A Busy Man
The past few weeks we've followed Jesus at the beginnings of his ministry. As word begins to spread of this upstart young rabbi from the backwater of Nazareth – can anything good come from there? We've followed him along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, where he calls his first disciples, Simon (who would be called Peter) and Andrew, and James and John, who leave their work behind to follow him, not knowing where he will lead them. And we saw him go into the synagogue at Capernaum, not as a student, but as one who carries the authority of God, casting out demons with a word.
We can see that Jesus is a busy man.
And in our Gospel passage from Mark this morning, his work continues.
The five of them, Jesus, Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John, leave the synagogue where he has just driven the unclean spirit out of the possessed man, and they return to Simon and Andrew's house.
Where their mother is sick.
And so the two of them tell him of their mother's fever. And he goes to her. And with a touch he heals her.
And I confess, I don't really like what happens next.
The scripture tells us, that Jesus “came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up. Then the fever left her. And she began to serve them.”
And as I'm playing this over and over in my mind, it's an image that doesn't sit particularly well with me.
The disciples were probably young – very young... teenagers, most likely. We know that they were old enough to work in the boats, and had religious training, so they were not children, exactly. But only Jesus and Simon Peter were old enough to pay the temple tax, so the rest were probably in the adolescence when Jesus started his ministry.
So we have Jesus and these kids, going into the house, and seeing their sick mother.
And Jesus heals her.
And she begins to serve them.
Which, if we focus on the young disciples, seems kind of bratty of them.
“Jesus!”
“What?”
“Mom's sick!”
“...”
“Mom's sick and we're hungry.”
Sigh
“Make mom better so she can make us some snacks!”
And we can imagine Jesus rolling his eyes wondering how he wound up with these ungrateful, whiny apostles.
Of course, the scripture doesn't say that's how it happened. And it may have been entirely innocuous. Jesus might have healed their mother and she responded by offering to serve them. For observant Jews in the ancient world, showing hospitality to guests in your home isn't just good manners; it's a matter of obedience to God. And it's actually far more likely that that's the case – that she was fully healed – (I mean, if Jesus does the healing, I'm guessing you're not going to need a whole lot of recovery time). And in her newfound good health, she would have been grateful and eager to serve Jesus with whatever her house had to offer. So maybe it's not a question of the kids being brats as it is one of her showing her joy and her devotion to God.
So that's one thing that happens in this short passage.
The next thing that happens is what I really want to talk about.
That Jesus, after the seaside journey by foot to Capernaum; after teaching in the synagogue and driving out the demon there; after visiting in the home of Simon Peter and Andrew and healing their mother... Jesus needs a break.
He's a busy guy.
“In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went to a deserted place, and there he prayed.”
I feel like, if there's a running theme in most of my sermons, it's that God is our provider, our grace, our source of righteousness and goodness and love and justice... and that to fully benefit from these blessings, we have to work ourselves. God has done the work of forgiving us, so we must pick up the work of forgiving each other. God has blessed us with providence and abundance, so we must do the work of sharing those blessings with the less fortunate. God has welcomed us into his covenant; into his house of many rooms, so we must do the work of welcoming others. For every good thing that God does in our lives, we're supposed to work to extend God's blessings, to multiply them in the lives of others, to God's glory. That being a true and devoted Christian doesn't make our lives easier... it actually makes our lives harder; giving us more responsibilities; more things we're accountable for; more stuff we have to do, and do them to higher standards.
And we do that work; or we try to. We do our best to give of our abundance. We care for each other and support one another as a community of faith, not because it's fun and easy, but because we honestly and truly love God and love each other.
But sometimes, we just need to take a break.
We need to get away from everything. Away from the people. Away from the responsibilities. Away from the work. We need to find a peaceful place and just clear our heads.
So if you're thinking, “man, this Pastor Dave... he's a nice guy, and super-good-looking... but all he ever wants us to do is work, work, work...” You're right, I say that a lot. Because we are called to work.
But we are also called to rest.
The idea of the Sabbath... a time dedicated to rest and to prayer... it's not just a good idea for when we get the chance.
It's a commandment of our God, that we're actually supposed to follow. Not because God's an ego-maniac and demands to hear our prayers. But because it's good for us.
We're not machines. We can't go 24 hours a day with stopping. There are some times I can barely go 4 hours a day. Or 40 minutes. Before I need to stop. To check in with myself. To recharge and center myself. The moments of solitude; the moments of rest that God commands us to take, they're moments to reconnect. To ask ourselves, are we doing all this work to serve a purpose? Does this serve my family? My goals? My God? Or am I just spinning my wheels to keep busy. And if we don't know the answer to that, that's probably a good cue to take a page from Jesus, and to pray. To sit in the quiet with God and let him guide our thoughts and our actions.
Because there's one last thing that happens in our Gospel reading this morning. After the healing. After Simon Peter and Andrew's mother serves Jesus and the disciples. And after Jesus goes to pray.
When the disciples find Jesus, after he has prayed, he tells them that they're moving on. To go to the neighboring towns. To proclaim the message in those places also. To do what he came to do.
“And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.”
Jesus... got back to work.
Let us pray.
Holy God, we give you thanks that you work blessings in our lives and have given us much in the way of abundance, abilities, and faith. Help us to make good use of all of your gifts. Give us grateful spirits and hospitable natures. And help us to always remember you above all things. Keep our feet on your path, that the work that we do may be to your glory, and not just to keep busy. And remind us in our busy-ness that we are commanded to rest. To put our labors aside. To make moments of peace for ourselves and to commit to times of prayer with you. Lord, we thank you for the grace you have given us and for your Commandments, given to us for our own benefit. And we pray in thanksgiving for the perfect gift and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who instructed us by his own example how to keep your Sabbath. We pray this thanks in his holy name. Amen.
The past few weeks we've followed Jesus at the beginnings of his ministry. As word begins to spread of this upstart young rabbi from the backwater of Nazareth – can anything good come from there? We've followed him along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, where he calls his first disciples, Simon (who would be called Peter) and Andrew, and James and John, who leave their work behind to follow him, not knowing where he will lead them. And we saw him go into the synagogue at Capernaum, not as a student, but as one who carries the authority of God, casting out demons with a word.
We can see that Jesus is a busy man.
And in our Gospel passage from Mark this morning, his work continues.
The five of them, Jesus, Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John, leave the synagogue where he has just driven the unclean spirit out of the possessed man, and they return to Simon and Andrew's house.
Where their mother is sick.
And so the two of them tell him of their mother's fever. And he goes to her. And with a touch he heals her.
And I confess, I don't really like what happens next.
The scripture tells us, that Jesus “came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up. Then the fever left her. And she began to serve them.”
And as I'm playing this over and over in my mind, it's an image that doesn't sit particularly well with me.
The disciples were probably young – very young... teenagers, most likely. We know that they were old enough to work in the boats, and had religious training, so they were not children, exactly. But only Jesus and Simon Peter were old enough to pay the temple tax, so the rest were probably in the adolescence when Jesus started his ministry.
So we have Jesus and these kids, going into the house, and seeing their sick mother.
And Jesus heals her.
And she begins to serve them.
Which, if we focus on the young disciples, seems kind of bratty of them.
“Jesus!”
“What?”
“Mom's sick!”
“...”
“Mom's sick and we're hungry.”
Sigh
“Make mom better so she can make us some snacks!”
And we can imagine Jesus rolling his eyes wondering how he wound up with these ungrateful, whiny apostles.
Of course, the scripture doesn't say that's how it happened. And it may have been entirely innocuous. Jesus might have healed their mother and she responded by offering to serve them. For observant Jews in the ancient world, showing hospitality to guests in your home isn't just good manners; it's a matter of obedience to God. And it's actually far more likely that that's the case – that she was fully healed – (I mean, if Jesus does the healing, I'm guessing you're not going to need a whole lot of recovery time). And in her newfound good health, she would have been grateful and eager to serve Jesus with whatever her house had to offer. So maybe it's not a question of the kids being brats as it is one of her showing her joy and her devotion to God.
So that's one thing that happens in this short passage.
The next thing that happens is what I really want to talk about.
That Jesus, after the seaside journey by foot to Capernaum; after teaching in the synagogue and driving out the demon there; after visiting in the home of Simon Peter and Andrew and healing their mother... Jesus needs a break.
He's a busy guy.
“In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went to a deserted place, and there he prayed.”
I feel like, if there's a running theme in most of my sermons, it's that God is our provider, our grace, our source of righteousness and goodness and love and justice... and that to fully benefit from these blessings, we have to work ourselves. God has done the work of forgiving us, so we must pick up the work of forgiving each other. God has blessed us with providence and abundance, so we must do the work of sharing those blessings with the less fortunate. God has welcomed us into his covenant; into his house of many rooms, so we must do the work of welcoming others. For every good thing that God does in our lives, we're supposed to work to extend God's blessings, to multiply them in the lives of others, to God's glory. That being a true and devoted Christian doesn't make our lives easier... it actually makes our lives harder; giving us more responsibilities; more things we're accountable for; more stuff we have to do, and do them to higher standards.
And we do that work; or we try to. We do our best to give of our abundance. We care for each other and support one another as a community of faith, not because it's fun and easy, but because we honestly and truly love God and love each other.
But sometimes, we just need to take a break.
We need to get away from everything. Away from the people. Away from the responsibilities. Away from the work. We need to find a peaceful place and just clear our heads.
So if you're thinking, “man, this Pastor Dave... he's a nice guy, and super-good-looking... but all he ever wants us to do is work, work, work...” You're right, I say that a lot. Because we are called to work.
But we are also called to rest.
The idea of the Sabbath... a time dedicated to rest and to prayer... it's not just a good idea for when we get the chance.
It's a commandment of our God, that we're actually supposed to follow. Not because God's an ego-maniac and demands to hear our prayers. But because it's good for us.
We're not machines. We can't go 24 hours a day with stopping. There are some times I can barely go 4 hours a day. Or 40 minutes. Before I need to stop. To check in with myself. To recharge and center myself. The moments of solitude; the moments of rest that God commands us to take, they're moments to reconnect. To ask ourselves, are we doing all this work to serve a purpose? Does this serve my family? My goals? My God? Or am I just spinning my wheels to keep busy. And if we don't know the answer to that, that's probably a good cue to take a page from Jesus, and to pray. To sit in the quiet with God and let him guide our thoughts and our actions.
Because there's one last thing that happens in our Gospel reading this morning. After the healing. After Simon Peter and Andrew's mother serves Jesus and the disciples. And after Jesus goes to pray.
When the disciples find Jesus, after he has prayed, he tells them that they're moving on. To go to the neighboring towns. To proclaim the message in those places also. To do what he came to do.
“And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.”
Jesus... got back to work.
Let us pray.
Holy God, we give you thanks that you work blessings in our lives and have given us much in the way of abundance, abilities, and faith. Help us to make good use of all of your gifts. Give us grateful spirits and hospitable natures. And help us to always remember you above all things. Keep our feet on your path, that the work that we do may be to your glory, and not just to keep busy. And remind us in our busy-ness that we are commanded to rest. To put our labors aside. To make moments of peace for ourselves and to commit to times of prayer with you. Lord, we thank you for the grace you have given us and for your Commandments, given to us for our own benefit. And we pray in thanksgiving for the perfect gift and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who instructed us by his own example how to keep your Sabbath. We pray this thanks in his holy name. Amen.