Come Away and Rest
The Rev. Canon Frank Logue preached this sermon for Holy Nativity Episcopal Church
on St. Simons Island, Georgia on July 22, 2018
Come Away and Rest
Mark 6:30-44
Jesus feeds five thousand men, plus the women and children with them with five loaves of bread and two fish. Once everyone has had their fill, the disciples collect twelve basketsful of leftovers. This is a very familiar story to most folks. Even people who know few Bible stories will recognize this scene with Jesus feeding the multitudes with just a little bread and fish. I want to look this week at the edges of this story—to what happens just before and just after the miracle of multiplying meals.
As our reading for today begins, Jesus’ disciples are returning from a preaching and healing mission to the surrounding towns and villages. Jesus sent his disciples out two by two to preach that the kingdom of God is near, to do miracles, and to call the people to repentance—asking God’s forgiveness and then amending their lives to do what they know is right.
They have returned to their leader and the reading for today begins, “The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught.”
Jesus knows how demanding their journey was and he calls the disciples away for rest saying, “’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 sees that his followers need rest and he tries to make room for that rest. He gathers his disciples into a boat and they go to a deserted place on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The problem is the Sea of Galilee is a sea in name only—it’s really more of a large lake. Even though it might take a couple of hours to row from one side to the other, it’s hard to get out of sight of an aggressive crowd.
When the people see where Jesus and the disciples are headed, they run ahead on foot to beat them their. By the time Jesus and the disciples make landfall, the shore is lined with eager spiritual seekers desperate for what Jesus has to offer.
If you have ever felt over worked, over pursued by other folks’ needs, this should hit home. The disciples who have gone out on the road working hard, came back to Jesus to find no time even to eat. When their Lord tries to make room for rest, they are pursued once again by the spiritually hungry mob.
Jesus should probably shoo the crowd away at this point. But he sees the great hunger that drives them and feels compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus taught the crowd many things. He taught late into the day. The people had been so concerned about their spiritual hunger that they ran after Jesus without a thought to how they would fill their hungry bellies later that day.
It was then that the disciples took some compassion on the crowd and suggested Jesus send the people away to find food and lodgings in the surrounding country and villages. Jesus, who had cared for the spiritually hungry crowd, now feeds them a miraculous meal of bread and fish.
If we pushed on in Mark’s Gospel into next week’s reading, we find Jesus sends the disciples ahead of him to find a place to rest, while he dismisses the crowd. Jesus might have interjected a lengthy teaching session out of compassion for the crowd, but he is still concerned that the disciples find rest for their bodies as well as their souls.
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Exodus 31:15 states, “Whoever does work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death.” Being a workaholic was a capital crime in ancient Israel.
Compare that to our own times. In America we see hard work as a virtue, which it is. But then we decide that if hard work is a virtue, even more work must be even better and that’s not necessarily so. But working more is not better and workaholics cost an estimated $150 billion per year through health-related problems. This is not a problem in our nation alone. In Japan they have coined a term Karoshi, meaning death from overwork. The 60-70 hour work weeks in Japan cause 10,000 workers a year to die on the job from Karoshi.
Workaholics may be covering anxiety, low self-esteem, and problems with intimacy by staying busy. All that busy-ness takes a toll of its own with anxiety attacks, ulcers, strokes or heart attacks.
But the God who lovingly made you knows you need rest. The Bible is clear that we need spiritual refreshment, which is what Jesus gave in his teaching the five thousand that day. But we all also need physical refreshment, like the food he gave the hungry people and the rest he tried to provide his disciples.
The Bible is a realistic book if nothing else. God already knew we would be tempted to do too much. God knew it would be easy to go home from work only to work some more. Hard work may be a virtue, a good in and of itself, but God wants you and me to also know that there is more to life than work. Your body needs rest. Take it easy some times. If you feel guilty resting remind yourself that the God who made you wired your system so that you have to rest. But when you are sitting with your feet up this afternoon, telling your spouse that the preacher said you gotta kick back, remember that you need to make room for your spouse to rest too.
I worked on a team this past year with the Episcopal Church’s Presiding Bishop Michael Curry. This was before he preached at the Royal Wedding a sermon on love heard by more than a billion people. He wanted a group to reflect with him on how best to move the Episcopal Branch of the Jesus Movement forward. And what we all came to see through the nudging of the Holy Spirit is that the spiritual practices that have nourished Christians for centuries still work.
We reflect on monastic communities and their rules of life. My wife, Victoria, and I have lived by our own rules of life for years. We know how important that disciplines can be. So in crafting what is essential, we came up with Turn, Learn, Pray, Worship, Bless, Go, and Rest. Rest is so important that it made one of the seven essentials. I have hand outs with me for anyone interested in the Seven Practices for a Jesus-Centered Life. For now, just know that that God who made you and loves you, intends that you find rest and refreshment.
I want to close with a story from 4th century Egypt. Their were many hermits living in the desert of Egypt trying to draw closer to God through a life of prayer and study. It was the beginnings of what would become monasteries. We have many of their wise sayings and stories preserved. Here is one on work,
Once Abbot Anthony was conversing with some brethren, and a hunter who was after game in the wilderness came upon them. He saw Abbot Anthony and the brothers enjoying themselves, and disapproved. Abbot Anthony said: put an arrow in your bow and shoot it. This he did. Now shoot another, said the elder. And another, and another. The hunter said, “If I bend my bow all the time it will break. Abbot Anthony replied: So it is also in the work of God. If we push ourselves beyond measure, the brethren will soon collapse. It is right, therefore, from time to time, to relax their efforts.[1]
Amen.
[1] The Wisdom of the Desert: Sayings from the desert fathers of the fourth century, translated by Thomas Merton (copyright 1960 by the Abbey of Gethsemani, Inc.)
