Sermon

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Take Time Off

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Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Take Time Off

The Rev. Dr. James D. Kegel

Norman Vincent Peale recalled that once he went to a Quaker meeting. He had a perplexing problem to solve and had not been able to get an answer. Peale writes, “In a Quaker meeting, you practice the art of spiritual silence. It is a practical demonstration of Psalm 45, ‘Be still and know that I am God’, or Isaiah 30, ‘In quietness and confidence shall be shall be your strength’. After a while, even to the unpracticed, the deep silence has its way with you. At this meeting, a man spoke. He said, ‘If anybody here has a problem, let that person drop it into a pool of deep quietness’. I had never heard a more apt description.”

Peale continues, “Because that silence was deep and it was like a pool. I took the problem that had been baffling me and I said to myself, ‘All right. We’ll see what happens’, and I let it drop into that pool of quietness. Then this man said, ‘Now just sit resting in God’s quietness. Believe that God will break up your problem into its component parts and give you the answer before the meeting is over’. We continued to sit and wait and listen in the silence. I don’t know how long a time elapsed before another man arose and said, ‘Amen’. And that was the end of the meeting. All of a sudden, as clear as crystal, came the answer to my problem. And never in my life have I had as right an answer. The particular slant was different, for I had been thinking and searching in a different direction. But intuitively, I recognized this for what it was, God’s answer.”

As St. Gregory the Theologian said in his First Theological Oration, “It is necessary to be truly at leisure to know God and when we can get a convenient season, to discern the straight road of things divine.” There is a time to speak and a time to be quiet, a time to be active and a time to rest. It was true for the prophets who would preach and heal and then go away for active contemplation. It is true for today’s Gospel lesson where Jesus tells his disciples, the apostles, to “come apart into a deserted place, …and rest awhile” (Mark 6:31 WEB).  It is true for each one of us. We need our time of work and activity and then our time off, a time for rest, quiet, renewal.

Ed Trexler, the former editor of The Lutheran magazine, tells of a Methodist minister in the North Carolina town where he grew up who wrote, “A little more loafing please.” The minister said the Protestant work ethic is killing us so that when we work seven days a week, we attempt what even God did not do. Then he quoted a wonderful saying from a Great Smoky Mountains menu: Many of the problems of the world come because our affairs are being handled by tired people…and an old Spanish proverb, “How beautiful it is to do nothing and then rest afterward.”

We need our work time and our time of relaxation and change of pace. Our daily lives are often rushed. We are always in a hurry. We neglect time for reflection. William Barclay, the Scottish preacher, recalled that the first time he visited America, he thought the main aim of Americans was to make money; the second time he visited, he thought the main aim was power; and the third time he thought the main aim was speed and that third impression remained.

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Our Gospel text is interesting. The followers of Jesus gave him and his disciples no time for rest. The passage reads, “They had no leisure so much as to eat” (Mark 6:31 WEB).  The crowds were coming to Jesus and following him wherever he went. He had compassion on them for they were like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus healed the sick who were brought to him and taught them God’s Word. Mark even uses the word, “rushed about” which seems so characteristic of our world today. Jesus needed to take some time off. His disciples needed to get away and refresh themselves.

It is no different today. That is why bishops write pastors urging them to take vacations—care-givers need to take care of themselves. It is why we are urged to exercise and take care of ourselves physically. It is why congregations are required to give pastors four weeks’ vacation and two weeks of continuing education each year and are encouraged to offer a sabbatical leave after five years in the parish. It is important for teachers and preachers, leaders, to take time off. It is important for everyone to find a quiet place and time for rest and renewal.

I remember a sermon we once heard by a retired bishop who was serving as interim pastor at the Crusade Chapel of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem. Dr Paul Werger’s sermon dealt with quiet devotional time. He and his wife had become so busy doing everything and anything that they stopped taking time for Bible study and prayer. They did not take time to reflect on the test, ponder what it meant for them personally and ask what God was trying to tell them to do. Without reading and reflecting and praying, the church work became so much harder, tiring and frustrating. Bishop Werger said it even showed on his face which scowled and sounded in his tone of voice which was often sharp. Finally, he said, as he was preparing for an interfaith wedding service, the Roman Catholic priest asked him about his devotional life. Dr Werger had to admit that it was not the best, that he was usually too busy. The priest said it was the key to his unease. If he would take some time off, time for quiet reflection and prayer, he would have more energy and find renewed joy in his work. Bishop Werger told the congregation it had worked for him and urged it upon his hearers.

It is not the amount of time spent in prayer that is so important but taking to time to talk to God and listen to God. Martin Luther once commented, “I am so busy that if I do not spend two or three hours a day in prayer, I could not get through the day.” C.H. Spurgeon, the greatest English preacher of the nineteenth century, spoke of prolonged prayer: “I could not do it if my life depended upon it. It’s like going to the bank with a check. I don’t loaf around the premises after I already have the money.” What is important is taking the time from a busy schedule, a time for quiet, a time to pray and to praise God. a time for listening to God. Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, observed, “A man prayed and first thought prayer was talking. But he became more and more quiet until at the end, he realized that prayer was listening.”

Even Jesus’ disciples, Jesus himself, needed some time off. They were healing and teaching, having great compassion on crowds who needed their care, but they also got tired, fatigued, overloaded. I was reading recently an account of a train trip across Canada from Vancouver to Halifax. The author, David Yeadon, commented:

“I realized another benefit of train travel. Long periods with the absence of distractions and external stimuli turn you inward, entice you with the possibilities of undisturbed introspection. At home, I’m always promising myself whole days of book reading, but rarely find the time. On the train, I gorged myself on books like ripe mangoes. I became a poet for a while, scribbling purple odes to ancient landscapes; a songwriter also with two ‘on-the-road’ potential hits in my notebooks complete with chords. I listened to all of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony—twice—on my Walkman (I rarely get beyond the first movement in my normal, do-this, do-that life). I wrote a long letter, a real letter not an email quickie, to my wife telling her why I was so glad she’d put up with me for over twenty-five years. I also scribbled a note that I still have pinned up at my desk—’Ah to have no rigid goals and plans except to be all the ‘ams’ that I am’.”

I wish Yeadon had added that he read the Bible, thought about what he had read and reflected on what it was saying to him and then prayed about it. May did but did not write it in his travel article. What I do know is that we need unstructured time, time to think, to read, to ponder the wonder of life, to appreciate the family and friend s and gifts we have been given. We need time to pray and to listen. We need time off.“Come apart to a deserted place, …and rest awhile” (Mark 6:31 WEB).  Jesus said to his disciples. He says to us, “take some time off.” Amen.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible.

Copyright 2014, James D. Kegel.  Used by permission