure.  In my experience, it is the sincere, the dedicated, the earnest disciples who are the worst at this matter of Sabbath keeping.  Now, I know you don’t mean to be, some of you, but your busyness, your plans, your schedules, you ceaseless activities sometimes give those who see you the impression that somehow you believe that it is all up to you to do good in this world, or somehow the good in this world is not going to get done.  You give the impression that somehow it is all up to you to set the world right, or the world is somehow going to be lost.

Now, there is no question that there is plenty of good that needs to be done.  There is much that is wrong with the world that needs to be made right.  But behind some of our people’s busyness, and for some even their exhaustion, is the blasphemous belief that you are somehow the saviors of this world, and that somehow you think you have the solutions to what ails it.  I have some hard news for you today.  I’m sorry, but you don’t.  It just ain’t so.

Horace Mann said a wonderful thing: “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.”  That is a good thing.  That ought to be one of our goals, but, you know, I have a part to play.  You have a part to play.  None of us have to carry the whole ball.  It really is God’s world.  You and I serve a God and seek a God that is alive, and active, and awesome, and effective, and is at work this very moment in ways that you and I do not know, much less understand to make this world come out the way God wants it to come out.  Did you know that? 

Yes, we have work to do.  We have a lot of work to do.  Yes, there is much for us to teach.  Yes, there are awesome and demanding things that we are given to accomplish.  And yes, we can take time off.  We can and should arrange for and relish times of relaxation, and inactivity, and quiet reflection, and the good grace of doing absolutely nothing.  Nothing useful.  Nothing productive.  Nothing essential. 

That’s why, folks, one of the eight Keys that we identify for being a disciple of Jesus is observing and keeping and taking a Sabbath.  Did you know that?  We Christians believe there are times when we are to work, and to labor, and to give.  There are times for us to sacrifice, and to build, and to strive, and to pour ourselves into.  There are also times when we should have nothing better to do than to simply enjoy one another and the Living God.  That is an amazing thing.  In times like today, in times like right now, in times like right here in this place.  Or maybe later this afternoon for you.  Maybe, if you are like me, Sunday is not a Sabbath day at all.  Maybe it’s another day for you.  Sunday is not the only Sabbath there is.

We call this the Christian lifestyle.  We do so, because we believe it is a foretaste, a little glimpse, a sign of things to come.  It’s just a little taste of eternity.  It is a gift from God.  It is to be enjoyed.

So I think, quite frankly, it is a mistake to downplay, to pooh-pooh, to make light of this wonderful thing called Sabbath.  Now, evidently, it was a notion that the Lord, himself, did not take very lightly.  In fact, one-third of the entire Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, is devoted to this one commandment.  Did you know that?  It takes God almost three times longer to tell you about it than all the rest.  It’s right up there with some big commandments: “You shall not kill;” “You shall not steal;” “You shall not commit adultery.”  Then right there with them is: “You shall keep the Sabbath and make it holy.”

What’s so big about the Sabbath?  People have wondered about that, particularly in our day and time.  Let me tell you what the biblical idea is.  The biblical idea of Sabbath originally was the notion of stopping.  Just stopping.  Stop, so that you will remember who you are and whose you are.  If you don’t stop, guess what?  You tend to forget.  Stop and remember that your ultimate destiny and the destiny of this world are ultimately in God’s hands and not in yours.  You forget that when you don’t stop.  Stop and remember that this life is not a rat race.

Do you all know Saint Lilly?  Lilly Tomlin.  Saint Lilly has put it this way:  “The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you are still a rat.”  That’s right.  This life is not designed to be a rat race.  So, the command comes down: “Remember the Sabbath – remember it and keep it holy.”

First of all, it’s a commandment.  It’s a gift as all the commandments are.  The Ten Commandments are all gifts to God’s people.  Every single one of them.  They are to be enjoyed.  More importantly, what I want you to hear today is that this is not a suggestion.  This is not a recommendation.  This is a command of Jesus to cease and desist from all acts of creation, to stop competing with God, to stop even helping God, so that you will remember that God is God and you are not.  You’re the creature, and he is the Creator.  Stop, so that you will remember that the world was created by God totally without you and is probably going to be here tomorrow morning regardless of what you do.

A proper word in the Bible for refusing to do this – for refusing to stop – is the word “idolatry.”  “Idolatry” is a biblical word, as you know.  It means “to worship,” which means to give yourself to things other than the one true God.  Whatever that might be, whether you worship yourself, your schedule, your work, your family, your community, your refusal to be the creature, your insistence on turning even Sabbath day into just another day of ceaseless activity.  It’s a struggle for us.

Point:  The point is this.  The commands of Jesus are sacred to those of us who seek to follow him.  We study, and we learn from him.  We strive to be faithful.  We try to do our best, and we hear him say things like, “Love your neighbor;” and “Feed the hungry;” and “Visit the sick;” and “Bind up one another’s wounds;” and “Bear one another’s burdens;” and even “Love your enemy.”  Wow!  That is serious stuff.  Those are the big commands.  Those are the ones we remember.  Those are the ones that come to mind.  What I want you to hear is that here is a command of Jesus that is equally important.

You and I live in a world that is growing constantly to be a 24/7 world.  I spent several hours in four different airports this week.  I watched people wandering around with telephones attached to their ears, and computers on their laps.  They were just going, going, going. 

Here we have a command of Jesus.  It’s a command that says, “Take the Sabbath.  Take a break.”  The question today:  How are you going to do that?  How are you going to be a person who celebrates Sabbath?  What special way are you going to signal your withdrawal, your disengagement, your stopping of things that you are normally accustomed to doing and creating some space for Sabbath?

Some say maybe you ought to dress differently, or maybe change accustomed locations, maybe take the phone off the hook, turn off the cell phones and the computers.  Something specific that signals, most importantly to you, and that signals to your family, to your friends, to the world around you, even to God that you are on Sabbath.  That’s what you are doing, and you are not ashamed of that or apologizing for that one bit.

Folks, the good news today is that, regardless of what they say today, the world is not in our hands.  The future is not ours to determine.  Yes, we have work that we should do, and that we will do.  It is work that has been entrusted to us by God.  Yes, we can and should pray, and reach out, and help, and give, and serve, and do the very best we can to be light and salt to the world.  Yes, we can and should take the Sabbath, take a break, secure in the faith that the most important work in this world is not mine and not yours.  The most important work in this world is God’s. 

So if you have not yet taken your break, if you have not yet taken your vacation…  You and I know some folks that have vacations, and they are very proud of the fact that they don’t take them.  Oh, my gosh!  If you haven’t done that yet, if you haven’t gotten away, if you haven’t experienced a change of scenery, if you haven’t done something for yourself that renews and restores your spirit, I hope that you will do it soon.  For after all, Jesus doesn’t just invite you, or suggest, or recommend that you do that.  He commands it.

“Come!” he says, “Come away with me and let’s take a break” (Chapter 6; Verse 31).

And we all say together… “Amen.”

Benediction

River God, there are many waters that bring us to you.  Beside these waters, you call us to be renewed and restored.  Lead us to these waters, where our spirits can be refreshed.  Let us dance and rest in obedience to your Sabbath, knowing that you are still… our guiding current.  Amen.