Sermon Series:  COME ALIVE:  BODY, SOUL, HEART AND MIND
"Come Away"
Mark 6: 30-34, 53-56
A Sermon by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart

They returned to Jesus and reported all they had done and taught.... then they fed 5000 ... then Jesus walked on windswept waters ... then crowds followed them everywhere seeking healing. These stories are told one right after the other in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Mark.  These were all things Jesus and the disciples did.  These acts served others, surprised them, and restored the people. Jesus and his weary, overwhelmed followers were deeply engaged with the real needs and fears of thousands who needed food for body and soul.

I can imagine strategic instructions for just such a time if this were a United Methodist endeavor.... a task force established... how to prepare for large gatherings ... how to heal ... how to pray...  what to teach.   I can picture an organizer’s training manual describing techniques they would need to learn and know in order to carry out the work they had to do.

But Jesus words to his disciples in the midst of all this were quite different.  He said to them,

Come away....
to a deserted place....
all by yourselves...
and rest a while....

Come away....
to an uninhabited place
all by yourselves...
and rest a while....

Those of you who know me will understand why these verses are so compelling and challenging for me....and why I felt the need to repeat them.

The calendar is so full, and the “to do” list is so long, the issues are so great, that the need to come away to rest is an ever-present impossibility.  I resonate with the cartoon showing someone sitting behind a desk on which there are two boxes ... one says “in.”  The other says “in deeper!”

In the midst of struggles to serve and survive where do we find an uninhabited place to rest that takes us from days of too much and not enough to abundant life?

I hear Jesus speaking to me and to all of us the simple ... yet somehow incredibly difficult invitation:

Come away....
to an uninhabited place...
all by yourselves...
and rest a while....

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, in his book Take Back Your Time, writes about attending a folk music festival in Philadelphia.  He writes,

Many of the singers sang labor songs of the 1930’s, civil rights songs of the 1960’s, and peace songs of many decades.  The audience sang along, nostalgia strong in the air.  Then Charlie King began singing a song with the refrain, “What ever happened to the eight-hour day?  When did they take it away? ... When did they take it away?” At that, (he writes) the audience roared with passion, not nostalgia.  This was about our own lives....  Suddenly I saw that my own feelings of hyper-overwork, of teetering on the edge of burnout, were not mine alone.  And suddenly I saw that everything I had learned about the joys of Sabbath were not just for lighting Jewish candles at the dinner table and chanting Torah in the synagogue.”

Sabbath ... time away .... set apart ... prayer and stillness ... getting in touch with what is at the core of our very souls ... Sabbath times are not luxury but essential: silence, solitude, worship, reading, reflection, prayer, hospitality, common meals, playing, delighting in nature and in one another.  Resting in God. Trusting God with the rest.

This week I mourn the death of an elder who introduced me to one of the most formative books in my own faith journey, Thomas Kelly’s A Testament of Devotion.  Kelly wrote, “Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return.  Eternity is at our hearts, calling us home unto Itself.”

Jesus said to them

Come away....
to a deserted place....
all by yourselves...
and rest a while....

Today I declare this whole congregation our SUMMER PASTOR’S BOOK GROUP –and for all who sign-up, today and today only, and pledge to read, reflect, and share in at least one conversation I will give the gift– TESTAMENT OF DEVOTION.

You see, this morning I’m not talking about time management, or techniques of prayer ... I’m not talking about structures or strategies for creating or claiming Sabbath ... I’m talking about coming alive to our souls. As Eileen Caddy of the Findhorn Community said, “All you need is deep within you waiting to unfold and reveal itself.”

This morning I share with you for your consideration, contemplation and inspiration Jesus invitation ... May we to accept it, and follow where the spirit leads us ...

Come away....
to a deserted place....
all by yourselves...
and rest a while....

Amen.