Christ the King- Epiphany / Wilbraham

Deacon Michael Hamilton

July 21, 2024

Please pray that the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all of our hearts, may be pleasing and acceptable to God. Amen. (pbs)

Come away to a deserted place all by yourself and rest a while…. This sounds like a perfect summer getaway that many of us might be taking advantage of now. As we just heard, this is the invitation that Jesus has extended to the disciples after they have returned from their first mission trip. Recall a few weeks ago that Jesus told the disciples to go into the local towns and villages in pairs of two to share the Good News that the Kingdom of God has come near. They were to go without money, food, or a change of clothes. Sent out to heal the sick, preach the growing Gospel message, and to depend upon God and the graciousness of strangers for their needs. And they went.

Today’s Gospel picks up on the moment when everyone has returned from their mission trip and they are excited to share with Jesus, and the rest of the group, their first experiences of fishing for people as Jesus had promised them in the beginning. In the first 6 chapters in the Gospel of Mark Jesus is saying “Come and follow me”. From chapter 6 forward, He is sending the disciples out to do the work they, (and ultimately us), have been given to do.

For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure, even to eat. McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Sonic, and KFC have all capitalized on our dependence to go-go-go. No longer are the ‘drive-thru’s’ an occasional “treat”, they have become our own kitchen as we live into our ‘fast paced’, ‘don’t stop’, ‘keep going’ lifestyle. These convenient ‘quick-stops’ have become ‘natural’ feeding stations. How familiar does this sound, “They had no leisure, even to eat?” Aside from calories and cholesterol, is it all that important if we wolf-down a burger or piece of chicken on the run? Maybe it is not that critical, but I have to ask, if we have no leisure, even to eat, what are we doing and how are we being fed psychologically, spiritually, and physically? How have we allowed everything to be so important, so demanding, so encompassing that we consistently put our own health and well-being into jeopardy? Being busy and overburdened has become our natural starting point and I wonder if this isn’t an intentional distraction from what we were created for.

In a previous sermon I referenced the Screwtape Letters written by C.S. Lewis and the advice of Uncle Screwtape said to nephew Wormwood, in how to win souls to the Darkside was not to instill doubt of God, but to make people believe there was no evil or devil in the world. Is our ‘busyness’ any different if our 24/7 schedule distracts us from rest, proper care of ourselves, and our ability to appreciate the relationships and gifts that God has given us? Mark has already told us in his 2nd chapter that, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the sabbath.” In other words, it is a Godly commandment for us to put down our work so that we do not come to believe that we were created to work, suffer, and die. OR, equally egregious that we come to believe that we are the one, chosen by God, to work ourselves to death in

solving all of the problems of people around us. Neither of these are premises are true and we have been counseled several times on the importance of rest;

· Exodus 20:8-11 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.

· Isaiah 58:13, 14 "Those who keep the Sabbath are promised joy and fulfillment in life".

· Isaiah 56:2–9 "As we show our dedication to God by keeping His Sabbath holy, He promises to gather our children to Him and bless them"

· Along with Jeremiah and other prophets that have said the same.

So how do we celebrate a Holy rest? The word Sabbath comes from a Hebrew word that means “to rest from labor.” The word holy means something that is sacred or dedicated to God. God wants us to make Sabbath feel different from the other days of the week by resting from our normal daily routine and dedicating our thoughts and time to God, to family, nature, or anyplace that we are called into loving relationships that nourishes us. This feeding, this nourishment, is the energy that we will need to be in healthy relationship with others, ourselves, and with God.

Today’s Gospel is broken into two snip-its, verses 30-34, and 53-56. IF we had read continuously from verse 30 through 56, we would have included 2 additional and well-known stories. Verse 34 has the disciples arriving at the ‘deserted place’ and verse 35 is the start of the feeding of 5,000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish. Catering a meal for 5,000 would be unimaginable for any of us and yet that is what the disciples had in front of them. The exhausted disciples want to send them away with the snarky response of, “let them go to the village and buy their bread” as if the local bakery would have 2,500 loaves on the shelf and Jesus responds, “No, you give them something to eat.” We too

might think that this is an impossible task, and it is, until the disciples do what they can, and, in this case, they were able to gather 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. They then place what they have into the hands of Jesus and He takes what is offered, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it back to satisfy the needs of everyone there.

What I take from this part of the chapter is that we are responsible to do what we can, but we are NOT responsible to solve all the issues by ourselves. With good faith effort, compassion, and care we respond where the need is and then, placing the rest into God’s hands, we leave it there for the work to be completed. In doing this, we remind ourselves that we are co-creators in building the kingdom of heaven on earth, we are not the engineer, the designer, the financier, or the owner of the finished project. If we are able to let go of burdens that are not ours to own, we may create space in our schedules and possibly find some time to rest.

After feeding the 5,000, Jesus sends the disciples ahead of Him to the other-side and we find the disciples still rowing through the night and Jesus comes walking on water. Once they do arrive, with Jesus in the boat too, they are met with crowds of people that are desperate for healings of one sort or another. The disciples are painfully aware that there is suffering everywhere. ‘… and they had no leisure, even to eat.’

Until Heaven on Earth is realized, we will always have the marginalized, the poor, the foreigner, the sick and the friendless with us. We will also have the

burden of schedules with PTA meetings, piano lessons, deadlines at work, tests to take, and bills to pay. As much as that is the reality that we live with, can we let go of some of the tasks? Could we build moments of rest if a full day off is not possible this week? Will a bowl of ice cream with the kids in the living room watching paw patrol tip the daily planner into chaos? Would scheduling 20 minutes to sit in prayer during a particularly difficult time, or to have a cup of coffee while looking at clouds be the final straw to block us from ‘keeping up?’ Ideally, I would wish a full 24 hours off for each of us every week, but if we are not able to achieve that (yet), what can we do to rebalance the work: play ratio? Can we imagine ways to reset the balance of the GOD: me scale? What do I need to let go of for the Family: responsibility equation to be satisfied?

In thinking about a re-set, I wonder if figuring out what our bottom-line belief of why we were created would help us in our perspective?

· Were we created in the image of God to work, suffer, and die?

· Are we the collective energy that God created in order to fight, make war, and to avenge the dignity of God by killing all of God’s enemies?

· Were we created to smite everyone that do not believe as we do, even in our political process?

If none of these options seem correct, can we restate with conviction, belief, and action that we were created by God for love? Can we believe that we are the beloved of God, and the real purpose in life is for us to be the One Body of Christ on earth; The One Body, created to be in relationship with each other?

Were we conceived as The One Body living and thriving in relationship with nature, and in relationship with God? God is love. God desires nothing but love, and God can only exist, in Love.

Please take time this week to figure out what your bottom-line belief as to why God created you and to think about how you want to live into that truth.

“Alexa, Clear the schedule, I have things to do this week that are life-giving, important, and a priority going forward.” Amen.