Recalibration

Jesus sent the disciples out from his hometown of Capernaum in pairs to proclaim that people should change their hearts and their lives, and as they went, they cast out demons and healed the sick. When they returned to Capernaum and told Jesus everything they had done. Jesus, there was a child who was crippled and we anointed him with oil, and he was cured! There was a person in bondage to a demon, and the person was released. We taught and the crowds listened and repented and followed! It’s been so amazing! In fact, we have been so busy, we haven’t even eaten. I mean, it’s just been outrageous.

Jesus says to them, “Come by yourselves to a secluded place and rest for a while.” So, they set out in a boat on the Sea of Galilee to cross over to the East side to a deserted area. Only, the crowds see them set out, and Capernaum is just at the north Western edge of the sea, so, since they ran ahead, they got around the northern tip to the other side where Jesus and the disciples pulled onto the sandy beach and were there waiting for them. Mark tells us that Jesus had compassion on the crowd because they were like sheep without a shepherd and began to teach them. Then late in the day, the disciples come to Jesus and point out that they are in an isolated place with nothing to eat, and Jesus takes 5 loaves and 2 fish and feeds 5000 with 12 baskets of leftovers.

Commonly when this passage is studied, the focus is on the miracle of feeding the crowd, or on the compassion Jesus had for the crowd. But today, I want us to focus on the disciples. Jesus saw when they returned that they needed a rest. We don’t know that they didn’t get that rest. They get to the other side and Jesus teaches, then late in the day, they come to Jesus about feeding the crowd.

I want us to focus on the disciples, because just as Jesus says to them, “Come by yourselves to a secluded place and rest for a while,” he says it to us. Jesus isn’t as concerned about their successes and he is about their spirits.

It is time to rest. We all need rest, even God rests. God created six days, and on the seventh God rested and it was so wonderful that God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because of that rest God had. Then, when God freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and as they wandered they asked for guidance, they sent Moses up on Mt. Sinai to meet with God, and God gave them the 10 Commandments. One of which was to keep the Sabbath holy.

We know it’s a commandment – and so we talk ourselves around what we can and can’t do on the Sabbath…and talk about what they did back in the day when you sat around with all the family after Sunday lunch. And then we get realistic and begin to list the things that have to be done…and it really doesn’t make much sense to sit around all day if it’s going to mean you have to work all night. There’s only so much time in a day, after all. It’s really not a realistic commandment for most of us to follow today. Is it?

I wonder if the disciples argued with Jesus. There are still so many people who are sick – so many people who haven’t heard your teaching – so much to DO, Jesus. We can’t just leave right now.

“Come by yourselves to a secluded place and rest for a while,” says Jesus.

Old Testament professor Dr. Rolf Jacobson points out that the Sabbath Commandment, God’s teaching to rest would have been unbelievably good news to people who were recently slaves whose time was never their own and who never, ever had a guaranteed period of rest. “Wait a minute,” Rolf imagines them saying upon hearing the 10 Teachings read, “You mean we get to rest? We even have to rest? Glory Hallelujah!”

And Dr. David Lose says that he has “this hunch that more and more of us find ourselves in a place not all that different from the Egypt where the ancient Hebrews languished. Except our slavery is self-constructed, self-imposed, and therefore far more difficult to detect or overcome. We are enslaved to notions of success, and therefore put few limits on work. We are enslaved to ideas about our children having every opportunity possible, and therefore schedule them into frenetic lives and wonder why they have a hard time focusing. We are enslaved to the belief that the only thing that will bring contentment is more — more money, more space in our homes, more cars, more things to put on our resumes or in our closets, more…. Go ahead, name that thing you’ve fallen prey to wanting more of. And such levels of wanting, quite frankly, don’t permit much time for anything but work.”

And Jesus says to us, “Come away. Come by yourselves to a secluded place and rest for a while.” Not just to be silent. Not just to be still. Not just to be alone. To recalibrate.

To recalibrate is to check, adjust, or compare with a standard. Our standard is God. The Psalmist says, “In God my soul finds rest, my hope comes from God. God alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress and my refuge.”

Ruth Haley Barton says of this passage, “Jesus seeks to guide his disciples – then and now – into rhythms of solitude, community, and ministry.” She writes, “One of the most important lessons I have learned over the past few years is how important it is to have time and space for being with what’s real in my life – to celebrate joys, grieve the losses, shed my tears, sit with the questions, feel my anger, attend to my loneliness….allowing God to be with me in that place and waiting for [God] to do what it needed. In silence my soul waits for you and you alone, O God. From you alone comes my salvation.”

As parents and children alike lament the end of summer and look ahead to the pace of a new school year, as cell phones buzz in our pockets and interrupt our conversations, as we carry work with us on convenient laptops and iPads, it can seem impossible to accept Jesus’ invitation to “Come away. Rest. Recalibrate.” And yet, God commands it of God’s people. Jesus calls us, as his disciples, to it.

When you leave today, I am going to give you a blue card. It is blank. How will you rest this week? Write down one thing you will do this week – either by yourself or with someone you care about – to make space and time for being with what’s real in your life – maybe you will take a walk, or read a book, or play a game, or eat together; maybe you will get your hands in the dirt or paint or bike….and then write on the back side of the card how it made you feel – grateful, renewed, recalibrated. Maybe you will want to rest again next week…May we all experience the blessing of responding to Jesus’ invitation to “Come away to a quiet place and rest for a while.” Amen.